Database Users

Is the HD2/Leo for me?

Hi,
I currently have the iphone 3G, but am soon due for an upgrade and considering the HD2. I must say that I love the iphone, I think it works flawlessly. The obvious choice for an upgrade would be the 3GS, but there is just not enough difference from the 3G to warrant me spending over £200 upgrading to it.
After searching around I came across the HD2, and I must say it looks an awesome phone. My concerns though are that I might be disappointed coming from the iphone and wanted some honest opinions. In an ideal world I'd go and have a play with a HD2 in store, but everywhere's sold out and I can only get in from the online store.
One of the major things I like about the iphone is the touchscreen, it is truly a wonder. I have not come across a touchscreen yet that comes anywhere close to the iphones as far as fluidity, responsiveness, and its ability to do just what I want it to. No pressing the wrong link on the internet, no having to tap an icon again as the screen didn't pick up on my touch the first time etc. I know this is a HTC forum so opinions will be biased, but it the screen as good as the iphones? I've used the HTC touch diamond in the past and thought it was appalling.
How quick is it. I know it has a 1GHz processor etc, but what does that mean in the real world? For example, if I want to open an app or program is there any delay or does it open instantly?
I've looked at some videos on you tube and when people use the menu slider on the bottom they always hslide it across to get to the function that they require rather than just tapping the icon they want to use as there are a few on the display at any one tie. Is that just preference or can't you tap directly on the icon?
From reading other threads on problems with the HD2 it seems as though a lot can be fixed using cabs, what are these?
How are text messages displayed, do they come in conversation style as on the iphone, or as individual messages? I've read a lot about problems with the SMS on the HD2, what are these problems and is it something that is likely to be recified in the near future?
Can you customise ringtones and message alerts? I know it's not a biggie but one thing that really annoys me with the iphone is the crappy message alert tones that come with it, and then the fact that you can't use your own.
Cheers

From your words about your requirements & expectations, it's better for u to go with iPhone3GS.
Iam afraid HD2 has its own plus points but not in those areas you prefer.

One of the major things I like about the iphone is the touchscreen, it is truly a wonder. I have not come across a touchscreen yet that comes anywhere close to the iphones as far as fluidity, responsiveness, and its ability to do just what I want it to. No pressing the wrong link on the internet, no having to tap an icon again as the screen didn't pick up on my touch the first time etc. I know this is a HTC forum so opinions will be biased, but it the screen as good as the iphones? I've used the HTC touch diamond in the past and thought it was appalling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, we have to differentiate a bit here.
The hardware of the touchscreen is the same. It's not the resistive technology they used before, e.g. in the Diamond, but the capacitive touch technology that's also used in the iPhone.
That means: The touchscreen is just as responsive, doesn't require pressure, has the same high quality feel and doesn't allow for fingernail/stylus input - same as the iPhone.
The software is different, and this is a bit hard to explain:
On one hand, Windows Mobile runs very very fast on the 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Most of the time, it's as fast or even faster than the iPhone 3GS.
But, at times, it is not as fluid, because there are no 'beautiful' animations and sometimes, things can get laggy. However, with the ultra fast processor, this happens very rarely, compared to older WM devices.
Conclusion: I wouldn't claim that it's faster than an iPhone 3GS, because while it probably is faster most of the time, it may lag sometimes, depending on what you do with it (e.g. heavy multitasking),
However, it will definitely be MUCH faster than your current iPhone 3G.
How quick is it. I know it has a 1GHz processor etc, but what does that mean in the real world? For example, if I want to open an app or program is there any delay or does it open instantly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I've explained this above. To sum it up: It's fast. VERY fast. Almost everything opens instantly, like on an iPhone 3GS or even faster.
I've looked at some videos on you tube and when people use the menu slider on the bottom they always hslide it across to get to the function that they require rather than just tapping the icon they want to use as there are a few on the display at any one tie. Is that just preference or can't you tap directly on the icon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You CAN tap directly on an icon.
Of course, you don't see al icons, just those who are located next to the tab you are in. But you can create your own shortcots for each tab, e.g. you can create a shortcut to the music tab on the homescreen if you don't like sliding across to get to the music tab.
From reading other threads on problems with the HD2 it seems as though a lot can be fixed using cabs, what are these?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.cabs are the equivalent to installers on Windows. You copy them to your phone (or download them directly from your phone) and open them to install them.
When someone finds a fix/tweak, he often creates a .cab and makes it available here on the forum, so that other people can easily apply the fix/tweak to their phones as well.
If you buy/download applications, they also come as .cab files.
How are text messages displayed, do they come in conversation style as on the iphone, or as individual messages?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Conversation style, as well as within people's contact cards, so that you can easily see all the conversation you had with someone (SMS, mail, calls, ...)
I've read a lot about problems with the SMS on the HD2, what are these problems and is it something that is likely to be recified in the near future?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some people have trouble sending SMS. The SMS just remain in the outbox and don't get sent. Some also can't receive SMS.
HTC is working on a fix and it should be provided with a ROM upgrade, soon.
In the meantime, disabling HTC Messaging is a possible workaround (among others that may or may not work).
Can you customise ringtones and message alerts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
It's a Windows Mobile phone, which means you can customise pretty much anything.

skr_xd said:
From your words about your requirements & expectations, it's better for u to go with iPhone3GS.
Iam afraid HD2 has its own plus points but not in those areas you prefer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I agree with this... From what I understand the iphone keyboard is (a bit) better although it's still personal preference, the htc screen is great but has it's quirks... I still misclick every now and then. About the icons, you can click those visible directly but by sliding you also reach the ones just outside the screen. Sliding is also more fancy looking of course
It's fast, at least for a winmo device. Apps open quickly but it also depends on how heavy the app is (tomtom for example, it doesn't open instantly but still very fast... especially compared to touch pro).
It's heavily customizable, using cabs amongst others. Cabs are simply some sort of installation files. You usually put them on your phone (memory card) and run them to install applications, apply changes to registry, etc. Ringtones can be set to whatever you want. Without cabs.
If you're totally fond of the iphone I don't know if the HD2 is for you. It's fine as it is but you have to like tweaking and playing around with it imo, especially to reach it's full potential.

snerkler said:
One of the major things I like about the iphone is the touchscreen, it is truly a wonder. I have not come across a touchscreen yet that comes anywhere close to the iphones as far as fluidity, responsiveness, and its ability to do just what I want it to. No pressing the wrong link on the internet, no having to tap an icon again as the screen didn't pick up on my touch the first time etc. I know this is a HTC forum so opinions will be biased, but it the screen as good as the iphones? I've used the HTC touch diamond in the past and thought it was appalling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen is great. Really. It's capacitive, so the feeling is closer to what you get from an iphone than what you got from any previous winmo phone. It may be a tiny bit less responsive than an iphone.
How quick is it. I know it has a 1GHz processor etc, but what does that mean in the real world? For example, if I want to open an app or program is there any delay or does it open instantly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's really fast. Most of the apps open instantly, the biggest ones will of course need a few seconds.
I've looked at some videos on you tube and when people use the menu slider on the bottom they always hslide it across to get to the function that they require rather than just tapping the icon they want to use as there are a few on the display at any one tie. Is that just preference or can't you tap directly on the icon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can tap it, but the slider doesn't show all of the icons, so you'll have to slide it to reach some of them. You can however change the order to access your favourite ones with one tap.
From reading other threads on problems with the HD2 it seems as though a lot can be fixed using cabs, what are these?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cabs are the installer files on winmo.
How are text messages displayed, do they come in conversation style as on the iphone, or as individual messages? I've read a lot about problems with the SMS on the HD2, what are these problems and is it something that is likely to be recified in the near future?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Conversation style, but no comic bubbles. There are two main problems. First one is a huge lag when opening conversations with lots of messages. The second one is that when you want to send a message, it will sometimes take a few hours before it's actually sent. I personally never experienced the second one, however.
Can you customise ringtones and message alerts? I know it's not a biggie but one thing that really annoys me with the iphone is the crappy message alert tones that come with it, and then the fact that you can't use your own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. It's winmo, you can customise everything.

snerkler : I would recommend you to check this review
http://pocketnow.com/hardware-1/another-spin-on-the-htc-hd2
and second part
http://pocketnow.com/software-1/another-spin-on-the-htc-hd2-part-2

