December 8, 2009 at 07:30User review of HTC HD2
Some time ago, I took a HTC HD2 (Leo) phone for a weekly test. As I’m already used to, the review will not be dry, but user based on my preferences and based on my opinion.
Immediately I want to clarify one more point, I do not work for HTC, they didn’t pay me anything and in general - I am a simple blogger - Dmitry Volotko , and I write what I consider necessary to write, no one affects me.
What made me extremely pleased with the phone case is that it is practically cast. The only thing that stands out is the removable cover, behind which the slots for the SIM card and memory card are hidden. Well, the battery, of course. To the touch - the case, nice plastic, the back cover - metal. Lies in the hand like a glove, but for people with small palms it is unlikely that the phone will be convenient for use with one hand. You have to use HD2 like Sony PSP. It seems to me that the size of the phone is already larger than those that are convenient for most users.
However, it is more designed for men, with large palms and fingers. Or it should be considered as a working tool, which, due to its large work area, only becomes more convenient. In general, before buying a phone you need to decide what you will do with it. If only for calls - then you do not need it (and it's expensive). But if for multimedia, for mobile use of the network, for reading mail and processing documents - this is the best option, of those that are now on the market. There are no phones with a larger screen, but carrying a netbook, or, especially, a laptop, is not always convenient. And the opportunity is not always there.
The case is not easily soiled, unlike the screen.
You understand that the screen with a diagonal of 4.3 inches is a great find for young trackers. The screen is messy, and in modern, "almost buttonless" phones, this is nowhere to go, unfortunately.
But the rest - the screen turned out simply enchanting, and, by the way, this is the first phone in the world with a capacitive screen on the operating systems of the windows phone family. The HD2 screen has excellent color reproduction and contrast (bright and rich colors). The eyes from the screen do not get tired, even if you look at it for several hours without interruption (to test, to test like that - right?). You can watch an uncompressed video on it without experiencing any problems that some small details will be missed (for example, the most common DVD-rip weighing 700 megabytes - it’s worth admitting that this is not only a merit of the screen, of course). It is perfectly played on it. Believe me, the usual labyrinth (well, which is tied to gyroscopes) brings much more pleasure on such a large screen. Large control buttons, just under my rather fleshy fingers.
The operating system itself adjusts the screen brightness if the corresponding checkmark in the settings is set. Or you yourself can forcibly cool the ardor of the phone to show yourself in all its beauty. The reason, in fact, is extremely commonplace. With the active use of the phone, or rather the screen, the battery lives a little less than a day. If you moderate the ardor by setting the maximum brightness, for example, at 70-75%, then the phone's lifespan increases by several times.
But the maximum brightness, for sure, will come in handy when using navigation programs, in particular the pre-installed package from Navitel, which I also used a little (I was presented with a key). But more on that later.
In the car, the phone is charging, and the maximum brightness will not be superfluous, in sunny weather, for example.
According to my calculations, the battery life under the following conditions:
1. Screen brightness - 70%
2. 30-35 minutes of conversation per day;
3. 10-15 SMS per day;
4. 40-70 twitter messages per day;
5. Two hours of listening to music a day;
missing a little less than a couple of days. I consider this to be a pretty good result, all the more so, on engineering firmware, which will obviously be further optimized and optimized, even after the start of phone sales (which is logical).
And on condition that you charge from a USB cable that can be connected both to the USB port of your computer and to charging from a wall outlet, everything is fine. By the way, the HD2 USB port is now not mini-, but micro-. I had to take a wire, because I don’t have such shoelaces at home.
The plug itself, by the way, has two pleasant, but already tradition, details. Firstly, the same cable that you connected to your computer is directly connected to it. Secondly, he understands and thus is even less afraid of traveling in the luggage compartment of the aircraft, and takes up less space.
By the way, about the firmware of the phone. The operation itself to stupor is simple. Insert the phone into charging, start the software, and do not touch either the computer or the phone itself. Important conditions - a battery charge of at least 50% (software will not start the update otherwise), and again, do not touch anything. By time - three or four minutes. Users can download firmware from the HTC website.
