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Over recent years O2 announced and brought to the world the renowned Xda range of machines. Unfortunately the Windows Mobile devices offered by O2 seemed to be released less often with the dark days of the iPhone and O2's singular UK market of that machine. However now that O2 are no longer exclusive suppliers of the iPhone they are now once more broadening their offering of Windows Phones.
The first of the new breed of devices is the high specification HTC HD2 sporting:
1Ghz Snapdragon processor 512Mb ROM 448Mb RAM Slim form factor The innovative HTC SenseIt looks set to take the world by storm.
We'll look at its features as we move through the review and see how it performs.
Once more we extend our thanks to the generous folks at O2 for allowing us to review the HTC HD2
As always in the hardware section of the review all images shown are thumbnails which may be clicked upon to load a larger more detailed image.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Bear in mind that this is is a review package and therefore does not include any commercial packaging, disks or manuals. What we get to review are the machine itself and the core accessories.
So the first impressions are based on opening a plain box and seeing the HD2 nestled inside in a plain plastic bag. The immediate impact on picking the package up was two fold: that it was relatively heavy and at the same time very thin. Those feelings increased as the HD2 slid out of the bag and into my palm and I'm sad to say the geek in me immediately thought of the monolith from 2001 A Space Odyssey, that is of strength and power contained within a delightfully austere and plain shell. That thought was of course strengthened by the device being well manufactured and exhibiting a black screen on a black body with black buttons. HTC obviously believe that black is indeed still fashionable chic - and who am I to argue with them!
As I looked over the HD2 it became clear that HTC have designed it to be ultra-cool; there are no harsh or sharp edges that appeared with the Touch Diamond (O2 Ignito) and the edges are minimalistic with most of the control buttons moved on to the front of the machine. The body is a metallic housing coated with a matte black non-slippery coating which gives a good grip without the slippery feel of the HTC Hero. The lines of the device are muted and in conjunction with the smooth flat surface mounted screen give again the impression of controlled power and grace. This is a smooth and silky graceful machine that feels extraordinarily comfortable in the hand.
Build quality looks to be very high indeed; there are no edges that appear sharp or unfinished, no rattles of internal parts, looseness of controls or any visible defects. The HD2 also passes the grip and twist test which can reveal weaknesses in construction.
So now the emotive first thoughts are out of the way we'll launch into the review with gusto and some hard thoughts, facts and analysis!
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Manufacturer: High Tech Computer (HTC)
HTC Code name: HTC Leo
Supplier: O2 UK PLC
Product Name: HTC HD2
Price: Varies depending on contract
Firstly let's cover the initial technical ground with a detailed listing of the hardware specification that comprise the HD2.
The high points for me here are the large memory, and a fast processor as these have the greatest effect on the operation of the machine.
Note: Figures are the total ROM and RAM memory available for use and storage. Since the memory is shared by the operating system, applications and data, the actual available memory is less than that specified.
SYSTEM INFORMATION
Features
Platform
Ultra slim bar type touch phone Windows Mobile 6.5 ProfessionalProcessor/Chipset
Qualcomm MSM 8250, 1GHz (Snapdragon)Memory
ROM: 512 MB RAM: 448 MBDisplay Module
4.3-inch 480x800 WVGA resolution 65K-color Sensitive touch screen (Capacitive) Keep support Multi-Touch capability for WM7 Chassis 1HSPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS/GSM Function
Internal antenna HSPA/UMTS (2100/900 MHz for EU, Asia, 850/1900 for US, Latin America sku, 2100/850 for Australia, 1700/2100 for US) and GSM/GPRS/EDGE Quad-band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz)HSDPA
3GPP Release 5 compliant Up to 7.2MbpsHSUPA
3GPP release 6 compliant UE category 5, up to 2 Mbps peak rateEGPRS Functionality
EGPRS class B Multi-slot class 12 (10 Operator dependent) PBCCHStandalone GPS
Internal GPS antennaA-GPS
Motion G-sensor
Proximity sensor
Ambient Light Sensor
FM Radio
Digital Camera
Main camera:
5 MP Color CMOS with auto focus 2x LED flashKey/Button/Switch
Volume up and down control Send Key End Key (Power Key) Windows Key Home Key Back Key ResetNotification
Notification by sound, vibration, LEDs or status shown on the display One dual colors (Green and Amber) LED in the left lens for PDA event, battery and charging statusAudio
Built-in microphone Receiver Loud speaker with hands-free supportConnectivity & Interface
Bluetooth
Version 2.1 compliant with EDRWi-Fi
IEEE 802.11 b/g compliantMicro-USB:
USB 2.0 High-Speed client 3.5 mm stereo audio jack with mic 1.8/3V USIM/SIM card slotmicroSD card slot
SDHC supportPower
Battery
Removable and chargeable battery, 1,230 mAhAC adaptor
AC input: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 HzDC output: 5V and 1A
Accessories [TBD]
Quick Start Guide CD (User manual & Sync. software) Screen Protector Travel Charger, TC P300 USB Sync Cable (Micro-USB to Standard USB) Battery with Battery Cover Wired stereo headset with 3.5mm audio connector, HS G335 Premium pouch (Carrying Case) Car Charger Car Holder with battery cover [optional]Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Applications
Microsoft Outlook Mobile
Messaging (SMS/E-mail), Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Email Set Up Wizard Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile Microsoft Media Player Mobile Microsoft ActiveSync Microsoft Windows Mobile Update Internet Sharing Pictures & Videos Games MSFT Zip File Explorer Device Management Security Enhancement Microsoft Office Mobile Microsoft Windows Live! Microsoft Smart Dial Microsoft Remote Desktop MobileValue-Added Applications
Windows Mobile Enhancements
Pictures & Videos enhancements Ring Tone enhancementsTelephony
(HTC) Phone Canvas (HTC) Phone ExperienceMultimedia
(HTC) Camera Album MP3 Trimmer Streaming Media Player FM Radio Presentation modeWeb
Push Internet RSS HUB YouTube Client Social NetworkingInput Method
EZ-INPUTMessaging
SMS/MMS ClientGPS/LBS
Navigation (CoPilot, Papago) Google Maps Quick GPS Support CLL.dll library for indoor positioning and reverse geo-coding Navi-panel Calendar to Navi User Interface (Enhanced HTC TouchFLO)TouchFLO
Footprints Auto Screen RotationTools & Utilities
HTC Common Sense 3G to WiFi router Task Manager Text selection (HTC) Connection Setup OOBE Voice Recorder Document Viewer – PDF OMA DRM Engine Java virtual machine Long Press End Key Confirmation (to shut down) STK SIM manager (HTC) Volume Control Business Card Reader Document Printing MagnifierEXTERNALS AND HARDWARE
IN THE BOX
Once the box was opened it contained:
The HTC HD2 Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer battery, 1230 mAh USB Sync Cable (Micro-USB to Standard USB) Charging Block Back / Battery Cover Wired stereo headset with 3.5mm audio connectorIt should be noted that the charger is the standard HTC type whereby the sync cable plugs into the charging block and the combination becomes the charger. And as you can clearly see the charger / sync cable connection is micro-USB, not mini-USB as others have reported.
As you can see no stylus is included as the capacitive screen is designed to be used via finger touch.
THE HEADSET
The headset is completely standard to the type supplied by HTC and lacks some of the features found on the previously supplied 'Xda' headsets. It is fitted with a 3.5mm jack plug for insertion into the HD2s socket. You have the options to:
Answer or end calls Pause or play music tracks Move to the previous or next tracksTherefore compared to the 'Xda' headsets the following features have been lost:
Volume up / down Call holding Call mutingThe headset comes with a basic spring loaded plastic clip which allows it to be conveniently clipped onto a shirt or jacket collar. The clip is affixed to the cable via a half cylindrical mount which is forced onto the headset cable. Not the best design and I can see it being lost easily.
FRONT
The HD2 is utterly stunning in front view with most of the real estate taken up by the large and impressive 4.3 inch screen. The screen is flush mounted with no visible edges or lips and serves to operate well as a touch surface for interaction. This is good news as being capacitive it will be getting a lot of finger contact whereas previous resistive screens only had to handle limited finger use and a lot of stylus impacts. Under the screen can be seen the 'htc' logo picked out in silver lettering and below that the control buttons. These are set into a plastic control strip with each button being rounded at the ends and raised above the control surfaces. The buttons are back lit with white LEDs and illuminate when touched. All of the buttons when pressed serve to 'wake' the HD2 and bring up the WM6.5 unlock screen. As standard on WM6.5 the 'unlock' gadget can be slid left or right to unlock the device or tapped to reveal what the notifications actually are - more on this later.
The buttons carry out (from left to right) the functions of:
TALK/SEND - Press to answer an incoming call or dial a number. During a call, press and hold to toggle the speaker phone on and off. Press and hold to use Voice Speed Dial. HOME - Press to return to the Home screen. WINDOWS - Press to bring up the WM6.5 application launcher. BACK - Press to return to the previous screen. END - Press to end a call or return to the Home screen. Press and hold to bring up the Power off / Lock Device / Set Vibrate / Terminate data Connection screen.At the top of the device is the recessed speaker grill, where on the left is the power LED which glows orange while charging and green when charged. There is no notification LED for alerts such as new messages or alarms. To the right of the speaker is the ambient light sensor.
There is also no front facing VGA CMOS colour camera for video calls, which is surprising as this was present on the Ignito and the original Touch HD. This may have been removed due to space constraints within the housing.
