HTC HD2 Handset Review

March 13, 2010 - PRLog -- First Impressions

At first glance, the HTC HD2 looks like a cutting edge smartphone. The first thing that you will notice is its huge screen (4.3") and that is the whole front of the phone! Thinner than the iPhone, and arguably nicer too look at, lets find out if its functionality lives up to the cutting edge design.

Hardware

Powered by a 1 GHz processor and the first touch screen technology to be used with a Windows phone. Exciting, right? Scrolling and navigation are lightning fast, with applications opening and closing rapidly. Furthermore, internet browsing is much faster than an iPhone, and looks great on the 4.3" screen. 5MP camera with great flash is fast to load and takes great quality pictures and video.

Homescreen

Apple's distinctive icon grid has been thrown out of the window for HTC's intuitive homescreen. Its all totally customisable and even has a changing weather graphic which you can set to your location. The homescreen is boosted by the processor which allows it to load very quickly no matter how many applications are open.

Functionality

So for the first hour with this phone, you will probably be loving all the small added touches, unique layout and processor speed. You may finally even pluck up the courage to start that eBay auction for your old iPhone. However, it is over the course of probably your first week that you will stumble across a few niggles and glitches in the system. Windows Mobile should be great. It should be seamlessly interactive with your music, video, apps and PC. However its never lived up to expectations.

Small things like not being able to customise you 'Start' menu when you can completely customise everything on your homescreen, become annoying. Also, when it comes to playing music or downloading apps, things get a little awkward. Firstly, adding tracks to the HTC's media player is not as smooth and straight forward as putting music from your iTunes onto your iPhone. It will probably require a couple of updates and directory changes first. Secondly, the apps available at Windows Marketplace are just not in the same league as Apple's app store. This was going to be expected and you probably didn't buy the HTC for the available apps but it would be nice to see some greater variation in games, guides and travel apps.

Overall

The HTC HD2 is a very nice piece of hardware. It looks the part for a smartphone, has a beautiful glossy screen and turbo processor which makes web browsing a dream, but the remnants of the Windows Mobile interface let it down in terms of ease of use and customisation. Your friends will love it at first glance and be impressed with its speed and unique look but the software will soon become tiresome and a little buggy.

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