Phones.com » Phones » Review of the HTC HD2

The design of the phone is reminiscent of the iPhone, with its tapered edges and a curved back that sits snugly in the palm. The phone is rather large, obviously to accommodate the huge screen; it is quite solid to touch although not unduly heavy. It is surprisingly slim with sleek edges, further accentuated with the tapered finish. 

The front of the phone is entirely dominated by the huge 4.3 inch screen, with 5 buttons along the bottom edge. The end buttons are the call manipulation keys, while the 3 middle ones are the home, start and back buttons respectively. The end call button doubles up as the power key and the standby button as well, which was formerly on the top edge of HTC phones. 

The left side only has the volume rocker switch, while the bottom has the microUSB port, the headphone jack and the microphone. The top and left is left completely free of any buttons, including a camera button. 

The back panel has the 5 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash and the loudspeaker on either side. The battery cover is metal, and covers not only the battery but the SIM card and the microSD card slot. It is slightly cumbersome to remove, so those people looking to have multiple SD cards will find the design rather annoying.

In sum, the design is very sleek, with beautiful lines and great looking features. The phone is classically appointed without any gimmicky extras.

The biggest feature of the phone is the 4.3 inch capacitive touchscreen on the front. It is a WVGA screen and ultra-sensitive. Earlier Windows Mobile phones needed the use of a fingernail for emphasis, since the pad of the finger didn't work as well. However, with the HTC HD2, the case is entirely the opposite: the screen only accepts input from the finger. There is a slight buzz that alerts the user to the input as well. The screen stands up well under bright light, therefore making the phone usable out of doors. 

The phone has the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, but HTC has managed to skin it so beautifully, the rather stale look Windows usually carries. The TouchFLO technology that HTC had pioneered in earlier handsets is in full evidence in the HD2. There are a series of tabs lining the bottom of the home screen, each bringing up a menu. All the most commonly used functions are available through these tabs, and there is a more detailed menu for more. The menu is accessed through the Start button, and has the honeycomb grid that is standard in Windows Mobile devices. 

There are three customizable Quick Link buttons on the home screen, each of which can interestingly be set to either a program, a contact or a bookmark. 

The camera is of good quality, although not particularly ground-breaking with 5 megapixel clarity. There is a built-in autofocus functionality. Picture quality is fairly good as well. 

The phone comes with a number of applications, some standard while others are nice extras. For example, it has the HTC designed Twitter client called Peep. 

Additionally there is a WiFi router on the phone, which hasn't been tested as yet, but if it performs like a standard router, it will certainly be a unique and useful feature. 

Connectivity on the phone is concurrent with the existing 3G standards. It has GSM, GPRS and EDGE, and also incorporates Bluetooth and WiFi. 

The two interesting features of the phone are the digital compass is has built-in, as well as the WiFi router. These inclusions take the phone entirely out of the ordinary.

The phone has a powerful 1GHz processor, which will be excellent for seamless transitions, camera usage and of course web browsing. There is 448 MB RAM; again a powerful amount for a mobile phone. The phone's hardware is geared toward speed and efficiency. 

The battery is somewhat disappointing though. It's large size would indicate that there would be more staying power, but the power-intensive applications like WiFi connectivity have the effect of draining the battery entirely. It barely lasts a day, and hopefully this will be sorted before the phone is actually ready for final release.

As of tomorrow, the phone will be only available off contract. It will be retailing at $799, which is pretty expensive for a phone. Granted the screen is exceptionally large, and the phone looks good, however it doesn't have the novelty features which would merit the price. One is better off waiting till the phone is available on contract before forking over that large an amount of money.