The corners of the HD2 are gently rounded which facilitates comfort when held in the hand, no sharp edges here to impinge into the flesh of the palm!
TOP AND BOTTOM
As mentioned earlier the HD2 is sparse in a lot of areas with respect to the design and that is evident looking at the top and bottom of the device. The top contains nothing at all and the bottom of the machine holds only the micro-USB port and the 3.5mm jack for connecting the headphones.
The more astute among us would really have spotted one possible design flaw here as if one wishes to use the headset (for music playback, listening to the radio, etc) and one uses a belt pouch holster then to there is a problem. The device would have to be either holstered upside down or an additional port made in the case to allow the headset to exit the holder. HTC should really have engineered the HD2 with the 3.5mm port on the top of the device!
THE SIDES AND BATTERY COVER
The left hand side of the HD2 contains only the single inset rocker button which acts as a volume control, allowing one to either raise or lower the volume. This button is surrounded by the battery cover 'grip'.
The right hand side of the HD2 is completely blank, with no controls at all, the difference here is that there is a 'fingernail notch' in the side of the battery cover to aid with removal.
The prising of the cover away from the main body housing is still somewhat difficult to achieve using that notch and it is easier to accomplish removal by sliding a fingernail into the gap between the body and the cover.
The cover is held in place purely by 'spring' effect and despite this does seem to lock onto the housing well with no looseness at all.
Taking into account that the cover has to be removed to insert the SIM card, access the micro-SD card or hit the reset button then removing the cover in time could either result in a looser fit or wear to the plastic coated body.
THE BACK FACE
The back of the HD2 is once again sparse, containing the battery cover which bears the HTC logo along with 'WITH HTC SENSE' at the base of the cover.
To the right hand side of the battery cover can be seen the rear speaker piercings and below that the raised portion which contains the 5 MPixel camera, and below that the dual LED flash. One assumes that the camera module is raised to ensure good sound volume transfer out of the HD2 when sitting face up on the desk.
Once the battery cover is removed the inside of the housing is revealed showing the compartment to take the battery, and below that the slot into which the SIM card is inserted. It's worth noting that once the battery is in place it holds the SIM card firmly in position with no room for it to work loose.
To the left hand side of the SIM card is a connector showing within it three copper terminals. Evidently these are for connecting to the optional car kit. This kit reportedly comes with a special replacement back panel for the HD2 which connects to the car mount magnetically. The car mount evidently can be placed on any car surface - curved or windscreen! Another HTC innovation? We'll have to see!
At the far lower left can be found the micro-SD card slot, which at this time can hold up to a 32Mb micro-SD card. Below this can be seen the small red 'dot' which is the reset button. The button is sized at around 2mm across and is in a recess - perfect for use with a stylus, but of course there is no stylus with the HD2 - so keep a pen or paperclip handy if you need to reset. For myself I find it easier to remove the battery for a second or two!
BATTERY
The battery supplied with the HD2 is rechargeable Lithium-ion cell with a capacity of 1230 mAh.
With prior Windows Mobile devices this would have been considered a large capacity battery, but with the HD2 having a 1Ghz processor it should be considered average.
Battery Life
The following battery life usage figures were calculated based on two weeks of monitoring usage whilst at work.
Working day: 07:40 to 16:40. Typical daily tasks; 2 phone calls, an hours eBook reading, numerous references to calendar, consulting Sense for weather, looking up contacts.
Minimal Use - Push E-mail on for Exchange, Hourly checking of Googlemail, Hotmail, Locational Weather on.
Medium Use - Add in Latitude reporting in Google Maps, Facebook updating in 'People' on.
High Use - Add in Wi-Fi all day except during lunch (45 minutes)
Some variation occurred over the days that battery life was monitored, this variance is indicated by the differing colours of green shading on the graph.
SIZE MATTERS
The HD2 has that awesome screen which serves well for a great number of activities like eBook reading, playing back videos or sharing photographs with friends and colleagues, but there is a price for having that feature - size..
The screen on the HD2 is 4.3 inches across diagonally (57mm wide x 94mm tall) and this means that it has to have a larger body housing to hold the screen along with the controls. This gives the HD2 an overall height and width of 120.5mm by 67.0mm, large by most PDA standards, but nowhere near as large as the Xda Exec (HTC Universal) at 127.7mm by 84mm and that was loved by many users the world over.
Good design by HTC and developments in technology have however mitigated the large frontal impact by producing a machine which is only 11.0mm thick - the thinnest HTC device I've used.
Taking into account the tapered edges of the main body housing this means that the HD2 is only somewhat ungainly in use when one wishes to try and use it one handed and needs to reach the opposite top corner from where the machine is held in the palm. This is not as horrendous as one may think as with the buttons mounted on the bottom front of the machine, and the notification bar being activated at any position to the right of the 'start' menu a stretched finger can reach all the areas of control one needs.
In the photographs here we compare the HD2 with (left to right):
HTC Touch Pro 2 HTC Touch HD HTC HD2 Apple iPhone 3G HTC Touch Diamond 2As you can see the HD2 is large from the from but amazingly tiny from side on, thinner even then the svelte iPhone!
THE SCREEN
As has been stated previously the HD2 has a capacitive screen which has resulted in a slightly thinner (in my opinion) touch matrix on the surface of the device. This in conjunction with changes in technology gives the machine a bright colour rich display that is visible in most lighting conditions. However as the display is not OLED based there are still some readability issues in bright sunlight. The screen is however readable and can be used without any problems, which is an improvement on older WM machines.
One winning feature of the iPhone was that of its clear bright display. The HD2's screen is brighter and better than that on the iPhone, and of course a much higher resolution (800 x 480 compared to 480 x 320 pixels).
The capacitive nature of the screen coupled with the large resolution and the customisation of the OS by HTC (HTC Sense) mean that finger operation works well and the lack of a stylus is not a problem with the operation of the machine.
TOUCH FLO3D v WINDOWS MOBILE 6.5
Of course there are those who may not want to use the HTC Sense system with the modified 'Today' screen and this is where the HD2 scores again as underneath the HTC customisation it is a pure Windows Mobile 6.5 device. This means that one can alter the today settings and uncheck' HTC Sense' and check 'Windows Default' to get to the WM6.5 'Titanium' interface. As we now move onto the software part of the review we'll look at HTC Sense, TouchFlo3D, and Titanium in some detail.
All images have been processed using the superb SnagIt from TechSmith
HARDWARE CONCLUSIONSIn my opinion the HD2 is a very nicely styled and designed PDA / Phone with a great deal of work being put into the design by HTC's engineers to produce a machine that looks good, sits well in the hand and is comfortable to use. As an avid reader of eBooks the thinness of the device coupled with the large capacitive screen make it a joy to use - giving a great deal of text on screen and ease of control in flipping pages. It's not just about the styling though, the device is very well made and construction and quality control seem to be of the highest level. There are some design changes I wish had been incorporated like the position of the headset jack plug and the reset button being too small, but these to me are minor issues that one can live with.
At this time it is unknown how well the optional car mount will work in operation. I trust HTCs engineers will hold good to their claim that it can mount to a windscreen or curved surface, but I'm not convinced that mounting via a magnetic fastener to the car mount is a good idea. Only time will tell if the design will work or whether we'll be recommending that one purchases a third party Brodit mount as these will likely be available shortly after release of the HD2.
To end on a positive point the specification does include 'Keep support Multi-Touch capability for WM7 Chassis 1' which means that the HD2 has been designed to be compliant with Windows Mobile 7 and therefore should be upgradeable to it - if HTC do release a ROM upgrade of course!
OOBE (Out of Box Experience)
HTC have gone a long way to make the HD2 something special and this can even be seen as soon as the machine is charged and turned on as at this point you have your first experience with the finger friendliness of OOBE or the 'Out of Box Experience'.
When the machine first boots the Windows Mobile operating system initialises and then the status of the SIM card is checked.
Then once the PIN code for the SIM is entered the status is checked once more......
and then the connection set up is completed. This means you are live with a GPRS (or better connection straight away).
This is then followed by a tutorial that takes you through how to use the Onscreen keyboard with the areas covered being: auto correction and entering accented characters.
The HD2 then looks around for any Wi-Fi networks and offers you the chance to connect to one of then to speed up the connection process (i.e. linking to an Exchange E-Mail server).
You are then presented with the 'Google Location' terms of service whereby you are advised that your new HD2 can use your current location within certain applications - for example weather, and geolocational systems such as Twitter and Footprints (geotagged pictures).
Set up accounts - in this modern era of connectivity and communications E-Mail has become more and more important so this wizard gives you the opportunity to set up popular e-mail account types:
Outlook (Exchange) Google Mail AOL Mail Other Mail Accounts (POP3 mailboxes)The other side of the coin to E-Mail which is private in nature is of course Social Networking and the HD2 supports:
Facebook - whereby folk's updates can be seen within the People application and their published photos within the Album YouTube - which allows you to upload your videos and view your content Twitter - Allows you to read your subscribed Tweets and post your updates.
The HD2 then looks at the GPRS network it is connected to and tries to ascertain the correct local time. Unfortunately the time signal is not broadcast by O2 and the option to Set the Local Time must be chosen.
This screen also allows you the option of downloading weather forecast data automatically - with the usual proviso that additional data charges may well be applicable.
The dialog control for setting the local time on the HD2 is easy to use
with sub-config screens for selecting the nearest city to where you live selecting the current calendar date - once that is done you use the up / down arrows to enter the time.
