HTC HD 2 Windows Mobile 6.5

The second HD handset from HTC is here and the company has made some very relevant modifications to this model. The previous HTC Touch HD seemed as impressive when launched but fared poorly. I was hoping this one would do better and I got the opportunity to find out. Take a look.

Form Factor

The handset can be described appropriately in one word – Big. 2010 has seen the rebirth of the Tablet PC and the HTC HD2 although not officially categorised as a tablet, could very easily pass for one. It has one of the largest capacitive screens in the mobile phone segment at 4.3-inches and looks even larger thanks to the handset’s brilliant, slim design. You don’t often expect a handset this big to be just 11mm in depth. HTC’s simple button system has shortcuts to the homescreen and menu, which are convenient. Volume keys are located on the side and a 3.5 mm handsfree socket is at the bottom beside the micro USB port.

The handset is gorgeous and although it’s big, it’s easy to use with one hand as well as both when necessary. Thankfully, it’s not thick enough to create am embarrassing bulge in our trousers, however, its width can make it a little uncomfortable carrying in tight jeans. I recommend a belt pouch in these cases.

Features and Performance

Interface
The HD2’s Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor ensures that you have a smooth ride. It uses a Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional OS, however, thanks to HTC’s Sense UI, you won’t notice… too much. Of course, the Sense’s look and feel is not very dissimilar to their TouchFLO system, which also made navigation and feature access a lot easier than most other WinMob handsets.

HTC has fully customised the UI to make it extremely finger friendly and the capacitive touchscreen negates the use of a stylus altogether. From onscreen virtual keypads to accessing menus and sub-menus, the large display makes it all very convenient. The handset’s display and UI also incorporate multi-touch capabilities that would leave Apple’s iPhone in a cold sweat.

Media
The handset’s media capabilities are really good, but there are a few drawbacks. On the plus side, you won’t ever have to use Windows Media Player as HTC has provided better options built right into the Sense UI. To enhance audio, an Audio Booster application with its presets and customisable 10 band graphic EQ setting has been provided. Together with the bundled handsfree kit, the HD2 provides loud, comfortable and clear audio for both music and voice. Even the FM radio has good pick-up in most places. It could have used a recording feature though, but it’s not something to complain about. A voice recorder is also present and an MP3 Trimmer application allows you to shorten music files for ringtones.

Where the HD2 lacks is in its video playback capabilities. Unfortunately, HTC has not included DivX or XviD codecs, so you’ll have to convert videos to suit the screen so you can forget about copy/pasting files. Irrespective of videos (if converted properly to 3GP, MPEG4, WMV, H.264/H.263 formats) looking stunning on the large, clear display, the fact that the player doesn’t have a ‘resume play’ feature is very annoying. It is quite odd considering the Android version of the same player supports the feature.

Connectivity
The HD2 is fully equipped to handle high 3G speeds, of course, we won’t get to use that for a while longer, so we’ll just have to settle with EDGE/GPRS of Wi-Fi. The handset can also be used to share your mobile data service connectivity via its Wi-Fi router function. I was successfully able to share connectivity with my iPhone and netbook. You have a choice of browsers. Opera is preloaded which is just as good as the new WinMob 6.5’s IE browser. The large display makes viewing and navigation so much easier, so there’s nothing to complain about here. Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and USB 2.0 can also be used to exchange and back-up data between devices and your PC. A GPS antenna is built-in but you’ll have to suffice with just Google Maps.

For e-mail, you’ll easily be able to access your MS Exchange client for Outlook Mail access and sync your Contacts, Calendar, Notes and Tasks as well as easily set up IMAP and POP accounts. With minimal information, the handset will download all the relevant settings and have your e-mails streaming in minutes. The standard Windows Live and MSN Messenger apps are part of the package. Microsoft’s MyPhone app that lets you back up your data online is also available.

For the social networker, HTC has included their Peep application for Twitter, Facebook integration with your address book, a YouTube client and of course, uploading capabilities for videos and pictures to all the various sites that support the same. Unlike their Android models though, the Facebook/ Address Book integration is manual and time consuming. With the Android version, it automatically matched names in my phone book to those on my Facebook account. I had to search for the same manually in this handset. You can also download apps from the Windows Marketplace app.
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Miscellaneous Features
Aside from all the regular functions you’d expect in a mobile handset and Microsoft’s Office Mobile for WinMob handsets, HTC has also included a few extra tools. A few of these include a very accurate card reader that utilises the camera, Remote Desktop, a digital compass and wireless printing capabilities.

Camera
The onboard 5 megapixel camera has a dual LED flash for better low light pictures and also incorporates touch focus. The latter feature hasn’t been too well developed in the mobile industry and the HD2 hasn’t been able to do better. The focus very rarely remains on the designated subject. Other features include White Balance and ISO levels up to 800, a self-timer, a few basic effects and geotagging. You can also use the Footprints application for capturing images and stamping them with location details.

Pictures in normal daylight are well-lit. Settings are quite crisp and focused with just a little bit of jaggy edges showing up here and there. That’s something you’d expect to find in most mobile phone cameras. Low light images look average at first view but at native resolution, there’s quite a bit of artifact and blending of colours.

Battery
One of the other minor issues with the HD2 is the battery life. It’s not designed to sustain prolonged use of the large display for videos even on low brightness settings. The battery life is not by any means poor though. On an average, the talk time ran up a count of about four hours and change. That’s better than average, but for the kind of price tag attached to the handset, it should have been able to offer much more. You’ll be able to use the handset for over a day-and-a-half with nominal usage, which can include downloading e-mails, listening to music, surfing the Net with a few calls and messages thrown in. But one full length movie will have the battery gasping for breath.

The Bottom Line

HTC’s HD2 is priced at a whopping Rs 37,800 (approximate MOP). It’s a feature-rich handset that’s well designed for comfort of use and manages to offer quite a bit for that price. There’s absolutely no need for a stylus although one has been designed for a specific purpose i.e. for digital signatures. It’s the closest thing to a tablet PC and its closest competitor is Samsung’s Omnia HD, which is a better value-for-money as a multimedia handset as it supports copy/paste video playback and is equipped with an 8MP camera, not to mention it costs quite a bit less.

However, the HD2’s primary demographic is the business user, who is used to the Windows Mobile platform and functionality. When it comes to hardcore business functions, the HD2 is definitely better.