This newest push for the expansion of excellence in the HTC HD2 has revealed the Windows UI (aka originally known as metro) version of Internet Explorer to be taking right around 6 seconds to start up. It’s also being re-realized that this user interface isn’t all that different from what Windows Phone 8 is, showing massive buttons and essentially the same text blocks all around regardless of the app. At the moment this 480 x 800 interface is functional on a base level with some limited amount of apps being able to be opened and worked with by the creator (again, Ctll), as an exercise in the power of cross-loading.

What this entire process represents is a show of convergence in our modern technologically advanced age. One computer is never more different from another than it is from a piece of electronics without a bit of silicon onboard. One piece of software can be ported from one machine to another one way or another, just so long as the person making it happen is willing to dedicate time, effort, and sweat enough to make it happen. With the HTC HD2 we’ve got a beacon of fun and entertainment as much as we have a singular device from which all hacks come.

Have a peek at the timeline below for more news from the past few years surrounding this HTC device and get pumped up about the future for Windows Phone as well. There’s also an HTC event coming up on the 19th in February you really should be watching out for – we’ll be there with bells on, you can bet! Keep your eye on @CotullaCode as well for more hot hacking action.

What you’re seeing here above and below are a set of photos from WPCentral showing how the device is indeed running Windows Phone 8, a software that would certainly have to be twisted and tweaked to heck to have it allowed on such a relatively ancient smartphone. With Windows Phone 8.0.97 running on a Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon processor with a single 1GHz Scorpion CPU and Adreno 200 graphics, we’ve got to wonder if the software is able to creep by at a respectable pace.

With its 480 x 800 pixel display across 4.3 inches, users working with this build will still be seeing 217 ppi, a respectable density for a display even by today’s standards. Of course the HTC DROID DNA’s 440 is in a brand new league, but that’s beside the point. Today it’s all about the glory of getting a software working on a device for which it was never intended.

The HTC HD2 has been hacked to work with Windows Phone 7 as well as 7.5 and 7.8 as well – not to mention the most epic port of all: Android. Don’t forget that it ran MeeGo 1.1 as well! Modders from team DFT presents this hack and reminds us that even with Microsoft’s next-level software-hardware security they call “handshaking” in the form of Bitlocker, there’s always a way to get past.

Video demo after the cut

The usual Spotify functionality – including streaming over 2.5/3G – and offline playlists is present, though you’ll of course need a Spotify Premium account to use the mobile client.  It’s available through the Windows Marketplace for Mobile or by visiting m.spotify.com from your smartphone.

• Search, browse and play millions of tracks
• Stream over WiFi or 2.5/3G – All your existing playlists are available
• Offline playlists – Play your music without an internet connection
• On-the-fly sync – Every track you add to a playlist appears on mobile and computer
• What’s New tab
• Wirelessly sync your local files to your phone
• Starred tracks – tag all your favourites into a special list

Now, it’s worth pointing out that the Aspen we have in is a sales sample for retailers rather than the handset that will – eventually – go on sale. We’re hoping that means build quality will be improved by the time Sony Ericsson boxes and ships them, since the Aspen proved quite creaky and prone to battery door flexing. It’s also unduly tricky to remove the battery itself and access the SIM slot, perhaps not something most users will be doing every day, but frustrating when we were trying to switch between devices. At 12.45mm thick it’s a reasonably tubby handset too.

Happily if the back half of the Aspen was less than impressive, the front made up for it. Although the 2.4-inch display is a resistive touchscreen – complete with a pull-out stylus – we found ourselves more often than not using the hardware keys to navigate it. The D-pad is firm and nicely balanced, as are the main buttons surrounding it, while the QWERTY keyboard is quiet and tactile. Not quite to BlackBerry levels, but better than the slide-out keyboards we’ve seen on other recent smartphones. The squared-off layout takes a little getting used to, if you’ve been using a ‘board with a mild curve to it, but the bowed back of the Aspen makes it comfortable to cradle in the fingers as you peck out messages with your thumbs.

The display itself is servicable if not outstanding, offering 320 x 240 resolution and 65k colors. It’s duller in brightness than some other Windows Mobile devices we’ve seen, though Sony Ericsson’s murky choice of default skin doesn’t help, and there’s plenty of zooming required to see a full website (if indeed it will load in Internet Explorer Mobile). The company has preloaded the SPB Mobile Shell 3.0 – with both professional and lifestyle interfaces – which cover up the regular WinMo homescreen with a new, panel-based system. You can toggle between the two using a dedicated hardware button to the left of the D-pad. Even so, Windows Mobile remains a less than intuitive OS in comparison to iOS, Android or webOS.

Connectivity includes dualband UMTS/HSPA (900/2100) and quadband GSM/EDGE, though Sony Ericsson are also prepping a triband 850/900/2100 UMTS/HSPA version for North America. There’s also WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and a microUSB port, together with a microSD slot (cards up to 16GB supported) and A-GPS. A 3.5mm headphone socket will work either with Sony Ericsson’s bundled headset or your own, though A2DP support means you can use Bluetooth headphones instead.

The Aspen’s 3.15-megapixel camera lacks autofocus or a flash, and while the latter doesn’t particularly disappoint us – our disdain of LED flash units is well known – the fixed-focus makes it of limited use. Shots in normal lighting lacked definition and colors leaned toward the greens and blues; they were also prone to oversaturation in particularly bright environments. Indoors, meanwhile, there was considerable graininess on show in all but the best lit situations. Macro images suffered too, overall relegating the Aspen’s photography skills to little more than the occassional snap rather than a replacement to your dedicated point-and-shoot.

Of course, you could well argue that the business market who might be tempted by the Aspen aren’t so much interested in the smartphone for its photography strengths and instead want a solid phone. Happily the Aspen does well under those considerations, with good call quality and a tenacious grip on a signal. Battery life also proved impressive; perhaps it’s the comparitively small display, but a single charge saw us stretch out use over two days, complete with push email turned on during extended work hours (i.e. switching to only periodic checks while we were asleep) and some voice calls made. Sony Ericsson themselves estimate up to 8hrs of calls or 600hrs of standby, ambitious of course, but in our experience the Aspen certainly has impressive legs.

With Windows Phone 7 on the horizon, though, is decent phone performance enough to merit the Sony Ericsson Aspen? Windows Mobile 6.5.3 may be due for replacement but there are still plenty of people who like the OS and – more importantly – are familiar with its boons, quirks and sizable catalog of third-party apps. The latter in particular is likely to be absent at the high-profile launch of its successor later in the year. There are also some elements of the WinMo experience perhaps unfairly overlooked: its tight, consistent Exchange integration for one, benefiting from the all-Microsoft ecosystem and delivering the sort of enterprise stability rival platforms have only boasted of more recently.

Still, it’s unlikely to be enough – even with Sony Ericsson’s “GreenHeart” earth-friendly branding – to bring in a broad audience, and the Aspen pales in comparison with the company’s own XPERIA range of predominantly Android-based smartphones. It’s not a bad handset, but neither does it do enough to stand out in a market increasingly crowded by superlatives. If you – or your collection of software – are wedded to Windows Mobile, you prioritize battery life above all else, and you prefer a hardware keyboard to touchscreen input, the Aspen could fit the bill. Everybody else would likely find a stronger text-input experience on a BlackBerry or a slicker OS in Android or webOS.

Many thanks to Clove.co.uk for the loan of the Aspen. The smartphone is expected to go on sale later this month, pricing TBA.

Both have WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and a A-GPS, along with an FM radio and a microSD card slot.  Since Windows Mobile is enterprise-minded, there’s obviously push-email support, and Samsung preload the decent Opera browser since Mobile Internet Explorer isn’t too hot.

The Samsung Omnia Pro 4 will be available from July in European Countries, CIS and South Eastern Asia and Omnia Pro 5 will be available from August in SEA, MEA regions, India and Latin America.  No pricing has been announced at this stage.

Press Release:

Samsung unveils smart, social business companions with new Omnia Line-up

Omnia Pro 4 and Omnia Pro 5 bring integrated social experiences to uncompromising young professionals

Singapore – June 15, 2010 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today unveiled the Omnia Pro 4 (B7350) and Omnia Pro 5 (B6520), operated on Windows Mobile 6.5. The devices, on display at CommunicAsia Singapore, are powerful business tools that bring an integrated social experience to busy work schedule.

The Omnia Pro 4, with an interactive touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard, deliver maximum efficiency – ideal for responding to an early morning email or browsing the Web for research. An immersive and responsive touch screen allows users to intuitively browse through photos, music files, and video clips.

