HTC Touch HD2

HTC's HD2 handset is such an amazing handset. Although it has a couple of annoyances, it is a phone that just cannot be ignored. There have been many phones released after it, successors and rival phones to its successors, but in the end, the HTC HD2 is the endearing phone of the heap.

How is it endearing? Well, it is the 2nd phone ever to use the high speed 1GHz SnapDragon processor, the first being Toshiba's forgotten atrocity (so lost in the mists of time that I have forgotten its name as well), and it is still going strong today, with many third party developers still upgrading the software to the latest versions of Windows Phone 7 and Android. It is just incredible how this phone has managed to survive this long and have such a strong backing by the public.

The reason for this backing is because of the phone's hardware. At the time, it was one of the fastest, if not the fastest, phone on the market when it was released in November of 2009. Fast processor, tons of RAM, massive 4.3" capacitive screen, slim and sexy. HTC released this attractive beast to succeed the HTC Touch HD to the masses and it made people drool after it. It wasn't cheap of course, and it wasn't going to be an iPhone killer, but then it was not advertised as an iPhone killer. The only thing that let it down was the Windows Mobile 6.5 software it used as its operating system. That OS is an abomination in the world of mobile smart phones. Why Microsoft have been able to get away with Windows Mobile as an OS for phones is beyond me, because I would have had them drowned in Armagnac and stuffed in a baked potato.

But the geniuses at HTC knew how crap Windows Mobile 6.5 was, so they created a skin to cover up all the blemishes and horrible scuff marks that the OS made on the phone, and that made it infinitely better overall. It looks sleek, sharp and professional, with great animations and made it seem almost as if the phone was not powered by Windows Mobile at all.

I bought my version of the phone near the end of 2010 because I was a late adopter of HTC phones. I never understood why my friends all loved the Taiwanese company so much. Taiwan are only good at making motherboards, from companies such as ASUS and Acer, so them being good at making phones should be akin to a German making dinner, right?

I was wrong.

I was immediately taken away by how large the screen was, and at how responsive it was with every swipe and gesture I made on the screen. There was multi touch so I could pinch in some of the the apps provided by HTC. The skin made by HTC was a professionally looking black and white theme that HTC like to call HTC Sense, and it makes 'sense' because it was very welcome to me, especially after my experiences with Windows Mobile in the past. The phone itself is very slim, at half a CM at the thinnest side to 0.8 CM at it's thickest. It feels pleasantly weighty as well, giving it a well-built feeling in the hand that I find satisfying. There is a volumn rocker to the left of the phone, the front of the phone has 5 hardware buttons at the bottom to answer calls, hang up calls, go to Home, go to programs, and go back. Below this on the edge is the 3.5MM headphone port and microUSB port. At the back is the 5MP camera lens, with twin LED lights for extra oomph and the system speaker. The phone itself is mainly high quality plastic grey/black plastic and glass thanks to the screen, but the battery cover is a lovely curved, matte finished metal that not only is pleasing to look at, but also acts as a sort of heatsink and attenna for the phone. It simply clicks into place, so removing it is simple, and underneath the cover you will find the area for your battery, the SIM card slot and microSD card slot. What I like about where the microSD card slot is located is that it isn't obscured by the battery or SIM card, it sits on the left corner on its own, so you can remove or replace it without switching off the phone. And since it is inside the phone, there is no unsightly microSD card cover on the outside of the phone. Sure, it is more of a hassle to remove the metal casing at the back, but the phone is prettier as a result. Basically that's it, not much else, everything else is handled in the software itself, so the phone looks minimalistic, but that just hides the fact that the phone is full of features. All swathed in black, it was like the phone was in a little black dress, very enticing indeed.

What kind of enticing features did it have? Well, it has WiFi, but no 'n' protocol since it was released before 'n' was a popular standard. It has Bluetooth, A-GPS, an accelerometer and pretty much whatever is standard on smart phones today. Today you would think, "Pah, typical smart phone", you have to remember that this was one of the earlier phones to adopt this, and the fact that they are still useful today goes a long way.