Navitel pleased that it feels great, both in terms of a large screen, which no developer had ever counted on, or the quality of its atlases. Well, there’s just nothing to say - the program works fine, performing its function, I’ll note five plus. The only thing that I didn’t really like was how the program connects, for the first time, atlases that you download from the site, indicating your serial number. About three minutes, I personally broke my head - after which I proudly used the program, knowing the breadth and height of its location on the ball under the name Earth. Curiously, the key that they gave me - is it like a common one, or can it be used for your own purposes? I decided not to be impudent, and not to learn about it. Which is very a pity, by the way, that I could not check the quality of work outside the Moscow Ring Road. Did not work out.
What was clearly remembered in the settings wizard is that it almost immediately suggests entering login-password pairs for Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts. Everything is very easy and simple.
The desktop is a concentration of phone features within walking distance. You can bring any three programs to it, for example, those that you often use (allreader, opera mobile and peep, in my case). But it’s not only programs that can score these three positions (there’s a checkmark there, when you press it, another 9 positions pop up - 12 in total), but it’s possible to specify any directory, contact or shortcut to your favorite web page.
Big watch, a line with a date and a line with an alarm clock. What is most interesting and insanely beautiful is the fact that the weather state “overboard” is reflected on the desktop. If it is rainy, then on the screen in the background there will be raindrops, like on a car window, and for the first time a couple of seconds of switching on a couple of times a janitor will pass by wiping these drops. If it’s sunny, then the sun. Cloudy - clouds, etc. The effects are very beautiful, vibrant and realistic, but not distracting. Just add the charms to the phone. For several days, when I locked myself at home and worked, it was only by telephone that I found out that it was raining, morning or cold outside. Information, in essence, at that moment in time was completely useless, but in this way I maintained at least some connection with the world.
In general, almost all phone control is tied to HTC Sense - in fact, this is a very voluminous shell for Windows Phone. For everyday use with the OS interface, you will encounter only third-party programs, which, I’m pretty sure, will also soon update and look much better than the OS (it’s sad to say that).
As an avid tweeter (Kyuyu!), It goes without saying that I write on Twitter and from a mobile phone. HTC did not move away from its course, and left the Peep twitter client as standard. The client itself is quite convenient, and having come across it tightly for the second time, I was able to formulate only one minus to it. This is the lack of an “in reply to" button, which allows you to trace the chain of communication between two users. But answers to yesterday’s tweets are not uncommon, and even if I add my here, sometimes irrepressible ardor in writing twitter messages, it becomes obvious that such a button is not enough. Moreover, there is nothing complicated in it, Twitter provides an API, and in many mobile clients it is. I unsubscribed my wish, to whom it is necessary - let's see if sooner or later this magic button will be realized.
I tried using the well-proven Pocketwit, but the program is clearly not optimized for such large screens - I was not comfortable using it. Yes, and it works slower, I must admit, rather than Peep. Plus, it should be noted that Pocketwit is much more comfortable to use when the phone has a joystick key. Without it, it’s not so convenient.
Finally, cheers, HTC began to equip their devices with decent cameras. Moreover, the quality is pretty good both in photographs and in videos. There is a fairly bright flash (which consists of two LEDs), which during video recording, acts as a backlight (if you do not turn it off, of course). Shines well, but shortsightedly.
It is worth noting that the camera works in a very interesting way. She waits for a moment until the phone stops shaking, and while she waits, she constantly adjusts her focus. Focus, by the way, you can specify yourself by simply tapping your finger on the screen.
As is already usual in HTC phones, with the windows phone operating system, there are three ways to connect to a computer using a cord. When connected to a computer on the phone screen, we will see three points:
1. Synchronization with ActiveSync
2. Use as a flash drive
3. Use as a modem
If the first item only works on windows with the last AS (because windows phone 6.5), then the second option works almost everywhere, exactly like the third. You get a modem at the speed that your operator is able to give in your tariff. On EDGE, on Taganka, I did it almost 90kbit per second, according to inet.ya.ru .