Some general thoughts, in addition to my answer above:
The hardware of the HD2 is better, hands down. However, the software is quite different. I think none of the operating systems, Windows Mobile or iPhone OS, is better or worse, but they are very different and have very different strenghts and weaknesses.
I can give you some thoughts that may help you decide:
The iPhone is very easy to use, fluid and most of the time, 'just works'. However, this comes at a price: It is also very limited, in order to achieve its ease of use.
As long as you don't reach the limits, you're fine.
But when you reach the limits
(e.g. you want to have information on the home screen, you want to multitask, send something via Bluetooth, use it as USB storage, costumise ringtones and so on...)
then things get complicated on the iPhone. You either can't do something at all, or you need to hack/jailbreak it or find workarounds for the shortcomings.
With Windows Mobile, you get everything out of the box. It can do pretty much everything and has all the basic and advanced features that the iPhone lacks.
However, just like the iPhone's ease of use, Windows Mobile's feature-richness comes at a price as well: It definitely is more complicated and doesn't always work instantly, if you want to install/change something.
Sense tries to make the basic things as easy to use as on the iPhone, and I have to say it does that quite well. But it's still not THAT easy.
On the other hand, if you want to go beyond the limits that Apple set on the iPhone, things often get MUCH more complicated than they are on Windows Mobile.
Conclusion:
If you don't reach the limits of your iPhone, i.e. if you're not missing anything that the iPhone can't do, then it will probably the better device for you, because then it's more easy to use and 'just works' for you.
If, however, you miss a bunch of features and you try to work around them on the iPhone (e.g. by jailbreaking it), then a Windows Mobile device, particulary the HTC HD2, is probably the better choice, because though not everything is as easy, you get everything out of the box. And you also get the better hardware.
The HTC HD2 also has a special place among the Windows Phones. Sense/TouchFlo has evolved over time and now the basic things (i.e. everything that the iPhone can do) are almost as easy on the HD2.
There are still exceptions, like installing software, but it has come so close that I
personally think that the HD2 is the better choice for almost everyone, except for those who really never reach the limits of the iPhone.
Because, for giving up a bit of ease of use, you get tons of additional features, as well as the better hardware:
- 4.3" screen, much better camera, faster processor, more RAM...
- multitasking
- maximum customizability
- no iTunes required, you can connect it as storage device
- file explorer
- better notifications concept
- more professional, customizable home screen
- Bluetooth file transfers
- good Emulators like Morphgear
- and much more
Whether this is enough to make you accept the loss of ease of use compared to the iPhone is your choice.
Previously, the gap in ease of use has been much greater, that means you had to sacrifice a lot more in order to get all the features of Windows Mobile, but with the HD2 HTC has come so close that I think it's really the better choice for lots of people now.
However, everyone still has to decide for him/herself. I hope I could help.

IMO For your needs go with the 3GS mate.

Ive had all the iphones 2g, 3g and 3gs. The 3gs is much better then the 3g. For me...i started to hate the iphone for is ONE Dimensionalness (is that a word) I wanted somehting more and that was the HD2. Personally I hate the iphone. So my opinon is basised... ive been with it it since 2007 and trust me the HD2 is pure joy. I agree with others on this forum and If I were you I would get the 3GS is a much better device then your crappy 3G.

Thanks for all the replies. The HTC does sound more and more interesting. I know I said I like how the iphone just works, but I am feeling like I need a new challenge. What I meant about the iphone 'just working' is not necessarily that it is easy to use and everything is straight forward, but more the interface I guess. The way that you navigate around the touchscreen. I am a bit of a gadget freak and do like playing around with stuff, which is why I've been looking at the HD2. I am finally feeling left wanting a bit more with the iphone now. I've gone through all the free apps etc, and while some are great fun initially, I never use them anymore. I play solitaire now more than anything else. I need something a bit more taxing, like I said, a new challenge
If the touchscreen is up there with the iphone then maybe I need to give this phone some serious consideration.
Just out of curiosity is the problem sending SMS on a particular network or any network?

snerkler said:
Thanks for all the replies. The HTC does sound more and more interesting. I know I said I like how the iphone just works, but I am feeling like I need a new challenge. What I meant about the iphone 'just working' is not necessarily that it is easy to use and everything is straight forward, but more the interface I guess. The way that you navigate around the touchscreen. I am a bit of a gadget freak and do like playing around with stuff, which is why I've been looking at the HD2. I am finally feeling left wanting a bit more with the iphone now. I've gone through all the free apps etc, and while some are great fun initially, I never use them anymore. I play solitaire now more than anything else. I need something a bit more taxing, like I said, a new challenge
If the touchscreen is up there with the iphone then maybe I need to give this phone some serious consideration.
Just out of curiosity is the problem sending SMS on a particular network or any network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have sms problems with any of the ROMs I have used for HD2.
From default 1.43 to latest 1.61 turkey ROM.
So, it seems to vs certain operator specific.
Check in the sms issue thread for any user from your country/operator and see.

snerkler said:
Thanks for all the replies. The HTC does sound more and more interesting. I know I said I like how the iphone just works, but I am feeling like I need a new challenge. What I meant about the iphone 'just working' is not necessarily that it is easy to use and everything is straight forward, but more the interface I guess. The way that you navigate around the touchscreen. I am a bit of a gadget freak and do like playing around with stuff, which is why I've been looking at the HD2. I am finally feeling left wanting a bit more with the iphone now. I've gone through all the free apps etc, and while some are great fun initially, I never use them anymore. I play solitaire now more than anything else. I need something a bit more taxing, like I said, a new challenge
If the touchscreen is up there with the iphone then maybe I need to give this phone some serious consideration.
Just out of curiosity is the problem sending SMS on a particular network or any network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been through all the iphones as well (2g, 3g, 3gs, and got 3gs for many family members including the wifey). The 3GS is a MUCH better device than the 3G and worth the upgrade in my opinion simply because the speed just makes it feel more fluid.
In the same way the HD2 makes WinMo actually feel usable and more enjoyable to use (especially with touchflo), but it's not a little faster as the 3GS is to the 3G... it's a LOT faster. That's just because the old WinMo phones are slow (my last was the Touch HD), but I wouldn't say it's REALLY fast as some of the reviews do... it's just very usable now. However, I'm comfortable with the WinMo OS so the HD2 is a joy to use for me.
Hardware wise, my wife picked up my HD2 when I got it and wanted to play with it since I couldn't stop talking about it for weeks until I finally got one. she LOVED the hardware, and being a non-geek (fashion background) I was surprised when she started commenting on the build quality and she compared it to her iPhone 3GS similar to our new new LED backlit LCD TV vs. our old SD tube television!
She really enjoyed playing with it for a while and going through the tabs in touchflo and thought it was BETTER than her iPhone. Then she moved to the audio player tab... which crashed on her. Disappointed, she continued onwards as she really liked the phone. Then she moved to the settings tab. She looked at it for a few seconds... put down the phone and decided to continue using her iPhone instead.
Even though we've been in 3 countries since I got it, it's automatically set itself up and I've had data access in every country... where her iPhone can't even be set-up to use the network data (needs proxy settings in APN), I've been able to tether, create adhoc networks, take much better pics, read pdfs more clearly, keep up with my tweets, modify excel spreadsheets, review powerpoints, watch television shows downloaded from the net, etc... she decided the iphone was better for her since she didn't have to look at settings and it easily synced to her MacBook so she could show off her pics to family, and as you said... it just works.
She also loves her MacBook and I love my Thinkpad.

CanEpia said:
Then she moved to the settings tab. She looked at it for a few seconds... put down the phone and decided to continue using her iPhone instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ha ha ha, that's brilliant! That to me really sums up why the iphone is the better choice for some people and why the HD2 is the best for others. I love being able to fiddle with settings and customise and change things which is why I will get the HD2 and would never consider the iphone, as good as it is at the things it can do.

snerkler said:
Just out of curiosity is the problem sending SMS on a particular network or any network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had the SMS problem, so it isn't across the board.

creed said:
Ha ha ha, that's brilliant! That to me really sums up why the iphone is the better choice for some people and why the HD2 is the best for others. I love being able to fiddle with settings and customise and change things which is why I will get the HD2 and would never consider the iphone, as good as it is at the things it can do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly why I'm looking at this phone, I like to fiddle and tweak stuff (and I'm referring to gadgets here )

Eoinoc said:
I haven't had the SMS problem, so it isn't across the board.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, not that I usually keep as many, but I intentionally kept about 300 SMSs to test this problem and there is a minor few milliseconds slowdown, but nothing you'd really notice. I also use the FPU enabler, not sure if that makes a difference to SMS though.
Incidentally I don't have any other problems with my phone, works 100% since unboxing.

