Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

HTC's Touch HD2 is perhaps the most hotly anticipated handset of the holiday season, which says a lot given the competition. Is it too big? Is Snapdragon all its cracked up to be? Is this (finally) Windows Mobile answer to the iPhone? Read on for the reviews, hands-on, and first impressions:

• Engadget
• Akihabara
• Infosync
• ZDNet
• Gear Diary
• Mobility Minded

What's what? You want to completely immerse yourself in the Touch HD2, learning everything you can about it? Paul over at MoDaCo went off the deep end - in a good, geeky way - and shot a whopping 43 minute video about the Touch HD2. Pop some popcorn, grab a drink, and settle in for a massive deep dive into the Touch HD2.

While the grapevine has supplied this tidbit for quite some time now, it's nice to see official confirmation. If you've been living on a desert island for the last couple of months, the HD2 is HTC's latest uber-phone sporting a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 4.3" capacitive display, WM6.5, an ultra-slim profile, HTC's latest UI overlay (HTC Sense), and just about everything else under the sun. The big deal about this confirmation is that the models currently shipping in Europe and Asia don't support US 3G bands, which meant the US market would have been left out otherwise. No clues yet on which carrier will take this up, but the HD2 should be available by Spring 2010.

Italian site Solopalmari have scored what looks like the very first unboxing video of the when-is-it-going-to-be-in-stock HTC HD2 (original link here, Google-translated version here). What's shown isn't the final packaging, which is a relief - I saw the video first before reading the article, and thought HTC were nuts to have the accessories look like they've just been thrown in the box. Thankfully that's not the case, though I wonder if you can really call this an unboxing video when the "box" isn't what you're going to get at retail. Oh well, enjoy the view.

The audio is Greek to me - literally, it's two Greek guys talking - but mute the audio and enjoy the video. Finally, someone with a camera that can focus and decent lighting to boot! The Touch HD2 looks like an amazing device, and the updated version of HTC Sense (a.k.a. TouchFlo 3D) is ridiculously responsive and gorgeous on this device. The only weird thing I noticed was that they had a hard time doing the reverse-pinch to zoom out on the browser. I wonder why that wasn't working very well?

When I first heard about this beast, my initial thought was that it might be just a bit smaller than my Advantage with that massive 4.3" screen. Turns out HTC had a big trick up its sleeve - because capacitive screens (yes, the HD2's got one) doesn't require that much bezel space to fit, the frame is small enough to make the body almost (though not quite) comparable to phones with much smaller screens. The comparison to the iPod touch above is a pretty good example - in fact, in terms of volume, the HD2 is actually slightly smaller than the iPhone 3GS thanks to a thinner profile. My only concern now is, how the heck do you use the hardware buttons at the bottom while using the HD2 with one hand? For more example pics, check mobile-review.com.

"We had a chance to give HTC's newest darling device -- the Windows Mobile 6.5-sporting HD2 -- a more thorough hands-on today, and we wanted to share our impressions. Firstly, we must say that HTC has done perhaps its most ambitious skinning job ever here. So while this does run atop Windows Mobile 6.5, you rarely see the OS poking through the gorgeous new Sense user interface the company has created."

It looks like there's a lot to like about the HTC HD2, but I'm honestly questioning the 4.3 inch screen. It looks HUGE in Eric Lin's hands...is 4.3 inches too big? What do you think? I guess I'll have to see it in person to decide. Other than that, wow, does this device look hot! HTC Sense - the new term for TouchFlo3D - looks buttery smooth in performance. This looks like it's going to be a great device - and it seems like it's even going to come to North America...

News and leaks about the Touch HD2 nee HTC Leo are now coming in fast and furious. This latest includes (official) confirmation of the name, at least on T-Mobile (sorry folks, Europe only so far). If you want to know when it'll hit the shelves, scuttlebutt from various sources has it that the HD2 will be available by the end of this month from a variety of carriers across Europe and in Australia. Sorry, no pricing info forthcoming just yet, but chances are you're looking at premium positioning with prices to match. Will this come to the US? There's a version with US 3G bands in the works (the HD2 is not a world phone), but nothing confirmed yet.