It is worth noting that your HD2 phone will be able to work as a wi-fi point, thereby supplying several computers with the same mobile Internet. The thing is nice, but the battery is planting pretty fast. About three or four wi-fi routing hours (we played a bit in DOOM), the battery dipped by almost 80%. However, this did not stop the phone from letting me listen to the player in the subway, on the way home, and also order sushi on the way from the subway to the house.
By the way, about the player. I very much hoped for progress and common sense that finally in the new version of the windows phone operating system the problem would disappear that you had to install codec packages so that the phone could be used to its full potential, at least from the multimedia side. Imagine my disappointments when my expectations were not met. Very upset. As in 2003, if I don’t confuse, I installed codecs, and in 6.5 I put it. Progress in this case passed by, at a brisk pace, which, of course, is sad.
The windows phone 6.5 itself leaves a generally favorable impression. The system, of course, was not written at all from scratch, most likely it is brought to the modern realities of windows mobile 6.1. The operating system now understands capacitive screens, a large number of megabytes on a microSD flash card, new hardware, etc. In fact, I perceive 6.5 as a service pack for 6.1 - the most correct feeling, most likely. I do not deny that in fact it may be wrong.
The inside of the operating system, in the form of a settings menu, according to which you can probably navigate almost blindly, if at least a couple of times the system was rolled back to the factory settings. True, alarms are now set somewhat differently, there are no more arrows to twist :(. And there were three of them — there are three left — you won’t be able to set more. But play with time zones until you get bored.
Regarding software compatibility, as it turned out, not everything is so scary. Almost all software that does not fit into the settings and internals of the system itself and which worked on 6.1 will work on 6.5. For example, numerous tweakers, some codecs and programs that deal with a variety of import and export may not work correctly, not at full strength, or not work at all. To be honest, I do not use tweakers, but I encountered several problems with codecs and synchronization. During synchronization (import from 6.1 and export to 6.5), I was able to transfer contacts, but could not make calls and part of SMS. You can immediately see what the differences in operating systems are for such small and local examples.
However, I did not focus on the operating system, since it, in my opinion, is not worth it. There are differences, but a person who has used 5.x-6.x windows mobile for at least a couple of weeks will not discover almost anything new.
Two browsers are installed in the system, it is quite expected Internet Explorer, which looks very similar to the eighth version of the desktop counterpart (and, in general, a lot of common features, the icons, for example). And already familiar, in phones from HTC, Opera Mobile, which since the 9th version has become free, has opened its way to phones, where it is sewn along with the factory settings. It is worth noting that Opera understands the flash very well, as well as multi-touch, which is very conveniently implemented.
If to summarize the impressions of the HTC phone - HD2, then the impressions are the best. A unique, so far, phone was created (well, I'm talking about the screen), with an excellent shell. This shell makes working with the rather dull windows phone comfortable and enjoyable. Phone, incl. due to the large screen, developed from a multimedia point of view pretty well. You can comfortably watch a movie, read a book or listen to music. He does an excellent job with routine office work, helps to look through mail, check a couple of office documents, and also can easily become a router for your laptop, if necessary.
The phone is perfect as a corporate phone, a kind of portable workstation. Moreover, I warmed up my ears in a couple of conversations, and I heard that some companies, just like government agencies, are already making orders for HD2 lots. True, I did not find out the size of these parties.
I can’t say that this is the phone of my dreams, not at all. But the fact that the phone works for me, and not I adapt to it - that's for sure. And in fact, my current phone (I won’t say which one, but not the worst one - honestly) I would easily and without hesitation exchange it for HD2.
PS. Of course, I used both a camera and a camcorder to check how well everything worked. However, due to the special curvature of my own hands, I deleted everything. And literally on the last night, I shot a few videos that show how high quality the device shoots under different lighting conditions. Do not scold for quality, it just happened.
