Ever since I saw the specs on HTC's HD2 several months ago, I wanted to get it - 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, and 4.3" screen. You see, my contract with T-Mobile then was done, so I was looking for a new phone to replace my ancient T-Mobile MDA. I had that phone for four years which, in cell phone years, is a lifetime. The only problem was I didn't know when HD2 was coming out. There were estimates, but ... Then the Google Nexus One came along with similiar specs, except with a smaller screen, so I tried to get that instead. Unfortunately, I couldn't so I got the next best thing, which was the HTC Touch Pro2. That was a great phone.
THE FUTURE
So what gives, and why am I speaking in the past tense? I've had T-Mobile's HD2 for a couple weeks now, that's why. My sister needed a new phone and carrier. We decided that it would be cheaper if I just add her to my family plan, so we went to T-Mobile to shop for a phone. There, I saw the one phone I had coveted all these months. I've been hearing great things about it too, and how it's been selling out across the country. While she looked for a new phone, I played with around with a demo. A week later, despite some reservations, I went ahead and bought it. I gave my Touch Pro2 to my sister. I figured the 1GHz processor, 4.3" screen, and 5MP camera will more than make up for the Touch Pro2's full qwerty keyboard. Plus, I have to keep this phone for two years. By then the Touch Pro2's 500+MHz processor will seem slow.
THE 4.3" CAPACITIVE SCREEN
First, the 4.3" screen is amazing. It's humongous. That's half an inch wider and taller than the Touch Pro2. The phone comes with the two Transformers movies, and they look great on it, unless you're Roger Ebert. The screen is also quite roomy for web browsing and writing documents. The capacitive screen takes a bit to get used to, especially if you're used to resistive. You can no longer use your finger nails to type because it only senses heat. You also can't use a stylus for precision clicking or a drawing program. Well, you can buy one, but it looks bulky, and I'm not sure how well it works. You do get pinch-zoom with the capacitive screen, which is great for viewing photos and zooming into hard to click links on websites.
THE 5MP CAMERA
The camera takes better pictures than the Touch Pro2. There's a flash, and it's able to take decent pictures in low light. You still see artifacts, but at least you can see the picture. It's still hard to take a pictures of a moving object though. Your subject will have to be very still. It's challenge to use it for taking pictures of my baby boy. I haven't used the video recorder much, but it looks decent for a phone.
THE VIRTUAL KEYBOARDS
Swype
The phone comes with Swype, a typing software that I'm beginning to get used to and like for one-hand typing. The only problem is it's buggy on T-Mobile's HD2. The secondary keys you get by pressing and holding a key rarely works. I ended up installing one stripped from another cell phone. That one works most of the time, but still a little buggy. Holding on the delete key to delete words only works half of the time. Text selection and copy-and-paste aren't reliable. The program isn't perfect, but for one-hand typing, it's the best.
Default Qwerty keyboard
For two-hand typing, I prefer the default keyboard. It's super responsive on the HD2 so you can type as fast as your thumbs can tap. The only problem is accuracy, but I'm sure once you get used to it, you can get pretty fast on it. Because of the size of the screen, the keys are bigger and easier to hit. What's also nice about the default full qwerty keyboard is the arrow keys at the bottom. On Swype, you need to go through a couple screens to get them which is inconvenient.
THE 1GHz PROCESSOR
The increased processor speed and memory does allow for more tabs to be opened on Opera Mobile 9.7. On the Touch Pro2, I would get a warning after 2 tabs. On the HD2, you get one more. If you edit the registry, you can get nine. I really never use more than three, but I like the fact that I could use more should I need to. Programs also seem to run faster and the screen seems to respond quicker. Because the phone has 512MB of RAM, I no longer get out of memory messages like I did with the touch pro 2. When I check, there are usually around 200-300MB of ram left.
FORM FACTOR
Because of it's 4.3" screen, it's wide and tall, but it's pretty thin. How thin? Thinner than the iphone. How wide and tall? It'll barely fit in your pocket with the protective sleeve on. Don't expect to sit down with this baby in your pocket with the sleeve on. The majority of the phone size is dedicated to the screen. There are five buttons at the bottom and two on the left side for the volume. The only thing that bugs me is that the camera protrudes out a little bit so when you lay it on its back, it's resting on the camera. The other thing is it doesn't come with the kick stand so when you're watching a movie, you can't set it down on an incline. Other than that, it's a sleek and beautiful device.
PROTECT YOUR BEAUTIFUL PHONE
The phone comes with a plastic sleeve which collects dust easily from your pocket. It also makes the phone bulkier and the navigational elements around the screen hard to press. After a week with the sleeve on, I decided to take it off. It feels a lot smaller in my pocket. On that same day, I dropped the phone. There are small dents on the top and bottom now. The moral of the story - keep the sleeve on when you're traveling to protect your beautiful phone. Take it off when you're using it.
SENSE UI 2.5
On the Touch Pro2, I was using Sense 2.1, the UI layer on top of WM6.5. The 2.5 upgrade has a few noticable improvements and apps. I'll just list the ones I like and use.