The Omnia Pro 5 keeps its style and compactness with the colored QWERTY keyboard. The smartphone that’s both sleek and professional will allow users to achieve maximum productivity away from the office.

“We are continuing to build on the success of the Omnia smartphone with an updated product lineup that caters to the unique needs of young professionals and executives,” said JK Shin, President and head of the Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “The Omnia Pro 4 and Omnia Pro 5 deliver a smart, stylish mobile companion that combine productivity and multimedia functionality.”

Your Mobile Business Partner
Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 will enable office-like productivity on your Samsung Omnia. You can access and edit files right on your smart phone and type efficiently with the ergonomically-designed QWERTY keypad. Office Communicator Mobile allows you to use the same phone number for your mobile and office, so you only have to put one piece of contact info on your business card.

You can join a Cisco WebEx online meeting on the Omnia Pro 4 and collaborate with colleagues around the world. WebEx meetings are supported on the Omnia Pro 4 with simultaneous audio and web conferencing allowing users to view shared presentations, see who joined the meeting, and see who’s speaking and even chat with them.

The Omnia Pro 4 and 5 are also certified by Sybase Afaria, which allows secure access to enterprise applications, creating a seamless business experience regardless of where you are.

Instant Connectivity
With Samsung’s Omnia Pro 4 and 5, users can access the info needed while at a conference, and stay connected to the personal networks while on-the-go. Built-in social networking applications and multiple instant messaging platforms enables users to instantly connect and share content – whether it’s a business presentation or a Facebook update. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB connectivity are also supported for seamless communications.

After Hours Entertainment
With a 3.5mm audio ear jack that accommodates standard earphones and “Sound Alive” technology, the Omnia Pro 4 and the Omnia Pro 5 will enhance music listening experience by superior effects and brilliant sound quality. For snapping the best moment, the Omnia Pro 4 and Omnia Pro 5 support advanced features like “Face Detection” and “Smile Shot” that automatically adjust settings. The smart, social Omnia phones are also ideal for simply watching video and sharing it with friends.

The Samsung Omnia Pro 4 will be available from July in European Countries, CIS and South Eastern Asia and Omnia Pro 5 will be available from August in SEA, MEA regions, India and Latin America.

At its launch, HTC told us that the HD mini embodies their new “Hidden Power” design ethos, where the structural form of a device is embraced by its aesthetic rather than hidden away. Most obvious are the four exposed screw heads that emerge through the rubbery back cover, being not just decorative but what’s actually holding the whole phone together. The front, meanwhile, is a single pane of glass, with a 3.2-inch HVGA 320 x 480 capacitive touchscreen and five touch-sensitive buttons for Call, Home, Start, Back and End. On the side there’s a volume rocker while up top a small power button doubles as the lock key; on the very bottom there’s a microUSB port.

Take off the rubberised back plate and you’ll find HTC have finished the entire rear of the phone with a bright yellow finish, complete with matching battery. It’s eye-catching, certainly, but we can’t help but wish you could see it without having to open the whole thing up. HTC expect transparent or colored aftermarket cases to show up shortly after the HD mini launches, but they’ll need to be more than just silicone skins since the antenna is embedded into the lower section of the cover. It remains to be seen whether HTC’s business market will see the appeal.

HTC HD mini unboxing:

Inside, where the HD2 gets Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon chipset, the HD mini makes do with a more mundane 600MHz processor such as you’d find in the HTC Legend. That’s paired with a Europe/Asia-Pacific friendly dualband HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100MHz radio (with quadband GSM/EDGE), WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and GPS. So far there’s no talk of a US version, so if you decide you’re desperate to use the phone in North America then you won’t get 3G speeds. ROM is 512MB and RAM 384MB, and there’s a microSD slot content with up to 32GB cards. Overall performance proved nothing to write home about, with the CPU running out of breath when trying to deal with data-heavy apps.

As for that ageing OS, the HD mini is HTC’s latest Windows Mobile 6.5 device, toting the HTC Sense interface on top. As is common knowledge now, Windows Mobile is due to be replaced by Windows Phone 7 by the end of 2010, with handsets running the new platform expected to be on sale in time for the holiday shopping season. Lacking sufficient screen resolution, processor grunt and physical controls, there’s pretty much zero chance that the HD mini will see an official Windows Phone 7 upgrade option, though of course there’ll be plenty of unofficial hacked ROMs if that’s the path owners want to take.

Windows Mobile 6.5 has been well criticised, and it’s certainly not the most pleasing OS on the market today. It does have a few strengths, however, not least the decent baked in Exchange support which makes hooking the HD mini up to a corporate network an indecently simple proposal. As for usability, just as we’ve seen on the HD2, HTC’s Sense system goes a long way in improving matters. The regular homescreen is replaced by a finger-friendly UI that allows you to flick between different task-specific tabs, such as the preloaded Opera browser, Footprints GPS photo-tagging app and HTC’s own Peep Twitter client. It also does a decent job of hiding some of Windows Mobile’s less attractive dialog boxes and settings pages.

Nonetheless, in comparison to the flexibility of Android or the intuitive nature of webOS, Windows Mobile 6.5 feels clunky. Sense might pull in Facebook, Flickr and other information into your contacts, and link together different communication records – all emails, SMS, calls and other contact – per individual, but other platforms simply do a slicker job of it. The HVGA display also falls short, and while it’s color-rich it’s also noticeably grainy in comparison to the (WVGA) screen on the HD2. That undermines media playback, and it makes for frustrating web-browsing too, demanding plenty of panning and zooming if you want text to to be readable. The onscreen keyboard, meanwhile, does a decent job of auto-correcting errors and predicting words, but we prefer the experience on the Legend which, despite having the same size and resolution display, we found we were more accurate on.

Photos from the HD mini’s 5-megapixel autofocus camera are passable, if nothing outstanding. There’s no hardware shortcut, just as on most HTC phones, but at least when you finally get to the camera app it loads relatively quickly. Images demand more light than we’ve found on other recent handsets from the company, and there’s no LED flash (though, to be fair, we generally aren’t impressed with their performance anyway). Once you’ve snapped a shot you can upload it with relative ease to Facebook or Flickr.

As a phone, we experienced some issues with the HD mini’s call quality. Both us and the people we were calling experienced static and audio drop-outs, and the audio performance generally fell short of what we’ve come to expect from HTC devices. We weren’t alone in our disappointment, either; we know other reviewers who have found the HD mini falls short in this department. Hopefully this is a pre-production flaw that will be ironed out by the time the handset ships.

Battery life, meanwhile, was certainly enough to get through a full day, even with push email turned on and regular Twitter polling. HTC reckon you’ll see up to 435 minutes of GSM talktime from the 1,200mAh battery, or alternatively up to 500hrs WCDMA standby (340hrs GSM), up to 8hrs video playback, or up to 12hrs audio playback. With more casual use we reckon you could see your way through a couple of days, in fact, which given we’re used to nightly recharges (or even mid-evening top-ups for some greedier devices) is a serious plus for the HD mini. HTC preload their excellent WiFi Router app – which allows you to share the phone’s 3G connection with WiFi devices like a netbook or iPad – but be warned that sucks down power considerably.

There’s no disguising that we’ve been impressed with the recent HTC smartphones to cross our desk, but we need a little extra convincing with the HD mini. It’s not so much that it’s a bad device – though we hope the call quality issues are addressed before production models go on sale – but rather that it lacks that all-important spark. Where the HD2 has enough hardware-wow – the speedy processor, the huge display and the fulsome multimedia handling – to offset the lacking appeal of Windows Mobile 6.5, the HD mini’s more mundane specs can’t quite manage the same.

If you’re wedded to a particular app that demands the current Microsoft smartphone platform – and it’s worth noting that Windows Phone 7 breaks backward compatibility with Windows Mobile 6.5 titles – or you want their solid Exchange support, the HD mini might still appeal; we’d point you to the company’s own HD2, however, which while more expensive offers a far more impressive user experience. Had HTC released the phone this time last year, the outlook for the handset could be very different; faced with a significantly more appealing OS right around the corner, and a wealth of tempting rivals running different platforms on shelves today, the HTC HD mini doesn’t offer enough to warrant buying into Windows Mobile 6.5.