The Synchronise screen recommends that you follow a link to the Microsoft site to find out how to synchronise additional data such as Outlook Contacts, E-mail, Music, Photos, etc.
Finally HTC recommend that you visit their web site at : http://www.htc.com/www/product/hd2/ to learn more about useful features such as:
Personalizing your Home screen and tabs Staying connected to your friends with the People application Sharing photos and videos Pinching to zoom into contentAnd finally once that screen has been passed by you end up at the beautiful blue / black O2 Sense 'Today' screen.
Benchmarks
The HD2 has been benchmarked against the following models:
HTC Touch HD - The prior HD machine Toshiba TG01 - Possibly its closest competitorAs can be clearly seen the HD2 has the highest Spb Benchmark index compared to the other machines. The difference between it and the original HD incarnation is nothing short of staggering but considering we have moved on another year in the development of technology this is not surprising.
However the closest comparison is obviously with the Toshiba TG01 after it has been upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.5. In pure hardware power the TG01 beats the HD2 hands down as the CPU index CPU and memory tests all come out ahead of the HD2. GAPI graphics are ahead to as is reading data from WM internal databases. The HD2 pulls back however on the manipulation of files, and these reading and copying figures can make a difference - especially when reading and working with the files that create the Sense environment.
As the TG01 shows when we compare the WM6.1 and the WM6.5 figures for that machine the operating system and ROM itself can make a great difference.
The benchmarks were run four times in total and an average figure obtained on which the above comments have been made.
Memory Usage
As you should be aware now by reading the specifications the HD2 comes with a massive 512Mb/448Mb of ROM/RAM which after allowances are made for internal OS usage one has left:
188Mb of internal storage
337Mb of program memory for running applications
This is then decreased both by pre-loaded applications and program memory used up by background and foreground applications which are run after boot (system applications and items like HTC Sense).
As can be seen Sense itself takes up around 37Mb of application memory, a goodly chunk indeed but the benefits of it replacing many third party applications probably out weigh that large footprint.
It should be noted though that to get the full use out of the HD2 one may well want to activate Exchange (or other e-mail / data synchronisation) as well as Social Networking (Facebook and Twittter in the main), a secondary e-mail account, weather and stock data updating, etc. If this is done then storage memory can reduce to around 106Mb and free program memory down to 175Mb.
If a few third party applications are installed to mSD card (in the case here: MobiPocket, updated MyPhone, eWallet, and CorePlayer) then additional internal memory is used to support these programs. This reduced the free resources to 82 and 165Mb respectively. However considering that previous WM devices only had from between 35-50Mb of program memory free without loading any third party applications the HD2 is in good stead indeed.
HTC have made sure that the memory architecture is decent enough to give you plenty of storage space internally for loading applications and certainly enough memory for running them.
Finally also remember that the HD (unlike some other competing machines) the storage is expandable via mSD card, which currently gives up to 16Gb but will support 32gb of additional storage - enough for anyone!
SENSE, APPLICATIONS AND SETTINGS
HTC Sense
The HD2 uses HTC's innovative 'Sense' user interface similar to that seen on the recently released HTC Hero (Android OS) and this latest incarnation doesn't disappoint. The Home screen displays everything you need to access easily. From top to bottom you have the time, weather, calendar, alarms, agenda for appointments and the Quick Link tabs, where you can easily add your favourite applications, contacts or bookmarks.
The menu button at the bottom right gives you more customisation options for the Home screen. The following sections give more details on how each part of the Home screen works, the various tabbed menus in the slide bar will be shown in detail later on.
It is worth mentioning that the Weather Data shown on the Sense today screen ties back to which ever city you have set as your current city in the World Clock configuration. If that configuration is set to 'My Location' then the weather forecast is based on your geographic location, the GPS fix being obtained both through network cell triangulation and or GPS fix. This means that if your location changes while on a journey the next time the weather updates it will be updated based on your current location!
‘Quick Link’ is an easy to use shortcut application that gives you the option to add or remove your favourite programs, contacts or bookmarks to or from the boxes on the bottom half of the Home screen, and there are plenty of choices! Three of the boxes are permanently on show, but with an upward slide of the finger all nine boxes are revealed.
To add to one of the boxes is simplicity itself, tap on an empty box, choose from the three options and pick whatever you want to add from the revealed lists. Removal is easy too, tap on the menu tab then tap on ‘Remove Quick Link’, this will show all installed Quick Links with an ‘X’ on them, tap to remove the shortcut that isn’t required, which you can now replace with another Quick Link or leave it empty, the choice is yours.
Time and Alarms
Tap the clock on the Home screen and a ‘World Clock’ menu pops up, tap the ‘Add City’ tab, you can then add most locations around the world then see that city in real time; particularly handy if you need to make a call to one of these countries and you are unsure of the local time.
Once you have finished setting customising the ‘World Clock’ to suit your needs, hit the alarm clock tab and surprise, surprise, up pops the ‘Alarm Clock’ menu, this is now unbelievably finger friendly on the HD2 and makes navigation a breeze. Tap on any of the 24hr clocks and you are presented with a huge ‘Set Alarm’ screen where the alarm can be set for the time and day or days of the week no matter how big your fingers are! There’s also the option of adding an alarm text description. The HD2 is provided with a large selection of alarm sounds to wake you from your slumber.
Start Menu
As you can see the O2 HD2 Start menu contains all installed programs, plus folders containing specific applications related to the folders title names, which are Multimedia, Tools, Outlook, Messaging and Calls. Most applications are standard Windows Mobile fare, but if you look closely there are some interesting new applications such as Marketplace, Search Widget and Peep, which is in reality Twitter.
To make life easier for users to gain access to their favourite applications in the Start menu, any chosen application or folder can be moved to the top of the screen, this is achieved by tapping and holding until a pop up shows asking if you want to move it to the top. With some juggling around you can change the Start menu order to whatever suits you.
Weather
One of the most commonly discussed topics of conversation in the UK, if not the world, is that of the weather, and the HD2 caters for that need. The weather tab within Sense allows one to view the current weather. The large display clearly shows the current weather forecast as the large central animated image along with information (top left) as to the current temperature and the anticipated high and low temperature figures.
Smaller displays at the bottom of the screen show the forecast for the forthcoming four days. Top right of the display is a refresh indicator which shows the time the weather data was last refreshed.
Below the main forecast image is displayed the current location of the weather being viewed. For most cities this will be a name selected from the forecast database, but there is also the special weather forecast for ‘My Location’. The HD2 uses carrier cell triangulation information and the in built GPS system to determine your current location. Once that has been obtained it goes on line to locate the nearest city to you and then retrieves that weather forecast for that location. Once it has been updated the ‘My Location’ description is replaced with the name of that city and the forecast duly displayed. At the side of the ‘My Location’ city name is shown a small GPS compass indicator so you know that this is not just a standard weather location.
Whichever location has been set as your home city within the world Clock application is then used as the forecast which is then displayed on the main ‘Home’ Sense screen along with the time.
The soft menu keys at the bottom of the screen allow you to update the forecast manually or to access the options. Options include:
Adding locations Removing Locations Rearranging locations Updating the forecast Changing between Fahrenheit or Centigrade temperatures Or entering the settings where one can set the update frequency and whether to update when roamingA maximum of 14 cities can be added into the weather system, and it is simple to switch between each one – the screen can be flicked upwards or downwards to move up or down through the list of cities.
Initially the weather is populated with the following locations:
Taipei Barcelona London Seattle Paris Tokyo
Calendar
The ‘Calendar’ on any mobile device is a very important tool for many people including business users, and it has to reliably remind them of important meetings, schedules and appointments, as well as running daily agendas. The ‘Calendar’ on the O2 HTC HD2 is superbly executed and is of course totally finger friendly, with everything you could need and more only a finger swipe or tap away. The ‘Calendar’ menu system is a breeze to navigate, and is a vast improvement over its Windows Mobile 6.1 predecessor.
The calendar itself comprises a number of different views:
Week View - giving a graphical overview of forthcoming appointments Agenda View - a list of up and coming appointments Month View - shows the entire month with indicators showing days with events or appointments Day View - showing a list of todays appointments (with the current weather) Year view - detailing the complete years calendar
People
At first glance the People tab appears just to be a screen of shortcuts that can be set for favourite contacts, and while this is true this tab offers so much more.
When a favourite is to be added the contact selector is opened and a contact chosen, the options is then given to select what should be assigned to that shortcut; Mobile number, Work Number, Home Number, Message, E-mail 1 or E-mail 2. Once the favourite has been assigned the icon shows the contact photo (if it exists) or a generic avatar with a small icon bottom right indicating the type of shortcut, with the contacts first name underneath the icon. This also serves to add the contact to the HTC favourites category within Outlook.
The soft keys at the bottom of the screen allow you to choose ‘All People’ or the ‘Menu’ option (which allows you to add or remove shortcuts).
The ‘All People’ option takes you into the main ‘People’ centric application designed by HTC which comprises a number of tabs at the bottom of the screen. These tabs are:
All – Allows you to view all contacts either alphabetically or find a specific contact via a search Favourites - Shows the contacts assigned as shortcuts on the People tab in Sense Groups – Shows the different categories assigned to your contacts and allows you to send group messages or e-mail Updates and Events – If Facebook linking has been configured this tab shows both up and coming birthdays and anniversaries of contacts (from Outlook) as well as any updates posted on Facebook. If an anniversary or birthday is tapped upon the system offers you the option of sending a birthday greeting message or open the contact card. If a Facebook update is tapped on the recent updates are shown in full. Call History (all) – Shows the complete list of all calls madeIt should be noted that if a new e-mail or SMS has been received from a contact a green indication icon will appear next to a contacts icon, both on the People tab itself or next to that contact within any of the tabs. Useful!
