HTC HD2 review: Portrait of a rockstar

Gsmarena have posted their review of the HTC HD2. Here are the phone's key features, main disadvantages and final impression.

Key features:
Huge 4.3" 65K-color WVGA glass-covered capacitive touchscreen
Multi-touch input
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional OS with Sense UI
Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz CPU and 448MB RAM
Quad-band GSM support
3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps
Wi-Fi connectivity
Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support
Stereo FM radio with RDS
5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash and touch focus
VGA video recording at 30fps
microSD card slot
Standard microUSB port and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Great audio quality
MS Office Mobile document editor
Opera 9.5 web browser
YouTube client, Facebook and Twitter integration
Excellent video playback performance
Good battery life

Main disadvantages:
It's a pretty large phone
Poor sunlight legibility
65K color limitation of display has color gradients banding
Card slot under the battery cover
Disappointing photo and video quality
No dedicated camera key and no lens cover
No DivX/XviD video support out-of-the-box
Preloaded CoPilot Live navigation software is a trial version
No secondary video-call camera
No voice dialing
No handwriting recognition
Dodgy web Flash support

HTC HD2 has it all to be a winner – groundbreaking hardware, inventive software, high performance and solid design. HTC have struck the right balance with the HD2 and they are certainly giving the competition a run for their money.

Thanks to the capacitive screen the HTC Sense delivers almost unsurpassed Windows Mobile experience complete with multi-touch gestures. It seems the Snapdragon platform is what the now aged Windows Mobile platform was meant to run on. If only we had that kind of hardware and software a couple of years ago, nobody would have even considered the iPhone seriously.

But we didn’t and we don’t suppose Snapdragons are going to become mainstream any time soon. So from a broader perspective, Windows Mobile is still just another runner-up in the run for the ultimate all-touch smartphone. The impressive user-experience on the HD2 is hardly indicative for the OS by itself.

So if you get our drift, it's not Microsoft, but HTC that deserves the user experience award for the HTC HD2. Their Sense UI and TouchFLO 3D have blended exquisitely well delivering an unmatched social networking integration (save perhaps for the HTC Hero) and touch experience easily equaling that of the iPhone.

But even though it’s such a powerful package, the HD2 has it flaws too. The camera is below par, video recording is kinda poor, the limited internal storage is a real bugger and the its sheer size does push the limits of user comfort. That last thing will perhaps be a deal breaker for many users.

What is more, the HD2, just like its predecessor, does not justify its HD moniker. It doesn’t capture HD videos (but we knew that beforehand) and worse yet, it cannot even play any right. Samsung Omnia HD does these things with a substantially lower clocked CPU, so we guess Snapdragon doesn't equal HD automatically either.

But still Snapdragons are still quite rare on the phone market and until more of those appear next year, the Toshiba TG01 and the Acer neoTouch will always remain two opponents the HD2 should consider. Both of them feature less UI customizations, resistive touchscreens and less RAM. But what works in their favor is they both are nearly 200 euro cheaper than the HD2 with its 550 euro price tag. That alone makes them worth checking out. But as we said, HTC have done a tremendous job of making Windows Mobile more usable and the added value of their product is well worth the extra bucks.

The final threat for the HD2 success on the Windows Mobile ring is the more lightweight Samsung I8000 Omnia II, which should definitely be the weapon of choice for all those of you that find the HD2 just too big.

It might not have the brute processing power of the HD2, nor the RAM count, but the actual handling and response are perfect. The 3.7" AMOLED screen, another fully customized UI, huge internal storage, DivX/XviD support out of the box and all kind of software goodies make the I8000 Omnia II a force to be reckoned with in the smartphone field this holiday season. Not to mention it’s got a nicely capable camera and it currently goes for some 150 euro less than the HTC HD2.

So there you go. There is no shortage of options out there but we’ll gladly take the HD2 just as it is. On some counts it would be a decision against good reason, we admit, but the passion for gadgets is rarely one of logic, and always one of the heart.