But there were some issues. Despite the lovely overlay of the HTC Sense skin, the fact is that when it comes down to it, it still uses Windows Mobile 6.5 to perform all the main features of the device, such as the calendar schedules, email and whatnot. For example, composing emails or texts messages would still take you to the default program to enter your text, so it is stil lthe same ugly interface underneath. Or the notifications pop up message, which is still the same generic, ugly pop up box, but only in black and white. I despise the Windows Mobile 6.5 interface and features as they are too fiddly, too ugly and too old. The interface was designed for a stylus and not capacitive finger tapping so typing or selecting things is a chore, the horrid Windows beep sound effects are still there to make your ears curl into your head, and the bloody Start bar at the top of the screen is still there, despite all of the HTC Sense skinning powers applied to it.

Now, to the uninitiated in the world of Windows Mobile software, you would probably be wondering why Windows Mobile is so bad. Well, allow me to explain. The first reason is that Windoes Mobile is so unreliable, it would crash on you for no reason whatsoever. Anyone who has used Windows in its desktop or mobile incarnations would know that when it crashes, it crashes with no warning at all. On the phone it would sometimes just restart or freeze, on a PC you would get the fabled blue screen of death. It's not like Microsoft has not had time to fix it, the phone has version 6.5 afterall so they have 6 and a half versions to get it right, at least. The second reason is because Windows Mobile was originally made for those PDAs of old. Do you remember before the smart phone took off, we had those PDAs that business men loved to get out to fill in their notes and schedules? What Microsoft did was take that concept, and added phone functionality to it for a quick win on smart phones. As a result, making calls on it doesn't always work, you get more drop outs on calls than you do on an old Nokia 3210. Lastly, the interface is horrifyingly bad, bad in aesthetic as well as user experience. I was an early adopter of the original Windows Mobile, and the original versions had really nasty software keypads for you to enter phone numbers, it would not register a lot of your presses, therefore you would have to switch to your stylus to get it correct. Yeah, imagine doing that while walking down the street. HTC fixed that with it's skin here and made the keys larger, but they didn't bother to do that with the rest of the phone's features.

That would have ruined an otherwise amazing phone, like a corset that is starting to come apart underneath that pretty black dress, but then I didn't buy the phone to use Windows Mobile 6.5.

This review would rate the phone as a 3 out of 5 stars if it was left as it is , in its Windows Mobile form, but the fact is that this phone has so much support for it out there by third party developers that you can install Android or Windows Phone 7 onto it. Yes, you can convert the phone to use a different operating system, and the 2 on offer are miles better than the stock one the phone came with. I can only comment on the Android upgrade because I am an Android man. I have tried using Windows Phone 7, and although it is a completely new interface and user experience from Windows Mobile, I still didn't like it much because it was really tiley, as in the interface is basically made up of tiles that you scroll on. I don't like that for some reason, don't know why.

I have updated the phone to 2 versions of the Android, a 2.2 Froyo based off of the HTC Desire's software, and the 2.3.5 Gingerbread based off of the HTC Nexus One's software. To those that dont understand why the versions of Android are named so strangely, someone at the Android institute of the insane decided to name all versions after desserts and to have have them ascending according to the letters of the alphabet. Froyo (Frozen Yoghurt) came out before Gingerbread, because it starts with F, and G comes after it. The next Android release is called Honeycomb, then we shall have the Ice Cream Sandwich eventually, and I am not making that up.

I am currently using the Gingerbread release and it is very fast, very responsive and it is basically Android in every way possible. Unlike other phones that have developers working on custom software for them, the Android software made for this phone in particular enables all features to work flawlessly. Usually you would find something doesn't work, such as the camera, or the LED flash, or the vibration function, but for the HTC HD2, you get it all. It is very easy to install on the phone, but in doing so the Windows Mobile 6.5 is removed and replaced with Android instead. Good riddance I say. There are a lot of user guides online on how to do it, so even though it took a newbie like me a while to research, I say that even a complete amateur can do it as well if they wanted. Don't worry if you want to revert back to the original Windows Mobile 6.5 software (why would you want to do that?), you simply have to download a progam that reverts it all for you in simple step by step installation if you have warranty on the device after this long. It's a win-win situation for us all!