On entering a contacts record this is again subdivided into tabs applying to that contact , these are:
Contact details – phone numbers, address information (with options to show the location on a map), e-mail, open Facebook album, and details of anniversaries, birthdays, and category groups Messages – shows any SMS or MMS messages from that contact Mail – Shows any e-mails from that contact Updates and Events – Shows any forthcoming birthdays and anniversaries as well as Facebook updates Call history – shows the personal call history for that contact.Each tab contains a tab specific soft key menu which allows you to interact with that tab, whether it be refreshing updates or sending new messages, etc.
HTC have really put some work into this application making it truly people centric and allowing you to get the best of communicating with your contacts in a smooth and simple manner.
Messages
The Messages tab allows you to view any incoming Text Messages (SMS / MMS) as they arrive as well as create new ones.
To move through the various messages you simply swipe the finger up or down the screen or touch the arrows above or below the counter icon. Replying to the message is simple: you just tap upon it which will then open the message on screen for you to reply to. The new message icon can be tapped (top right) to create a new message.
The SMS messaging system is fully threaded so you can see the flow and history of any conversations.
The 'All Messages' soft button allows you to access all text, picture and video messages on the HD2 in the various Inbox folders.
Copy and Paste
This completely new ability to copy and paste the whole, or sections of a received / sent / composed SMS text in this way hasn’t been seen before on a Windows mobile device. It will prove so very handy for message forwarding where you don’t want to pass on the whole message, or when you wish to save a section in ‘Notes’ for future reference.
Copying and pasting of SMS text is very straightforward to use too, tap and hold anywhere on the selected text, a pop up consisting of two sliding tab bars appear along with the highlighted text. Now you can move the two tabs until the text you want to copy is highlighted, now tap copy and you can now paste the text to wherever you wish, such as another SMS / MMS, Word Mobile, Notes or a text document.
The Mail tab allows you to receive, preview and send e-mail messages. A maximum of four e-mail accounts can be added to this tab. Each e-mail account has it's own e-mail counter so you can instantly see how many e-mails are unread in each mail account. The counter can be tapped upon to switch between accounts.
For the active mail account the large 'e-mail page' is displayed which details the name of the account and mail counter (bottom right) and shows a preview of the messages in that account. Swiping up / down the screen serves to switch between the e-mails being previewed.
If you tap on the previewed e-mail it will open in the Inbox application and you can then read or reply to that e-mail using the standard e-mail editor. Touching the New E-mail icon (top right) opens a new e-mail in the Inbox immediately. All the expected e-mail options are available - all made finger friendly by HTC.
The 'Menu' soft button allows you the options of 'New / Add Account / Account Settings / Send and Receive'.
It's worth noting that swiping the screen sideways while in the main Inbox also moves you between the different e-mail accounts.
The accelerometer comes into use once more within the e-mail application and turning the HD2 on it's side results in the e-mail messages displayed in Landscape format.
This also serves to change the SIP (Soft Input Program) into a larger landscape based version which has even more room to allow you to type quickly and smoothly.
It is worth noting that the capacitive screen on the HD2 works well indeed and there is no lack of functionality with the loss of the stylus. As a default the XT9 recognition is turned on as standard and it looks like HTC have engineered the same intelligence into the SIP as is found on the HTC Hero, text recognition is good and any typo's engendered by slight finger misplacement on the keyboard are auto corrected with few errors.
The typing speed compared to the Hero is significantly higher as the larger screen allows you more of a comfort factor when typing aiming the finger tips at the on-screen keys. This means to me that I can type as fast (if not faster than I can on the iPhone keyboard). The keyboard is single touch only which works to avoid double thumb tapping and ensures a 'clean' typing experience and maintain accuracy. The landscape keyboard in conjunction with the flat surface screen and the minimal thickness of the HD2 blend together to give a very good comfortable typing experience, on par with or better than hardware QWERTY keyboards as found on the Xda Serra (Touch Diamond Pro)
The accuracy seen within the keyboard is echoed within other applications like Excel, and a finger touch is easy enough to use to select or re-size cells in a spreadsheet. Again the stylus is not missed at all.
The auto-landscape orientation changes have been noted to work in the following applications:
Album E-mail Opera Internet Explorer Music CoPilot SMS / MMS
Internet
The Internet tab allows you to tap the globe and launch the Opera Mobile browser which is installed on the HD2 as a superior replacement to Pocket Internet Explorer. As an alternative to that you may swipe up / down the tab to reveal your bookmarked favourites and tap on any one of those to go directly to that site. Once a bookmark has been opened and 'viewed' a thumbnail of the screen is shown within each graphical bookmark.
You can tap the left hand soft key to manage your favourites. Once Opera has loaded a web site you can zoom in or out of areas of interest via double tapping the screen or by using a two finger pinch and move gesture, spreading the fingers wider to zoom in, or pinching closer together to zoom out. Once in zoomed mode you can navigate round the screen via simply dragging the page with your finger. The Opera Browser supports Java script and seemed happy with any of my regular web sites.
And of course the browsing experience is enhanced by turning the HD2 on it's side as the accelerometer sensor detects the move and put the browser into landscape mode for wide screen browsing.
There are a few caveats with the browser however, by nature it is multi-tabbed which is good news, but in the interests of either speed, stability or memory use it seems that no more than four tabs can be opened at once. It does however offer a decent speed of operation with pages rendering swiftly with few of the delays seen on earlier machines when a page is being rendered. Once a page has completed loading if the HD2 is turned into landscape mode the page transitions into the different view in less than a second, and again similar times are shown when returning into portrait mode - wwww.4winmobile.com (which does not support any reduced specification page for mobiles) was used as a test site.
Stocks
The ‘Stocks’ tab is an excellent way of keeping an eye on your stocks portfolio, and so simple to use too. To add a stock tap on the ‘Menu’ tab at the bottom of the screen, you are then presented with a search bar where you can enter the stock name or symbol you wish to add. If you wish to delete stock (or stocks) then again tap on the ‘Menu’ tab and delete from the list shown. The other ‘Menu’ options are ‘Rearrange’ which speaks for itself, and ‘Settings’ where you can set the frequency of stock updates. There is one more change you can make in ‘Settings’ and quite a nifty one too, whereas you can set the colour to green or red for a stock price rise. There is also an ‘Update’ tab at the bottom of the ‘Stocks’ screen which again is self explanatory.
Now onto my favourite options in ‘Stocks’, if you tap on one of the stocks in the list you are then presented with a page showing the selected stock’s performance. You can view its current price and also its high and low price, there’s also a tabbed bar at the bottom where it is possible to pick a time span of between one day and two years to see in graph form how that stock has performed over the selected time span.
Album
There are two ways to access ‘Albums’ on the HD2, through the ‘Start’ menu or through the ‘Sense UI’ ‘Photos & Videos’ tab. Either way the first screen you see is ‘Camera Shots’ where you can view all jpeg photos and MP4 videos stored on your device, whether on the storage card or on the device itself, the HD2 can also be rotated to view in landscape mode.
If you select ‘Albums’ at the bottom left of the ‘Camera Shots’ screen this will show all images of all file types stored on your device, there is also a tab at the bottom of the screen that gives the option for sharing where you can upload selected images to Facebook.
The ‘Menu’ tab on the bottom right of the ‘Camera Shots’ screen gives the options shown in the screen shot on the left, the same menu is also shown when selecting any image from ‘Albums’.
Tap on the selected photo or video you wish to view and it is then shown full screen in landscape mode. If you wish to zoom in on a photo spread two fingers from the middle of the screen outwards, or ‘pinch’ the screen inwards between two fingers to zoom out. The zoom speed is instant, and the capacitive screen shows photos in fantastic detail, the zoom function doesn’t work on videos though obviously.
The various menu options while viewing a photo are as follows:
Mail - Send via Emil Messages - Send via MMS Facebook - Upload to Facebook Mobile Pictures Album Set as Contact Icon Save Screen Image Delete Set as Footprints - Add it to the Footprints systemAnd for video they are:
Mail - Send via E-mail Messages - Send via MMS YouTube - Upload to YouTube Delete Properties 
If you turn the HD2 sideways whilst on the ‘Photos and Videos’ tab in ‘Sense UI’ the view instantly transitions into a flow effect cinemascape view. You can view all your pictures and videos at speed with the flow effect from either left to right, or right to left using a swipe of a finger, it is a veritable visual treat. Select and tap on whichever photo or video you wish to view and it then opens that picture in full screen view.
All available options remain the same in landscape mode as they are in portrait mode, as described above. There are two tabs at the bottom of the screen, the left takes you to ‘Camera Shots’, the right takes you to ‘Options’, both of which are viewable in landscape mode.
Music
Open the ‘Music’ tab and you are presented with a lush looking player that has a plethora of options to play your favourite sounds, the main screen has your albums displayed showing the album art and random tracks from each album. Flick your finger up or down to scan through the albums and tracks on display, and tap to play the track of choice. Stroke your finger over the track length bar to fast forward or rewind the track you are listening to.
The ‘Play’, next track back or forwards buttons are large and easily accessible. At the top of the screen on the right there are symbols that can be tapped that represent ‘Shuffle’ and ‘Repeat’, and on left top you have the option to download the latest updated album art over the air to your device.