Backlight shooting
Backlight Off
Night shooting under the lamp
Extremely nearsighted
Extremely nearsighted highlight 2
Immediately I want to clarify one more point, I do not work for HTC, they didn’t pay me anything and in general - I am a simple blogger - Dmitry Volotko , and I write what I consider necessary to write, no one affects me.
What made me extremely pleased with the phone case is that it is practically cast. The only thing that stands out is the removable cover, behind which the slots for the SIM card and memory card are hidden. Well, the battery, of course. To the touch - the case, nice plastic, the back cover - metal. Lies in the hand like a glove, but for people with small palms it is unlikely that the phone will be convenient for use with one hand. You have to use HD2 like Sony PSP. It seems to me that the size of the phone is already larger than those that are convenient for most users.
However, it is more designed for men, with large palms and fingers. Or it should be considered as a working tool, which, due to its large work area, only becomes more convenient. In general, before buying a phone you need to decide what you will do with it. If only for calls - then you do not need it (and it's expensive). But if for multimedia, for mobile use of the network, for reading mail and processing documents - this is the best option, of those that are now on the market. There are no phones with a larger screen, but carrying a netbook, or, especially, a laptop, is not always convenient. And the opportunity is not always there.
The case is not easily soiled, unlike the screen.
You understand that the screen with a diagonal of 4.3 inches is a great find for young trackers. The screen is messy, and in modern, "almost buttonless" phones, this is nowhere to go, unfortunately.
But the rest - the screen turned out simply enchanting, and, by the way, this is the first phone in the world with a capacitive screen on the operating systems of the windows phone family. The HD2 screen has excellent color reproduction and contrast (bright and rich colors). The eyes from the screen do not get tired, even if you look at it for several hours without interruption (to test, to test like that - right?). You can watch an uncompressed video on it without experiencing any problems that some small details will be missed (for example, the most common DVD-rip weighing 700 megabytes - it’s worth admitting that this is not only a merit of the screen, of course). It is perfectly played on it. Believe me, the usual labyrinth (well, which is tied to gyroscopes) brings much more pleasure on such a large screen. Large control buttons, just under my rather fleshy fingers.
The operating system itself adjusts the screen brightness if the corresponding checkmark in the settings is set. Or you yourself can forcibly cool the ardor of the phone to show yourself in all its beauty. The reason, in fact, is extremely commonplace. With the active use of the phone, or rather the screen, the battery lives a little less than a day. If you moderate the ardor by setting the maximum brightness, for example, at 70-75%, then the phone's lifespan increases by several times.
But the maximum brightness, for sure, will come in handy when using navigation programs, in particular the pre-installed package from Navitel, which I also used a little (I was presented with a key). But more on that later.
In the car, the phone is charging, and the maximum brightness will not be superfluous, in sunny weather, for example.
According to my calculations, the battery life under the following conditions:
1. Screen brightness - 70%
2. 30-35 minutes of conversation per day;
3. 10-15 SMS per day;
4. 40-70 twitter messages per day;
5. Two hours of listening to music a day;
missing a little less than a couple of days. I consider this to be a pretty good result, all the more so, on engineering firmware, which will obviously be further optimized and optimized, even after the start of phone sales (which is logical).
And on condition that you charge from a USB cable that can be connected both to the USB port of your computer and to charging from a wall outlet, everything is fine. By the way, the HD2 USB port is now not mini-, but micro-. I had to take a wire, because I don’t have such shoelaces at home.
The plug itself, by the way, has two pleasant, but already tradition, details. Firstly, the same cable that you connected to your computer is directly connected to it. Secondly, he understands and thus is even less afraid of traveling in the luggage compartment of the aircraft, and takes up less space.
By the way, about the firmware of the phone. The operation itself to stupor is simple. Insert the phone into charging, start the software, and do not touch either the computer or the phone itself. Important conditions - a battery charge of at least 50% (software will not start the update otherwise), and again, do not touch anything. By time - three or four minutes. Users can download firmware from the HTC website.