Why we love our HD2? Guys, share with me

These days, I've seen way too many threads like "Goodbye HD2, hello Iphone", "Htc Hd2 bye bye" or "Wtf with this phone". I cant stand it. So I want to have a praise thread for our HD2, our beloved and best one, also want to share my opinions on the HD2 and Winmo generally for everyone to see and think.
Here are some type of opinions quite popular these days:
"Windows mobile 6.5 is a dead os for lack of a better term and also know that the development for apps for it is going to taper and die off at some point"
"HD2 is too buggy, laggy, errors"
"Winmo is a waste for HD2"
"Where are the games and apps?"
"Not work out of the box?"
To answer, first of all, I dont care about apps that Iphone or Android has.
I dont play games much now so that's a second point. Although they do have some very interesting like Tunewiki or Layar, that's the only thing I miss from my old 3GS and Hero. And if u paid so many money for games on iphone, why dont paid a 5 Euro more for Fpsece, to have the best experience about PS1 games on a mobile device so far.
Secondly, about basic apps, Winmo wins.
For videos: I dont have to spend hours to find a good convert program and hours to config and wait for the converted file to transfer to my phone, Coreplayer and TCPMP serve them right.
For ebooks: the most popular format is prc, Mobipocket reader wins again, I dont have to convert either.
For office: what can win over office mobile, please show me, I have no idea about this.
And u know what, Winmo has these basic things and apps for free!!!
Third, the true multitask:
Winmo has been a winner since the start. I agree that Iphone can be jailbreak then install e.g Proswitcher, but that's not so convenient like Winmo. The basic thing about Android is it never really closes an app, keeping it running in the background for quick response, but that only makes Android become slower and laggy just like Winmo. But for convenient, and with a power specs like HD2, it's so great in terms of multitask for me.
Fourth, the screen:
HD2 has a great and super beautiful 4.3 inch screen. I can never go back to a 3.2 (Hero) or 3.5(Iphone) now, I will consider for a 3.7 one. Watching photos, videos, viewing documents, surfing. It's superb with HD2. And please dont expect a device with great screen like that to have a good battery life. More than a day with normal usage is so enough. I got 1.5 days or even more than 2 days with my HD2.
Fifth, and the best one imo, CUSTOMIZATIONS
Winmo is the best world for customizations, for devs and chefs. It got history, and it's truly popular, right? I love to tweak my phone, customize it the way I one, change every weeks or even every days, so I cannot get bored with it. And look at this forum, so many manila mods have been built and definitely going on and on. From maxmanilla, cookie home tabs, GTX, all are wonderful and amazing. I cant thank them and all the chefs here enough.
Now, look at Iphone, what can u do with this easy to get bored home screen, except for changing icons?
And even android, it's not easy to customize it without rooting. And things to customize so far? Not much, I see.
For all that has errors, bugs, laggy, I think it's just u to make the phone like that, not the phone itself (if it's not a defective one). Too many report shows the phone works out of the box, count me in for that. I went with stock rom for a month at first with nothing went wrong.
Winmo to me is never a dead OS like it seems now. It's still growing strong in the world thanks to xda, yes, xda is the one that makes it strong, imo. We love to tweak, we love to customize, we love to share our knowledge and stuffs, so we are here. If u just dont feel like to tweak, u better not be here, xda is not some place where u can just complain and complain everyday for ur own faults.
Finally, HD2 is not a waste to me to run Winmo, it's best with Winmo.
Whew, my longest post so far. Guys, dont leave me alone, come and praise our HD2, I know u will.
List the best things u ever had with HD2 and show the world
P.S: it's just my opinion, but we all have private and personal purposes for using mobile in our life, so that we have personal choices on mobile, so please dont flame on me so hard, haha

1. big screen - can see web pages better than my x1a 3" screen
2. software options (still compatible with the software i use on my old phone) tomtom 7 - no need to have a data connection to use gps, slick im - use this when im on the move, option of using several different types of web browsers (ie, opera, opera mini, skyfire)
3. phone is unlocked and can use it as a prepaid phone.

Exactly mate, should have mentioned the chasing game between apple and devs, it's really annoying sometimes. And the price for an unlock iphone is really ridiculous.

You know, I have both the Nexus one and HD2, but I am really thinking of selling my HD2. I love all the things you have mentioned, but texting is kind of a big deal to me. With an HD2, the keyboard so choppy, no matter the rom I try. If I can somehow fix it, bye bye nexus. If not, well...

Just thinking would there be a phone that has a screen larger than 4.3" in the future or this is the biggest already? By the way 4.3" wide is a common size for GPS device.

gtb5 said:
Just thinking would there be a phone that has a screen larger than 4.3" in the future or this is the biggest already? By the way 4.3" wide is a common size for GPS device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The athena had a 5inch screen.... but you couldn't use it as a regular handset. You needed to use either bluetooth headsets or speakerphone. It was a cool phone, though.

You guys covered it
I agree with everything you guys said, except texting prob, I use swype, love it!! By far best phone I've ever had!! Just added, msvc, love it, just made perfect, better!!

My main reason for choosing HD2 over iphone or android devices is privacy!
I don't have to have apple and google knowing everything about me!

fantasytozi said:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly my thoughts.

I love it because the great hardware I saw this as a newstep after the qualcomm 528 mhz. Wich was used for 3 or more years. This was a newstep for 2 years this will be a fast phone. And the freedom of windows mobile is also great.

Simply the best phone I ever had! Does everything I need and more!

I love my HD2 because it's big, it's strong, it's fast and give me the possibility to customize everything like I want.
I love my HD2 even because makes me different from all the mass of sheeps that walk around with an Iphone and use their phono to simulate a beer drinking and s**t like this.
Having an HD2, like my good old HTC Topaz, makes me feel different and like a pro.

I have always been a win mobile user. love the ability to anything! can send files bluetooth, COMPLETELY change the theme of the phone, and modify the software ANY way you see fit. suck on that iphone.
The only thing I would change would be camera hardware button
They say the HD2 will be the last in windows mobile 6.5. what a way to go out with a bang!!!
windows mobile+huge screen+fast processor= one sick device

I could probably be classified as a (very) dull business user and I have never before cared over what device was put into my hands..
I have used SE, Nokia, HTC, you name it, and even a iPhone for a while, and all worked okay and I did type an occasional e-mail on them but in reality they all fell short, some with clunky e-mail integration other with unsuitable screens for reading long texts.
With the HD2 I have hit "home", I have become truly freed from my office - I can access and work with my e-mails, read trough and review extensive attachment, surf the web, get online with my laptop without hassle trough the WiFi router. First phone I ever used that work seamless with bluetooth both in the car and with headsets.
It's a serious device and not a toy with downloaded flashlight applications.

afive720 said:
You know, I have both the Nexus one and HD2, but I am really thinking of selling my HD2. I love all the things you have mentioned, but texting is kind of a big deal to me. With an HD2, the keyboard so choppy, no matter the rom I try. If I can somehow fix it, bye bye nexus. If not, well...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah well, I agree that this is a let down thing at first, but after few months usage, I'm quite amazed at my typing speed right now
Did u try fingerkeyboard or swype?
uswe said:
I can access and work with my e-mails, read trough and review extensive attachment, get online with my laptop without hassle trough the WiFi router.
It's a serious device and not a toy with downloaded flashlight applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are the things that I never bother or want to do with my old 3GS and Hero

Hi,
I like:
1) Screen (come on 4.3 inch MAMA MYA that’s nice step for mobile phones. I will never buy IPhone 4G if it’s less than 4.3 inch screen)
2) Design (Very slim very sexy)
3) Speed (yeah it’s really speedy)
4) Freedom (WOW the best thing. No more F jailbreak)
I don't like:
1) SMS messaging interface (Please anyone know other messaging interfaces? or at least to tell me how to disable the loading of messages as once. I rather like IPhone messaging where it loads small amount of sms in the chat area and load more history sms on request if needed)
2) Battery life (To bad to be in such great device)

zoombay78 said:
Hi,
I like:
1) Screen (come on 4.3 inch MAMA MYA that’s nice step for mobile phones. I will never buy IPhone 4G if it’s less than 4.3 inch screen)
2) Design (Very slim very sexy)
3) Speed (yeah it’s really speedy)
4) Freedom (WOW the best thing. No more F jailbreak)
I don't like:
1) SMS messaging interface (Please anyone know other messaging interfaces? or at least to tell me how to disable the loading of messages as once. I rather like IPhone messaging where it loads small amount of sms in the chat area and load more history sms on request if needed)
2) Battery life (To bad to be in such great device)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always have over 400 sms in my inbox, and it loads quite quickly, I think. No problem for me. Why dont u try the old style thread messaging from Energy rom or some other roms?

Thank you for starting this post. I was reluctant to upgrade from my Touch Pro to the HD2 for the lack of a hardware keyboard, which I used constantly. The big, beautiful screen won me over and I'm happy to report that I'm typing as fast as ever now that I'm used to my HD2.
I love the huge screen, HTC Sense (Thanks to Cookie and averyone else, not enough room in this thread), one touch dialing, programs etc, etc.
Every, and I mean EVERY challenge that I had with my phone when I first bought it has been solved by using these forums.
Every, and I mean EVERY modification that I could have dreamed of has been supplied by using these forums.
This has been the case since I started using WinMo and with every device I've owned.
These sour grapes posts by individuals who refuse to take the time to use this fine provision in order to make full use of their HD2 are a slap in the face to the hardworking developers who have brought countless hours of joy to the rest of us who deeply appreciate their work.
To the developers and contributors of this forum: I salute you.
To the individuals who are posting their "Bye, Bye" threads. Please leave quietly, and don't let the door hit you in the iphone.

