HTC HD2 Smartphone

It isn't very often that tech journos get excited on seeing

a phone. Sure, the iPhone was cool, and the recent spate of Android devices are

affordable, capable and smartly turned out. But the HTC HD2 is a whole new ball

game.

A thousand words can be written about that screen alone!

Capacitive of course, with multitouch support and a resolution of 800 x 480

pixels. The screen is massive! And it has a really thin bezel. It makes the

device wide, but not uncomfortably so. You really have to hand it to HTC because

the design is truly inspiring; no matter how closely you inspect it, and no

matter how long and how hard you look at it from every angle.

Windows Mobile 6.5 could have been the downfall of this

device, but you don't get to see any of it, thanks to the HTC Sense interface.

HTC Sense is upgraded with complete social networking integration, it's

intuitive and very, very pretty. Hardware wise, the 1Ghz Snapdragon processor

and 488MB RAM makes sure that everything runs buttery smooth. Special mention

must go to the awesome weather animations. Everything on the new HTC Sense is

well laid out, with large, glossy buttons and an overall design that easily

bests any Android or Windows Mobile device.

Using HTC Sense to browse through your multimedia, you

realise just how much work has gone into development. Turn the phone sideways

while looking at your music and you'll see the display seamlessly switch to an

iPhone Cover Flow-like album art display. Turn it sideways while looking at your

photos, and they will instantly rotate with smooth animation; no delays, no

jaggies, no flickers. Multitouch means you can pinch to zoom in and out (or

double tap to zoom in and out). Users of Windows Mobile devices may also be used

to long pressing an item to draw up a contextual menu; well that works here too!

Apps can be added using the Windows Marketplace of course, but this is one

feature that has nothing to do with HTC. Windows Marketplace still has loads of

catching up to do. A nice feature is the built in Wi-Fi router (you can share

your device's internet connection with nearby laptops using Wi-Fi). The camera

takes good images and the call quality is stellar. Battery life is about a day

(roughly 5 hours of continuous talktime) but it could get used up much faster

using GPS and Wi-Fi.

Any other faults? Well, if you can call a blinding LED

flash a fault, then yes. And strangely enough, there is no front-facing video

call camera. In a phone that has everything, this is surprising. But all this is

trivial. Perhaps the only real flaw of this device is you will sometimes drop

out of the dazzling HTC Sense cocoon, only to be met with the (comparatively)

ugly Windows Mobile 6.5 interface. This can happen when you want to modify a

setting. It feels like you've gone back in time to an era when 8-bit colors and

blocky buttons were the norm.

Bottomline: With a scintillating performance and

great features, HD2 is worth every penny.