Over the weekend, full specifications for the HD2 emerged together with some good news and bad.  The good is that the digital compass has been confirmed, together with USB host functionality for plugging in external peripherals and turning the HD2 into a MID, while the bad is that the smartphone only has a 1,230mAh battery.  That’s likely a size consideration – the HD2 is only 11mm thick, after all – but it’ll be interesting to see what battery life is when the production models arrive.

No new specs or details, but to be honest we know all we need to be sure that the HD2 – aka the HTC Leo – is set to be a stormer of a device.  As well as a huge 4.3-inch capacitive WVGA touchscreen there’s Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor, all the wireless connections you might want and a 5-megapixel camera.

HTC themselves are yet to publicly confirm the existence of the handset, but we’ve seen enough leaks and video to prove that it’s definitely incoming.  As well as the 1GHz Qualcomm CPU the HD2 packs a 5-megapixel camera, capacitive touchscreen with multitouch support and 3G/UMTS connectivity.

The HD2 is listed as having “the largest screen yet on a mobile”, which is actually a 4.3-inch capacitive panel.  Inside there’s Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon CPU and Windows Mobile 6.5; interestingly, rather than showing the usual TouchFLO 3D UI O2 have shown the HD2 with the Start menu open, presumably to highlight the fact that the handset runs the new Microsoft OS.

Early rumors tipped the HD2 as arriving on O2 come October 12th.  However Engadget claim they’ve been informed that has slipped to October 26th; either way, it looks as though next month is going to be an interesting one for smartphones.

[via SlashPhone]

Meanwhile basic CPU performance is also much improved, with the HD2 showing three times the crunching power of the Touch HD’s chipset.  That goes some way to showing the power of Snapdragon, since the Touch HD’s clock-speed is actually only around half of that of the HD2.

Considering our first experience with a Snapdragon-based handset – the Toshiba TG01 – left us seriously disappointed at the seeming lack of speed, this is all welcome news.  One final tidbit – and a welcome one at that – is that while the HD2 may not support multitouch in Internet Explorer Mobile, it does in the Opera browser which apparently will be preinstalled when the handset ships.

[via CoolSmartphone]

Pricing for the HD2 is said to be €550-600 ($805-878), which we’re presuming is a SIM-free, unlocked figure.  That given, the HD2 is likely to be subsidized on a carrier contract.  While the HD2 has previously been shown to have a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen supporting multitouch, the tipster also says that the multitouch won’t work in Pocket Internet Explorer.

The HD2 is based on Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon chipset, runs Windows Mobile 6.5, and has a WVGA resolution display.  Previous tips suggested that it might arrive in the UK, on carrier O2, on October 12th, shortly after Microsoft launch their new smartphone OS.

[via AllAboutPhones]

The HD2 runs Windows Mobile 6.5 on the 1GHz Qualcomm chipset, with a sizeable 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen and all the usual connectivity bells and whistles.  The new Microsoft mobile OS is set to arrive on October 6th, we’re told, so the dates could certainly line up, and HTC themselves have promised new devices in October.

According to the tester, the Leo managed 1.5 days of use – including an hour of video playback, two hours of music, one hour of web browsing, some idle texting and 3G permanently switched on – and comes with USB Host support (as on the Toshiba TG01) for plugging in a keyboard, mouse, or other peripheral.  The Windows Mobile 6.5 phone unfortunately lacks either a TV-out connection or a digital compass.

He’s saying the HTC Leo will arrive by the end of November or early December.  That would certainly fit with previous tips from manufacturing sources.

[via WMpoweruser]

In fact the F1 is expected to arrive on October 6th, and act as one of Microsoft’s flagship launch handsets for the new mobile OS.  It’ll have a 3.8-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and the usual bevy of wireless connectivity; however it’s also tipped to have a lower-than-expected price, coming in at the equivalent of around $555.

The Leo, meanwhile, has neither a firm date nor price attached, though it is tipped to include “multi-sensors for speeds, light and distance”.  Leaks and hands-on shots of the Leo have proliferated over the past week or so, and we’ve also had confirmation that the smartphone uses a capacitive touchscreen that supports multitouch gestures.

Over at mail.ru they’ve been testing the Acer F1, and while impressed by the 1GHz smartphone’s benchmark performance they weren’t so pleased with battery life.  You can check out their video overview below.

According to them, the Leo will launch as the HTC HD2; at least, that’s what the smartphone’s Bluetooth setup screen suggests.  That would certainly fit in with the branding on the back of the handset, which reads “HTC PRO.THREE”, together with earlier suggestions that the Leo would be treated as the next in the Pro line of devices.

Techblog say that, while the handset is large it’s also lightweight, though they also suggest – or at least the Google translation does – that it’s “delicate” which doesn’t sound so good.  However the 1,200mAh battery, large capacitive touchscreen and updated TouchFLO UI all get top marks.

