WHAT IS IN THE BOX?
- HTC HD phone
- 8 GB Micro sd card
- Battery
- Charger
- Extra stylus
- Screen protector
- Suede pouch
- USB cable
- Software/ manual
TOUR OF THE DEVICE
- Top Side includes a POWER BUTTON and a 3.5 mm STEREO JACK.
- Bottom Side houses a CHARGING PORT and STYLUS.
- Left Side contains a VOLUME TOGGLE.
- Right Side – NOTHING
- Back Side houses a 5 Mp CAMERA.
- Front Side houses a large 3.8 inch RESISTIVE TOUCH
SCREEN W/ RESISTIVE HARDWARE BUTTONS (answer/ home/ back/ end).
DESIGN
The HTC HD takes on a minimalist design. The unassuming appearance is due to the lack of hardware buttons - with only the power button and volume toggle visible as two thin rubber strips. The casing is constructed of mostly plastic and the camera is housed beneath a brushed metal ornament. Despite the materials used, the phone feels good in the hand and has a hefty weight to it (145 grams). It would have been nice to see a battery door made of metal but the plastic one does a good job. The door has a matte rubberized coating and fits tight giving the HD a monolith feel and appearance. The bottom right hand corner houses the stylus that is fitted with a magnetic catch. The HD is only 13mm in thickness - adding to the sleek appeal of the device. The front of the device houses the HD’s most alluring component, the display.
DISPLAY
Up on powering up the device we come to see what the HTC HD is all about, the glorious 3.8 inch, 800 x 480 pixel, WVGA, resistive touch display. Any action initiated on the device is that much more pleasant because of the display. The screen is protected by a thin plastic layer which is hard and almost glass like. It serves as the resistive barrier that can be a deal breaker for most Windows Mobile touch devices. Fortunately the resistive touch on this device is amazing. The accuracy is spot on and even more so the sensitivity is almost capacitive. Common annoyances on other touch devices are unresponsiveness and mis-registration of common inputs. However, on the HD – finger flicks, holds, drags, and touches were almost never confused. The attributes mentioned are particularly handy when using the on screen keyboard. Mistypes are almost non existent and only marred by the fact that more concentration is required because HTC did not include a landscape keyboard in sms mode. The landscape QWERTY only works when browsing the web. Of course this can be fixed with the Gsen application.
MULTIMEDIA
The HD is a full touch screen device marketed as a multimedia powerhouse. Thus, the rest of this review will focus primarily on this facet of the device. This is the first HTC device with a 3.5 mm stereo output which allows for an awesome sonic experience - especially when paired with Sony MDR EX90 ear buds. The TOUCHFLO music player comes equipped with various equalizer settings and presets including a bass boost feature. The player also allows you to search through music by artist, album, song, etc. If TOUCHFLO is not to your liking there is an option to use Windows Media player but I prefer the former because of the beautiful background/ interface. One major gripe I had with the music player was the lack of a quick find feature. On most NOKIA S60 phones you can just start typing the name of an artist/ song in the music player to satisfy the cravings of your temporal lobe. This method beats having to flick your finger redundantly in order to search through a large library of music.
The Video player was a mixed bag. Upon uploading my favorite fight video I noticed that playback was a little choppy, however playback the second time around (replay) was a lot smoother. It is possible that the video player hiccups could have been due to an older ROM. The major upside was that WMV video files played perfectly without a conversion in bit rate or size of any kind. This device’s greatest strength has to be web browsing. The large display is an essential part of this experience. Web pages are rendered quickly and appear just as they would on a desktop. The high screen resolution minimizes the need to scroll horizontally. Vertical movement is a breeze due to finger flick kinetic scrolling. Regrettably, Flash is not included and thus full YOUTUBE is not possible. Fortunately HTC included a YOUTUBE app which works perfectly and renders video flawlessly. The only blemish with the web browser was that links were not clickable when fully zoomed out and an extra step of zooming in was needed before a link could be clicked. This annoyance occurred in both OPERA and Internet Explorer.
TOUCHFLO/ BUSINESS/ WINDOWS
The eye sore that is windows mobile is soon to become a thing of the past as WM7 is set to debut in January. But at the moment we have TOUCHFLO which serves to mask windows for the most part. TOUCHFLOW consists of an alternate to the windows “today screen” and goes a little further by offering task bar application outfitted in refined skins. The task bar apps include a home screen, weather, stocks, email, SMS, internet, task manager, and program files. All of these apps are fully customizable and help in avoiding the traditional windows menu system. The weather app is my favorite as cool 3D effects are employed when viewing forecasts of different locations. The stocks app is also very useful – in fact all of the TOUCHFLO apps seem to be optimized for the business person on the go. The problem with TOUCHFLO is the lack of full integration. For example when hitting the settings tab we are heaved back into the traditional windows interface. This traditional interface is not optimized for the large touch screen as certain controls/ menus were too small for finger manipulation leading to the unavoidable stylus pull.
PHONE
The telephony experience is great. Reception is on par with Motorola and Nokia devices. Ear speaker volume is loud but could have been louder. The WIFI radio also pulls in a strong signal.
POWER
If the HD is the "Goliath" of cell phones then the battery is the analogical "David" of the device. With average use (10-15 texts, 20 minutes worth of phone calls, 30 minutes of web browsing and 90 minutes worth of music) the battery dies in less than a day. The screen seems to be the major culprit in this issue and even with the back light/ screen settings reduced to a minimum; battery life was only extended to one full day. A full charge of the device takes about 3 hours which also unacceptable.
CONCLUSION
This is a phenomenal device offering a plethora of features. The mp3 player and web browser in combination with an unmatched display and 3.5 mm output are the highlights of the HD. TOUCHFLO is a joy to use and helps in masking the ugliness of windows mobile. The YOUTUBE app is another major highlight. The only outstanding trade offs are battery life, charge time, and the shallow integration of TOUCHFLOW.