Oh finally some positive thread for HD2.
So what i love about my HD2.
Speed - lighting fast
Customization - Thanks Winmo 6.5
Usefull Programs - Programs that really matters. Like Resco explorer and image viewer, FPSEce,iGO with multitouch and compass
BIG screen - The Biggest!
Open platform (flashing ROMs) - Can be really fun
Loud speakers - Well maybe too much =)
Capacitive screen with multitouch - Say yes to best gaming experience
How the phone feels in pocket (comfortable) - You dont even know it's in your pocket
But there are few bad things =(
Development - The newest games looks like ripped of java with touch support
Really old core of OS - Winmo 6.5 is quite ugly too
Reset button under Battery cover - lol at this one

KowboyBebop said:
Oh finally some positive thread for HD2.
So what i love about my HD2.
Speed - lighting fast
Customization - Thanks Winmo 6.5
Usefull Programs - Programs that really matters. Like Resco explorer and image viewer, FPSEce,iGO with multitouch and compass
BIG screen - The Biggest!
Open platform (flashing ROMs) - Can be really fun
Loud speakers - Well maybe too much =)
Capacitive screen with multitouch - Say yes to best gaming experience
How the phone feels in pocket (comfortable) - You dont even know it's in your pocket
But there are few bad things =(
Development - The newest games looks like ripped of java with touch support
Really old core of OS - Winmo 6.5 is quite ugly too
Reset button under Battery cover - lol at this one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for support at fpsece, KB
About reset button, why dont u try to install the Long Press End Key Reset? That saves me a lot from opening the battery cover

The layman's HD2 review

Now that the initial hype has died down, and t-mobile employees are officially advising against purchasing an hd2 it’s time for an educated and thorough review that new buyers can actually use. I’m not going to include any technical information, because 1) it is widely available 2) most people don’t choose a phone based on technical specs and 3) we all know this sucker is super fast. What I will do is offer up my opinions along with some tips and tweaks –NO HACKS—should you decide the HD2 is right for you.
To start with, what about the Galaxy S?
Yes, at least one t-mobile employee tried to steer me away from the hd2 and to the galaxy s. And yes, the screen on the Samsung, while a bit smaller, is also a bit more impressive. Darker blacks and more vibrant colors. If screen resolution is the only thing you care about, even over size and price, then stop reading now, because the galaxy s definitely has a superior screen. Holding the galaxy s in my hand though, I didn’t give it a single thought. Here’s why. To start with, I prefer the slightly boxier build of the hd2. Also I feel more comfortable with a couple hard keys, and for me at least, a slightly bigger screen is desirable over a slightly better one. The real decision factor however, was that I was replacing a Samsung touch screen phone which had become intermittently non responsive to touch and after three straight Samsung phones (sgh r210 - t909 - behold) I figured I’d give HTC a chance, after all Google did.
The early days were dark.
This was my first data plan with t-mobile, so the extra 25 bucks a month was a hard pill to swallow. I was really expecting the hd2 to blow me out of the water, thus making it easy to rationalize a 50% increase in my monthly bill. It didn’t. I won’t list all the issues I had with this phone because they are well documented through out the web, but also because that’s just the start of the story.
A happy ending.
Bottom line, Microsoft is great because you can customize the **** out of it. The hd2 doesn’t suck HTC Sense sucks. IT’S HORRIBLE. A waste and an annoyance, but, easily removed. That’s right disabling HTC sense is the first and most important step to loving your hd2.
Settings > today > items (bottom tab)
Then just select windows default (HTC sense is at the bottom, but who cares)
On to the tweaks…
I read a lot about hacking the hd2 registry, but seeing as I was still contemplating returning the phone, I didn’t want to do anything drastic. So I kept it simple. Here are the apps (cabs) I installed to perfect my HTC hd2 experience. Just search the web (and Microsoft marketplace) and you can download all these apps for free. Also, to install a .cab file, just drag and drop it from your computer (connected via USB) to your phone. Then unplug your phone from the computer and browse to the file.
Start menu> file explore> storage card
Click on the .cab file you just dropped onto your phone and the app will install. Then go back to the start menu and at the bottom there should be an icon for you newly installed app. Here are mine:
GYRATOR 2 - Brins0.net
-a simple rotator. A lot of the screens on the hd2 won’t go into landscape without this app
RESET ME - Y.K. Ying
-I think I downloaded this one from the market place. I was messing around with my phone a lot in those early days, and this app cam in handy for settings that required soft reset.
HOMESCREEN CUSTOMIZER - Danny Su
-Another marketplace free download - this is the MOST IMPORTANT app I downloaded for the HTC hd2. It removed that horrible HTC Sense crap, and replaced it with a simple, one screen option.
SHOWCASE - e-natives
-for some reason, when you hit the ‘X’ in the upper right hand corner of the screen, whatever app or function is running simply minimizes. The phone is so fast though, that launching applications takes just as long as switching to them, so there’s really no point in having a bunch of apps running, sucking up battery and processor resources. This app makes that X actually close a program and not just minimize it.
So What about the camera, what about the battery?
As for the battery, it takes just a couple hours to loose half your battery power, then the phone seams to operate for another 10-15 hours on the remaining power. I read that this is a snapdragon issue (the powerful 1 GHz processor running the HD2). So while those quickly dwindling bars cause much stress, the phone will operate for almost two days without charge.
I am still looking for an inexpensive camera app to replace the HTC camera, but I have managed to tweak the settings enough (contrast, saturation, white balance) to get some decent pictures in well lit situations. The fact is, the Samsung Behold has an amazing camera in it, and the hd2 just isn’t as great. Oh well.

I'm glad you're here to tell me how to use my HD2.
This is probably one of the most redundant reviews I have read, and about ten months too late at that.

Go and tell someone who gives a feck... Surely, Jeremy Beadle is dead?

wow, someone actually chooses the hd2 over the android galaxy and y'all are ripping him for it???
get a life already.

Wow...uhm...k thanx for the tutorial there...and the REALLY craptastic review. You where trying to help people.....how?

ashasaur said:
Wow...uhm...k thanx for the tutorial there...and the REALLY craptastic review. You where trying to help people.....how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see what he is saying. The phone runs ALOT better without sense slowing it done. Sense is a memory hog. It caches a lot of memory. Those out of memory errors that some people get, do not happen with sense gone.
I never had a SOD on my tp2 when I started flashing my own ROMs minus sense.
Now, I've learned to appreciate what sense does add to the experience, but on my tp2, it was unbearable, even when optimized.

They're mocking him because it's a poorly done review. Get past the part about the Galaxy and read the rest.

apallohadas said:
They're mocking him because it's a poorly done review. Get past the part about the Galaxy and read the rest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in his defense, he did call it a layman's review. In other words, someone who doesn't live on here 24/7, and doesn't want to flash his phone 3x a day.

nrfitchett4 said:
I can see what he is saying. The phone runs ALOT better without sense slowing it done. Sense is a memory hog. It caches a lot of memory. Those out of memory errors that some people get, do not happen with sense gone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The out of memory errors don't happen if you know how to use the phone. People KNOW Windows Mobile is absolutely **** out of the box, but still years and years on people still complain about it, it's bewildering.
Sense is a very good base platform for CoOkie and ROM developers alike to work with and as a result make Sense a far more powerful platform for the end user.

Sense is the Cosmetics on the Zomby,and of course you know what the legend says,zombies live forever,LOL,so cheer up.!!

Wow,
Sorry but that was a disappointed review.
It was your first post on this forum and you only joined this month, so I am not sure what you were trying to advise us of to be honest. No disrepect intended.
People like me have had this phone since the November 2009 release and know all there is to know about it.
HTC Sense does not suck or slow down when you are using the correct ROM, either the lastest official ROMs, or better yet, a custom ROM like Artemis.
In interface of WM is best left in the background until you have something geeky to tweak, although WM6.5.5. is a big improvement.
Anyway, my 2 cents worth.

I agree with the last person staing that sense does not (dramatically) slow down the HD2, an I am still using Stock ROM.
The snapdragon is so powerfull.
The thing I notice however, especially with people complaining about battery life:
Most people think of the HD primarily as a Phone.
This also explains the complaint of a lot of poeple that there are no applications for it.
Given the HD2 has a big screen, which has an unusual format (like the touch HD had), there are still a lot of old apps around which run on the HD2 (some somewhat crippled, others do not run at all)
But, I came from Palm iV (monochrome) via Ipaq to p330o, Touch HD to HD2.
For me the primary use for this machine is: PDA with phone capabilities.
And not like for a lot of people, phone with PDA capabilities.
All phones of the latter category (Like eg. Nokia E71) lack a grat deal of PDA capabilities. This is where Windows Mobile has made a big heap of programming with a lot of open ends.... The PDA community jumped on top in order to improve the PDA experience.
The PDA community slowly moved to phone.
In my opinion, all die-hard tweakers / modders / programmers use the HD2 primarily as PDA. Most complaining users use the HD2 primarily as phone.
Yes, as a phone it lacks stamina (batterylife), Yes as a phone it is higly adaptable, but you will have to adress the HD2 as PDA.
On a PDA, one would tune applications (run this, kill that, beware of sync etc) Most ROM cooks still use the what I call PDA approach (load only what is nessesary, not what could eventually ever be needed, kean and mean) thus saving powerconsumption.
As to my past experience, I switch on things only when needed (wifi, bluetooth, activesync etc), except for push mail. This gives me after a normal day of use more than 50% battery life left (on a stock ROM).
For a PDA (except for the PALM iV, which did not have (serious) backlight and colour display) this is quite good.
A PDA should at least sync daily..... so this is acceptable in my opinion, and do not forget Older machines had wordse battry lives.
If one starts navigating, power consumption is incredible, and a good car-loader is almost an obligation, but then again, most navigation units need a powersource. Even the Nokia E71 drains the battery very quickly if navigating without loader attached.
As for sense/manilla:
I am an winmo addict, even an experienced user (ppc2002, ppc 2003, ppc2003SE, Winmo 5, winmo 6.1, winmo 6.5), and I seem to miss a lot of functionality in sense, so I use a lot of quicklinks to the original WinMo apps (eg. Outlook contacts, WinMo settings), yes WinMo is a bit cumbersome, but if you know your way..... Beats sense a lot of times in functionality.
On the other hand, for the quick "thingies" I still use Sense, but as soon as Sense does not live upto the functionality I need..... WinMo!!
All in all:
I can understand the review, seen from the perspective of a phone user, and I agree with it, but with a twist
For me the HD2 Rocks in a major way.
Currently I am sticking to stock, as the phne/pda does what I need and fulfills all my needs. (and more)
For apps: goto www.windowsmobilesoft.net, www.freewareppc.com, www.handango.com, www.wm6software.net, www.pocketgear.com, www.mobiletopsoft.com, pocketpcfreeware.com, pocketpcfreeware.org, freewarepocketpc.net, pocket-pc-freeware.com and many others....
IF one adds up all apps I believe there are a multitude of apps available for our winmo device even more than for any android, iOS or symbian phone all together. Agreed same apps exist 100s of times.....
Moreover even a lot of old ppc2003 software can run on winmo 6.1 (and perhaps also on wm6.5, but I have not had any time or need to experiment)
Concluding:
I am very happy with my HD2, still on stock,
Superfluous speed, no lag from Sense, but one need to use it with a lot of sense (but that has grown on me from ppc2003 on )
Battery life could be better, but I cradle it whenever I can, thus my batterylife is more than sufficient. (As an early adopter from pDA, I am used to cradeling )
Later on I will start experimenting, mainly because of Android (need to experience that too.)