The bottom ‘Menu’ tab has one very notable option which is ‘Shop Music Store’, after tapping on it I found the HD2 connected to the Internet via Opera and went straight to Amazon online, where the album that is in my play window was on display with the full album details and the option to purchase, just a shame it was in dollars and I already own it! Amazon does give other similar purchase options though.
The options in the ‘Menu’ tab are:
Repeat Shuffle Add to Playlist Shop Music Store Update Album Art Audio Booster PropertiesTap the bottom left ‘Library’ tab and all the important options for playing your sounds back in the order you prefer appear; ‘Now Playing’ shows the tracks that are listed as playing in the ‘Music’ player; ‘Artists’ gives a list of all current installed album or single artists; ‘Albums’ is a list of installed albums; ‘Playlists’ gives you the option for you to compose and title your own playlists; ‘All Songs’ lists every available track installed on your device; ‘Genres’ gives a list of music styles, e.g. Rock, Pop or Dance, perfect for finding an album to suit your mood; ‘Composers’ this lists........ yes you guessed correctly! The last tab is ‘Purchased’ this shows which albums you have recently purchased online. Each of these tabs except ‘Playlists’ (which has its own menu option) has the option to return to the ‘Now Playing’ screen in one easy tap.
Landscape mode is my favourite way of playing music, turn the HD2 on its side and you have the albums laid out just as the photos and videos are in landscape mode, and wonderfully impressive it looks too, this is where the fun starts!
Choose the album of choice, and either tap on the album itself or the album listing symbol on the bottom left of the screen. The album being viewed slides across the screen and the album track listing appears on the left of the screen. You are then able to finger swipe the track listing from top to bottom, tap and choose any track and play the album from the selected track.
If you want to see the lists of tracks on other albums you can do this too by scrolling the albums left or right, the track listings then show up for you, all while still playing the tracks you have just chosen! Turn the device back into portrait view and the album you are currently playing continues to play, swipe the album up and down to go to the next or previous track, or choose other options that suit you.
I really believe this to be the best incarnation of a standard music player that I’ve seen on a Windows Mobile device; it’s so versatile and superbly presented. Every option you could need is available, and there is nothing clunky or cumbersome about it at all, and it’s poetry in motion to watch on the large capacitive screen.
Once you have configured the social networking system to log into your Twitter account then accessing this tab will show you the recent Tweets of the folks that you elect to follow. This is complete with their avatar and their Twitter name.
The top portion of the screen offers a text input box where you can post your latest Tweet to the world, and also shows the last time the Tweets were updated.
The right soft key menu offers you the choice of:
Update now – to refresh the Tweets New Tweet – to use the full Peep environment for posting a tweet New Message – to send a message to someone you are following Update location – Use the GPS system to update your location – if you wish to geolocate your Tweets (not always recommended) My Profile – Loads your profile from Twitter for viewing only (including the number of following/followers you have) , and allows you to update your photo. Your recent Tweet history is also shown Settings – Allows you to change your account name, configure the number of Tweets downloaded and the refresh frequency. You can also specify the Photo Host and URL shortening host used. Notification settings for direct messages, mentions and updates can also be configured as well as the notification tone and vibrate settings. Search – Allows you to search the world of TwitterThe ‘All Tweets’ left menu soft key allows you to enter the main Peep application whereby tabs at the bottom of the screen allow you access to:
All Tweets Mentions Direct Messages Favourite TweetsWhen you choose to send a Tweet using Peep a large full screen editor opens giving you plenty of room to write your tweet, with buttons at the bottom which allow you to post a photograph from an album into a tweet or include your location obtained via the GPS system.
Gotchas: At the moment the tweet retrieval frequency seems to be ignored and the notification system does not always sound.
Footprints
Footprints is a geotagging application which allows you to take a photograph of a location you wish to retain as a memory and attach to it additional data such as it’s Geographic location. On entering the Footprints tab you are presented with a list of pre-configured Footprints containing locations of:
Big Ben Eiffel Tower Collosseum Statue of Liberty As with other Sense applications you can swipe up and down the screen so move between the different Footprints. Each Footprint will show the large photograph of the location and underneath it the description and date the print was made. An index number at the bottom right of the screen shows the current number of the print and the total number you have stored.
Top right of the screen is a ‘+footprint’ icon which allows you to invoke the camera and take a new footprint. Once the footprint viewfinder opens one has the opportunity to take the picture straight away or wait for the GPS system to initialise and thereby geotag the footprint. If one does not allow the GPS system time to kick in you are presented with a screen offering:
Find on map Continue GPS Search Stop GPS SearchYou are then taken to the main Footprint application which will show the photograph with 5 icons underneath:
Camera – Retake the photograph Compass – Add / Edit the GPS location Pin – Tap and hold a pin point location in Google Maps Speaker – Record a voice note Note – Edit the FootprintThe editor allows you to modify:
Category Location description Phone number URL Geo Location via GPS or latitude / longitude Voice note Text noteOnce you have finished with the Footprint you can hit either the ‘Done’ soft-key to leave the editor ‘or ‘Delete’ to remove the footprint. On returning to the main Footprint application you can either use the ‘back’ soft-key to return to the Sense Footprint interface or use the ‘Menu’ soft-key which offers:
Edit Show on Map Digital Compass Export DeleteThe Export function is particularly useful as you can then Export the footprint to SD card as a .kmz file – which can then be archived, swapped with friends or copied on to a PC for viewing with the Google Maps application.
Personalisation
‘Personalize’ in settings is the place to go if you want to customise your HD2 to suit your personal taste. The screen shot on the left shows the options available under ‘Personalize’.
‘Home Tab Wallpaper’: Leads to two options, ‘Weather Wallpaper’ where you can select one of the pre-installed backgrounds, and ‘Animated Wallpaper’ where you can choose an animated wallpaper for your ‘Home’ screen, how cool is that! You can also choose one of your own image files for both of these options which will sit as the background to these animated screens. ‘Lock Screen Wallpaper’: Again you can choose one of the pre-installed wallpapers or you own images to display on the ‘Lock Screen’. ‘Home Screen Tabs’: Allows you the choice of unticking or ticking the tab, or tabs you want to display along the bottom of ‘Sense UI’. ‘Font’: Alter the default font size to suit your needs. ‘Vibrate’: Decide whether you want the HD2 to vibrate or not when tapping the buttons in HTC Sense, phone dialler, keyboard, YouTube or any other supported applications.
NaviPanel
This is a very useful application for those that are planning on purchasing the forthcoming HTC car mount for the HD2. Basically, there is some magnetic trickery between the HD2 and the mount whereby, whenever you place the HD2 in the mount, a piece of software (the NaviPanel) automatically launches.
This panel has six huge buttons, designed to be easy to press whilst in the car, and provides easy access to common GPS related functions. Clock-Wise from the top-left you have Footprints, allowing you to enter the Footprints sub-menu which allows you to enter all Footprint categories. Strangely enough there is no option to record a new Footprint!
The 'Make A Call' icon allows you to make a (handsfree) call either via the dialler, via your stored favourites, or via the recent calls list.
The 'Go Home' button loads CPL8 with your home address already defined as the destination. 'Address' loads CPL8 and takes you straight into the address selection wizard. The 'Recent' icon again loads CPL8 and takes you to your list of recent destinations. 'Navigation' just loads CPL8 without and pre-defined action taking place.
The auto-launching of the panel can be de-activated from within the options but I've found it to be hugely useful so it has remained active in my car. One suggested improvement here would be if the panel could have additional options allowing a different GPS application to be launched but alas such is not available.
Settings / All Settings
The ‘Settings’ menu is accessed by going to the very last tab on the ‘Sense UI’, you then have the option to use the onscreen menu system to access the categorised list of settings, or you can tap on menu to access the tab ‘All Settings’ which has every setting available on the HD2. The settings list is vast so we have decided to describe a few at random that may pique your interest.
‘Sound & Display’: The menu has a vast array of options for phone profiles, ringer and system volume, rings and notifications, the back light display and G-sensor. There are two quirky settings that I like, the first is ‘Quiet ring on pick-up’ whereas the ring volume can be set to reduce once the phone is picked up or moved. The second is ‘Pocket Mode’ if this is set to on then the phone will increase the ring volume while in a pocket or a bag. ‘Location’: This setting screen lets the user decide whether or not to allow the collection of data for the locations services available on the HD2 such as the weather or Google maps. Just remember though, if you turn off the location data collection the weather won’t update automatically when you travel to a different location. ‘Text Input Settings’: As well as the usual settings for input and the XT9 spell correction and word completion there is an extra option added in ‘Others’, this is ‘Tutorial’ which allows to learn and practice auto-correction and tap and hold on the new easy to use HTC keyboard. 
Teeter
There is only one game provided on the HD2 - Teeter. It is a Labyrinth-type maze game. On loading Teeter starts up and a silver ball bearing appears on a dark table with black holes, walls, and a single green exit hole. The object of the game is to get the silver ball into the green hole without vanishing into any of the black holes and disappearing. The challenge is that you navigate the ball around the screen by holding the HD2 parallel to the ground and tilting the device to move the ball.
The sensors are very sensitive and you can even move along the edges of the black holes without falling in. It also picks up how much you tilt the device and the ball will accelerate/decelerate depending on your angle.
The real surprise though, is what happens when the ball hits a wall/side. You physically feel the strike in the actual area where the ball hits the wall. Plus, the vibration/feedback varies by how far the ball travels before it hits the wall/side.