Programs Tab
The programs tab has been removed. You now see the first row of apps on the home tab; swiping upwards will reveal the full list of nine apps. This makes more sense because the older programs tab was slow and kinda redundant with the Start menu.
Search Tab
There's now a search tab that allows you to search documents and a more comprehensive phone search that allows you to search for anything in the phone. I find that I use the document search most of the time because I do a decent amount of writing.
Twitter Tab
What a nice surprise. I don't use Twitter much. I have my blog entries automatically post tweets, but that's about it. This simple app actually made me use it more often. I like Twitter now :) Because most of my industry and personal contacts on are Twitter, I get the latest movie updates just by looking at my feed. I also get updates from friends. The app has a simple sliding menu bar with just four sections - tweets, mentions, direct messages, and favorites. It's so simple and intuitive, I finally figure out how to use Twitter. On the website, I was confused so I never bother using it.
Weather Tab
You can't talk about Sense UI 2.5 without mentioning the weather app. It's simply amazing. Like the Twitter app, I generally don't check the weather much, but I'm now checking the weather everyday. It's a pretty app with animation. When it's raining, you get rain drops rolling down the screen and then it gets cleaned with a windshield wiper. Always a nice surprse. During a cloudy day, you'll see clouds floating across the screen. In a sunny day, you get rays of sunlight. It's all really well-integrated with the UI.
FM Radio App
You hook up your earphones to it, and it becomes an antenae for the radio app. Now, you can listen to your favorite FM stations.
YouTube App
The font size is a little big, so it's hard to see the full title. Let's say you're watching The Adventures of Jackie Chan Part 1/40. "Part 1/40" will not show up. I end up editing the registry to make the font size smaller. Otherwise, it's a nice app. Great with wifi. I've already watched a couple movies on it.
I've installed a bunch of other apps and tweaks, but I'll save that for another article.
NO, YOU CAN'T DUAL BOOT WM6.5 AND ANDROID ON IT YET
Sure, you can dual boot on the Touch Pro2, but it'll be another year or so before it could be done with the HD2. My only reason to dual boot into Android on the Touch Pro2 was to edit google docs with the GDocs app. Now, it looks like I'll have to wait another year for that, unless someone creates a WM app for it before that.
YOU CAN PROBABLY RUN WINDOWS MOBILE 7 ON IT
Microsoft said you couldn't, but someone on YouTube already showed that you can. I'm sure someone in the xda community will have it ready by the time Windows Mobile 7 comes around. Although I'm not sure if I want to upgrade. Sense UI and all of the tweaks from the xda community are pretty tough to leave behind. Everything in the UI is so customizable. I'm not sure if I can ditched all of my tweaks and customizations.
NOT SURE YET IF IT'S THE BEST WM PHONE
I've been using the HD2 for a couple weeks, and i'm pretty happy with it so far. Is it the best Windows Mobile phone ever? I'm not so sure. The Touch Pro2 is pretty good. Its keyboard is awesome and does things that's just hard to replicate with a virtual keyboard - cut/copy/paste by pressing ctrl-x/ctrl-c/ctrl-v, text selection by pressing ctrl or shift key with arrows. Sure, you can copy and paste and do text selection with the virtual keyboard, but it's harder and not as natural. I've gotten used to the virtual keyboards - full qwerty for two hand typing and swype for one hand, but still miss the physical keyboard.
I'm beginning to like the HD2 more and more. It's definitely a two-hand phone without installing any tweaks. Because of the size of the screen, it's a little hard to operate with just one hand. My thumbs can only reach 2/3 of the screen so it's hard to click on the close button at the top right corner. But with a couple remapping of the button functions, it can be a one-hand phone. I used the phone to update articles on Wopular with Opera Mobile 10. I also use it to write blog entries. The wide screen makes this experience a lot easier on my eyes. As an entertainment device, it's great too. You can listen to the radio via FM Radio and Slacker Radio, watch videos on YouTube or Hulu (via SkyFire web browser), and play video games (which I haven't done much of). Everything just looks a lot better with the bigger screen. With tweaks, virtually every app could use the pinch-zoom function. I can see why the iPad is doing solid business. It's nice to be able to hold on to something and move things around with your fingers. Already, I'm using my netbook less and less. I used to use my netbook when I'm on the sofa or in bed, but now, unless I'm writing code, I actually prefer to use my phone to browse the web, write articles, and update the site. I can even use it while I'm in the office (the other office where you do your actual business). It's highly portable. I take my phone with me everywhere. The processor on the HD2 is just as fast as my ancient ASUS Eee netbook with almost as much RAM. Already, I've been spending way too much time with it.
OOPS, FORGOT ABOUT BATTERY LIFE
For normal everyday usage, one charge will last a day, which is better than I expected because it's of its large screen and powerful processor. By normal usage, I mean checking email, surfing the web, writing articles, listening to FM radio, and watching the occasional YouTube video with wifi on. But if you're watching 3-4 hours of continuous YouTube videos with wifi on, then the battery drains in about that time. All in all, pretty good.
