The next generation HTC has arrived boasting the biggest touchscreen in the history of Smartphones, the HTC HD2 has a lot to shout about. Its fair to say the HD name hasn’t moved on a lot, maybe because all HTC’s creative flair was channelled into the phone itself. Compared to the original HD, the HD2 is an entire civilisation ahead sporting a fantastic range of upgraded hardware and software alike. This is without doubt the first contender with a real chance of beating the iPhone.
The first thing you notice, whether you’re a touchscreen fan or not is the display, coming in at 4.3” not only is it the biggest on any smartphone it’s darn impressive too. Less a phone, more a work of art the HD2 is first choice for sophistication. From the front it looks like a solid piece of glass, turn it over and you’re greeted with a mixture of smudge resistant plastic and steel covering, yet more sleek design work from the Taiwanese manufacturer. The front of the handset is dominated by the large capacitive screen, which coincidentally provides another first in touchscreen realms, because the display is capacitive HTC has dropped the annoying stylus placing the HD2 among the first Windows Mobile devices to be totally finger dependant.
The huge capacitive screen is the first of its kind on the Windows Mobile Platform, and a lot of work has been done to ensure it’s suitably responsive. Even the lightest of touches register immediately and you can pinch, flick, scroll and swirl you way around the menus with some pretty inventive navigational tools. HTC fans will be familiar with the TouchFlo interface, and to some extent HTC Sense, as seen on the Hero. With the HTC HD2, the best features of both have been incorporated to create a super Sense. The result is a brand spanking new interface, it’s got the tabbed menus found on the TouchFlo software but there’s also an array of visual feasts including some cool animated backgrounds. Widgets are gone, instead there’s a bottom toolbar for the most important features and each swipe of the screen brings up a new page dedicated to an application. All of this is totally customisable so you can choose what features you want to keep or discard from the toolbar. The newest addition to the homescreen is the weather application, which is pretty self-explanatory. You get regular updates directly to the homescreen, which corresponds to the moving wallpaper, if it’s cloudy you’ll find clouds scrolling across the homepage, rainy, up pop some handy windscreen wipers, snowy, it will snow and so on. More newbies to the homepage are three thumbnail shortcut icons, allowing instant access to your favourite contacts, apps and bookmarks
Lurking underneath the heavily layered HTC Sense interface is Windows Mobile. The HD2 is the first WinMo device to have the Sense overhaul and it sure is worth it. Unlike many Smartphones, the HTC HD2 can multitask all day long, without compromising speed. The 1 GHz Snapdragon Processor has a lot to do with that, along with a substantial amount of RAM but let’s not get too technical, essentially the HTC HD2 is the fastest Windows Mobile device on the market.
Usability aside the HD2 is packed to the rafters with high-end smartphone features. The 5megapixel camera has bagged itself a few smart functions including autofocus, touchfocus and a duel LED Flash, each promises to help capture crisp images to flaunt on the high-resolution touchscreen. The Video capture is the same standard and, again the 4.3” display proves its worth when watching them back. The image gallery itself is similar to the HD’s; images are assembled in a flicker photo stack and with some quick finger action you can flick through them without hesitation. If you’re into your photos you will love HTC footprints, it provides an animated diary of your travels, giving you the chance to highlight your most memorable places. Footprints will automatically save info about your surroundings every time you take a photo. You can add thoughts or sounds to each image and can even use your photos to find your way back to the spot you took it from using the pretty nifty built-in GPS.
Social networking is at the forefront of every manufacturer’s game plan and HTC is no different. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube all have a place on the HTC HD2 making status updates and quick communication easier than ever. If scouring the internet’s your thing then the HD2 has two different browsers on offer, Opera Mobile and Internet Explorer, and while the latter is slightly slower it does have that all important Flash support.
The HTC HD2 is arguably, faster and stronger than the Apple iPhone. While the hardware and software may be top notch there will always be a struggle to compete with Apple’s application store. Either way the HD2 is definitely the leading light for both HTC and Windows Mobile, creating a glimmer of hope for future smartphone manufacturers.