At the end of each level you will are presented with a score as to your performance and then given an even more complex and challenging table to navigate and complete. Tapping the screen during game play gives you the option of exiting the game or resuming. On reloading the game you are allowed to either resume the last game or start afresh.
Notifications and Wireless control
When a notification appears in the top 'bar' of the HD2 this can be tapped upon to open the 'Notifications' screen on which any new notification is displayed. Again this is finger friendly and each notification entry can be tapped upon to take you to the relevant 'Sense' application. That is if an e-mail notification is tapped you will be taken to the E-mail tab within Sense.
There is of course the option to either close the screen or dismiss any displayed notifications.
If the top icon is tapped (signal strength) then this acts as a shortcut to the Wireless Controls screen making it very easy to change any wireless functionality as required.
Long Press End Key
If the 'End Call' Key is depressed the Quick List screen pops into view which offers you the choices of:
Powering the device off completely Locking the device Turning it into vibration or silent mode Terminating any running data connectionsInterestingly there is no applet in the settings at all that allow this functionality to be changed. In fact the button configuration program has all button settings removed from the applet meaning that you cannot customise the functionality of any of the buttons on the HD2 without using a third party application.
Compass
Following the current vogue for GPS / magnometer based applications (as seen on the iPhone 3GS and the HTC Hero) the HD comes supplied with a Compass application. This uses both GPS and a magnometer to detect both your current location and the direction of magnetic north.
When first run the application will ask you to move the HD2 in a figure of eight so it can auto-configure the sensors within.
Once configured the main compass screen is displayed with clear and highly visible indicators of the cardinal points of the compass. There is an option to change between Imperial and Metric units but currently this seems to have no effect of the data displayed.
Finally the 'destination' button may tapped which loads the Google Maps application which then allows you to tap the screen to choose a datum point. Once this has been done the GPS kicks into operation and the current GPS position is shown along with the distance to the destination with a green dot on the bezel of the compass indicating its direction.
Glitch - The Compass does not always return the exact same 'North' position, it varies by around 10 degrees.
Google Maps
Google Maps on the HD2 makes it easy to:
Determine your current location with GPS Get driving and transit directions Get phone numbers and addresses for local businesses Use the Google Latitude system to keep up to date with the location of friends and family Use the traffic layer to be warned of congested traffic areas
Phone
The whole of the phone UI has been thoughtfully overhauled on the HD2, and I must say what an excellent job HTC have made of it. The settings and options available are numerous, and the whole layout is very easy to navigate via scrolling menus. There are three tabs at the bottom of the screen; from left to right they are ‘All People’, ‘Keypad’ and ‘Menu’
Once you tap on ‘All people’ a tabbed sliding bar is revealed at the bottom of the screen with the following options, some of which are self explanatory.
‘Contacts’:- Sub Menus: New Contact, Delete Contacts, View, Import SIM Contacts, SIM manager. ‘Favourites’:- Sub Menu: Add Menu. ‘Groups’; Sub menu: New Group. ‘Updates and Events’; Link to Facebook and Login to get updates. Sub Menu: Settings. ‘Call History (All)’; Sub Menus: Filter, Delete.The ‘Keypad’ tab removes or restores the phone keypad for easier viewing of calls and contacts.
Lastly the ‘Menu’ tab opens up the following options:
Open Contact Call History Speed Dial Save to Notes Send Text Message Paste Options View Conference ModeThere is also a downward sliding finger friendly keypad cover when in a call that will give you access to the applications showing underneath, which are ‘Hold’, ‘Add Call’, ‘Note’, ‘Speaker’, ‘Mute’ and ‘Calendar’.
The HD2 still has more tricks up its sleeve once you make a call and put the phone against your ear, the screen turns itself off, and if you take the phone away from your ear the screen turns itself back on! Absolutely brilliant and it saves accidentally starting other applications with a touch of your ear on the screen, something users have bemoaned for some time on touch screen devices.
FM Radio
One useful feature of recent HTC / Xda machines was the FM radio which has also been included in the HD2. Once again for this to function the wired headset must be in place and as this has a secondary function as an FM antenna.
The first time the application is run it will automatically scan for the available FM channels in your area, save them as presets, then play the first FM station found.
Full control of the radio is allowed with options / features of:
Switch between Mono and Stereo modes Switch between speaker and headset output Search the FM band for the next lower / higher FM channel Volume adjustment RDS Station name display Preset saving and adjustment Sleep function so that the radio will turn off after a defined period
CoPilot 8 Live
This is a fully featured turn-by-turn SatNav application and, certainly within the UK market, is the main rival TomTom. It's inclusion with the HD2 follows through on O2 UK's previous GPS policy as various incarnations of CPL have been included on the Serra, Ignito and Guide machines.
To provide a full description of CoPilot would be a review in itself and is outside the scope of this review.
The copy provided includes a 15 day trial license so you can test out the software fully before deciding whether to purchase it or not.
YouTube
The YouTube application allows you to connect to the YouTube servers and download videos for viewing. You may look through what is available via various view filters; All Videos, Top Rated, Featured, Most Viewed, Search for any videos, and view the history of what you have viewed.
Be warned though that this application is very data intensive so you either need a an unlimited 3G account or to use WiFi to download the videos. It does the job, the videos look good on screen, and search and navigation are a doddle. It's just a simple little app that works with no fuss.
Marketplace
‘Marketplace’ is Windows Mobile’s brand new phone application store where you can download free and paid for applications through a wireless or data connection, and is installed as standard on all official Windows Mobile 6.5 devices and ROMs.
To activate ‘Marketplace’ on the HD2 tap the icon in the Start menu to install the application before you can use it. The applications you choose for free or purchase, are then installed directly onto your device. Most applications can be previewed before downloading; the list shown on the left gives an obvious explanation of the categories available.
My Phone
The HD2 comes complete with one of Microsofts newest applications - My Phone - this allows you to:
Back-up information to a password-protected web site hosted by Microsoft Send photos to your PC and favourite social networking sites Find your lost phone - the My Phone service can show you the last known location of your phone on a map Access your contacts, text messages and more online via the My Phone web portalThis works well in helping you save, back-up and archive your data, all wirelessly and in the background.
Phone Search
The search facility built into earlier incarnations on Widows Mobile has been greatly enhanced and no serves to look through:
All Data Calendar Contacts Excel Mobile Help Larger than 64Kb Messaging Notes Outlook Mobile Tasks Word MobileSearches are carried out within a few seconds which is much faster than seen on prior machines, now becoming a functionality that can be used and appreciated.
WorldCard Mobile
WorldCard Mobile is one of those applications that you come across and wonder whether it will be useful, and then you try it and find it is very useful indeed. It is simple enough in concept - use the camera to capture an image of a business card, perform a bit of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to input the text, allow any errors to be edited and then add to your contacts. It may take a few attempts to be proficient with positioning the business card, but once you get used to working with the application it can be very useful. It can certainly save a lot of typing!
Voice Recorder
The ‘Voice Recorder’ can be accessed via ‘Start’ then ‘Tools’ folder, and is very straightforward to use. Tap on the red button or ‘Record’ tab to record, and the black button or ‘Stop’ tab to stop recording. While recording it is also possible to pause and resume the recording using the ‘Pause’ and ‘Resume’ tabs that are visible during recording or pausing. Tap on a saved file to play back that file.
The options available from the ‘Menu’ tab are:
Rename/Move Delete Create Copy Select All Send Set as Ringtone Options, which gives a choice of saving to the main memory or storage card. AboutThe options available when tapping and holding on one of the saved ‘Voice Recorder’ files are:
Send via Bluetooth Rename/Move Delete Create Copy Select All Send Set as Ringtone
Quick GPS
Quick GPS can speed up the amount of time for determining GPS positioning by downloading the latest satellite information via an Internet connection such as GPRS, ActiveSync, etc). Quick GPS will work with any installed GPS application such as Co Pilot which is preinstalled on the O2 HTC HD2. Most helpful if you can’t get a GPS satellite lock as quickly as you would like.
Titanium
‘Titanium’ is the naked, bare bones user interface of Windows Mobile 6.5, and can be seen once you untick the ‘Sense UI’ from start> settings> Today> items. There were doubters that thought that the ‘Sense UI’ couldn’t be disabled from the operating system, but I can assure you it can be!
Again ‘Titanium’ is very user friendly if you want to run it as your choice of user interface on the HD2, but not at all as comprehensive as the ‘Sense UI’ which is the star of the show. Scroll up and down with your finger to see the whole list, or tap on the application you wish to view. All listed applications on the ‘Titanium’ screen can be disabled one by one if you so wish in settings.
Lock Screen and Notification Tabs
When the screen on the HD2 is locked you are presented with the now standard WM6.5 lock screen, which holds a button showing a padlock icon. This icon is then slid to the right or left on screen to unlock the machine.
When system notifications arrive such as missed calls, new e-mail or new SMS, that sliding button gains a number which totals the number of events.
If that lock button is tapped other buttons pop out downwards to show each type of event. These in turn can then be swiped sideways to take you directly into the relevant application!
Screen Readability
The large 4.3 inch (diagonal) 800 x 480 screen on the HD2 is surely one of its most striking features and comes in to it's own when working with documents like PDF files and eBooks. The brightness level is good and the lettering is clear and crisp (even though cleartype is not enabled as a default) in all documents. eBooks can be easily read with the font reduced in size - that in conjunction with the large screen give a reading experience on par with that of a full size book as far as content is concerned.