Navitel pleased that it feels great, both in terms of a large screen, which no developer had ever counted on, or the quality of its atlases. Well, there’s just nothing to say - the program works fine, performing its function, I’ll note five plus. The only thing that I didn’t really like was how the program connects, for the first time, atlases that you download from the site, indicating your serial number. About three minutes, I personally broke my head - after which I proudly used the program, knowing the breadth and height of its location on the ball under the name Earth. Curiously, the key that they gave me - is it like a common one, or can it be used for your own purposes? I decided not to be impudent, and not to learn about it. Which is very a pity, by the way, that I could not check the quality of work outside the Moscow Ring Road. Did not work out.
What was clearly remembered in the settings wizard is that it almost immediately suggests entering login-password pairs for Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts. Everything is very easy and simple.
The desktop is a concentration of phone features within walking distance. You can bring any three programs to it, for example, those that you often use (allreader, opera mobile and peep, in my case). But it’s not only programs that can score these three positions (there’s a checkmark there, when you press it, another 9 positions pop up - 12 in total), but it’s possible to specify any directory, contact or shortcut to your favorite web page.
Big watch, a line with a date and a line with an alarm clock. What is most interesting and insanely beautiful is the fact that the weather state “overboard” is reflected on the desktop. If it is rainy, then on the screen in the background there will be raindrops, like on a car window, and for the first time a couple of seconds of switching on a couple of times a janitor will pass by wiping these drops. If it’s sunny, then the sun. Cloudy - clouds, etc. The effects are very beautiful, vibrant and realistic, but not distracting. Just add the charms to the phone. For several days, when I locked myself at home and worked, it was only by telephone that I found out that it was raining, morning or cold outside. Information, in essence, at that moment in time was completely useless, but in this way I maintained at least some connection with the world.
In general, almost all phone control is tied to HTC Sense - in fact, this is a very voluminous shell for Windows Phone. For everyday use with the OS interface, you will encounter only third-party programs, which, I’m pretty sure, will also soon update and look much better than the OS (it’s sad to say that).
As an avid tweeter (Kyuyu!), It goes without saying that I write on Twitter and from a mobile phone. HTC did not move away from its course, and left the Peep twitter client as standard. The client itself is quite convenient, and having come across it tightly for the second time, I was able to formulate only one minus to it. This is the lack of an “in reply to" button, which allows you to trace the chain of communication between two users. But answers to yesterday’s tweets are not uncommon, and even if I add my here, sometimes irrepressible ardor in writing twitter messages, it becomes obvious that such a button is not enough. Moreover, there is nothing complicated in it, Twitter provides an API, and in many mobile clients it is. I unsubscribed my wish, to whom it is necessary - let's see if sooner or later this magic button will be realized.
I tried using the well-proven Pocketwit, but the program is clearly not optimized for such large screens - I was not comfortable using it. Yes, and it works slower, I must admit, rather than Peep. Plus, it should be noted that Pocketwit is much more comfortable to use when the phone has a joystick key. Without it, it’s not so convenient.
Finally, cheers, HTC began to equip their devices with decent cameras. Moreover, the quality is pretty good both in photographs and in videos. There is a fairly bright flash (which consists of two LEDs), which during video recording, acts as a backlight (if you do not turn it off, of course). Shines well, but shortsightedly.
It is worth noting that the camera works in a very interesting way. She waits for a moment until the phone stops shaking, and while she waits, she constantly adjusts her focus. Focus, by the way, you can specify yourself by simply tapping your finger on the screen.
As is already usual in HTC phones, with the windows phone operating system, there are three ways to connect to a computer using a cord. When connected to a computer on the phone screen, we will see three points:
1. Synchronization with ActiveSync
2. Use as a flash drive
3. Use as a modem
If the first item only works on windows with the last AS (because windows phone 6.5), then the second option works almost everywhere, exactly like the third. You get a modem at the speed that your operator is able to give in your tariff. On EDGE, on Taganka, I did it almost 90kbit per second, according to inet.ya.ru .