For me the HD2 Rocks in a major way.
Currently I am sticking to stock, as the phne/pda does what I need and fulfills all my needs. (and more)
For apps: goto www.windowsmobilesoft.net, www.freewareppc.com, www.handango.com, www.wm6software.net, www.pocketgear.com, www.mobiletopsoft.com, pocketpcfreeware.com, pocketpcfreeware.org, freewarepocketpc.net, pocket-pc-freeware.com and many others....
IF one adds up all apps I believe there are a multitude of apps available for our winmo device even more than for any android, iOS or symbian phone all together. Agreed same apps exist 100s of times.....
Moreover even a lot of old ppc2003 software can run on winmo 6.1 (and perhaps also on wm6.5, but I have not had any time or need to experiment)
Concluding:
I am very happy with my HD2, still on stock,
Superfluous speed, no lag from Sense, but one need to use it with a lot of sense.
I could never agree more!!
In my opinion; the latest stock rom + CHT & its editor + apps = a master piece!!
All the respect for the OP's review!

i'm glad i could help spark a couple pages of discussion. I recently purchased my hd2, and i spent a lot of time on these forums learning all about it. i think my review bridges the gab between the xdadevelopers forums and those of tmobile
and to the second person that claimed my review had nothing new to offer the hd2 community, i think your actions speak louder than your words.

kyle_hd2 said:
and to the second person that claimed my review had nothing new to offer the hd2 community, i think your actions speak louder than your words.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that that saying makes any sense in the context that you used it, but all this thread did was mull over old news. But on reflection, what do I care? Welcome to XDA.

Kyle mate.. waiting your review on WM5.

Desire HD: One-year review / my first year using Android

This is my attempt to review the phone after a year (and a bit) of use. It may seem pointless to review a phone that is at least a generation old, but I think what I have to say gives some insight into HTC as a manufacturer, and Android as a whole. These are also the sorts of things that can't be understood from using a phone for a few hours. I'll also cover Sense in part.
I'll start by listing everything that has annoyed or just disappointed me over the last 13 months.
Battery life
One of my major worries with Android as a whole (and by extension, all smartphones and the direction the market is heading): it is just not acceptable for a phone to not last a whole working day on moderate use (which for me is: about 2 hours web browsing and listening to music, a few text messages and emails). There are ways to avoid this happening (and the question should be, if users can do things to improve the battery, why don't they come out of the
factory that way?) but the fact is that a phone that requires the user to tinker extensively to get a day's reasonable use is not well designed. The trade-off is a thinner, lighter phone. Well, it's not worth it. Consumers are being hoodwinked into desiring crazy thin handsets before the technology is really there to support them. Ever-faster specs are the other side of this sorry tale. Phone software shouldn't need dual-core phones running at above 1Ghz, with 1gig of RAM. WP7 and iOS show this.
Build quality: I've had several serious problems caused by the hardware:
The battery cover - everyone knows about this. It is possible to remove it, and reinstall it, but it's difficult - and it just shouldn't be. That's all there is to it.
Volume rocker - the poor arrangement of the battery cover and the volume rocker meant that when I tried to pull off the battery cover, I broke off the top half of volume rocker. Luckily it still holds on and the volume control still works, but again - not good enough. The fact that there are packages of replacement volume rockers complete with the needed tools on Ebay show this is not limited to me and my clumsiness.
USB port - for no obvious reason, and very suddenly, the USB/charger port stopped working properly - no power was going to the phone. The main board and so the whole until had to be replaced. I'd not been rough with the connection. Which lead to...
GPS. One of my biggest disappointments. Although it worked reasonably well to begin with, when my internals were replaced because of the USB port failure, the internals must have been from the batch with the poorly connected GPS module. Everyone knows about this issue by now. I never ever ever get any GPS signal, no matter where I am or what the weather's like. Yes there are solutions, none of which worked for me, and I couldn't bare to be without my handset for another 7-14 days to get it repaired. Very poor.
HTC Sense
I've not found Sense to have any additional functionality that make it worth the resource overhead on top of Android. Really the only useful thing it does is linking contacts between my contacts and Facebook and Twitter (though this brings it's own problems, for instance forcefully importing a friend's outdated phone number from Facebook without giving me the option to choose the stored number instead). I've never been able to use the default Android calendar app because the Sense one replaces it, and I don't like the Sense one at all, it's quite unintuitive.
I find the extra chrome is not especially attractive, and doesn't make efficient use of space. It looks very mid-late 00s. So dumping Sense was one of the first things I did, first in favour of ADW Launcher and lately GO Launcher, for it's superb and beautiful widgets.
HTCSense.com - I've nearly forgotten what it did. Suffice to say, none of the services were useful enough or reliable (they didn't work at all for the first few months) to keep me coming back.
General Android issues
Music playing
There are many brilliant music-playing programs for Android. I've happily paid for two that I love using (PowerAmp and PlayerPro). Sadly, four years in, the experience of getting music onto an Android phone lags behind iPhone fundamentally. Spotify subscribers will call me a dinosaur for caring about this, but for those of us with large mp3 collections that they like to change up on their phones regularly, it's an unhappy experience. Technology
blogs would have you believe the iTunes/iPhone experience can be replicated, but my experience is that this just isn't true.
To give an overview of the problem (for anyone thinking of coming to Android and hoping to use their phone for playing music), here's my experience of using several Windows music management apps, and their limitations as a solution for managing Android devices.
DoubleTwist - marketed as iTunes for Android - laughable, and crushingly disappointing: ignoring slow performance and instability, not finding all files, misreading mp3 tags, all DoubleTwist does is sync a playlist to the phone (over Wi-Fi if you pay the upgrade). If you use iTunes, it will sync any playlist that you create in iTunes - but does anyone want to install iTunes if it's just to transfer music? I hate having it on my system. The main failing is that it has no easy way to select tracks to be transferred - they have to be added to a playlist. Unlike iTunes, you cannot tick or untick songs from the main library. If you want to remove a song from your phone, you have to find and then remove it from the appropriate playlist. Which is far more time consuming. No developers of music management software for Windows seem to understand this. The same problem applies to Winamp, Songbird, MediaMonkey, all of which I've tried and none of which work as well as iTunes does for iPods. All have various bugs or limitations (Winamp won't let you browse the syncing playlist by artist/album, only letting you edit the sync list as a great big long list, does a really poor job of finding artwork and lyrics. But the wifi sync option is very cool, if slightly pointless. Songbird is still unstable after years of development and has enduring problems with recognising tags.)
So far the best option is MediaMonkey, which is fast, stable and has some brilliant additional functions even in it's free version. It does allow you to browse tracks stored on the phone by artist and album which makes it easier to remove tracks, but doesn't give the selecting tracks from the main library option that iTunes has. Also, CD-ripping is only available in the paid version ($40).
Ideally I'd like to see Google develop or encourage the development of an iTunes equivalent media manager for Android phones on Windows that would do the simple job of syncing music easily, effectively, and without bugs! However this would go against their ambitions for getting everyone to to everything (including music) through the cloud, so I don't have much hope.
Another small issue I've got with music on Android is that the system's music management library doesn't recognise the album artist tag on music files. This means that when browsing music in any application by artist, compilations are split out into each artist. This makes for a messy library. I want the option to have all compilations combined under the 'Various Artists' name - simple to implement, but only possible by recognising the album artist tag.
Android Market
A constant source of irritation to me is a couple of bugs in the Market. The first of these is automatically starting updates which stall before downloading starts, requiring you to long-press and cancel, and then manually re-start each of the updates. Tedious. The other major problem is that about 1/3 to 1/2 the time, completed downloads will fail to install, often repeatedly. No idea. It works eventually, so it's not an issue of compatibility. Aggravating.
In progress...