Video unboxing after the cut

Windows Mobile 6.5 – even with HTC’s Sense UI – doesn’t get much attention these days, especially with Windows Phone 7 on the horizon, and it’s worth remembering that there’s no chance of an official WP7 upgrade for the HD mini.  Not only does its 600MHz processor and 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen fall short of the minimum requirements, it has the wrong buttons too.  Still, Sense does make WinMo a more comfortable place to be in, and the HD mini is certainly easier to control single-handed than the broad, flat HD2.

Build quality is high, with the slightly-flexible rubber backing plate (hiding a vivid yellow paint-job) meaning the HD mini doesn’t slip around the desk or your hand.  The HVGA display, mind, is a disappointment when put next to the HD2′s screen, looking grainy in places and meaning that any webpage viewed in the browser has to be zoomed into if you want to stand a chance at reading text.  Menu bars at the bottom seem to occupy more space than ever before, as does the on-screen keyboard, though they at least disappear in the browser when left untouched.

Despite not having the 1GHz Snapdragon processor of its bigger brother, the HD mini seems reasonably speedy and nips between apps without lag.  We’ll see if that stays the case when it’s loaded down with email, media and messages, of course, for the full review.  Still, if you’re looking for a compact business device with excellent baked-in Exchange support and HTC’s gloss, then the HD mini looks like it could be your best bet.  The full SlashGear review will be up soon, but until then enjoy the video unboxing and hands-on gallery below.

HTC HD mini unboxing:

First, to reiterate my view on the market, Microsoft isn’t doing nearly as badly in mobility as some think. I still think Windows Mobile to be vastly underrated in the market. But that’s not the point. As I’ve talked about over and over, nobody’s platform from last year is going to be good enough for next year. The key to Microsoft’s success in future mobility is exactly their willingness to break from the past and focus on the future. Windows Phone 7 Series devices should not run older applications. Microsoft needs to give developers incentive to get on board with something new, and more importantly to show how developers can leverage their code across multiple platforms, devices and do things they couldn’t do before.

We’ve learnt more about Windows Phone 7 at MIX10 this week, and Microsoft did the right thing kicking off the platform’s launch with some impressive demos showing how a game can be built with 90% shared code working on both an Xbox and a Windows Phone 7 device. That’s huge and something that’s going to appeal to a lot of developers.

Among the most glaring things missing from Microsoft’s consumer strategy was a cohesive message between diverse business units. There needed to be a clearly articulated message that recognizes that mobility features among products are interrelated. That means that Windows 7, Windows Phone, XBox, Xune etc all have to work together. It looks like Microsoft is finally getting that message and taking users to that place. Breaking compatibility with older Windows Mobile devices was a hard decision, but it was the right way how to get where they need to be. Sure, it means older stuff takes a hit but more importantly it means there will much more evangelism and excitement for developers who will be able to leverage Microsoft technologies such as Silverlight and XNA to develop across platforms.

If I were Microsoft, here’s what I would do to really drive Windows Phone 7 forward.

1. Clarify the mobility message but recognize there will be overlap between devices and functionality. Multiple Microsoft devices are good and they work together.

2. Ignore the backward compatibility grumbles (mostly coming from folks who said Windows Mobile wasn’t good anyhow) and focus on getting the new features done right and make them work seamlessly.

3. Maximize the experience of product ownership. If owning a Windows PC is good, a Windows PC and Windows Phone should be better. Add in an Xbox and it should be an even better experience. And so on.

The mobile age is really just starting as we move from the medium of voice communication as the core phone drive to the new age of mobile social context. It’s going to take a lot for Microsoft to get there and a good way to start is breaking with the past.

The news comes courtesy of Charlie Kindel, on Microsoft’s Windows Phone developer experience team, who in the process confirms that applications written for Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and earlier versions won’t be compatible with the new platform.  Kindel says that Microsoft will be supporting these devices “for many years to come”, though it’s obvious that the company expects devs to jump on board with Windows Phone 7.

“The expertise and familiarity with our tools is not lost. If you are a .NET developer today your skills and much of your code will move forward. If you are Silverlight or XNA developer today you’re gonna be really happy. New developers to the platform will find a cohesive, well designed API set with super productive tools.” Charlie Kindel, Microsoft

Apparently Microsoft have been meeting with hundreds of developers and ISVs over the past year to find out exactly what they want from a platform, and almost 70-percent prioritised “ease of use”.  Of course, we’d also guess that they look at the potential for success that a platform faces – contrast, say, iPhone OS development versus Palm’s webOS as it stands currently – but Microsoft seem like a pretty reasonable bet there, too.  More at MIX 2010, we’re told.

Video demo after the cut

Like that, it includes the distinctive tile-based Start screen, together with the lockscreen with its time, date and notification icons.  There are transitional animations between pages, as well as profile settings (including WiFi and volume), and he’s even added in various Hubs – Microsoft’s way of distinguishing between sets of common functionality – including Pictures, Games, Media, Office and Stocks.  Right now it’s only suitable for WVGA devices, however, and it’s still in a relatively early development stage.

Frankly, with news coming out of Microsoft that pretty much no Windows Mobile 6.5.3 device will be eligible for a Windows Phone 7 upgrade because of issues with hardware controls, all of a sudden this DIY UI packages are starting to look a whole lot more appealing.  As we’ve said before, when nicely skinned WinMo can be a very usable OS, it’s just not been that attractive in its basic form for several generations.

[via Pocketnow - thanks Geever!]

“We’ve chosen to withdraw Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile because we want to offer our new customers an improved mobile experience – much like the version that has proved so popular on the iPhone, and which is now available on Symbian phones” Skype FAQ

One interpretation of their quote is that they are looking to port the iPhone version across to other platforms, potentially including the upcoming Windows Phone 7 platform set for release later in 2010.  Of course, that’s no good if you want to run Skype on your WinMo device now; handily there’s still a hidden page where you can (for the moment) download the file.

[via the::unwired]

They’ve also junked the resistive touchscreen and replaced it with a capacitive panel, which makes for a far more satisfying navigation experience, and the 1GHz Snapdragon processor seems to perform better in this iteration.  Unfortunately the K01 was sandwiched between glass, so we couldn’t play with the keyboard, but the layout looks reasonable and the benefit of having a vast display is that you’ve plenty of space for your QWERTY.

As for that UI, we’re still in two minds.  It’s a definite improvement over their first-gen effort, and there’s no lag visible (though we’re not sure how much was going on in the background on the demo handsets), but only a review unit will tell whether it errs more on the side of visual gloss than actual usability.

Toshiba TG02 3D UI demo:

The wow-factor of the huge HD2 – which has a 4.3-inch display, don’t forget – isn’t quite there in the HD mini, but the handset doesn’t feel cheap. The whole front panel is glass, and the 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen bright (though it pales a little when next to the AMOLED panel of the Legend), and despite the slower 600MHz processor (the HD2 has a 1GHz chip) Sense on Windows Mobile 6.5.3 flicks through the panes neatly.

The bright yellow color – hidden by the semi-flexible back panel – seems too interesting to hide, frankly, though HTC have previously told us they’re expecting the aftermarket community to offer transparent or translucent replacement covers so you can show it off. It’s certainly a more pocket-friendly device, though you lose none of the functionality of a regular WinMo handset.

In fact we were pleasantly surprised at how it both feels and performs; having seen Windows Phone 7 yesterday and been impressed by the considerable jump over the existing platform, we wondered whether the HD mini would feel hopelessly old-fashioned. Considering it’ll be the only way to get Sense on a WinMo device, those users who prefer HTC’s UI shouldn’t be too disappointed.

Review units should be arriving in time for the April 2010 launch, and we’re quietly interested. Not as eye-catching as the Legend or the Desire, certainly, but certainly not a bad smartphone.

HTC HD Mini Hands-on video demo:

The PDA is ruggedized to IP54 standards and can survive drops of four to five feet. Pharos ships the unit with the Office Mobile Suite installed. Features of the PDA include GPS, a full QWERTY keyboard, 3.5-inch TFT color touchscreen, and WiFi. The PDA also has an integrated microphone and speaker.

The processor is a Marvell PXA310 operating at 624MHz and the device has 512MB of flash ROM and 256MB of SDRAM. Power comes from a lithium ion battery and the PDA includes an AC adapter and USB cable. Screen resolution is 240 x 320 and a microSD card slot is built-in for expansion. The device is available now for $529.95.

Meanwhile Q3 2010 brings the both the Hengshan, a 3.4-inch Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone, and the Huashan.  The latter is the more interesting of the two, frankly, as a 4.3-inch WVGA device which apparently started out life with Android but is now tipped for a switch over to Windows Mobile 6.5.