I just love Android, and if you are experienced users of Android you should/could be to. It has the magnificent Android Market where you can download and purchase apps for your own use, the widgets for convenient access on your home screen, and the general speed and responsive it offers to most devices that use it. On the HTC HD2, you have the choice of making phone calls with the hardware buttons (yes they fully work) or by using the software one on the home screen; the same can be said for the menu button as well. Access to software on the phone is quick and easy, you simply go to the menu screen and all of the programs installed as well as the settings are there. Very inituitive Android is. Battery life is also improved, as it can go on a day and a half with normal use before needing a recharge as opposed to the 'charge once a night' routine with Windows Mobile. How Android manages to do this despite the massive screen is beyond me. The only gripe I have with having Android on this phone is that there isn't much internal space for apps as you only get about 150MB, so you will need to use APP2SD to transfer applications to your microSD card to make room. Most phone nowadays have maybe 512MB of internal storage, even 2GB on lower end phones like the Motorola Defy, so I had to get used to move apps a lot.

But be aware that despite this amazingness that has been made bestowed upon you by the developers and then bequeathed to the device by you, the phone has 1 hardware fault that has affected many users of it in the past couple of years. It seems that, no matter what software you use, eventually the screen will stop responding when it comes out of standby mode. You know when you put it on standby by pressing the power button on many phones nowadays? If you do that with this phone, there will come a day when you try to take it out of standby to use it, and the screen would not respond at all to any swipes or gestures. For 2 days I was wondering what was going on and if I had made a mistake in buying a phone that, basically, would not work for me when I needed it. Then I found a workaround. It seems that after prolonged use, the phone would develop the fault, because just underneath the power button is the flux cable which is important for all sorts of nerdy reasons. The pressing of the power button causes the cable to move, and that in turn can cause the screen to stop responding to touches. The workaround for this, that I found personally, is to install a phone locking program from Android Market that allows you to put the phone into standby without having to use the power button. Then to bring it out of standby, you press the answer call button on the left hand side, and then swipe the screen to unlock it. I have been doing that ever since and the screen locks on me no longer. If I do accidentally press the power button to put the phone on standby and disable the screen, I would have to take the battery out and put it back in. Why do this when I had warranty? That's because it occurred when it was passed its warranty period, and the alternatives were to pay £150 to get it fixed, or do it myself (which I was not going to because I am useless with phone innards). As far as I know, Android is the only way to workaround this limitation, so more reason to stick with Android. Usually this would deter a buyer, but I personally find this flaw to be quite human. As we get old, things on our body are bound to go wrong, but we always find ways to get around it, so we try to not be as held back by it. This phone is pretty much doing the same thing, it has dislocated its shoulder, but instead of constantly putting it back in place like Mel Gibson in his Lethal Weapon movies, we just avoid it and put the pressure elsewhere. I like that, its like living with an old boiler and knowing how to turn its knobs to get it working.

As an everyday phone to use from its original Window Mobile 6.5 state, I say it is passable only due to HTC's hard work on the amazing skin that gives illusion to the fact that you'e using a phone with a different OS. The problem is that when you get under the aesthetic coolness, it is still the nasty Window Mobile 6.5 that I loath. You may like Windows Mobile 6.5, in which case then yes go for it, but when the screen starts to not respond due to the flux cable fault, you're going to be quite stuck. With Android installed, this is a masterpiece of a phone, and I would recommend it wholeheartedly as it adds the latest features, the latest software (on an Android phone) and allows you to enjoy everything that is current. What has been made for Windows Mobile 6.5 that is current? Nothing, you would have to go Windows Phone 7 or Android to keep up to date. This phone will be supported way in the future, the developers have not stopped supporting it since 2009, I am sure that when the latest version of mobile software appears they would try to port that over to the HD2 as well. If you like what you read and would like to pick one up despite the grievances I have listed, then I say go for it. They are relatively cheap nowadays, I saw one for £150 and it was in pretty good nick as well, and if you do snap one up it would have hardware that stands up even to today's standards. Just remember my recommendation... Android! Plus if you get that disabled screen error, you can use my workaround with it as well.

P.S. If you buy this phone and want to install Android but not sure how, you can always give me a shout and I'll try to assist you where I can.