It is worth noting that your HD2 phone will be able to work as a wi-fi point, thereby supplying several computers with the same mobile Internet. The thing is nice, but the battery is planting pretty fast. About three or four wi-fi routing hours (we played a bit in DOOM), the battery dipped by almost 80%. However, this did not stop the phone from letting me listen to the player in the subway, on the way home, and also order sushi on the way from the subway to the house.
By the way, about the player. I very much hoped for progress and common sense that finally in the new version of the windows phone operating system the problem would disappear that you had to install codec packages so that the phone could be used to its full potential, at least from the multimedia side. Imagine my disappointments when my expectations were not met. Very upset. As in 2003, if I don’t confuse, I installed codecs, and in 6.5 I put it. Progress in this case passed by, at a brisk pace, which, of course, is sad.
The windows phone 6.5 itself leaves a generally favorable impression. The system, of course, was not written at all from scratch, most likely it is brought to the modern realities of windows mobile 6.1. The operating system now understands capacitive screens, a large number of megabytes on a microSD flash card, new hardware, etc. In fact, I perceive 6.5 as a service pack for 6.1 - the most correct feeling, most likely. I do not deny that in fact it may be wrong.
The inside of the operating system, in the form of a settings menu, according to which you can probably navigate almost blindly, if at least a couple of times the system was rolled back to the factory settings. True, alarms are now set somewhat differently, there are no more arrows to twist :(. And there were three of them — there are three left — you won’t be able to set more. But play with time zones until you get bored.
Regarding software compatibility, as it turned out, not everything is so scary. Almost all software that does not fit into the settings and internals of the system itself and which worked on 6.1 will work on 6.5. For example, numerous tweakers, some codecs and programs that deal with a variety of import and export may not work correctly, not at full strength, or not work at all. To be honest, I do not use tweakers, but I encountered several problems with codecs and synchronization. During synchronization (import from 6.1 and export to 6.5), I was able to transfer contacts, but could not make calls and part of SMS. You can immediately see what the differences in operating systems are for such small and local examples.
However, I did not focus on the operating system, since it, in my opinion, is not worth it. There are differences, but a person who has used 5.x-6.x windows mobile for at least a couple of weeks will not discover almost anything new.
Two browsers are installed in the system, it is quite expected Internet Explorer, which looks very similar to the eighth version of the desktop counterpart (and, in general, a lot of common features, the icons, for example). And already familiar, in phones from HTC, Opera Mobile, which since the 9th version has become free, has opened its way to phones, where it is sewn along with the factory settings. It is worth noting that Opera understands the flash very well, as well as multi-touch, which is very conveniently implemented.
If to summarize the impressions of the HTC phone - HD2, then the impressions are the best. A unique, so far, phone was created (well, I'm talking about the screen), with an excellent shell. This shell makes working with the rather dull windows phone comfortable and enjoyable. Phone, incl. due to the large screen, developed from a multimedia point of view pretty well. You can comfortably watch a movie, read a book or listen to music. He does an excellent job with routine office work, helps to look through mail, check a couple of office documents, and also can easily become a router for your laptop, if necessary.
The phone is perfect as a corporate phone, a kind of portable workstation. Moreover, I warmed up my ears in a couple of conversations, and I heard that some companies, just like government agencies, are already making orders for HD2 lots. True, I did not find out the size of these parties.
I can’t say that this is the phone of my dreams, not at all. But the fact that the phone works for me, and not I adapt to it - that's for sure. And in fact, my current phone (I won’t say which one, but not the worst one - honestly) I would easily and without hesitation exchange it for HD2.
PS. Of course, I used both a camera and a camcorder to check how well everything worked. However, due to the special curvature of my own hands, I deleted everything. And literally on the last night, I shot a few videos that show how high quality the device shoots under different lighting conditions. Do not scold for quality, it just happened.
Backlight shooting
Backlight Off
Night shooting under the lamp
Extremely nearsighted
Extremely nearsighted highlight 2