Finally, in Q4 2010 there are two new Android devices planned, each slotting into relatively budget ranges.  The 2.8-inch QVGA Songshan arrives first, complete with a keyboard, and is followed by the Tianshan, a 3.2-inch QVGA Android phone.  No news for anyone outside of China, of course, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

[via Android Community]

Update: Too good to be true; this isn’t HTC’s work but that of ElCondor from xda-developers; somewhere along the line his watermark has been edited out.  He’s done a great job, too: compare it to the fuzzy image in the leaked roadmap.  If the Trophy looks this good in real life, we’ll take one! [Thanks Sohaib!]

The Trophy is tipped to run a Qualcomm MSM7227 600MHz processor with WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, dualband (900/2100) WCDMA/HSPA and quadband GSM/EDGE.  There’s also a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, microSD card slot, GPS/AGPS, a g-sensor and 512MB flash/256MB RAM.  Connectivity includes a 3.5mm headphone socket and microUSB port, and HTC’s TouchFLO 3D UI with People and Super Search is preloaded on top of WinMo.

Best of all, it’s a skinny little devil, measuring just 11mm thick.  While Windows Mobile might not have the fashionable allure of Android or iPhone OS, there are still plenty of businesses who won’t use anything else and the Trophy could prove a reasonably slick alternative to a BlackBerry.  No word on when it might launch, though with Mobile World Congress 2010 fast approaching there’s a chance we’ll see it sooner rather than later.

[via WMPowerUser]

Talk of the HD2 being the only current-model handset from HTC’s range to be in line for a Windows Mobile 7 update has proliferated over the past few months.  However it now looks possible that only the updated, faster HD2 might be in line for that update; the original version doesn’t meet the unofficial Microsoft specifications for a WM7 device, which calls for at least 1GB of ROM.

Now that doesn’t mean anything conclusive – and indeed it doesn’t mean the T-Mobile USA HD2 will be getting WM7 either – but it’s a potential disappointment to European early-adopters nonetheless.  According to HTC’s site, US buyers will also get a 16GB microSD card, rather than the 2GB card supplied as standard in Europe.

[via WMPowerUser]

Some users have complained that SMS messages get stuck in the HD2′s outbox and refuse to send, and despite the company’s best efforts there are still owners unable to use text messaging reliably.  We didn’t experience any issues with our HD2 review unit, it has to be said, but this is obviously a frustrating situation for owners of HTC’s Windows Mobile flagship to be experiencing.  Let us know in the comments how the update goes for you.

[Thanks Ollie!]

Connectivity includes HSDPA 900/2100 support, along with WiFi and Bluetooth, and there’s also a 3.5mm headphone socket and a microSD card slot.  The underlying chipset is a Qualcomm 7227 600MHz processor with 512MB apiece of RAM and ROM, and the whole thing measures 116 x 58 x 14.3 mm while tipping the scales at 138g.

Garmin-ASUS will bundle the M10 with either a spare 1,500mAh battery or a car-cradle for using the Windows Phone as an in-car PND.  It’s available for preorder now, priced at 13,900 TWD ($435).  Garmin-ASUS are also expected to launch a number of Android smartphones in 2010.

[via SlashPhone]

T-Mobile’s coup hardly comes as a surprise, however, since we’ve already seen the carrier’s introduction ROM running on the HD2.  Even earlier than that, ROM-tinkerers spotted various T-Mobile specific content in a leaked software build.

No pricing or specific availability has been mentioned as yet, but we don’t expect the HD2 to be particularly cheap given the high specifications.  Full details – plus our opinion – in the conclusive SlashGear HD2 review.

HTC HD2 highlights:

[via Twitter]

Going by the contents of the External Packages folder, the US HD2 will run the Leo ROM 2.01 and Windows Mobile 6.5 build 21869.  It will have Opera 9.7.0.35627 and Teeter 2.0, along with the TMOUS_Manila_Core 2.5.1921401.  Obviously there’s all the regular HD2 goodness onboard, including HSDPA/HSUPA, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, GPS and a 4.2-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen with multitouch support.

WMExperts tipsters are whispering about a March 2010 launch, right at the end of that Q1 window.  Not sure what all the HD2 fuss is about?  Check out our review of the Windows Mobile 6.5 device here.

HTC HD2 highlights:

As for the Motorola Devour A555, that’s believed to be the latest name for the Motorola Calgary and is described as “the little brother” of the Verizon DROID by Motorola.  It’s expected to have a 3-megapixel camera and Android 2.1, together with the MOTOBLUR interface and social networking system.

Finally, the LG VS750 is a Windows Mobile 6.5 device and is LG’s first for Verizon.  According to the leaks it will be a so-called world phone, with both CDMA and GSM support, and is tipped to be “very thin”.  It’s supposedly still in testing at present.

All of the expected features are there, including HTC Peep – the Twitter client – and Footprints, their photo geotagging app.  The hacked ROM is the handiwork of Rodrigo from the MoDaCo forums, and you can see it demonstrated in the video below.

Updated: We’ve contacted HTC for a comment, and unsurprisingly they’re not confirming anything.  ”We cannot comment on speculation or rumour,” HTC tell us, “but we’re excited about our upcoming roadmap and encourage you to watch this space.”

HTC have seemingly organised the devices between four categories: Design/Lifestyle; Social; Performance; and Productivity.  All of the Windows Mobile handsets drop into that final category, while the HTC Bravo is the sole Performance device.

Design/Lifestyle:

HTC have two handsets in this category, the HTC Legend – described as the successor to the HTC Hero – which is just 11.4mm thick, drops the trackball in favor of an optical mouse, and is set to arrive in March 2010, and the HTC Salsa.  The Salsa is a new form-factor for HTC’s Android devices, being an 8.6mm thick candybar with full QWERTY keyboard; it’s set to arrive in June 2010.

Social:

The HTC Tide will arrive in April 2010, and look more like a traditional cellphone with a touchscreen above a regular numeric keypad; meanwhile the HTC Buzz uses replaceable covers, similar to the HTC Tattoo, but in a larger device with a 3.2-inch display and 5-megapixel camera.  The Tide and Buzz will arrive in April and May 2010, respectively.

Performance:

Sole resident in the performance category is the HTC Bravo, the company’s “killer phone”.  As well as Snapdragon it will pack 256MB or 512MB of RAM, a 16GB microSD card in the box and a 1,400mAh battery, and arrive in April 2010.  This seems to be the same handset as referred to as the HTC Passion, though DigiTimes is reporting that the Passion would have a 3.5-inch OLED note 3.7-inches.  Their release estimate – early 2010 – does at least fit with this roadmap, however.

Productivity:

Three Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets occupy this category, the HTC Photon, HTC Trophy and HTC Tera, apparently set to launch in April, May and April 2010 respectively.  The Photon has a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and 600MHz Snapdragon processor, while the Trophy is a QWERTY candybar with a slightly smaller 3-inch VGA display and the same 5-megapixel camera.  Finally the HTC Tero has a Touch Pro2 form-factor with a slide/tilt touchscreen revealing a QWERTY keyboard and a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back.

Full details and images in the gallery below.

[Thanks Peter and Dom!]

Video comparison after the cut

According to Xmoo, build 1.48 is a lot faster than 1.43 NLD as installed on his other HD2.  The calendar bud – which was stopping some users from browsing past the end of the year – has been addressed, and emails open as they should.

Perhaps most importantly, overall speed is increased; we never really had an issue with the speed that the HD2 ran at, thanks in no small part to the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, but anything that ekes out some more speed is always welcome.  There’s no sign of an official update at HTC’s site, but forums such as xda-developers will likely have the goods.

[via wmpoweruser]

The TerreStar Genus is, at first glance, a pretty straightforward Windows Phone, with a touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and a QWERTY keyboard.  There’s also a camera on the back and a 3.5mm headphone socket on the side, together with a microUSB port.

Of course, once you look at the side profile of the smartphone, you begin to see the compromises made to squeeze in satellite functionality.  It’s not exactly a slender handset, and nor are we expecting it to be a cheap one; AT&T haven’t revealed pricing as yet, but given the usual costs inherent in satellite calls/data, this is likely to remain a pretty niche device.

[via NaviGadget]

Video demos after the cut

The API supports two-fingered multitouch, and offers support for gestures rather than simply pinch-zooming (as can reasonably easily be hacked into the HD2 across the board, extending HTC’s own pinch-zoom system).  Instead it offers true two-point positioning information that software can use to recognize gestures, movement and the like.

