112 replies to this topic

[DBB]

nice and comprehensive review.
this is the next phone that i want.

so the only customisation to the o2 variant is basically a wallpaper. so I wonder why it is taking o2 longer to test the rom on this thing? i would have thought that HTC had already done that?

o2 were the first to announce it and it looks like they will be the last to release it. :-)

[bydandie]

Great review, looks like a real all round phone and will be my next business phone. Just need to work out how to get it past purchase control! :)

[The Guru]

I've added some additional photos to the 2nd post in the review, and I still think there is a colour imbalance.

The item in the review ref Windows Mobile 7 is basically saying the chassis design in compliant with WinMo 7 design specifications, so if HTC decide to offer an upgrade to that platform the hardware is there to support it.

Ref remote desktop I did comment on that in the review, it was a bit fiddly in use but it did work fine.

Ref the eBook reading it is indeed fantastic for that as well as photo playback and viewing!

I can validate the matter of the owner name so that is good news indeed!

[The Guru]

Oh ref the PDF viewing, if you wish to supply a PDF you wish us to test view for you, I'm happy to post a screen shot of it in use.

[neilm]

Great review Daron & Boz- in fact I'm using it to discover some of the 'features' of my new HD2 :)

I came from the Toshiba TG01 and the HD2 is better in almost every respect. There are a few negatives though! Some screens with checkboxes don't respond properly to screen taps- Chronos V4.4 is a case here. The tabs don't select properly. I assume its to do with the capacitve screen.

Memory is very odd- the TG01 has 256MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM. After a reset it has 80MB RAM free and 250MB of ROM free.

The HD2 has the same ROM but 192MB more RAM. However it only has 130MB ROM free and 130MB RAM after a reset, so seems to have lost 120MB of ROM and 150MB of RAM somewhere. Is this the overhead of HTC Sense?

For an additional game, I can highly recommend Xtrakt which is a game that is included on the Xperia phones. Works very very well on the HD2, even running from the SD card :)

Edited by neilm, 13 November 2009 - 06:14 PM.

[KevinR]

windows said:

More example pictures, the latter ones in Wales were taken using the release ROM.

I still find the photos discoloured.

This intrigued me so I've just looked at the hillside and the coastal view in PaintShopPro.  I'm no expert but there seem to be multiple effects at play.  

The hillside appears to be confused by the bright sky & dark hillside.  This is partly how you'd expect in that by metering away from the sky (ie. centre weighted) the sky is very overexposed, but oddly the hillside still seems a bit dark.  Setting a gamma of about 90% makes the hillside look a bit better, the sky is unrecoverable.  I agree that the image seems very blue.  The odd thing is that the histogram's for the hillside show almost no red or blue despite the feeling of blueness.  

The coast I thought would be more revealing as the exposure should be more natural with an image half sky and half grassland.  Again the picture seems to improve with a gamma of 90%.  There actually is blue in the image this time!  There is no red but there is none in the scene so that's ok.  As I say I'm not great with PSPro but the intensity of the blue (and green) is hard to reduce.  I guess we can expect a lot of green but those sky's look a bit blue for the UK in October/November.

I wonder if its either a) an effect like the overcoloured images that very retail film (like Kodak Gold) used to be accused of.  Every day a bright sunny glowing day!  or b) there is say a lack of UV filtering so like a film camera without a daylight/sunlight/UV filter you actually get an unnatural image.   It may even be a combination of both - a desire to "up the colour" and oversensitivity to UV.  For example a typical page for a UV filtersays:

Quote

Even though you can't see light in the UV (ultraviolet) spectrum, some digital and film cameras in some situations do see it; and what you might get is a bluish haze in pictures taken in the presence of UV light. UV filters, also variously called skylight or haze filters, are transparent to visible light; but absorb UV without changing photographic exposure settings. UV filters add subtle warmth (meaning more shades of red) by reducing the bluish cast that can appear in pictures of distant landscapes, on heavily overcast days, in open shade, or in shots at high altitudes (on mountain tops) and from high altitudes (in aircraft). Any serious photographer needs this high quality optical glass filter from Lenmar.

Is there anyone better with PaintShopping who can shed more light on the subject?

EDIT: Discovered something new.  If you use a tool that shows the RGB value for the pixels (eye dropper or manual colour balance) then the Sky in the coast picture is ALL blue=255. In the hillside the top half of the sky is blue=255.  So that's totally saturated with blue (so much for PSPro histogram function!).  This does suggest to me that its a massive UV sensitivity.  Does anyone make a stick on UV filter for phones?

I've captured the BLUE channel - as you can hopefully see in the attached photo - there is NO blue detail in the sky so I do think its oversensitive to UV.

[DMAND]

:groan: Now TMobile is selling it before O2!!

I how come vodaphone & T Mobile can manage to release it before O2, oh wait they left them totally stock...arrgh

Anyone know if you walk into a vodaphone shop and buy one SIM free? because I dont know if I can wait much longer lol

[johnston411]

i ordered one from vodafone today and was told it would be sim locked but after one month they would unlock it for free.

Reason given was this hinders fraud!!!?

I've had several vodafone wm devices and none have been sim locked but i'll know monday for sure :)

[The Guru]

NeilM: Ref the memory of the different memory mapping between the devices or what HTC are using that extra bit of memory for. I assume that HTC are using it for caching maybe? I think I did post memory usage figures when not running the Sense plugin?

KevinR: Pass completely, I'm no photographic expert. Al I can say is that the pictures in Wales were taken early morning (IIRC) on a cold November day, and if memory serves are not morning photos naturally tinted blue and our brains cancel that out? I agree though that even if this is the case the colour balance still seems to be out somewhat.

Saying that there are a lot of configuration options in the camera and maybe some of these need adjusting to get the best out of the camera, I know that this was the case with prior HTC cameras.

Do we have any experts here who can comment or recommend and settings changes?

T-Mobile and Vodaphoene sales eh? Very sad indeed, O2 need to get their bits in gear and get the thing on sale!

[tmn0004676]

I'm kind of surprised this gets full marks for functionality when it is missing TV-out and front facing camera