I have had the DHD for a year too and came from a Iphone and I agree with some of your issues.
Battery life: For me at first I was having to charge at sometimes 1 or 2 in the afternoon >< but now I get to midnight often with 50% charge if i have been using lightly, a day with some gaming music and calls its 15% 20% left this is around 11 when i normally goto bed and put it on charge so battery life is ok for me now (I am on stock sense rom 2.3 something, the latest one)
The GPS been flaky really annoys me sometimes taking 3 4 minutes to get one Sat, makes hoping in the car and getting directions something you have to add 5 minutes to your journey for.
Build Quality has been fine for me, but I have not opened really since i put in my SD card and it's been in a clear gel case with protector since day 1 so looks immaculate. I think the GPS issue is a design flaw.
HTC sense is ok, I only use a couple of their widgets but yea it's not really that useful and can be replicated with many things often free from the market.
Android music players: At first coming from Itunes I liked the fact I could add a new song with drag and drop but in retrospect its better to have a database driven system like itunes for organizing music and playlists means you end up with your music nicely organised tagged and searchable.
The market i have had no issues with really (Though IOS apps are overall slicker than Android still, though Android has caught up in a few now)
I think Android looks really promising with ICS and will finally root and put a Rom on once one is hacked on the Desire HD.
Overall the handset has been nice and I like been able have live wallpapers and change themes with things with different launchers, the Iphone got boring from a OS perspective whereas Android you can change everything and seem like you have a new phone.
Now for the gotcha...I solved all my Android & HTC problems by getting a Samsung Omnia 7 16gb WP7 I have had both phones now concurrently for 8 months and the WP7 is my everyday phone since about 3 weeks into buying it, but I have the desire HD with a backup sim in it and carry that too.
It lasted all day from day one on a charge and I found the OS to do everything I needed without any tweaking, that been social networking, syncing with google calendar, making calls, listening to my music and surfing the web on the go. (I am not really a phone gamer, maybe play the odd puzzle game like jems or something.)
It's a bit like the iphone I guess everything just kind of works with no tweaking but it looks different and you can actually make your home screen look really nice and personal with live tiles of your photos news feeds etc. And Zune I love its a really cool looking desktop client, it checkerboards album art when you play music and my phone wirelessly syncs any new music when its on charge over night (though PC has to be on ofc) I would never go back to drag and drop into folders now. WP7 has its quirks and annoyances too but I think it does the things I need better.
I still love Android though and may get the Galaxy Nexus, However will wait and see the reviews, if Android still has jerky lag scrolling and the random stutters on the homescreens and in browser will wait until next gen, hopefully though they have got the accelerated GUI working well enough, and it looks a lot nicer seems much more integrated from the demos I have seen less hodgepodge than it currently is.
It's great to have three different phone OSes to be able to choose from, currently its not looking like one will get a monopoly like MS did with windows so hopefully we can continue to have some choice and variety for years to come which also drives innovation which means better experiences for us the users!

I gave up with it
I eventually gave up with my HD a couple of weeks ago. The phone, as you wrote, has some strengths and some (serious) weaknesses.
The battery is awful. I stated that the first week I got it -- and the deniers said it was fine. It's not. It's crap. And seriously harms the device.
The phone is also heavy. If that sounds dumb, it's not when your hand is tired holding the damn thing for 45 minutes.
And, after a while, the phone lags badly. Only a complete reset fixes this.
The camera is also so-so, and slow as Hell. Video recording is poor and jerky.
Fortunately, there is a cure to all of these problems -- the Samsung Galaxy S2.

bobbyelliott said:
I eventually gave up with my HD a couple of weeks ago. The phone, as you wrote, has some strengths and some (serious) weaknesses.
The battery is awful. I stated that the first week I got it -- and the deniers said it was fine. It's not. It's crap. And seriously harms the device.
The phone is also heavy. If that sounds dumb, it's not when your hand is tired holding the damn thing for 45 minutes.
And, after a while, the phone lags badly. Only a complete reset fixes this.
The camera is also so-so, and slow as Hell. Video recording is poor and jerky.
Fortunately, there is a cure to all of these problems -- the Samsung Galaxy S2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bye Bye....

I've had my DHD for about 6 months now coming from a TyTN II on WinMob 6.0 which I still have. This one is miiiiiiiiles ahead. I agree that the major put-off with the DHD is the battery and I don't care how much freaking tweaking one does, it SUX!!!! I don't get a full day of moderate use at all. I am constantly plugging it in to charge. This seems to be a common Android device problem. Battery technology just has not kept up with the rest.
That being said, I am happy with most everything else. I love my music and I use Mortplayer. I love to be able to just plug my phone into my laptop via USB and just copy and delete music at my leisure. This goes for videos, series, movies etc.
I have the best apps I believe for my various needs. I will elaborate on this a little later.
I dumped SENSE!!! I have been using GO Launcher for the last 3 or 4 months. I love it! I also only use Live Wallpaper.
My GPS is great. I have had no issues at all. I get a lock indoors in an average of about 20 seconds flat. I have made no alterations or mods whatsoever. My phone is stock, unrooted etc. Don't fix it if it aint broke!
The apps I mostly use:
OfficeSuite Pro
Sygic Navigation
Perfect Viewer for comics
QuickPic gallery
Total Commander
Moboplayer for movies
Mortplayer for music
GO Keyboard (THE best Android keyboard after having tried seven or eight different ones)
Vlingo
Camera ZoomFX Pro
Photaf
PicSayPro
I hardly play games.
GO Contacts and Dialer
GO SMS Pro
Whatsapp
Black Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn for Android
Agile Locker
Animated Weather Pro
Weather Bug
Sense Analog Clock (The best one imho) Lots of skins available
GMail
Pocket Informant (Calendar)
Lookout Security
Equalizer
Volume Ace
Whiteboard Pro
Lots of dictionaries
Aldiko Book reader (The best for Android imho)
Camcard
Barcode Scanner
Camscan
Barcode Generator
Neocalc
Opera Mobile
...And various other tools and utilities.

well what i say m my sig tells everything about it . its just the worst decision of my life to buy it and even bad thing is that no one want to buy this kind of bulky phone here so i m kind of stuck with this phone still.
when i see ics boot up and running on dhd but not sgs2 well first time this phone give me some happiness .

I must say i haven't had many if any of the above issues, build quality is solid as a rock for me, phone been dropped a few times works perfectly well...
Sim cover did tend to be a pain to get off when i first got the phone, but i learned to pull it off by holding the sides of the cover and just gently pulling down.
The Volume rocker does suck, i don't think there's any debate here. You actually have to physically see the screen in order to know you've changed the volume level because it's not tactile whatsoever.
Battery life isn't as bad as people make out. Especially with custom roms, i can have 3 hours screen time and still last the full day in standby without my battery dying.
Camera performs quite well with the right settings as hamdir has demonstrated in his guide.
Overall i'm pleased with the DHD it's not perfect no, but for a year old smartphone it's got plenty of life left in it.

Ok... let's start with Music. The desire hd audio chip sucks. Period. My HD2 kicks its ass all over the place. Still... what you describe as a DHD problem with music sync etc, is present on most if not all Android devices. We only have mass storage.
Now, i do use MediaMonkey... but not the Free or Paid version. I downloaded the latest Beta4 and it manages my 180gb of mp3/ogg/flac/wav/ape whatevah. It syncs what i want and converts on the fly (why would i use FLAC on a cellphone?)
As for battery, with my DHD it lasts 2 days with very moderate use, but 3G always on, 2 google acounts, facebook, etc etc. Wifi is kept on, and when i arrive home, it connects to my wifi at it's own pleasure.
Battery door: Battery is not mean to be removed/inserted all that much. My DHD lasts months without a restart, so i don't see why you should need to remove that as often.
Volume rocker: Due to the above probably, it's still in it's place.
GPS: On this one i'll have to agree... it sucks. That plastic cover on the back is a issue, so much that a homemade fix is necessary.
As for the necessity of dual cores and so what... There really no NEED. We don't NEED this. We were fine with those dumb phones back in the Nokia Black/Green day.
As we want more, we need more... more processing power.
Now, i've used WP7 and iPhone. Lets not compare. WP7 is limited has hell. What it does, it does well. But it suffers for the same as iPhone. It need Zune to make it worth it. iPhone need iTunes. Who the hell designs a cellphone that requires a computer ?
So... please drop the comparision between WP7/iOS with Android. Yes, what they do, they do better than Android. But they do so little.. so so little..

Wrong thread
Black1982 said:
Bye Bye....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You write in the wrong thread br0. Go and cry on Samsung threads. It's not me it's DHD community which says this. Bye! Bye!
You understand Black1982: I'm with you.

Hello
I too use HTC Desire HD only problem is battery

Nice Thread.....
For me 1st year is just getting over today. This phone is awesome, I came from Symbian UIQ3 (W960i) phone. Actually I blindly chosen this phone due to Android+Dolby+HTC. But now am very happy with this decision. I had battery issues and GPS problems, but thanks to XDA devs all these gone over time. I will keep this phone till it dies.