The brightness level across the screen is completely even and there are no areas of inconsistent brightness, colour levels are accurate and there is no harshness seen in any colour. This means that whether reading an eBook, or sharing your recent holiday photos with a friend you will not be disappointed.
The only slight niggle with the screen is the matter of fingerprints. Yes the screen surface is wonderfully smooth but as it undergoes extensive contact with the finger tips then grease does tend to build up while in use and finger marks are evident. However the screen appears to have been coated in some manner an it is a simple matter to give the screen a quick wipe with a soft cloth (or even a shirt) to regain a clean fingerprint free working surface.
After two months use the screen remains free from scratches and flaws (even without a screen protector) and unlike some competing machines appears to be fully durable and able to withstand constant operation.
Bluetooth
I needed to test the AD2P stereo audio quality so this was a good excuse to give the HD2’s Bluetooth a workout with my Motorola S9 Stereo Bluetooth headset. Pairing was a breeze, firstly I switched on the S9s, then went to the main Bluetooth menu on the HD2 through the 'Start' menu where I was straight away presented with the option to turn on Bluetooth, which I did.
The next step was to tap the ‘Add’ tab to search for Bluetooth devices in range, which the HD2 did in no time at all, finding my PC and the S9 headset, there’s also a ‘Menu’ tab at the bottom in this screen that gives options to search again or cancel. I then tapped on the shown Motorola S9 headset to pair them up with the HD2, the password was entered, I tapped ‘OK’ and the pairing was then complete, with the confirmation that the S9s were able to be used in stereo audio, and as a hands-free set, so not too painful at all!
Now I’m all paired up I can try the Motorola S9 headset in anger, streaming audio content straight from the HD2. I first tried the ‘Sense UI’ music player, playing a varied genre of tracks through rock to pop to give a balanced view, and I was more than happy with the results. I found the audio quality was top notch at high or low volume levels, without any noticeable distortion at higher volume levels.
I also tested the stereo headset’s audio capabilities by playing a video file I have of Batman Begins through the latest version of Core Player on the HD2. The beginning of the film is graphically intense when thousands of bats are flying across the screen, but the HD2 coped with ease and the video (no stutter) or audio didn’t degrade whatsoever, the whole of the film wasn’t a problem to watch or listen to at all.
I would say Bluetooth stereo audio quality through the Motorola S9 headset on the HD2 is better than any previous Windows Phone I have tried by some distance. I’m pretty sure the HD2 must be using new and improved Bluetooth drivers, as I haven’t seen a loss of connection between the device and headset when the HD2 is in your pocket while streaming music, which used to happen quite often with previous HTC devices.
There are three tabs at the top of the Bluetooth main screen, the centre ‘Pairing’ tab being the one used to set up a pairing with my headset. The top left tab is for ‘Settings’ and you can see in the screen shots there are many options listed, tap on ‘Advanced’ in the list to open up a further list of in depth settings.
The third top tab is ‘Tools’ and the menus and sub menus are listed below:
‘Print Images’: Tap to reveal ‘Bluetooth printing’ showing a list of images available for printing via Bluetooth. The ‘Menu’ button at the bottom in ‘Bluetooth Printing’ reveals Select All, Clear All, Refresh and Exit. ‘Network Manager’: Tap to reveal ‘Bluetooth Network Manager’ there is a drop down list showing Create a Private Network, Share Internet Connection and Access Internet through remote device. You need to tap continue once your choice is made. ‘Business Card Exchange’: Tap to reveal ‘Business Card Exchange’ with a list showing Request Business Card, Send Business Card and Exchange Business cards. There is a settings tab at the bottom of the screen for each shown the list. ‘BT Send Object’: Tap to reveal ‘Outlook E-mail’ there is a menu tab at the bottom of the screen that gives the option to Change Type or Exit. Tap the Change Type tab to reveal a list of objects that can be sent via Bluetooth, these are Outlook E-mail, Contacts, Tasks, Notes, Calendar Items, Audio, Ring Tones, Images and videos.I am very impressed by the new Bluetooth layout and the navigation within, it does make life easier when you want to connect and send or share files and information.
Keyboard
The inbuilt onscreen keyboard is just the right size and a breeze to use, it covers half of the screen, and as the screen on the HD2 is large and crystal clear anyway this makes typing with accuracy very easy. Type as fast as you wish and there is no lag or slowdown when using the onscreen keyboard whatsoever. The keyboard itself is very straightforward to use and all the necessary keys for capitals, numbers, symbols and smilies are only a couple of taps away. The built in predictive text which is optional to use works well, and has the ability to store your words in its memory.
O2 Customisation or Branding
In days of yore O2 were renowned on their 'Xda' range of products for adding those extra touches; whether this was a few extra applications, or a customised Touch FLO experience. Now it seems those days have indeed passed. On the O2 variant of the HD2 the customisation is limited to the O2 style wallpaper and lock screen. That's it. Nada
The Camera
The camera software included is the latest incarnation of the HTC program which replaces the camera part of the 'Pictures and Videos' application. This offers a one screen display consisting of a central view finder with controls surrounding it, these are:
Advanced Options (bottom right) Shutter icon (centre right) Auto flash / on / off (top right)When actuated the screen becomes the viewfinder for the camera and taking a photograph is simple, you hold the HD2 and point it at what you wish to photograph, within seconds the focus guide auto-focuses on the viewfinder, locking the focus and then you tap the shutter icon which takes the picture.
You are then given time (default 10 seconds) to preview the image with the options to send the picture (upload to Facebook, save to Footprints, send via MMS or send via e-mail), delete it, view it in the album, or return to the camera to take the next shot.
If the Advanced Options icon is tapped more control icons appear for around six seconds before vanishing. These are:
Left hand side - Digital zoom slider Bottom left - Load album Bottom centre - Capture mode (Photo, video, panorama, MMS video, or contacts picture) Bottom right of centre - Additional quick controls (white balance, brightness, ISO, storage, self timer and advanced)The advanced control panel offers you the following:
Resolution - 5M (2592 x 1552) Widescreen - on / off Touch Focus - on / off Review duration (no review, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, no limit) Quality (basic, normal, fine, superfine) Capture format - JPEG only Time stamp - on / off Keep backlight - on / off Shutter sound - on / off Image properties (Contrast +3, Saturation +3, Sharpness +3) Effect (none, greyscale, sepia, negative) Metering mode - spot Prefix - default Counter (current number or reset) Flicker adjustment (Auto, 50Hz, 60Hz) Grid - on / off Help AboutThe options strangely are reduced compared to prior models like the Xda Guide which incorporated features like:
Themed picture GPS picture (replaced by Footprints?) Multi-resolutions Other metering modes (Average) Date or Date / Time prefixesSo in both camera quality and features this application although easier to control via a better icon interface seems somewhat lacking in features.
EXAMPLE PHOTOS AND VIDEO
These are a set of typical photographs taken with the HD2 camera on default settings whilst travelling around in Scotland on a recent holiday.
Decent weather on the trip up towards the highlands Loch Nan Uamh in all its gloryBoth photographs exhibited slightly false colouration with a pink tinge being visible throughout, the focus seemed slightly inaccurate resulting in a lack of detail when viewed close up.
Loch Nan Uamh towards the headland Loch Nan Uamh towards the seaOnce again the pink tingle and lack of focus are much evident with this being more evident when faced with the bright light levels as the focus moves towards the sun. The colours start to bleed together somewhat towards the right hand side of the picture and the lack of white balance adjustment is evident.
The legendary silver sands of Morar The road from MallaigAgain we see more evidence of unnatural colour tinting, in real life the silver sands were the clean white / grey of silica sand as can be seen towards the left hand side of the photograph. The center of the picture shows yet again tinges of orange and pink discolouration. The green vegetation around Mallaig looks much too verdant and bright compared to the actual conditions.
Typical video footageTaken on the way up to the Highlands at a brief rest spot. The same problems encountered whilst taking still photographs are also evident in the video, although the focus seems somewhat improved.
EXIF Data
This is an example of the EXIF data held within a typical photograph taken with the HD2's camera at default settings. As you can see the default setting is for a 2592 x 1552 image with auto-focus and white balance. Unfortunately going through the camera settings reveals that using the standard camera no GPS data is embedded within the photograph.
GENERAL ASPECTS
SatNav lock times - during the course of the review the HD2 has been hard reset five or six times which has the side effect of clearing the GPS cache. Each time, after the reset, the Sat Nav system was initialised and times taken to achieve a first and secondary lock. First lock times were around one minute and secondary locks were achieved almost within around 10-12 seconds with QuickGPS data downloaded. The only GPS issue seen on rare occasions is where the Locational Weather system failed to gain a solid enough lock, or a lock was achieved but no forecast was available. Apart from that the GPS or cell triangulation system worked very well within CPL8, Weather, and the Latitude system within Google Maps. There have been no instances of GPS fade where the signal would be lost requiring an application reload or a device reset. The GPS system is fast and solid in operation.
Bluetooth - It is worth mentioning that the Bluetooth system included within ROM supports the Bluetooth 2.0 specification. I've successfully linked the HD2 to the native Bluetooth system within my 307CC without any problems. Re other SAP car kits (for of VW, Audi, Skoda, Mercedes, and Jaguar)- O2 have confirmed it works with these cars, although there are issues with kits that generate random PIN codes.
E-mail - As the HD2 is a fully converged device, benefiting from an always on GPRS / HSDPA connection, Push E-mail, e-mail handling is an absolute pleasure - you are always in contact and in touch. Those features, along with the people centric connectivity engendered within the Sense system make the HD2 almost a perfect device for communicating both with friends and work colleagues.