The two videos below – from wmpoweruser – show the system in action, and l3v5y is apparently working on an art app for the HD2 that will allow you to paint with two fingers at once.  If you’re familiar with C++/Win32 development then he says you should find integrating multitouch relatively straightforward.

[via pocketnow]

Update: The LG eXpo product page is now live – thanks Alejandro!

Update 2: Pricing is confirmed at $199 for the LG eXpo itself (assuming a new, two-year contract and a mail-in rebate) and $179 for the pico-projector attachment.

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera and a microSD card slot, together with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.  Where you’d usually expect to see a D-pad or trackball, LG have squeezed in what looks to be a fingerprint scanner which we’re guessing both controls horizontal scrolling as well as biometric security.

Full details about the LG eXpo are still unknown, as is the pricing for the Windows Phone.  However it will apparently arrive on December 7th in the US, which means LG have about a week to push out full specifications.

Update: According to the product page the eXpo (aka the LG GW820) has WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, triband UMTS (850/1900/2100) and a 1,500mAh battery.  The data sheet also indicates a 3.2-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, 1GHz Qualcomm processor and confirms that in fact the fingerprint scanner manages not only horizontal but 5-way scrolling.  The projector, meanwhile, can create images up to 40-inches; no word on resolution as yet.

[via MobileBurn]

Of the devices Acer launched this year, only the Liquid A1 runs Google’s Android platform.  The remaining handsets use Windows Mobile, and it seems Acer have been surprised by the popularity of the open-source OS: “There is definitely momentum behind Android,” Lencquesaing explained, “the pace is faster than most would have anticipated one year ago.”

As for the Liquid A1 itself, it will go on sale over the coming seven days.  It has a 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, HSDPA, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, together with GPS and a 5-megapixel camera; unfortunately Acer have underclocked the 1GHz Snapdragon processor in the Liquid to 768MHz.

Being based on the 1GHz Snapdragon chipset, the Mangrove is around as powerful as the Quanta Smartbook; however, and as we’ve seen with the HTC HD2 Microsoft’s smartphone platform can certainly whip along when it has that many spare CPU cycles to play with.  In use it certainly felt snappy, but we missed the HD2′s capacitive touchscreen – C-motech have used a resistive panel – and the resolution appears to still be WVGA 800 x 480 so you’re not really gaining a huge amount display-wise for the extra inches.

What you do get is a pair of USB ports which turns the Mangrove into a pretty decent netbook-alternative, plus integrated WiFi, 3G and WiMAX.  Niche is certainly our lasting impression of the C-motech slate, though we’ll need to know final pricing before we can give a final judgement.

Of course, there are various unofficial ways to get WM6.5 onto the XPERIA X1, though none of them carry the assurance of company support should you accidentally brick your smartphone.  Sony Ericsson seem to be making something of a habit of cutting off older devices from newer developments; at the launch of the XPERIA X10, the company’s first Android smartphone, last month, executives there confirmed that the distinctive (and “platform-agnostic”) Timescape and Mediascape apps would not be offered to those who buy the company’s current touchscreen flagship, the Sony Ericsson Satio.

[via wmpoweruser]

According to the Windows Team blog, around 90-percent of the titles in the Marketplace should support the older versions of the OS, and the app will support not only free but paid titles too.  Users of the 6.0 and 6.1 smartphones should hop over to http://mp.windowsphone.com/ from their handset in order to download it; alternatively those in the US can use this form to have a direct download link sent to them.

Anyone content to sign up to a two-year agreement and pay £35 ($58) or higher per month can take away the HD2 without putting a penny down for the handset itself.  That gets you 900 minutes to other mobiles, and unlimited landline calls, SMS and internet access.  Overall you’ll be paying £840 ($1,393) over the course of your contract; buying an HD2 outright and SIM free is currently around £500 ($829) from online retailers, and you might struggle to find an unlimited internet tariff for £14 per month over the next two years.

Meanwhile O2 UK are tipped to be launching the HD2 themselves on November 23rd, so there’s a couple of weeks to wait if you’d rather go with them.  US buyers who aren’t content with EDGE speeds – the Euro HD2 lacks US 3G support – will have to wait until early 2010, when it’s expected to land on “a major carrier” as-yet unnamed.

[via CoolSmartPhone]

The HD2 is marked by two features not usually found on most Windows Mobile phones. The first is a capacitive touch screen. This is the first Windows Mobile device that has no stylus and is totally designed for input by touch alone. The second is a 1GHz Snapdragon processor that makes Windows Mobile and especially the HTC Sense UI fly. Finally, add in a gorgeous 4.3″ screen and you realize this is not your father’s Windows Mobile device.

While all the goodness of Windows Mobile 6.5 is there, HTC has taken thing to a new level with this latest version of their Sense UI. The ability to see quick information such as Twitter updates, stocks, weather, email etc without the need to go into an app is wonderful, and the speed with which one can move from screen to screen is amazing. Even better, the HD2 fully supports multitouch so zooming in and out of web pages, photos and word documents is simple, fast and fluid (it’s getting harder and harder for me to use a touchscreen device that lacks multi touch). HTC has replaced the stock Windows Mobile keyboard for their own and, combined with the large screen and fast processor, typing was easy and fast. I was able to get about the same speed as I get using the iPhone, something that I’ve not been able to do on any other devices.

Media is fantastic and HTC offers a cool music player (with an Apple-esque cover flow that’s smooth and fast) and of course the photo and video viewing. There’s also Windows Media Player for those looking for Microsoft sync from the desktop. The default browser is Opera which is fantastic and supports multi touch. (IE is much improved but pales next to Opera).

I did run into some legacy issues. One odd missing feature is there’s no way to add a user name to the device as in prior versions of Windows Mobile (including stock versions of 6.5) That’s an issue as that’s a vehicle older apps use to register and validate. No user name, no registration. Word is there will be a fix for this sometime shortly. There’s also no d-pad buttons so older titles that depended on physical buttons won’t work well or work at all. The good news is that I had no problems downloading new titles from Marketplace that all worked fine on the device, including classic games such as Galaga and Tetris. Finally, given that this is a European device, there’s no 3G here in the US which tends to slow everything down including web browsing. Using WiFi or MiFi fixed that problem and of course, any device that makes it to the US will likely have 3G on board.

HTC proved an important point with the HD2. It’s possible to take Windows Mobile 6.5 and make it a tier one mobile experience. No doubt it was hard work (for example, HTC had to implement multi touch on its own as there’s no native support for it in Windows Mobile). Oddly, despite all the buzz this device has garnered it seems the only people not talking about it are Microsoft folks. One reason for that is the HD2 is only available in Europe (and remember if you’re thinking about finding one and bringing it to the US note you’ll be stuck on EDGE as there’s no US 3G support). The good news is HTC says it’s bringing the device to the US early next year (no carrier was named as of this point) and perhaps we’ll see Microsoft start promoting it properly as they should. HTC has done an amazing job showing what one can do with Windows Mobile. The question is will see other licensees getting in the game and raising the bar higher?

Want a second opinion on the HTC HD2?  Check out the full SlashGear review with hands-on video.

As you’ll have seen from our unboxing and initial hands-on, the HD2 isn’t exactly a retiring, discrete device. Measuring in at 120.5 x 67 x 11 mm (4.74 x 2.64 x 0.42 inches) it’s long and broad but surprisingly thin; in comparison, the Touch HD is 115 x 62.8 x 12 mm and the iPhone 3GS is 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm, meaning they’re both a little shorter and narrower but actually minutely thicker than the HD2. In the hand it feels even thinner, thanks to the tapering curve of the backplate and the subtly bevelled edges, though it’s a reasonably hefty device at 157g (5.54 oz) compared to the Touch HD’s 147g (5.185oz) and the 3GS’ 135g (4.8oz). As for materials, HTC have used soft-touch plastic for the top and bottom rear panels, broken up by the metal battery cover; it feels an expensive, quality design, and there’s no creaking or flexing. It’s also surprisingly pocketable: we’ve been carrying it in our front jeans pocket with no issues, though it also slips neatly into a jacket pocket, predominantly because of the thinness.

