The Competition: HTC HD2 Hands-on
Our buddy Phil Nickinson over at sibling site WMExperts finally got his HTC HD2 on this weekend and has video'd up an amazing hands-on with what he swears is a 3-foot screen! Ahem. Anyway, I had a chance to try it out as well, but you'll have to wait on my thoughts for a bit still...
Meanwhile, check out Phil's video and let us know what you think!
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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Looks pretty nice!
If you ever need a non-expert for the round robins, let me know.
OMG this thing is a monster... I'm wondering if it would be a little too big to really fit in the pocket easily, but it looks beautiful, thing, snappy, and ossum. I've never been a fan of winmo, but this thing will certainly give iphone a run for its money. In any case I look forward to see how Apple contends with this heavy hitter in the field.
I love the screen!! Apple needs a new os (graphics and layout an all) or I might get the HD2 next June. Probably not. I love my iPhone too too much:)
Wow.
Apple has some catching up to do.
For the badmouthing of windows mobile that sure looked like a nice fast phone with excellent animation.
I've been saying all along that Apple could expand the size of the iphone screen a bit, like half and inch in both X and Y and still have a sleek form factor. This phone proves the merit of that.
ok, thats pimp! if apple could produce a gui like that, man, that would be nice. this could be the one phone that i potentially like more than my 3GS
I saw the video on this phone, and its superb. What keeps me on the iPhone is the app store and its applications. The iPhone OS does need some tweaking though. Where's 3.2? lol
I don't see me missing the App store with a phone like that...it's fast and seems to do everything a phone needs to do. AT&T should definitely get it so I don't have to wait even longer...or the alternative would be that Apple see it's competition and retaliate...
i think apple will have to add a second form factor next june - a 'pro' model for the road warrior? more brickish (and dare I say...manly) but this thing here is basically a netbook replacement. i really like mobilme, but i will wait to see what apple has in store next june.
Indeed Zak, where the hell is 3.2
I think apple might just skip 3.2 and possibly deliver 4.0 a litle early. Like in march when they demoed 3.0 last year. And if it really blew things away that would be awesome.
And iPhone IV needs a bigger screen, faster processor and some sweet new features.
So what exactly keeps an iphone owner clinging to his/her iphone after you see something like this?? this thing is just beautiful...too bad i'd never go back to AT&T but this phone turns me green.
Where is the link to this video. Am I missing something. I am viewing from my iPhone and I don't see a link!!!! Where the fu3k is 3.2?????
Forget about, I found the link!!!!!!!!! Dooh!!
I will give apple until june. If the next gen iphone is not amazing i will be getting the hd2. There is something about the sense ui that i really find attractive.
I'm not worried about devices like this one. Yes, it looks really cool, but by the time it is released in the US, it will be outdated. I don't think that it is as good as the 3GS. And I'm sure that it won't be as good as the new iPhone coming out next summer. Just have patience. The new iPhone will be greatness. Trust me.
I honestly do not look forward to seeing your review Rene...it normally seems you would never give credit where it is due. And the iPhone will somehow always come out on top...no matter what.
Now if I'm proven wrong, then hey...I'll be happy.
But eh...
@Dwayne
Are you serious? Like seriously serious?
As far as specs go, unless iPhone changes the form of the phone (size, not anything else), gives it an AMOLED screen, ups the processor to AT LEAST 700Mhz underclocked (so that means using a 1Ghz processor), refreshes the UI just a LITTLE bit (not a lot, just a tiny bit). It won't make the HD2 outdated in the least bit.
Now if Apple can somehow step out of their incremental upgrade phase...and dish that, then hey...more power to them.
But Apple's business tactics are not such. So I doubt the next iPhone will make this phone outdated. Hell...this phone is already ages ahead of every phone on the US market right now (now if only it had WinMo 7 or Android...)
I love the screen size, but that's about it. Still don't care for the death metal interface and all the hardware buttons. The animations are overkill and the icons border on ghetto. I don't like the rotating photos and documents as they're swiped through. Also, unless I'm mistaken, it appears that you have to swipe to view every five apps, while the iPhone shows twenty at once.
Meh...
Seriously iPhone is beyond overrated. I am already bored with mine. What is up with their ugly weather app. The iPhone screen & ap's look beyond late & expired.
WTF is the video link?
@Vanityeverlastingbonet
Why the hell are you biching about a frickin weather app? Is that all you're looking for in an internet phone? Give me a frickin break!
Sense UI = superficial overkill. Trust me, performance drags once you load up a serious amount of data. Try swiping those photos when there are more than 2000 pics and videos in your library, as there are in mine.
The iPhone could stand to have a GUI enhancement, but nothing major IMO.
Why's it that they haven't allowed us to hide/delete some of the native apps from our phone (eg. Weather, Stocks)?
Hahaha I love reading the comments specially when I c ignorant ppl like "Dwayne" damn fanboy
the facts are there the HD2 it's just better then the iPhone !!!! I own an iPhone 3gs but really HD2 takes the cake.
