HTC HD2 preview: First look

Gsmarena have posted a preview of the HTC HD2. Here are the phone's brief features and their final impression.

HTC HD2 at a glance:
General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA, HSUPA
Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
Dimensions: 120.5 x 67 x 11 mm, 157 g
Display: 4.3" 65K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen, 800 x 480 pixels WVGA, multi-touch support
Platform: Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz processor
OS: Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional; HTC Sense user interface (formerly TouchFLO 3D)
Memory: 512MB storage, 448MB RAM, microSD card slot, 2GB card included in the retail box
Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with touch focus and dual-LED flash; VGA@30 video recording
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio
Battery: 1,230 mAh Li-Ion; up to 6 h 20 min talk time, 490 h standby, 8 h video playback, 12 h music playback
Misc: Built-in accelerometer and digital compass, proximity and ambient light sensors, carrying pouch in box, optional car kit
Software: CoPilot navigation software (trial version), Wi-Fi router software, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter integration, HTC Footprints

Well, it's not that everything in the mobile phones world revolves around the iPhone but we couldn't help but note that with HD2 HTC are the first manufacturer to outdo almost everything you'd find on the Apple's device.

It's ironic that it took the competition more than two years, twice the processor speed and twice the RAM to finally beat the UI styling and responsiveness of the iPhone. They still haven't got the hang of sunlight screen legibility, we admit. And the AppStore is miles ahead of any competing software distribution platform. But nonetheless, the HD2 is better, faster and stronger than the current golden standard of UI - the Apple iPhone.

HTC HD2 is the first in the long line of Windows Mobile smartphones to break the conservative tradition of using resistive display. But the HD2 does not stop at that. Its capacitive touchscreen is the biggest display ever put into a mobile phone.

HTC have put a lot of work on software development to make the best out of Windows Mobile 6.5. Really, what is a capacitive touchscreen without multi-touch gestures? And HTC have pulled it off successfully. The image gallery, the Opera browser, Google Maps, and even CoPilot Navigator make use of the pinch zooming and it works flawlessly.

Unfortunately, HTC HD2 won't justify its HD tag again. According to our tests so far, the handset is not capable of playing or capturing HD videos. But anyways, you don't need to watch 720p video on the 4.3-inch screen, WVGA one will do just as fine.

But somewhere there inside the HTC HD2 lives a real dragon. And it's got all the teeth, claws and fire breath to match every opponent the competition might send its way.

We'll that's all about the HD2 that deserves mentioning in a brief preview article. We would surely be putting the HD2 through its paces in the coming days and we hope that this short article would be enough to keep you going while we work on our full-featured review.