They’ve also posed it next to the HTC Touch Diamond2, and the Leo unsurprisingly dwarfs the smaller WinMo 6.1 handset.  The rear shot of the Leo also tips its potential branding, with HTC labelling it HTCPRO.Three.

ai.rs are promising more photos and a video demo soon (Update: video is below!), but for now have confirmed the specs for the handset that we’ve heard before – lashings of ROM and RAM, all the WiFi and 3G connectivity you could hope for – and are showing off the latest tweaks to TouchFLO 3D.  This is a real pocket-dominator, but we can’t help looking forward to its arrival.

Video demo after the cut

Of course, HTC are no strangers to multitouch – their Hero Android smartphone features the dual-digit technology after all – but it’s yet to have been seen in a smartphone running Microsoft’s platform.  The video also shows some pretty snappy rendering and video playback, which we can only put down to HTC’s using the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.

Multitouch is supported in the picture viewer, video application, mapping app and browser, and looks pretty darn intuitive.  Still no word on when exactly the Leo will debut, but we’re hoping sooner rather than later.

[via wmpoweruser]

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, and the touchscreen is expected – though not yet confirmed – to be a capacitive panel rather than the more traditional resistive.  Onboard memory amounts to 320MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, with a microSD slot for augmenting it.

We’ll have to wait a little longer for hands-on feedback, but if you’re looking for what might be the poster-child of the WM6.5 revolution then the HTC Leo could be your answer.  More details on the Leo here.

[via wmpoweruser]

Video demo after the cut

Leo’s new widget layout and fettled menu bars look great on the Touch HD’s display, even if it’s a little smaller (at 3.8-inches) than the massive 4.3-inch panel the new HTC phone totes.  There are more animations, too, though the whole thing seems to lack speed; that could be because the Leo is expected to have a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, compared the Touch HD’s which is just over half that speed.

Still, if you’re wondering what TouchFLO 3D 2.6 will look like and how it will interact with Windows Mobile 6.5 then check out the video below.  We’re curious to see what Microsoft’s rumored WM6.5 UI refresh looks like, tentatively tipped for early in 2010, but we’ll have to wait for the next round of leaks before seeing that.

[via HDBlog.IT]

That camera comes in at a lower resolution than the last figure – 8-megapixels – we heard, which will be a disappointment to some, but hopefully the rear-panel render (which you can see in the gallery below) will make up for it.  Other specs include a microSD card slot, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS and A-GPS, together with a g-sensor, both ambient light and proximity sensors, and a 3.5mm headset jack.

There’s also dualband WCDMA/HSPA (900/2100MHz) and quadband GSM/EDGE, setting the Leo up for 7.2Mbps downlinks and 2Mbps uplinks, network depending.  ROM is 512MB and RAM 320MB, and the whole thing measures a skinny 121 x 67 x 11 mm.  That’s a little longer and wider than the Touch HD but a millimeter thinner.

No word on pricing, but the HTC Leo is expected to drop onto operators’ shelves in October.

It may seem that HTC gets a large slice of the pie when it comes to mobile phone news and rumors, and maybe that’s not too far from the truth. But when you have this many phones coming out, from all sorts of networks and operating systems, then it’s hard to ignore. Here’s the HTC Leo having another go around the internet, but this time it’s looking a little different.

When the Leo took its first render around these parts, the front-facing speaker was something everyone either hated or loved. But as we can see this time, that silver-plate is missing, and we can see a more “traditional” phone this time around. Here is a refresher on the specifications:

• Manilla 2.5
• 4.3″ WVGA/16:9 screen
• Snapdragon/1GHz processor
• 8MP camera
• Windows Mobile 6.5
• 320MB/512MB RAM/ROM

It’s still believed that the Leo is more Mobile Internet Device than phone, but earlier leaks showed the Leo also having a slide-out keyboard, so even in this image there might be keyboard hiding away. But, this could all be someone’s sick Photoshop fantasy, so take it for what it’s worth.

[via WM Experts]

Going by the leaked specifications from earlier in the week, the Leo will have a 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and dualband HSPA (900/2100MHz).  It will also include a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and a “high powered” dual-LED flash, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the usual WiFi and Bluetooth.

A 1,230mAh battery is suggested, which seems on the low side given the size of the display and the speed of the processor, but the Toshiba TG01 makes do with a mere 1,000mAh pack and did manage to show us all-day runtime.  Finally there’s GPS/A-GPS, an accelerometer and light sensor.  Take the render with the usual pinch of salt – as you might expect, there’s no official comment from HTC themselves – but going by the rumors we should see something arriving later on this year.

[via coolsmartphone]

More HTC Leo specs after the cut

There’s also quadband GSM/EDGE, dualband 900/2100MHz HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, together with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS, A-GPS and a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash.  Internal memory is 512MB of flash and 320MB RAM, while there’s also a microSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack. 

Both light and proximity sensors are included, as is an accelerometer, and the 121 x 67 x 11 mm handset squeezes in a 1,230mAh battery which we can’t see lasting all that long.  “Leo” is just a codename for the device, which is tipped to arrive before the end of 2009.

[via Unwired View]