Samsung Galaxy S2......
....is a very fast piece of plastic!
My brother has one and frankly I wouldn't swop my DHD for it ......EVER!!!!
After the DHD I will get another HTC. I am on my third HTC now.
I have seen Sony-Fricssions, Samdungs, (actually the proper name is SAMpple), and frankly HTC is still tops as far as build quality, etc. goes.
What can I say.....I luv me DHD!!!!
BTW, how on earth do people get 2 days without charging? Maybe flashing roms? but I don't want to do this.
The audio on my DHD is actually quite good. I use Equalizer and Volume Ace with Moboplayer and Mortplayer. I have an in-ear Phillips headset and the sound is maybe not the best but it is certainly good. Bass and loudness & clarity is actually quite good on mine. My family complains that my phone is too loud! hehehehehehe

Why do people keep whingeing about the battery life...its a smartphone...what more do you need to know...I've had a few of them...they are ****e,the galaxy s lasts about an he longer,look at this way,if your on the laptop plug it in...you got a sky hd box..plug it ...any device with a USB stick it in ..if your battery goes down to quick you can tweak it to be fair,in general though it just is accepted...the iPhones are even worse!
Htc sense is quality in my opinion,I've tried roms without and didn't gel,I like the DHd it still isn't old in my eyes
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Nice review there. Honestly, I agree with the first few points of TS regarding the battery, Sense and GPS.
For the battery, its also the major setback I noticed when I got this phone. It's not crappy, its utter bulldung. But hey, due to the battery prob forces me to snoop around and found my love, ROM flashing! It's a mixed blessing I guess. Without the battery prob, I wouldn't stubble upon the amazing devs at XDA. as for the battery prob, it lasts for me through the day, an hour of music, Bluetooth headphone connected, a little mail, text and 10 minutes call max got me through the whole day.. all that is possible with a little thing called flashing. It does improve battery life. Period.
Sense.. hmm.. no idea, skipped the whole marketing thing.. sense location and what not. What ONLY like about sense is that u call silence a call by flipping it over, or turn into a blowhorn during a conversation with the same method. Lol. But other then that, its not much about to bother look let alone try.
GPS... Hmmm... First few locks are slow.. sure. But hey, nothing like rooting, flashing CWM GPS.zip can't handle..
Finally.. its a beautiful phone.. albeit its weakness in some areas. It's like a classic car, few chinks here and there, but with a little personalized tweaking, it'll be your phone indeed. I cherish it more than any other phones I had cause its me in an aluminum shell... It's a great phone. And I'm a happy owner.
Ps: want a phone that last a week? Get a Nokia 3210. Lol.
sent from Borneo

What with the obsession with itunes, googlemusic works just fine for me, with a couple of hundred random tracks synced via banshee for offline appreciation
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

What with the obsession with itunes, googlemusic works just fine for me, with a couple of hundred random tracks synced via banshee for offline appreciation
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... Google Music works fine. I bet it does, i can't have it yet. Not here on my country anyway. But i can have iTunes.
I don't like iTunes. To be honest, iTunes is everything i HATE on a media manager.
But, it has a advantage that GMusic does not. iTunes does not store your entire collection on the cloud. I have 180gb+ of media... this makes Google Music a "no no" for me.

In just about two weeks, it'd be our anniversary
With DHD being my first smartphone, I really didn't have much expectations of it. I just bought it then because the HD7 was still unavailable. Sense rocks. Sure the stock eventually grew very laggy, Messages does not send messages.. But hey, that's what Android Market is for.
Eventually tried rooting and flashing custom ROMs, and hell yeah, I think I may well use it for, if time allows, still another year. In the internal side, I find nothing wrong with it. It's not like it's gonna replace my computer or anything. At this point, I kinda appreciate Sense, especially Sense 3.5, the UI is just perfect, and the Beats Audio works well at default compared to how PowerAMP does. Equalizer app makes it more perfect.
The build quality for me is kinda mixed. We gotta love the metal casing. But the detachable plastic parts, they're questionable. I also bought the phone with the power keys in a deeper position than advertised out of the box, which at the time I was unaware, so it's kinda takes more effort to press it.
Just around five months ago, the volume rocker somehow broke off and fell somewhere while I was walking home. I usually joke with my friends that DHD comes with a stylus.. a toothpick for pressing the volume lol. The h and t in the htc logo behind the phone got lost as well. I can only see the shining c with holes on the h and t lol.
But, given that the phone fell on the road with a strong impact once, fell in a pail full of water once while having a call, and ran against the rain with it once, and that my phone is still alive, I guess I like it. The mic's busted though.
I think I gotta bring this baby to the hospital, er the service centre one of these days. I still love it today. Custom ROMs rejuvenate it. )

Almost all the issues are caused by the alluminum body. You can't have a handheld radio device with metal casing that doesn't have some plastic parts to embed the antenna. Well, actually you can, but then you'll have to expose the antenna and explain to the users that they are holding the device the "wrong" way. But having the metal body has one great advantage over plastic - with proper care it still looks as good as new. I have mine DHD for little over a year and it's like brand new. And the only protection it has against the elements (including my two kids) is just the stock screen protector. I love that feature so much that it was one of the two things that drove me in the direction of choosing acer a500 for a tablet. And I seriously can't understand all the people complaining about the battery life. Mine lasts two days with normal usage and can easily last a workday with moderate to heavy usage. And if you don't have any access to a power source / usb plug near your workplace, I somehow doubt that your work requirements involve spending 8 hours playing with your phone . And I'm on a rooted stock 2.3.3 ROM with no battery tweaks whatsoever. Actually I pluged my phone yesterday for an hour while having lunch (that could not charge the battery completely) and 30 hours later I'm on 20%. True - I didn't use it that much (maybe 20 minutes talking on the phone) but it's still what should be expected of a smartphone. BTW iPhone4 battery life is worse despite it's tiny screen and limited functionality and I hear 4s is even worse.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

daedric said:
Well... Google Music works fine. I bet it does, i can't have it yet. Not here on my country anyway. But i can have iTunes.
I don't like iTunes. To be honest, iTunes is everything i HATE on a media manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not available here officially either, but hey us XDA'ers aren't going to let that stop us are we?
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

snowpatrol1702 said:
Why do people keep whingeing about the battery life...its a smartphone...what more do you need to know...I've had a few of them...they are ****e,the galaxy s lasts about an he longer,look at this way,if your on the laptop plug it in...you got a sky hd box..plug it ...any device with a USB stick it in ..if your battery goes down to quick you can tweak it to be fair,in general though it just is accepted...the iPhones are even worse!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? Because it's not satisfactory, that's why. Do you not understand the concept of a review?
Why do you even have a mobile phone if you never leave the house/office? If you're happy to stay plugged in all the time, why not just use your laptop for computing etc and a landline for phone calls? You do realise that smartphones are meant to be mobile too, don't you?
tkolev said:
I seriously can't understand all the people complaining about the battery life. Mine lasts two days with normal usage and can easily last a workday with moderate to heavy usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously? Seriously, try reading my post again. As I described, I don't get the same performance as you. Clearly lots of other people have the same problem. I don't know why this is, but it doesn't stop it being a fact. What's not to understand? Do you think I'm making up my experience for fun, or something?
ghostofcain said:
What with the obsession with itunes, googlemusic works just fine for me, with a couple of hundred random tracks synced via banshee for offline appreciation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't realise there was anyway to access Google Music in the UK yet - I'm going to give it a try out of curiosity, but... continuously drain my battery and be dependent on a decent signal? No thanks. I'm really still not convinced cloud storage of music and video is the way forward at present in general. Plus the Google Music app is pretty bare bones and it doesn't seem possible to play music downloaded from Google Music in other music apps.
I'm not obsessed with iTunes, it's just really good for syncing music to portables. My point was that there's no decent equivalent for Android phones.

Thinking of purchasing, need some opinions

Hey all,
Firstly, if this thread is in the wrong place, then by all means move it. There are specific threads for Android and Wp7 questions, however this does not have to do with either of them specifically.
Anyways, I'm thinking of getting the HD2; I know it's an ageing phone but it seems to do the impossible
My reasons are
1) I'm looking for a phone to tie me over until I can afford a more "Upgrade-y" kind of upgrade, specs wise it is a downgrade from my current phone.
2) I love tinkering with phones and using the latest builds of whatever this baby runs. Unfortunately I'm no dev but maybe I'll get to it some day. Anyways, this will be more or less a toy for me, and perhaps even an educational tool.
3) I've gone through a lot of phones and I tend to get somewhat bored with them, which is why I cycle through them pretty often. The amazing HD2 runs so many things I doubt I'm going to get bored.
Anyways, I would like some user opinions on the usability of this phone. I realize that using the latest Jelly Bean build or whatnot will probably be slow and sluggish, and that's usually fine (as long as it's not slow to the point where it's unusable) but at times I will need stable roms. I'd like to know how performance is on the most stable of roms. I don't use it for games much, only texting and light web browsing, so for these simple tasks I'd expect them to be buttery smooth, but is that how it works in reality? let me know.
Also, aside from the great things I hear about the HD2, I've also heard of a freezing issue that pretty much renders the phone unusable without a hard reboot, and I hear it is due to the CPU overheating. I'm not sure if this is such a common issue but please let me know.
Finally, how does this perform with day to day functions? Screen legibility, speaker volume, responsiveness, battery life, etc...
Thanks a ton!
-Dillon

I had no problems using the HD2 until the digitizer died on me (common issue).. Screen legibility is great on such a huge screen, speaker volume is good, responsiveness is good, and battery life is decent. I could get through an entire day with some calls, some games, some texting and still have ~40% left. The performance is great on most roms I have tried. All AOSP/CM/etc ICS, GB, and Froyo are all very smooth. Even the sense roms ported over from newer devices are butter smooth. There are so many choices, you can practically flash a new rom every week and won't be bored by the end of the year.