Social Networking - With support for Facebook via the Mobile Picture upload facility, the Facebook application supplied on the device, and the Facebook integration within the People application keeping up to date with friends is not a problem and becomes a positive pleasure. Add to that the ability to upload any videos to YouTube and with Peep taking you into the world of Twitter and Tweeting everything is covered. Of course the HD2 supports SMS and MMS messaging as well as Live Messenger for communicating using somewhat older technologies so you are covered for all Social Networking needs.
Signal Strength / Radio - Typically at work using most HTC Windows Mobile devices I get around one bar of signal (GPRS only) and at work I get three to four bars of full 3G connectivity. Needless to say using the HD2 as this was manufactured by HTC I expected a similar result. I was pleasantly surprised when I found that the HD2 would get a full five bars of signal at home with an occasional single bar of goodly 3G. At work needless to say a full five bar 3G connection is available. As a comparison the HTC Hero usually gets around 3/4 of full signal strength at home and the iPhone around 3 bars of signal. Phone call sound quality is generally good although an occasional distortion has been observed with the voice quality when moving to areas of poor signal strength - i.e. rooms surrounded by a lot of steel work, but that is common with most phones I've used.
Volume and Speaker Quality - One of the things I look for in a phone is a decent volume level, important to me as my devices are usually holstered in a thick leather pouch on my belt (Vega Holster). The volume on the HD2 is loud enough that a notification can be heard at all times (and I usually have the volume set to around the 60% mark). Audio quality whether listening to music, playing back a video or during a phone call. Comparing the sound system to that of the HD Diamond 2 I'd estimate that the audio quality is maybe two notches better and volume around 25% louder. This is however still less than the volume on the HTC Hero which truly does have a loud audio system. Calls have been made and maintained with no issues with the speaker phone turned on whilst accessing data in a spreadsheet, word and within People - no glitches or problems were found during the processes.
Speaker Niceties - The HD2 has a couple of nice features built into the speaker / audio system. The first is the option of a 'in pocket' mode, whereby if this is turned on the HD2 will detect that it is in a pocket (or I assume any dark area) add the audio will be boosted to compensate. Secondly if a notification or ring tone is playing while the machine is static on the desk when you pick up the HD2 it detects this (and knows you are aware of the audio signal) and then lowers the volume of the notification by some 30%. Cool! HTC have also included the muting facility seen on earlier machines whereby if the phone rings and the device is turned upside down then the ring tone will be muted.
Video Playback - As is expected videos recorded on the HD2 natively in MP4 format playback easily with no lag or lip sync issues. To further test video performance Core Player was loaded onto the HD2 and a selection of AVI videos played back, some of these were in 720p HD format. Playback was again equally good with no judder and the sound was in sync with the video. Standard sound without the headset plugged in was loud enough to be audible in a busy restaurant and if the headset was brought into operation was impressively loud (in fact the volume had to be decreased to be comfortable) with good stereo separation of the audio streams.
TV Out and USB Host - Various sources around the Internet have stated that the HD2 supports both TV Out and USB Host connectivity. The official specifications from HTC do not list such items and the HD2 is not supplied with any micro-USB adaptor cables to link to a video system or connect USB devices. O2 have also confirmed this functionality is NOT present.
Magnifier - One useful and somewhat novel inclusion within the WM6.5 operating system is that of the Magnifier. If you are in an application like the File Manager and you pinch / zoom in on the screen a then the entire screen magnifies and a preview window opens above the SIP allowing you to pan around the screen. This appears to work in most standard WM applications where the SIP is present.
Third Party Applications - With the Sense applications and Social Networking built into the HD2 as standard I'm now using minimal third party applications. For the HD2 to be truly useful to me I've only had to add:
Core Player - For playback of videos in various formats MobiPocket Reader - For reading eBooks Pocket Controller Pro - for taking screen shots SyncTime - to ensure the clock is up to date eWallet - for carrying my personal data around Spb Mobile Shell - Palringo 2 - For multiple IM handlingEach and everyone of them worked perfectly without any issues bar one application - Spb Shell 3.5. I had thought it was fast of the Touch Diamond 2 but on the HD2 the speed is absolutely incredible! The only problem is for Shell to fully work you have to disable the Sense today plugin, and even then if you drop back and use the WM6.5 launcher (Start) some applets (like settings) will not run. I think here that Spb need to do some WM6.5 compatibility improvements!
CONCLUSION
Windows - I've been honoured to have the HD2 in daily use for the last six weeks (thanks O2) and I'm very impressed with all aspects of its design and function - The Sense tabs that replace the Titanium interface work beautifully well and the deeper integration that HTC have done to hide the somewhat finger unfriendly WM6.5 interface make the device a joy to use - and yes I can say that the stylus has not been missed at all.
The speed of the HD2 has to be seen to be believed (videos to follow) everything feels fast and smooth from the transitional tab navigation in the Sense screen to the speed of scanning photos in flow mode, or flicking through large pictures in the Album itself. Transitions from portrait to landscape modes in applications is nigh on instant and the same can be said when zooming in and out of photographs using the two finger pinch system. At one point I actually found I had fourteen applications loaded in the background (including heavyweight items like the Album) and there was no slow down in operation and no applications had auto-closed in the background. During the time I've used the HD2 there have been no problems with the device heating up or behaving in an adverse manner in any way.
Dislikes - There is only one annoyance I have with the HD2. This is the removal of the ability to customise the functions of the buttons on the front or the HD2. The only application that really suffers on the HD2 is the native Notes application, it is fine entering text using the keyboard, but trying to draw any freehand graphics is nigh on impossible as you have to use a finger tip, not even a fingernail can be used and the results are not good, accuracy goes completely out of the window!
Personal Final Words - The HD2 is awesomely fast and smooth both in operation and looks, the large glorious capacitive screen works wonderfully well and the thin form factor with the functionality of the Sense system make it for me at least the best WindowsPhone so far. Go and buy one, you'll not be disappointed.
Boz - Firstly I would like to echo Daron’s comments and thank O2 for generously letting me have use of an HD2 too. I have enjoyed every minute with it so far without any problems at all, and helping out with this review certainly helped me to learn every aspect of the O2 HD2 at a very rapid rate, and all without the use of a stylus!
Looks wise there’s no escaping the fact that the HD2 oozes class in every respect, from its exquisite build quality that makes the device look the part, to its wonderful large pin sharp capacitive screen, and software that does its job in a very understated way. There is so much to admire about the HD2 too, the ‘Sense UI’ is excellent, and the ability to update the weather using the built in location software to wherever you are, is simply brilliant. The music player that’s standard is in my view the best I have seen on a Windows Mobile device, and is a pleasure to use rather than a chore like Windows Media Player.
Windows Mobile 6.5 has been given a fantastic makeover by HTC, and there are many clever touches on the HD2. One of my favourites is the screen turning off when placing the phone against your ear while making a call, then turning itself back on when the phone is taken away from your ear which saves accidently setting off other applications. The HD2 isn’t just about quirky ideas that work well though, it’s all about speed and overall performance as a whole, and running a 1GHz processor it doesn’t disappoint, its lightening fast at everything it does, and running a host of applications in the background doesn’t drag it to its knees at all. There’s no clunkiness or sticking when scrolling, zooming, flicking or when changing from portrait to landscape mode, and the whole operating system feels and looks perfect in use.
I do have a few gripes though, I dislike having to search for the task manager to close applications, having been used to ending a program by tapping ‘X’ in the top corner on previous HTC devices. I’m also not keen on having to use the magnifier in a few applications to tick boxes or scroll drop down menus, but I suppose that is a legacy from Windows Mobile 6.1, and I’m sure in future ROM updates this will be history.
There isn’t any obvious way to add your ‘Owner’ details, however this seems to me added automatically when you complete your 'Contact Card' details.
Freehand writing or drawing in notes isn’t easy at all, but it isn’t something I use anyway so isn’t a major problem for me, and is the only application that doesn’t work as it should. Believe it or not I do miss the XDA branding and O2’s applications that used to be. The name XDA was synonymous with O2 and was the symbol of their high end Windows Mobile devices, but times change I suppose.
In my view the O2 HD2 is a fantastic device and one well worth considering, it does everything really well at supersonic speeds, and I can’t see how you could possibly be disappointed with it, I find it hard to put mine down!
Pros And Cons:
Pros:
Fast 1Ghz processor Build quality, appearance and feel 4.3 inch hires WVGA screen Bright, sharp and large capacitive screen Large ROM and RAM memory Fast boot times OOBE Inbuilt GPS Fast GPS lock and GPS signal strength Locational Weather System WM6.5 operating system HTC Sense today screen HTC Sense finger friendliness HTC’s WM 6.5 makeover Strong metallic housing FM Radio Removable battery micro-USB (now industry standard connector) No stylus required Fast portrait / landscape transitions Supports up to 32Gb microSD storage cards Comfortable in the hand Non-slip housing Enhanced headset Good battery life CPL8 included in ROM Good phone signal strength Great battery life Installed software The variety of settings Ease of customisation Overall device speed 3.5mm headset jack socket Lock screen Auto screen shut off and switch on when making or ending a call Bluetooth System Sense UI music playerCons:
No button customisation No Xda branding and the loss of O2s added applications Notes application is impossible to use for free hand drawing Having to use the screen magnifier in a few programs Slightly inaccurate Compass application Twitter application does not always update as per the scheduleThis review is brought to you by Windows with assistance from Boz!
