HTC HD2 Review – HTC Sense, Tweaks, Hotfixes – Video Within

I got hold of my HTC HD2 just a week ago and I am loving it every moment. When HTC chooses Capacitive Touchscreen over Resistive, I am delighted. With my HTC Touch HD, I already stopped using the stylus. Now, with that massive 4.3-inch Capacitive Touchscreen, it is a joy. The camera has one of the biggest improvement.

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Introduction

The moment anyone saw the HTC HD2, they would think that it is HTC Touch HD. If you are not following HTC closely, it is normal that you felt that way. The large screen and the overall look are similar. However, when you put HTC HD2 side by side with the HTC Touch HD, you will immediately see the differences.

htc_hd2_event_11

I do not want to spend much time comparing HD2 and Touch HD. I would like to introduce HD2 with HTC Sense, the capacitive touchscreen and the camera with the dual LED.

HTC Sense

I call it a hyped-up TouchFLO 3D. Many asked me what is the differences. I can only tell them to look beyond the tabs (that is common to TouchFLO 3D). The HTC Sense has integrated many things into the phone. A contact is no longer just a contact. It can integrate your SMSes, Emails, Facebook altogether.

It has also add Twitter, Footprint into the Tabs. These functions are a necessity for me 🙂 . I did a walkthrough on the HTC Sense and you will understand what I meant.

HTC Hotfixes

There are at least 4 hotfixes as of this writing. They are: –

  1. Pink Cast
  2. Storage Capacity for Photos
  3. SMSes Delay
  4. HTC Calendar Display

Seriously, I am now having doubts if these fixes work. The Pink Cast seems to be around and sometimes not around in the pictures. The Storage Capacity for photos has improved after the fix. However, what it does was to reduce the size of the file. It may be using compression to do it. In my tweak section, you will understand why I say I have my doubts.

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As for SMS delay issue, I tried to send out on Christmas eve and it was stuck in the outbox till Christmas day. No matter how I use the resend function, it will not work. Finally, I sent another SMS to the same phone number and both were sent out immediately.

HTC Calendar is regarded as a support issue and not a hotfix. However, to have a Calendar function that cannot display in the Year mode (when even the native Windows Mobile 6.5 can do it) is a problem to me. At least HTC had addressed it.

What other things need to be fix (in my own opinion)

  • I had this phone for just a week and with my knowledge of HTC phones (Windows Mobile), I can quickly identify that the volume control is not stable and sometimes unreliable.
  • The HTC Sense is not stable. It has crashed many times (manila.exe) and luckily, it is able to reboot itself. Microsoft has caught it as a “problem” and requested the report to be sent backed.
  • The phone hangs. It is true. And here is a video of the phone hanging up on me (many times). I think that it is the HTC Sense issue as the Windows Mobile 6.5 is still working. This is a big problem for me. At times, when I am using navigation map, it would just freeze up and stop responding. But before I jumped to conclusion, I have to admit that I tweaked the phone (in terms of registry) to get extra functions. More onto that in the Tweaks Section).

The Camera

This is one of the best (if not the best) camera that HTC has provided. It is totally usable. However, if the Pink Cast still exist after the tweak, it will seriously dampen the good job of HTC.

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However, I am not sure if this is due to the fact that I tweaked the camera function or if the fix never really fix the problem.

Some shots taken when Jay Chou and Chiling Lin was in town. Happen to pass back. Note that they were not inside as I took them using video.

Below pic taken with digital zoom.

This video with Jay Chou and Chiling Lin taken with Dual LED on (using CIF 352 x 288 mode).

The grayscale effect works nicely (note that these pictures were taken after the camera enhancement tweak (via BSB Tweaks 1.5).

Here are some pics taken using the greyscale mode in the effect (without Dual LED). I was in a Hair Saloon, after my hair cut 🙂 .

Mirror image of myself..

The video also works nicely. This is evidence after I tweaked it to have the 640 x 480 mode. Anyway, the CIF mode (352 x 288) works fine.

This video was taken with CIF mode with dual LED on.

The Tweaks

I had found tons of tweaks for this HTC HD2. However, I usually choose the easily ones 🙂 . I downloaded BSB Tweaks 1.5 from XDA forum.

The standard HTC Sense will not allow you to pinch and zoom in the video. However, with this tweak, you can easily define which program to use the Pinch to Zoom function.

There are many more. You can find them in the link below.

Click Here to Get All the Tips and Tricks on HTC HD2

In one of the tweaks, you can even improve the quality of the camera. However, it contradicts the hotfixes as it is supposed to reduce the size of the picture file. Nevertheless, anything with picture enhancement, I am willing to try.

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Summary

Overall, the HTC HD2 is like a dream phone. One of the reason is the capacitive touchscreen. It has made the phone more responsive and many application like browsing the net or reading from Excel, Email, PDF can be easily done using the Pinch to Zoom function.

With the 1 GHZ Snapdragon Processor, it can really open application fast (Provided that it does not hang). However, I must say that the RAM/ROM can be improved.

The camera is one of the biggest improvement from HTC. With Dual LED, it is definitely useful. And the speed is fast and responsive.

I have yet to complete my review on this phone. There may be more things that I did not explore. The phone is definitely a good buy if it is coupled with a plan.

I am looking forward to Windows Mobile 7 as I heard that this phone is WM7 ready 🙂 .

What do you think about this phone? Please share your thoughts with us and maybe HTC will listen… 😛
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