HTC HD2 unboxing:

The expanse of fascia is put to good use with a huge touchscreen, the glass front of which explains some of the HD2′s weight. Considering there’s relatively little difference between the HD2 and the Touch HD face-on, the fact that HTC have squeezed in a 4.3-inch LCD versus the older phone’s 3.7-inches is amazing. As before, it runs at 800 x 480 WVGA, but this time around HTC have used a capacitive panel rather than a resistive one. That means there’s no stylus for pecking at the screen or using handwriting recognition, but HTC have more than made up for the latter’s omission with the addition of multitouch woven through Windows Mobile 6.5. Hardware controls are squeezed down to a single row running along the bottom of the display – talk/send, home, start, back and end/power – with a volume rocker on the left-hand side; unlike other HTC handsets there’s no lock/unlock button on the top edge, with the power key doubling up for that purpose.

It’s hard not to be blown away by the quality of the HD2′s LCD. Colors are incredibly vibrant, edges crisp and pictures incredibly contrast-rich. While we’ll come to HTC Sense’s UI enhancements later, the default weather display – which has migrated from being locked in its tab and now sends clouds, thunder, lightning and rain roaming across the full home pane – is mesmerizing, and the menus have a welcome splash of color compared to TouchFLO 3D’s more monochrome scheme. As for the touch responsiveness, we found the HD2 requires a little more pressure than the iPhone 3GS, but it’s a very minor difference and casual sweeping gestures feel natural and intuitive. Going back to a resistive touchscreen after the HD2, even the decent one on the Touch HD, is a recipe for disappointment.

While the excellent capacitive panel is half of the story, the HD2 owes the rest of its hardware magic to its chipset. Unlike the somewhat tired 528MHz Qualcomm processors we’ve seen in recent HTC models (both in its Windows Mobile and Android ranges) the HD2 gets a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor paired with 512MB of ROM and 448MB of RAM. This isn’t, of course, the first time we’ve seen Snapdragon on a Windows Mobile device – the Toshiba TG01 was first to market with it, though it proved less of a draw than we expected – but it’s the first time we’ve really seen the chipset shine. There’s practically no lag in moving between applications, pages and menus render instantly, and even with a dozen applications running in the background – WinMo6.5 seems as reluctant to automatically close them as its predecessors were – there’s no slow-down.

Connectivity comes as no disappointment either. The HD2 supports quadband GSM (850/950/1800/1900) and dualband HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100 in its Europe/Asia-Pacific form, though HTC promise the latter will be tweaked for US bands when it arrives in North America early in 2010. There’s also WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (with pretty much all the profiles you might want, including A2DP stereo audio) and – for the first time on an HTC Windows Phone – a microUSB port rather than the company’s own, proprietary ExtUSB connector. On the base, next to the USB port, is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

There are also plenty of other sensors stuffed inside, with GPS, a digital compass and an accelerometer. Meanwhile an ambient light sensor and proximity sensor both cluster up by the earpiece, used to automatically adjust the screen backlight and turn the panel on or off when you’re holding it to your face during a conversation. Finally, on the back there’s a 5-megapixel autofocus camera and a dual-LED flashlight, though you don’t get a dedicated camera shortcut key.

Even with all that connectivity, even with the excellent touchscreen and decent build-quality, with Windows Mobile 6.5 alone the HD2 wouldn’t succeed. What makes the key difference is HTC’s work on augmenting, tweaking and – in various places – completely replacing Microsoft’s native UI with their own. On the HD2 it’s called HTC Sense, and it borrows much of the UI work that the company did to such good effect on the HTC Hero Android smartphone. Sense, HTC have previously explained to us, is the culmination of three or more years’ work fettling mobile interfaces, and it’s what differentiates the company as probably the key Windows Mobile licensee right now.

The Hero’s menu structure hasn’t been wholly dragged over to the HD2. Instead, much of what’s familiar from various iterations of TouchFLO 3D is still in place, only brought neatly up to date. The homescreen still consists of various tabs, navigated either by dragging the control bar along the bottom of the screen or, more simply, swiping with a finger or thumb to the left or the right. This latest version has Home, People, Messages, Mail, Internet, Calendar, Stocks, Photos & Videos, Music, Weather, Footprints, Twitter and Settings panes, most of which have been modified in some way from their previous formats. With the exception of Home you can rearrange or hide any tab.

With all the extra screen real-estate to play with, we’re glad to see HTC have reworked the panes to offer more information. The home tab gets the usual large clock with a small weather preview integrated, with a small calendar preview box for imminent events and the next scheduled alarm directly underneath. Finally, there’s a row of three user-assignable shortcut buttons, and you can drag the screen up to reveal several more. These can be linked to apps, webpages or individuals for instant speed-dial. Tapping on the main clock takes you to the world clock, while tapping the calendar or alarm boxes takes you through to either the calendar tab or the alarm control respectively.

The People, Messages, Mail, Calendar, Stocks and Internet tabs have all gained more shortcuts or bigger previews, to suit the larger display, as has the Photos & Videos tab. The Weather tab shows a full five-day forecast – today’s weather up-top, the next four days in a row underneath – and offers the same shortcut access to a weather site as previously. The Music pane is little changed but the controls are larger and more finger-friendly.

Footprints is HTC’s geotagging app, and as we’ve seen on other devices it’s a reasonably useful tool if you like to maintain a record of where you’ve been. It allows you to snap a photo – embedded with your GPS position – and then add voice notes, text and a star rating to remind you about that location at a later date. We still wish HTC would add some sort of comprehensive sharing feature, which would allow you to swap points-of-interest with other Footprints users, or even have them flagged up whenever the phone spots you’re near a Footprint memory that someone else has “left behind”.

Twitter, meanwhile, is the same HTC Peep client from Android, and it works fairly well. As well as showing your Twitter stream in the homescreen pane, you can also tap into the app and then swipe across to see @ replies, direct messages and any starred tweets that you’ve marked as a favorite. It’s possible to respond directly from Peep, as well as send direct messages or tweet your location, though you can only have one account logged in at any one time. You can also see other users’ profiles, browse their recent messages and follow/unfollow them from the Peep UI. Updates can be set to manual or at regular intervals, though the most frequent is every five minutes, and you can choose between several settings for the number of tweets to download. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Peep is trying to navigate a long list of messages; the kinetic scrolling is relatively slow, and while other apps – such as SMS or email lists – have a handy little drag-tab that you can “pull out” from the right-hand side of the screen with a quick thumb-swipe, then speedily drag up or down, there’s no such thing in Peep. If there’s a way to double-tap to speed to the top of the list, we haven’t found the right place to tap.

HTC have been steadily adding more options to the Settings tab, and on the HD2 it’s now the central place to modify most of the phone’s core functionality rather than merely a shortcut to Windows Mobile’s own menu. The settings button in the regular WinMo Start honeycomb links to this tab too, and you can then go in and play with the wireless settings, change wallpapers and how the screen behaves, and make other tweaks. Like just about all the pop-up and contextual menus we could find, HTC have reskinned the settings pages with large, finger-friendly buttons and kinetic scrolling lists, and there are plenty of easily-controlled toggle switches rather than old-fashioned check-boxes.

There are a few unusual decisions – or, dare we say, remnants of Microsoft’s handiwork – left over, however. For instance, while the Data section of settings allows you to choose how often ActiveSync updates during peak and off-peak times (from instantly, through to every four hours or manually), to actually change what are considered peak/off-peak times you have to go into ActiveSync itself, through the Start menu. Other times it’s unclear where exactly a setting is lurking; the event – new SMS, email, etc – alert dialog has toggle switches for the various sounds, but unless you tap the text itself you might never find that this particular sub-menu leads to a sub-sub-menu where you can change the sound itself.

There’s also none of the widgets we so enjoyed in HTC Sense on the Hero, since the homescreen concept is different between Android and Windows Mobile. While you can have numerous shortcuts to applications – such as the preloaded Facebook app – you can’t add a new pane to the roster and see, say, friends’ status updates direction from the homescreen.

That’s a shame, because Facebook is the other social networking service with which HTC have done the most work to integrate. Like on the Hero, if you choose to log in to Facebook the HD2 will pull in contacts from there and intermingle them with your regular address book. Duplicates are merged (and you can manually connect any the system omits, usually only the case if people have used different names) and from each contact entry you can see their profile pictures and their recent status updates. One missing feature is Flickr integration: the Hero allows you to link a Flickr account with each contact entry, and see those galleries too, but that’s not present on the HD2.

HTC HD2 first-boot:

It’s slick, but even reskinned it’s hard to escape the fact that Windows Mobile lags behind webOS and Android for natively integrating various social networks into the core system. Still, it’s a very usable setup, and coupled with some of the contact linking systems HTC have already used on devices like the Touch Pro2 and Diamond2, which show you recent SMS, email and calls with each contact in different tabs, plus the ability to trigger new conversations by tapping on the contact’s name wherever you see it, and it makes the HD2 far easier to navigate. There’s none of that app-hopping feeling you used to get with Windows Phones.