Bla bla bla apple store who cares really how many ppl really depend on the apple store the average phone has bout 10 apps from apple store aaven tho there's 100,000 apps 80% are crap
@iDavey?
Quote:
I bet microsoft is waiting for a device such as this to get WinMo 7. This device would give them a huge boost in prestige.
WinMo may not be the sexiest platform out there, but there are a bazillion windows programmers out there who could port applications to this device, because the mobile development APIs are pretty much mirror images of the regular Windows APIs.
And why not Android? After all its a general purpose computer. There is no reason it couldn't run Android with the same hardware.
Of all the phones out there only the iPhone can't run another OS, due mostly to Apple's battalion of lawyers.
If apple doesn't come up with something lot better this year I'm going with HD2!
@Dwayne, post 16.
You sound like the PC guy in the new Apple ads.
"Trust me."
Even if the HD2 is better then the iPhone 3GS or the new iPhone due out this summer, it's still not going to dethrown the iPhone. The iPhone is too popular and is to well known to be beat yet. Plus the HD2 and every other phone that claims to be better don't have the frequent updates to hardware and software that Apple brings to the table bc all they have is 1 phone. That is the biggest advantage for the iPhone, there is only 1
And no I'm not an Apple fanboy. The only apple product I own is a iPhone.
Sorry for double post...
@Mystic, post 24. If you have 2000 pics, you don't use the homescreen viewer. You use the app, HTC Album.
@Keyboard, post 26. The App Store somewhat matters. The Sense UI is fantastic. The Windows Marketplace does not have Sense-styled apps. I own a WinMo. I hate it that we have no fixed GUI, like the iPhone. And the App Store has some decent games! Games that look better than they do on my Playstation, on my PSP...
@Dexter:
Click on the "WMExperts" link in the article and you'll find the video there.
Yes this phone looks awesome! I'm from the UK, and I would consider changing to the HD2 (I only have one month left to go until my iphone 3G contract is up), but I do want to wait and see what Apple pull out of Steve Job's pocket in June first... Also I really love the itunes compatibility - I would definitately miss that if I went to the HTC...
I just came...
WOW. Seems like SOMEONE is listening to the complaints on this site, JUST NOT APPLE!!!!! That phone is a bad motha...iPhone is stalled right now. All of the Apple CR*P of dooling out the upgrades a spoonful at a time is quickly falling by the way side. THEY STARTED THIS, and now are getting left behind. And before all the fanboys jump on the koolaid truck, that is a NEW phone, NOT a 3 year old product. Lets see in 3 years how far ahead of the iPhone these guys are. There had better be some nuclear WOW next summer, or this game will be over. Apple wants to keep pointing to the app store as it's savior. It is starting to sound like they NEED the app store to keep the phone going. The design is getting a bit long in the tooth, the lack of progress in fixing the flaws a constant frustration, and the competition IS LISTENING!!! The iPhone 4 needs to be new, COMPLETELY NEW, from top to bottom. It needs to be a little bigger, wider, thicker, better screen,
OOOOPS.....BETTER BATTERY, etc. But, alas, it won't be. And, Apple will sell another 10 million, and we will still be here complaining of all the problems.
How are Apple going to respond......well all the new service providers that will be able to offer the 3GS in the new year once the exclusivity deal runs out will be told that they must drop the HD2 in support for Apple - kind of a second string exclusivity package.
I'm just glad I managed to order my HD2 with Vodafone days before they pulled the plug.
As for future upgrades on both phones - this will be an interesting story to follow and hard to predict. With Apple now relying on bully tactics (which seems to work) why release huge performance jumps early (if they even have them). Please remember where HTC are from and how many years in advance the East are to us in the West. I've seen forums where 5G is being mentioned and we're still on 3!!!
I think this phone proves that the apple and that far ahead of ANY of their rivals. They are riding on reputation and if more phones like this come along their market share will rapidly decrease - although Jobs followers are rather narrow minded and would cut off their nose to spite their face in order to 'claim' that their phone is the greatest.
I chose the Leo (HD2) over iphone a month ago without a doubt. It is awesom .It is the customization factor that does it for me - apple don't let you play with the brains of the phone, with WinMo or Android, you can tell the phone to do virtually anything you want.
I dropped my beloved iPhone, Oops - well beyond repair. Went off to the phone store and saw this HD2 it looked nice so thought it deserved a go. Now I tell you this is atomic it is like going to bed with a new younger model and does she know some tricks. She sure has won my heart Do you ever get the feeling things are meant to happen, well dropping my iPhone was meant to be. Get yourself one - this HD2 is life changing!
I got HD2 and you cant compare it with the iPhone. Windows movbile 6.5 is just one of the reasons. I had a lot of problem with mine and it`s just not the same feeling that i got from the iphone.
I'm from Sweden and I've had my HTC HD2 for more than one month now. Do you know there was a special forum dedicated for our beloved phones, yes, it's http://www.HTCHD2Forum.com. The HTC Hd2 is my third HTC device and man it's great! I knew it had twice the clock speed compared to my Diamond but could never imagine the difference to be that huge.
Anyway, I know a little bit about WM and can hopfully help people.