Hardware

HTC has never had trouble delivering a fabulous looking smartphone when they’ve been on point – and 2012 has proven several times already that this is a year when this king of hardware is going to be bringing the heat all across the board. HTC’s Titan II takes the great hardware points that were live in the first Titan device and increases them from top to bottom. There’s a gigantic 4.7-inch S-LCD on the front, the soft plastic on the front has one cover on it with some excellent patterning for grip and easy usability, and the camera on the back is better than any other Windows Phone released thus far.

This device feels great to hold, looks great, and is as responsive and intuitive as any Windows Phone, great or small, released thus far. The front of this device also has a bit of an “HTC lip” at the bottom where your finger will rest to tap one of the three Windows Phone menu buttons – this added bit makes the whole smartphone seem that much more high class. Curved glass has an extremely favorable effect on the brain when it comes to judging the quality of a smartphone, and this is no exception.

Note HTC’s attention to detail in the photos and video above and below and be sure to compare to the similar stylings on the HTC One series released this year for Android. HTC has different teams working on these phones, clearly, but they’re both quite nice looking in a lot of the same places.

Software

You’re using Windows Phone Mango here, this meaning its essentially the same experience you’d be getting on any other Windows Phone Mango device – the difference here is HTC’s additions, they bulk of them fairly impressive and welcome. Check out the HTC Hub as well as their awesome app listing for apps that will work extremely well on your device right out of the box. The HTC Titan II is the easiest inroad to Windows Phone that an Android-loving HTC fan ever had.

The software also affords you the full abilities of the Windows Phone experience, that being live Tiles, ease in organization on all fronts, and alternate looks at apps you’ve gotten used to seeing look relatively similar on iOS and Android devices. Spotify is a good example of an app which looks extremely different from its iOS and Android versions – though the functionality is very similar. Have a peek at what I mean here:

Connection speed has been fabulous – I’ve experienced some spotty reception here and there in some of the same dead-zones I’ve always had for AT&T here in Minnesota, but once you get too deep into the woods you’re lucky you get anything at all with any phone. That said, LTE worked great when I visited NYC earlier this week, speeds being up to par with the rest of the AT&T LTE devices we’ve reviewed thus far as well. Expect your Windows Phone experience to get a whole lot quicker on the web side of things.

Camera

The camera is one of the bigger sell-points on this device with the ability to take 1080p video and capture photos at 16 megapixels. That said, it appears that HTC did a better job with the photo and video package on the HTC One series with Android than they’ve done here – and with their ImageSense Chip installed on all of those devices, we certainly would hope so. Compared to essentially any other Windows Phone, on the other hand, this device has no competition.

Have a peek at a few examples of what’s going on here in the video and photo departments, and be sure to note that the camera interface as well as physical camera button also take on the good parts of Windows Phone and make the best of them. Taking photos and video with this device is easy and enjoyable.

Front-facing camera

Back-facing camera

Phone and Battery

This device is not exactly a masterpiece when it comes to battery conservation. It has a massive 4.7-inch rather bright display, runs a single-core Qualcomm processor that was made well before their masterpiece S4 processor, and Windows Phone Mango has the ability to run a massive amount of tiles on its home screen flipping and flopping and accessing information live all the time. Because of these reasons, this device will last you a full 8 hours if you’re lucky – but more likely a bit less than that.

Be sure to bring your charger with on this one, folks.

As for phone quality – the sound is clear, calls have been crisp, and I’ve got no complaints. You can get and receive calls with clarity, the phone on the other end of the line being really your only limitation. This is essentially true of all modern smartphones (with a few notable exceptions) so if you’re transferring here from a feature phone: have no worries.

Wrap-Up

Here you’ve got a device that takes everything great about Windows Phone and places it on the most high-quality gigantic device in the field. HTC knows what they’re doing when it comes to delivering top-class smartphones, the HTC One series for Android is proof of that. This device isn’t quite as premium as the HTC One series, as it turns out, but it’s certainly one of the nicest all-round Windows Phones on the market.