While there’s no hardware QWERTY keyboard on the HD2, the smartphone’s vast touchscreen means that’s all but negligible. HTC’s reworked on-screen keyboard systems have been carried over from their recent Android devices, and the combination of (individually switchable) auto-correction and word prediction are fantastic. In portrait orientation the keys are ideally sized to hold the HD2 with one hand and peck with one or two fingers on the other; flip into landscape orientation – which is an almost instantaneous rotate – and it’s the perfect layout for two-handed use. Gripping the HD2 with your fingers and reaching over with both thumbs, we’ve found typing on the HTC is quicker than using many hardware keyboards.

Unfortunately, the few issues we’ve had with software on the HD2 have also related to the keyboard. On a couple of occasions we’ve seen strange lag in keys recognising they’ve been pressed: either the tap is missed altogether, or there’s a pause before the HD2 vibrates and the letter appears on-screen. Despite our testing, it’s proved difficult to find replicable situations when this happens, but it mars an otherwise incredible text-entry system. There’s also a bizarre omission of landscape keyboard support in HTC Peep, which undermines a little the HD2′s Twitter-heavyweight status.

If Footprints is to remind you where you’ve been, then Google Maps is to tell you where to go. We wish HTC had access to Google’s latest Maps Navigation beta, as debuted on the Android 2.0 Motorola DROID, but we doubt we’ll see that app – which delivers turn-by-turn directions, voice-prompts, text-to-speech and other niceties – on Windows Mobile any time soon. Instead you’re looking at the same Google Maps install that’s familiar from previous Windows Phones, though don’t underestimate how much easier it is to navigate when you’re working with a 4.3-inch display. Given that some standalone PNDs have smaller panels, that’s quite an advantage. We found the GPS itself to be reasonably accurate, while panning through the maps was only limited by the speed of our connection – the HD2 kept up with all the scrolling, pinch-zooming and screen-rotating we tried, with no delay at all.

Those gestures – and that decent lick of speed – is shared by the browser, aided by the fact that HTC have continued to shun Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer Mobile (which we found struggled to render pages correctly) and instead make Opera Mobile the default. It’s a capable browser on even compact smartphones, so give Opera 4.3-inches to play with and the HD2 web experience really shines. Zooming is impressive whether you double-tap to bring up a block of text or an image – the screen reflowing accordingly – or whether you pinch with multitouch, and pages are quick to load. We ran some comparison tests against the Nokia N900, another device with an excellent browser, and were blown away by the HD2′s rendering speed. As you can see from the table below, with two exceptions the HD2 consistently outperformed the N900 on the same WiFi connection accessing a range of common sites.  It’s worth noting that our timings ran from the moment we hit ‘Go’ to the moment the phone browser stopped loading; you could actually be reading through each page sooner than the total time taken (adverts, in particular, loaded slower than core site content).

Media playback on Windows Phones still lacks the finesse that the iPhone offers, and while HTC Sense does improve the GUI of the HD2′s PMP functionality, it’s still not as intuitive as Apple’s devices. Similarly, loading content either onto the HD2′s internal storage or, more likely, a microSD card isn’t as straightforward as iTunes makes it. This isn’t unique to the HD2 – or even to Windows Mobile – but it’s a frustration all the same. Thankfully once you’ve got your content on the handset, audio and video performance are both excellent. The HD2 manages to squeeze in a reasonable speaker, and the standard 3.5mm headphone jack outputs excellent, hiss-free audio. Video playback is as judder-free and crisp as you’d expect from the Snapdragon processor and 4.3-inch display, respectively.

Photos from the 5-megapixel camera unfortunately look better on the HD2′s display than they do when you get them off-device. We’ve criticised recent handsets from the company for failing to live up to their megapixel count, and sadly the HD2 seems to be continuing the family tradition. Daylight shots show unusual coloring, while night shots suffer by virtue of the LED flash having a relatively narrow breadth of effectiveness. On the other hand, close-up pictures are surprisingly crisp and clear, and those hoping to use the HD2 to send text off to transcription apps such as Evernote and OneNote will be impressed with the results. Touch focus works well, and the camera is quicker to lock focus than any HTC we’ve used in recent memory. There are some sample shots – full-sized and unedited – in the gallery. As for video recording, maximum resolution is 640x 480 and the results are fair, if a little short on crisp focus. We’d still recommend a Flip camcorder or similar over the HD2, but for spontaneous uploads to YouTube the video function should suffice. On that note, such uploads are made very straightforward thanks to HTC Sense’s YouTube integration.

Recent HTC phones have been strong performers when it comes to basic phone tasks, and the HD2 is no different. While it lacks the excellent speakerphone system of the Pro2 – likely because they couldn’t fit in the required microphone array and larger-than-average speaker – it’s nonetheless loud and clear. The proximity sensor, which controls the display while you’re on a call, is quick to act and very useful, and helps avoid those accidental-hang-ups when you inadvertently cut off a call while trying to flick the screen back on. HTC have also added in a few neat uses of the other sensors they have to play with; you can have the HD2 automatically increase ring volume if it thinks it’s in a pocket or bag, and you can also set it to quieten the ring if you pick up the phone, for example while checking caller ID. If you then decide not to answer, flipping the HD2 screen-down onto the desk will silence it. None of it is rocket science, of course, but it adds up to a more intuitive way of interacting with the phone.

Another example of that is the HTC WiFi connection sharing app, which turns the HD2 into a sort of MiFi. While there have been other apps on Windows Mobile and other smartphones which do the same thing – allow you to tether a WiFi client to them, and share the handset’s 3G connection – this new app is particularly more straightforward, automatically securing the connection and prompting you with a passcode. Our only reservation about it is its limit to one WiFi client connected at any time, unlike the Novatel MiFi which supports up to five simultaneously. Still, if you’re short of a WiFi hotspot and have an unlimited data plan, it’s a great way to get online in a pinch.

When we met with HTC at the HD2′s launch, one of our key concerns was the handset’s battery life. CEO Peter Chou assured us that they’d been working to ensure at least a full-day of use from a single charge, but with a relatively compact 1,230mAh battery we had our doubts. In practice, though, the HD2 has proved surprisingly capable, getting us through a day with Exchange push email turned on, frequent web browsing, some media playback, messaging and the occasional call. Nightly charges are par for the course in smartphones right now, and while we’d like a nightstand-friendly docking cradle like some rival handsets are offering, we can’t fault the HD2 for its runtimes.

Speaking of cradles, HTC may not offer a desktop dock but they are planning an in-car holder. That will grip to the dashboard or windshield and, using a replacement battery cover with a special port, hold the HD2 in portrait or landscape orientation. It’ll also trigger a special navigation-themed menu, which has proved otherwise inaccessible despite our exploration of the smartphone. The car cradle for the HD2 won’t be available until December, we’ve heard.

Similarly unclear is the availability of the HD2 itself. HTC announced earlier this week that it was already shipping in Europe, would arrive in Asia come November, and on a “major carrier” in the US in early 2010. Nonetheless, it’s still proving difficult to find, as is a price. Preorder prices in the UK are hovering around the £439 point ($730) SIM-free and unlocked, though obviously contract prices will be lower. In the US, we’d expect this to be at the top end for smartphones, which could be anything from $200 to $400 depending on carrier and wireless plan. HTC are promising more details closer to US launch.

There’s certainly a lot for the HTC HD2 to live up to. Not only does it have the legacy of the game-changing Touch HD hanging over it, it arguably represents the best chance of ongoing success for the Windows Mobile platform, at least among mainstream consumers. The good news is that it’s a tremendously capable device, though the irony is that HTC have had to throw our or rework much of what Microsoft have done in order to get the HD2 to that stage. Windows Mobile 6.5 still lurks underneath, but HTC Sense all but smothers it in a UI that’s intuitive and flexible.

It’s not a perfect smartphone – the camera, for instance falls short of what we’d expect from a flagship handset – but its strengths certainly outweigh its failings. We’d have difficulty overstating how well internet access is handled, and the HD2 could legitimately be called a MID-smartphone crossover; the combination of speed and screen size comfortably place it ahead of phone rivals. Underscoring all that is decent phone performance and the sort of build quality you’d expect for what will be a premium price. Microsoft can breathe a huge sigh of relief, because HTC have just given them the handset that bridges the gap between now and Windows Mobile 7.

