Review: HTC HD2 smartphone

The HTC HD2 is a high-end smartphone with a large touch screen and a customisable user interface, which comes about as close as you can currently get to the experience of Apple's iPhone on a Windows Mobile handset.

Available now on O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile, the HD2 is the first Windows phone to feature a capacitive touch screen, according to HTC. It is also one of the first handsets we have seen running Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional, and boasts built-in applications for social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, along with one or two other interesting features.

With its larger than average 4.3in screen, HTC's Sense user interface, and a powerful enough processor to drive it all, the HD2 makes touch input much more practical and usable than on many other handsets we have seen.

On the downside, this screen makes the phone itself a little large to easily fit in a pocket, and it is also costly to buy as a SIM-free device, with resellers such as Expansys offering it at a whopping £499. This aside, we found the HD2 to be one of the most impressive smartphones we have used.

Specifications
In hardware terms, the HD2 is similar to many other high-end smartphones, with HSPA support up to 7.2Mbit/s, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and built-in GPS capability.

Our evaluation handset came from HTC itself, but we were able to test it using a 3G SIM kindly provided by Vodafone, which we found provided a decent download speed for browsing the web.

The handset is based on Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon processor with 448MB RAM and 512MB Flash ROM, and storage can be expanded via a micro SD card slot.

At 120mm x 67mm, the HD2 is noticeably larger than most other rival devices such as the iPhone, but it's just 11mm thick. It also weighs more than the iPhone at 157g, but this makes it no heavier than RIM's BlackBerry Storm2.

This size is dictated by the handset's large 4.3in screen, and HTC has put the real estate to good use with its Sense user interface, making most of the on-screen controls a decent size, whereas it is all too easy to tap the wrong control with many other touch screen devices.

We found the 480 x 800 screen clear and bright, and had no difficulty using the HD2 in various ambient light conditions.

Just below the screen are a set of buttons, two for the phone call and hang up functions, plus a home key, back button, and Windows menu key. Aside from the volume up/down control on the side of the HD2, all other input is via the screen. A micro USB connector for recharge and PC connection is on the bottom of the case, along with an earphone jack socket.

With HTC's Sense, the home screen is dominated by a simulated Rolodex-style flip clock and a background animation showing the local weather. This screen can also be customised with quick link buttons to applications, individual contacts, or bookmarked web URLs.

At the bottom of the screen is a scrolling strip that links to commonly accessed functions such as people (contacts), calendar, mail, internet, music, and photos & videos. Sliding a finger along this allows you to easily bring up the one you want.

Several of these, such as messaging, calendar and mail, actually provide a more user-friendly front-end than the built-in Windows applications. HTC has also applied its Sense look and feel to many of the Windows settings screens, making them more usable than would otherwise be the case.

Tapping the Start menu at the top of the screen brings up the Windows Mobile menu, which in version 6.5 features larger icons arranged in a hexagonal grid to make them easier to tap with a fingertip.

Overall, we found the user interface on the HD2 very responsive, and we could zoom through lists with just the flick of a fingertip, plus the larger screen area seems to make it easier to touch the control you intended to. We still found that we often tapped the wrong on-screen control by accident, but this is a drawback common to every touch-screen phone we've ever used.

However, while some applications, such as the Opera browser, automatically change screen orientation if you twist the phone round, others do not, which is an annoying (if trivial) bugbear.

The larger display does make it easier to use an on-screen keyboard, which pops up when you need to key in data, such as a URL in the browser or when composing a text message. We found we could tap out text more reliably on the HD2 than some other phones, though not at any great speed. The handset also vibrates briefly to give feedback when you touch any on-screen control.

As well as the usual set of applications you would expect to find on Windows phones, Windows Mobile 6.5 includes a client for My Phone, Microsoft's online service for backing up phone data and sharing content such as photos, plus Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft's application store.

Somewhat confusingly, HTC has installed Opera as the default browser on the HD2, while Internet Explorer is also available from the Start menu. There is a reason for this, however. Opera is much faster at loading web pages over the restricted bandwidth of a cellular wireless connection, and also supports gestures like stretching the page to zoom in, while IE does not appear to support this.

Applications
Other applications include Microsoft's Bing search, another separate Windows Live Search tool, YouTube, plus Microsoft's Office Mobile suite that provides mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

A Footprints application lets users take a photo of a location, and tag it with the GPS location and a description to create a kind of electronic travelogue.

HTC has also included two tools that make use of the built-in GPS: Google Maps and ALK's Co-Pilot Live 8, which provides turn by turn directions, plus social media tools in the form of a Facebook client and Peep for access to Twitter.

The latter seems to work particularly well on a phone, displaying updates pretty much as Twitter in a browser would, although it does not offer every function, such as your list of followers.

As well as the typical features of a high-end smartphone, the HD2 has some interesting extras, such as a Wi-Fi router application that turns the handset into an internet access point for laptops.

However, we tried this with several laptops, and none was able to connect to the HD2 this way. Users can instead use a more conventional Bluetooth or USB cable connection if they find the same problem.

There is also a Digital Compass that does what it says on the tin, displaying a compass pointer indicating the direction of north. It can also help you find your way to a destination picked using Google Maps, by displaying a green dot to show the direction on the compass and indicating the distance.

The HD2 also includes an FM radio tuner, with an application to scan and listen in to radio stations, but this requires the wired headset that ships with the handset as this doubles as the FM antenna.

With a 5-megapixel camera, the HD2 ought to be capable of taking impressive images, but we found the quality a little disappointing, and motion streak is almost inevitable unless you can hold the phone very steady while pressing the shutter button. That said, most users should find it adequate for taking holiday snaps.

The phone capabilities of the HD2 are mostly unremarkable, save for the fact that the device turns the screen off during a call, and on again if you hold the handset away from your face. A slider control allows you to accept or reject an incoming call, in addition to the hard keys.

Battery life
The HD2 comes with a 1230mAh lithium-ion battery that is quoted by HTC as lasting for up to 380 minutes talk time and up to 490 hours standby. We found the battery seemed to last for a reasonable amount of time, only needing a recharge after several days, unless we made heavy use of the Wi-Fi for browsing .

Getting to the battery is a challenge, as we found the metal back cover of the handset requires considerable force to remove. The slots for the SIM card and a micro SD Flash storage card are also behind this cover.

Overall, we were impressed with the HD2, although we have some reservations about it. Like many touch-screen phones, the display of our review unit was soon smothered in greasy finger marks. This aside, we found the phone responsive and a pleasure to use, unlike many rival handsets.

On Vodafone, the HTC HD2 is available on tariffs from £35 with 900 minutes and unlimited texts, internet and landline calls.