Hey, thanks for the reply.
Do you know what the digitizer problem is caused by? Perhaps I can prevent it. But if I can't, would buying a new digitizer fix the problem?
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda app-developers app

No problem, the digitizer problem is caused by the digitizer flex ribbon physically wearing out over time. It only occurs because the "end call/power" button is directly on top of that flex ribbon.. You can avoid this by not using the power button at all and use an app that emulates that button to turn off your phone. Buying a new digitizer will fix the problem, but if you have never opened the HD2 before, best to pay a professional to do it since it is a pain in the arse to disassemble and assemble..

Been using an HD2 for a good while and basically I would have to think very caerfully before upgrading. It does everything I need and does most things very well indeed. If you can find one at a good s/h price I'd say go for it.
Advantages:
Good screen for Internet browsing,etc.
Gorilla glass so reasonably damage-resistant.
One of the best phone cameras I've used, can be tweaked even further, see hacks.
GPS and magnetic compass.
Plays music even when in standby.
NOT WM7 so you don't have to encrypt the microSD card.
Stable. Runs for weeks without crashing.
Disadvantages:
A bit large. (I keep mine in a shirt pocket, which I find works well.)
Needs charging daily if you use it a lot. (Spare batts are cheap though)
Limited RAM, therefore don't open too many apps at once.
OS WM6.5, less easy to use than Android, though plenty free apps available.
Major annoyance:
Random dialling when on phone screen, due to static or a shirtsleeve-touch. Wish I could find a way to remove that speed-dial background list which seems to be the culprit. Basically, NEVER leave the thing on the phone screen unless you are in a call.
Minor annoyance:
Badly placed volume keys. Hard to pick up without accidentally changing volume.
Not all headphones are suitable for music use. Some give very inadequate volume.

IWR said:
Been using an HD2 for a good while and basically I would have to think very caerfully before upgrading. It does everything I need and does most things very well indeed. If you can find one at a good s/h price I'd say go for it.
Advantages:
Good screen for Internet browsing,etc.
Gorilla glass so reasonably damage-resistant.
One of the best phone cameras I've used, can be tweaked even further, see hacks.
GPS and magnetic compass.
Plays music even when in standby.
NOT WM7 so you don't have to encrypt the microSD card.
Stable. Runs for weeks without crashing.
Disadvantages:
A bit large. (I keep mine in a shirt pocket, which I find works well.)
Needs charging daily if you use it a lot. (Spare batts are cheap though)
Limited RAM, therefore don't open too many apps at once.
OS WM6.5, less easy to use than Android, though plenty free apps available.
Major annoyance:
Random dialling when on phone screen, due to static or a shirtsleeve-touch. Wish I could find a way to remove that speed-dial background list which seems to be the culprit. Basically, NEVER leave the thing on the phone screen unless you are in a call.
Minor annoyance:
Badly placed volume keys. Hard to pick up without accidentally changing volume.
Not all headphones are suitable for music use. Some give very inadequate volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the informative response. Did you happen to have the digitizer issue that Jian had, or the overheating issue?
When you said that some headphones were unsuitable for music, was it specifically headphones with a Mic or Volume control on them? Trying to use a pair of Monster Jamz (which had volume/playback control for iPod/iPhone) didn't really give me a "full" sound without pressing on the play/pause button.
Also, all of these things were on WinMo 6.5, correct? Have you tried a WP7 or Android rom?

Had my phone since release date.yep your right, the phone is a Beast!
I cannot recall how many roms, builds, os's whatever you want to call em i have installed in the past year fews and everytime i love my phone even more .i think the only time i will get another phone is if the hardware specs outweigh the hd2 that it cannot cope will a new os ie window8 apparently
Listen, There are thousands of reviews on this website but dont read into it that much. Its all about trial and error and how you go about your own business - by all means read the threads too as common faults do occur- but every phone user is different and alot of factors have an impact ie have you got the right radio installed ,have you got the right SD card? Have you formatted the card properly ie task 29 before installing a new rom have you installed the right files etc all these issues people face are repairable but ultimately,so you will have a different experience than others.
The old windows6.5 rom were absolutely great and fun to customize
Android builds that i tried were up to scratch for everyday use , stability wise, battery life fantastic internt browsing email etc great no lag freezing
Windows7 some battery issues with certain roms and overheating i did come across at first , again if you experience this "trial and error" try another rom, im currently using pdamatejam now for 2months no looking back.. For everyday use, stability excellant, battery life over 24hours etc no lag freezing
Im dualbooting so chopping and changing inbetween android and windows 7 a feature many phones cannot offer.i love the hd2
Note..Newly release build/roms will be unstable when first , thats expected but overtime they become more stable as through feedback from this forum the little errors problems are reticfied -i always wait until these problems are eradicated but everyones different as lot ofpeople like to try new releases roms and leave feedback which is what the dev are asking for-
Another note the SD card ..this is a MASSIVE factor imho which causes many people problems ie boot loops freezing crashing.... I have been through 5different sd card from the start of the hd2 when you stop having problems you know you got the right one, but stay away from fakes Period.
Good luck

Thanks a ton guys
I've another question; Should I get the TMOUS phone for it's bigger ROM capacity? If so, how can I even tell if it has more ROM than the regular? All T-Mobile phones are like that?

DillonBladez said:
Thanks a ton guys
I've another question; Should I get the TMOUS phone for it's bigger ROM capacity? If so, how can I even tell if it has more ROM than the regular? All T-Mobile phones are like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes all tmous have 1gb internal rom. You can tell a tmous by the red+green send+end keys, and it says T-Mobile beneath the ear piece.(and its fractionally longer) They're slightly easier to brick than regular hd2, but only in one particular way (wrong radio) so as long as you know the danger it needn't be a worry.
As for jellybean, in the days since your first post there are now several jb roms that are shaping up to be as good as any previous versions. I'm running jb with my processor UNDER clocked, and barely a hint of lag anywhere.

Thanks for the insight!
This phone really seems to live up to it's name.
What do you guys think of WP8 on the device? I think I read somewhere that it's using a different kernel or something from WP7, and that it's a pain in the ass to get it to work with new hardware that it wasn't meant for.

i got the hd2 when it came out and i'm still using it today. It's just that good.

Also, I forgot to ask; Is there a notification LED on the HD2? It seems so small that it's not really mentioned anywhere, for any phone, but it's quite useful to me.

DillonBladez said:
Also, I forgot to ask; Is there a notification LED on the HD2? It seems so small that it's not really mentioned anywhere, for any phone, but it's quite useful to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes there is. It is on the left side of the speaker and it only has two colors: amber/orange and green.

I personally think the development effort would best be utilised on last of WP7 to make functionality superb & a few innovations to make W8 users envious.
Chasing latest OS's does not always result in real practical usable device.

friend its perefect the phone big variety of roms!

Sorry for not replying for a while,
Does the hd2 encounter some of the force close mishaps caused by lack of ram? Its only got 512mb, and I find my current phone with the same amount of ram to be doing this often. Would the wp7 Roms perform better in the stability aspects?
Thanks a ton,
Dillon.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

I still have an HD2 sitting w/a couple extra cells I'm not using, it's still brand new, it was never used just the box opened. I'm kinda slow answering emails but give me a shout.

I'm running the latest Jelly Bean build without overclocking and I think it runs rather smooth. At times it can pause for just a slit second but this isn't very often.
If your looking for a great phone that can do just about anything (but Sense 4) then this is the phone. Because this phone has a very high developer following it
often has new ROMs being released. This is one of the biggest reasons why I got the phone myself. I came from the HTC Touch Pro 2 so I picked this phone up
back in late 2009 early 2010. There are some great deals for the phone now that its several years old but I really feel this phone is going to last a long time to come.

htccraze said:
I'm running the latest Jelly Bean build without overclocking and I think it runs rather smooth. At times it can pause for just a slit second but this isn't very often.
If your looking for a great phone that can do just about anything (but Sense 4) then this is the phone. Because this phone has a very high developer following it
often has new ROMs being released. This is one of the biggest reasons why I got the phone myself. I came from the HTC Touch Pro 2 so I picked this phone up
back in late 2009 early 2010. There are some great deals for the phone now that its several years old but I really feel this phone is going to last a long time to come.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking to use the phone mainly for text messaging, perhaps some facebook and light gaming.
Right now I'm choosing between the HD2 and the S II.
They both seem to have a bit of developer backing (obviously the HD2 has more), but is the S II worth the extra $150ish over the HD2?

Hmm thats hard to say. Both are great phones but personally I like HTC phones a little more. Mainly because I like HTC Sense. Samsung though is my second favorite so you really can't go wrong with either. I really like the Galaxy S II and the screen is a lot better then the HD2 as well as the camera. Some of its other specs are a little better then the HD2 but the big selling point is choice. With the HD2 if you start to get tired of Windows Mobile 6.5 (stock) you can switch to Android. Then if you ever get tired of that you can go to Windows Phone 7.5. I've bought several phones since I bought my HD2 some even that were dual core but I've always seem to end up going back to the HD2 so that should say something. I would check out some videos on youtube about both phones you're looking at to try and get an idea of what you feel you'll like best.