HTC HD2 highlights:

What makes the HD2 special is that it’s the first Windows Phone with a capacitive touchscreen supporting multitouch, along with the fact that it uses the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.  That touchscreen is a full 4.3-inches, and is paired with a 5-megapixel camera, HTC Sense UI and high-speed UMTS/HSPA connectivity.

Right now HTC are keeping pricing and specific availability details close to their chest, but we expect we’ll hear more toward the end of the year.  For our unboxing and first-impressions of the HTC HD2, head over here; we’ve also got a hardware/software keyboard show-down with the Nokia N900 here.

HTC HD2 unboxing:

Press Release:

HTC HD2TM SHIPS IN EUROPE AND ASIA COMING TO THE US IN EARLY 2010

HD2 demonstrates the tight integration between Microsoft and HTC

TAOYUAN, Taiwan – November 4, 2009 – Today, HTC Corporation chief executive officer, Peter Chou, joined Microsoft Corp. chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer and Harvey Chang, chief executive officer of Taiwan Mobile to announce the availability of the highly anticipated HD2 in Europe and Taiwan. HTC and Microsoft also announced that the HD2 would be available in the United States with a major US carrier in early 2010.

“The HD2′s amazing customer experience is a testament to the close partnership between HTC and Microsoft and we’re excited to be bringing the HD2 to Taiwan and the United States,” said Chou. “The HD2 is the first Windows® phone with HTC SenseTM, an HTC user experience focused on making the phone more simple and natural to use and by enabling people to personalise their mobile experience in their own unique way.”

“Working with HTC, we’ve delivered great phones that help customers connect to the people and information they care about, wherever they are,” said Ballmer. “The HTC HD2 shows what’s possible through our close partnership with HTC and it breaks new ground for Windows phones by delivering a beautiful multi-touch screen that people will love.”

The HD2 is the first Windows phone with HTC Sense, a customer experience focused on putting people at the centre by making their phones work in a more simple, natural and personal way. With its industry leading, high-resolution, 4.3-inch capacitive touch display, the ultra thin HTC HD2 delivers more visible content in a sharper, brighter and richer way.

The HD2 uses the first capacitive touch display on a Windows phone to make viewing, zooming and resizing websites, Microsoft Office files, PDF documents and pictures easier with just a pinch of your fingers. The large display also enables faster, more efficient and accurate typing using the onscreen keyboard. Utilizing Qualcomm’s new 1Ghz Snapdragon mobile processor, the HTC HD2 offers enhanced performance that improves the speed of applications, videos, games and more.
Developed with a passion for enhancing people’s lives through innovation, design and ease of use, HTC Sense is rooted in three fundamental principles of Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make It Mine
The HD2 continues HTC’s drive for personalization by reflecting not only what you want on your phone, but also where you are. Using its large 4.3-inch window-like display, HTC has brought a new dimension to weather with a localized, animated weather experience that utilizes HD2′s entire display without being invasive to your important content and information. The HD2 can also be further enhanced to reflect your needs and style by downloading a wealth of applications at the new Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

Stay Close
The HD2 helps you stay close to the important friends and colleagues in your life with HTC’s people-centric communication approach that provides a single contact view that displays individual communication snapshots of your conversations with the people in your life regardless of whether a call, text, Facebook status update or email were used. While in the midst of email exchange with someone you can easily transition to a call by pressing the call button. HTC has also included a new Windows-based version of its Twitter application, HTC Peep. The pictures you take with the 5MP camera can also be quickly shared via Facebook or Twitter.

Discover the Unexpected
With the HTC Sense experience, the HTC HD2 includes a variety of enhancements that expand and improve the overall phone experience. The HD2 includes a variety of sensors including a proximity sensor that is used to prevent false screen touches when the phone is picked up to answer or make a call. A light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the display. Leveraging its 3G broadband connectivity, the HTC HD2 also offers personal Wi-Fi anywhere for your computer or other devices.

Also available for the HTC HD2 is the optional car kit that automatically transforms HD2′s user interface into a finger friendly in-car navigation experience for driving.

Windows phone
As a new Windows phone, the HTC HD2 showcases the powerful messaging, browsing and productivity capabilities delivered by Windows Mobile 6.5. Offering a best in class e-mail experience complete with the ability to synchronize with Microsoft Exchange, you have the ability to check and manage multiple email accounts. Microsoft’s new My Phone service enables you to automatically back up and synch photos, music, contacts and text messages for free from the HD2 to the web.

Availability
Already shipping in Europe, the HTC HD2 is available around the middle of November with Taiwan Mobile and will be available throughout Asia in the coming month. The HD2 will be available with a major carrier in the US in early 2010.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the center of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com

Updated with first-boot video demo after the cut

Inside the box it’s the usual HTC array of accessories, including an AC adapter (with interchangeable plug), USB to microUSB cable and a wired stereo headset. The HD2 differs from previous HTC devices in that it doesn’t use an ExtUSB connector, which has helped them keep the Windows Phone thin. What we don’t have – and we hear won’t be available until December – is the HTC Car Kit for the HD2, which adds a powered windscreen/dashboard mount, new docking battery cover for the phone itself, and automatically kicks it into navigation mode whenever it’s clicked into place.

Switching on, and there are setup wizards for ActiveSync Exchange, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube integration. Like the HTC Hero, the HD2 integrates Facebook friends with entries in your contacts and comes with the company’s own Twitter client, Peep, which gets its own tab on the shortcut bar along the bottom of the homescreen. It’s hard to describe how easy typing on the huge 4.3-inch touchscreen is; in portrait orientation, when on-screen QWERTY keyboards can be cramped in width, the combination of large buttons and decent auto-correction makes for error-free typing. As for flipping the HD2 into landscape mode – screen rotations are practically instantaneous – the keyboard is ideal for two-thumb typing. Even in the short time we’ve had the HD2, we’re already faster at typing on it in this way than we are with most hardware keyboards on smartphones.

The touchscreen is equally good in the browser, which is Opera Mobile 9.7 as standard. HTC have added multitouch support, which works as you’d expect; alternatively you can double-tap on blocks of text or images and the screen automatically zooms and reflows to fit. Thanks to the Snapdragon processor this happens incredibly quickly, and we’re wondering just how much of a MID-crossover the HD2 might be.

First-impressions, then, are excellent, and we reckon the HD2 is a legitimately exciting Windows Phone. We’ll be putting it through its paces for the full SlashGear review, so if you’ve any questions you’d like to see answered then leave them in the comments and we’ll do our best to address them!

HTC HD2 unboxing video:

First-boot demo of HTC HD2:

Of course, as regular SlashGear readers will know, the HD2 actually has a whopping 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen, and since it runs Windows Mobile 6.5 there’d be little point of having access to Android applications.  Instead there’ll be access to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile; check out our hands-on with the HD2 here. As for the Touch2, that’s the entry-level Windows Phone from HTC, and you can find our review here.

Meanwhile, Pocketnow are reporting that the HD2 will be officially launched – yes, we thought they’d done that already too – on November 4th, with an official release on November 11th.  We’re checking with HTC to see if that’s accurate or not.

[via wmpoweruser]

Of course, Chou’s comments about the HD2 and Android are carefully phrased, and don’t really do much to dismiss the ongoing speculation about a Snapdragon-based Android uberfone.  While we wouldn’t expect HTC to load Android onto an existing Windows Mobile 6.5 device – the company has previously told us that they believe the two platforms should be treated very differently, and the handsets kept distinct – we’re in little doubt that they’re using what they’ve learned from developing the HD2 to make a better Android handset.

Chou also dismissed the possibility of HTC developing Android-based ebook readers, netbooks or other non-smartphone devices, describing the company as “relatively small” and saying they would continue to “be very picky” about what they worked on.  That, he says, is Android and Windows Mobile.  However he saved a little criticism for Microsoft and Windows Mobile, describing innovation in the platform as having been “a little slow and interest in Windows Mobile phones has been declining.”

[via wmpoweruser]

That at least looks like confirmation – in a roundabout way – that O2 will be offering the HD2.  The previous launch date came, we were told, from customer services, with several callers being informed that the HD2 would arrive in the week beginning October 19th.  As for HTC themselves, they’ve only been saying October, though not confirming any networks as yet; a US launch will follow in Q1 2010.

The HTC HD2 has a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen running at WVGA resolution, and is powered by the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.  Connectivity includes HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and – in a first for an HTC Windows Phone – a microUSB port; it’ll also be offered with an optional in-car kit, though that’s not expected to hit the market until December.

[Thanks Sam!]