HTC HD2

Call Quality

Calls and speakerphone: For the most part, we found calls loud and clear on the HTC HD2. In fact, callers were so loud we tended to use the side volume keys to lower the volume often down to a single bar. Callers said we sounded clear as well. We should note that when the cell phone is held close to the face it vibrates a bit as if you’re inadvertently pressing something on the screen, but we never lost a call when this happened. Using the speakerphone didn’t seem to degrade call quality on our end and we appreciate how easy it is to activate the speakerphone.

Audio quality: Playback of songs through the cell phone’s speakers was decent. We found that songs sounded clear. We particularly appreciate that the HD2 sports a 3.5mm headset jack. In addition to music, the HTC HD2 will play back movies and in our experience we found that we could hear the movie clearly when we used both standard 3.5mm headphones or without.

Ease of Use

Menu/phone book: The HTC HD2 runs Windows Mobile 6.5 Operating System (OS) and one of the biggest differences between 6.5 and its predecessor 6.1 is that it’s just easier to navigate and is more icon friendly. For example, when you press the Window icon button at the base of the cell phone or tap the Windows icon next to Start at the top left hand corner or the display, they both take you to an icon driven list of features on the cell phone similar to the experience on the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Android smartphones. Don’t worry many of the Microsoft-centric features are still available such as Bing Search, Windows Live (this feature now has more social media features built-in), Outlook, and Microsoft Office. There’s also Microsoft’s newest feature called MyPhone, which allows you to sync the cell phone’s contacts, calendar, tasks, text messages, music, pictures, videos and other documents on line at your MyPhone account. It also offers a way to find the HD2 if it ever gets lost.

The HD2 has HTC Sense so among other things the onscreen QWERTY keyboard is the HTC keyboard, which we’ve found more accurate and easier to use. It also has HTC’s Footprints, a feature that allows you to take a picture of a place, get all the information available about it from the web including a map, and even add a note to it. The idea is that whenever you go back to that place you can revisit or just share it with friends. Other ease-of-use HTC Sense enhancements include a bottom row of icon apps so you can just scroll your finger across the bottom of the display to select a different app. Also there are an customized version of contacts , Opera mobile web browser, music player and more. All of this adds up to a pretty slick interface. In fact, you hardly notice you’re using a Windows Mobile smartphone.

Since the HTC HD2 was designed with entertainment in mind and it’s all in there including music, movies (more in camera/video), mobiTV, and reading books with the Barnes & Noble e-reader application. Speaking of movies the smartphone comes preloaded with full-length versions of Transformers and Transformers 2, plus you can rent and download movies from Blockbuster. However, you’ll want to make sure the 16GB microSD card is inserted in the device since that’s where movies are stored. Finally, the HTC HD2 has the Snapdragon 1GHZ processor, which means it’s fast. Read: Barely any lag time switching between apps and movie playback is smooth.

Camera/video: The HTC HD2 sports a 5-megapixel camera that can take photos and record short videos. It has a flash (and auto flash mode that’s easy to change when framing a shot), but lacks a tiny mirror near the lens for snapping self-portraits. The easiest way to access the camera is to select the photo icon from the bottom row of icons. You can snap a picture by pressing the option on the display. The camera’s shutter was fast, however, the auto focus feature might slow you down a bit. The camera doesn’t have a lot of settings, but there are a few: panorama, brightness, white balance, quality, metering, and effects (normal, negative, grayscale, and sepia). When taking pictures or videos the entire screen turns into a viewfinder (similar to digital cameras), which gives you plenty of room to frame a shot. Additionally, once you take a picture there are a few things you can do with it such as sharing it or uploading it to an online album, saving it as a picture for a contact. As for image quality, when viewing pictures both on screen and downloaded to a computer was acceptable, though colors were a little washed out.

As noted, the HD2 is truly a multimedia device and comes preloaded with two movies. Watching video on the display is a positive experience since playback is smooth and the screen is spacious. You can also record movies, as well.

Music: The HTC HD2 uses the HTC Sense music player for playing back music. You can play MP3s, and Microsofts WMA audio files, but there’s no support for Apple’s AACs audio files. As noted, the audio quality is acceptable through the cell phone speaker. The HTC HD2 doesn’t have many audio-centric controls such as the ability to manually adjust bass and treble, however you can Shuffle, Repeat All, Add Songs to a Playlist. There is an Audio Booster feature that improves sonics when you’re listening through headphones. The cell phone will also display album art when available and it can be updated. There’s also an FM radio included, but you’ll need to attach headphones in order to use it.

Connectivity/Bluetooth/WiFi: We were able to pair the HTC smartphone with a Plantronics 925 Bluetooth headset. We found call quality to be acceptable with the headset. And callers had no idea we were using a headset let alone a cell phone. Additionally, the HTC HD2 supports stereo Bluetooth.

The HTC HD2 also has built-in WiFi so you can log-on to available WiFi networks to surf the Web or send/receive e-mail. It’s a nice feature and setting it up is a breeze. We should also mention the HD2 comes with the GoGo app, which lets you access WiFi on airplanes that offer that service. Better yet, T-Mobile teamed up with GoGo and is providing a 6-month free trial.

Design

Look and feel: The HTC HD2 is one good looking smartphone and that has a lot to do with it’s gorgeous 4.3-inch touchscreen display. It’s bright and viewable in direct sunlight. The entire front of the cell phone is essentially a large screen. In case you’re wondering, the screen is slightly larger than the iPhone. Of course, the cell phone attracts its fair share of fingerprints, but that’s the case with most touchscreen cell phones currently available.

Beyond the large screen there isn’t a lot more to describe. It does have 5 dedicated keys across the bottom of the display for making calls, accessing the home screen, accessing the apps menu, going back, and ending a call. On the side, you’ll find volume keys and on the bottom of the cell phone is the microUSB port and 3.5mm-headset jack. Turn the cell phone around and you’ll see the camera lens and flash. The HTC HD2 really is one slick looking device. However, you’ll need to remove the black rubberized casing from the back of the HD2 to access the MicroSD card slot. Overall, the cell phone feels good in the hand. It has a bit of weight to it, but that only makes it feel more solid. If you have smaller hands you won’t be able to wrap your fingers around the smartphone.

Keypad: The touchscreen keypad and QWERTY keyboard on the HTC HD2 are large, so you won’t be squinting to make out the letters or numbers. You can use the keyboard in vertical or horizontal mode, we tended to make less errors using the keyboard in the vertical position. We particularly appreciated the dedicated .com key.

Battery Life

In the battery life department, the HTC HD2 is acceptable. We found the smartphone could last about a day before recharging when using the HTC HD2 regularly to make calls, occasionally surf the wireless Web, listen to music, watch movies, and send/receive text messages. Users who barely use the cell phone to make/receive calls, send/receive messages, and surf the web can probably last closer to two to three days before needing to recharge. The good news is that the HD2 recharges fairly quickly within about an hour or two.