You’ll have quite a time choosing between the Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II – and you’ll want to hold both of them before you pop your credit card out. The Titan isn’t as iconic as the Lumia, but it’s got its high points. HTC is here for the long haul with Windows Phone, and the experience they’ve delivered here does more justice to Microsoft’s vision for smartphones than any that have come before.

Our hands-on experience here is broken into two parts so it’s all a bit more digestible to those of you familiar with Windows Phone. I say such a thing because when it comes to software, this device isn’t really any different from any other Windows Phone device other than the few updates Windows Phone 7.5 Mango brought to the experience. Instead what we’ll be concentrating on here most is the elements that make this device unique – namely its camera, its size, and the quality of its hardware build.

The display you’re working with here is a 480 x 800 pixel S-LCD 4.7-inches in size. That means its pretty big, but it’s not the sharpest smartphone in the market at 199 ppi. The display is covered by a piece of reinforced glass that’s curved at the bottom – a really classy touch that’ll make it easier to pull out of your pocket when you’ve got slippery fingers. On the back is a set of several panels of soft plastic – the bottom being a SIM card slot cover as well and having a 3D pattern that, once again, makes this phone extremely easy to grip.

The HTC Titan II has 4G LTE connectivity thanks to AT&T, and it’s 1.5GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor should be more than powerful enough to run any app or function Windows Phone 7.5 and the apps on the platform thus far. Have a peek at the photos above and below, the timeline leading up to this point in our HTC Titan II experience, and the hands-on videos of course as well. Then expect a full review of this device soon!

AT&T will be delivering Windows Phone 7.5 Tango, otherwise known as “Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh” likely some time this summer. They would not give an exact date or time for this update, but did mention that they would indeed be skipping the incremental January update known as 8107. This 7.5 Refresh will instead bring a vast number of updates instead of just bug fixes, which it will of course also include.

Windows Phone will be getting several large bumps from AT&T in coming weeks and months with two giants: the Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II coming with high-end specs and lovely form factors in-tact. These devices will both also likely be coming with Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh installed on them at launch, they leading the way for the rest of the line which will get the update soon after. AT&T’s push for Windows Phone will be gigantic this year, folks, I guarantee you that.

[via Seattle Times]

Specs include a 4.7-inch S-LCD WVGA display, a 1.5Ghz single-core processor, 512MB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. The Titan II does have two stand out features, though. First is the absolutely bonkers 16 megapixel camera, handy for those who take comfort in knowing more is automatically better. The second is LTE connectivity, making the Titan II the second Windows Phone handset to be blessed with the high-speed network option after the Lumia 900. The battery is rated at 1,730mAh, and is all running on Windows Phone 7.5.

While the HTC Titan II’s 16 megapixel camera definitely sounded impressive when it was first announced at CES 2012, Nokia have since stolen the show. They announced the 808 PureView at MWC 2012 with a staggering 41 megapixel camera. Even then, we would note that more megapixels doesn’t automatically make a camera better, with many other factors coming into play. Maybe wait for camera samples to hit the web before throwing down your cash on this one.

The HTC Titan II features a massive 4.7-inch display with a 16-megapixel camera and support for LTE. The device is priced at $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and is expected to be released on March 18, the same day the Nokia Lumia 900 will launch. The Lumia 900 features a 4.3-inch screen with LTE support and is priced at $99.99 with a two-year service agreement.

The slew of Android devices include the smartphone-tablet hybrid Samsung Galaxy Note, sporting a 5.3-inch display, the Samsung Galaxy SII Skyrocket HD, and lower end Samsung Exhilarate, most all of which we’ve seen and heard about before. But what we’re hearing about for the first time is a Sony Crystal tablet, which BGR says will support AT&T HSPA+ and will be priced for $409.99. Dates have not been revealed for these devices yet, but they are planned for release in Q1.