Database Users

Are You Bored of your HD2?

My phone history is no small list i've tried pretty much everything out there From N97, to Blackberry 9700... HD2 cought my eye because i originally had the HD, however it seems that i'm getting the itch to move on to possibly the N900 or E72
Anyways just wondering what your experiences have been like with your device, and what are your most cool applications?

I change phones quite often too. My last phone in fact was a N900. Great phone yet I felt it was a bit slow. So far I am loving the hd2 and don't have plans to switch for quite some time. With every phone there was always something that bothered me. I thought Windows mobile would be it but so far it has been great. My only past issue was with a touch diamond being a bit sluggish, this hd2 definitely does not have that problem.
I could possibly see a jump to the N900, but an E72 (used to own an E71)?! No way. Using symbian is like jumping through a time warp to the past.

i know im lil off topic but i feel you guys on never finding perfect phone before one i got now. I dont mean to push android on WM guys but other then lil lag sometimes its been best phone for me.

It's gonna take a real monster of a phone for me to even think about considering getting rid of my HD2.
I've never been as happy with a phone as I am with this, and I don't think I'll start having wandering eyes for a looooooooong time!

wait till Winmo 7 comes. I reckon it will be a real sweet OS
I also change phones quite often. I always loved my iphone 3GS, but the HD2 has kept my attention for a while now. It does everything my iphone used to do for me.
I think once Microsoft implements Xbox live games into winmo, we'll all be laughing!

I'll get bored when they have a dual core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon or Tegra 2 HD3 with WM7

DMAND said:
I'll get bored when they have a dual core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon or Tegra 2 HD3 with WM7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And AT LEAST a 4.7" screen. lol - I wouldn't really want one that big, but I definitely don't want smaller!

johncmolyneux said:
And AT LEAST a 4.7" screen. lol - I wouldn't really want one that big, but I definitely don't want smaller!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't mind an even bigger screen. They could do it with the hd2 by removing the border around the lcd. Imagine nothing but screen corner to corner.

in the end it's still a phone.. doesn't have wheels or boobs..

The experience of the HD2 in most cases spoils you, and you will find it difficult to use a phone with a smaller screen. Apart from the earpiece quality at the higher frequencies, i am completly happy with this phone having owned about 10 different phones including iphone.

bel_z_bub said:
in the end it's still a phone.. doesn't have wheels or boobs..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But I heard that on WM7 it will preform BJ's .

I must say, the HD2 is one of the best phone I came across.
I've worked over 2 years as the buyer for a multimedia chain and got the oppertunity to test drive a whole lot of device.
Also I'm using a ppc over 7 years now and untill the HD2 there were only 2 devices who have the "professional"/fun factor that the HD2 has.
And that was the Magician and the Universal.
Now I don't argue about the N900 because he has a "full" linux on it and for the linux guru's this is a wonderfull device. But if you aren't that good or fond in Linux then there is nothing special on the N900, and he is idd quite slow in normal use.
The other problem is that several years ago people did not compare a ppc with a normal phone (nokia symbian and etc...) but the mainstream users now also want a pcc thus the discussing is started... (certainly no personal blame meant)

I have no intentions of getting rid of the HD2 until there is a Nvidia Tegra powered platform available running WinMo7 with a screen equal to or bigger than the HD2.
The extra screen size compared to other mobiles on the market today really does make all the difference. I see people considering exchanging their HD2 for the Nexus One, but personally I find the screen a real letdown after being used to my HTC.
The one thing that does bug me about it is the low capacity battery included but, touch wood, so far I've managed to keep it running 24/7 by charging thru the night and every now and again in the car. Not enough of a let down for me to start looking at other handsets anyhow.

emigrating said:
The one thing that does bug me about it is the low capacity battery included but, touch wood, so far I've managed to keep it running 24/7 by charging thru the night and every now and again in the car. Not enough of a let down for me to start looking at other handsets anyhow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a serious battery drain, do you work so much on your device?
Eg I use my device constantly, 15 sms/day, 1 a 2hours phone, 30min surfing wifi and or hspda and I can do over a day and a half with one battery charge

This topics makes me laugh (not being offensive).
But it's pretty difficult to get bored of it. Of course we could have much more action on it but i'm sure in time we will have that also.

I cant see myself getting bored of the HTC HD2 anytime soon. Still got lots to do to it. Custom Roms, writing my own apps etc. Once i have it perfect then I will be using it until my contract runs out and i can get the latest super phone for free

Seeing as I have just discovered 800x480 encoding of 720p videos using WinMenc makes amazingly clear videos, and the demo of Electopia showing OpenGL 2.0 capabilities, I don't see myself getting bored any time soon.

thomas_pieps said:
That is a serious battery drain, do you work so much on your device?
Eg I use my device constantly, 15 sms/day, 1 a 2hours phone, 30min surfing wifi and or hspda and I can do over a day and a half with one battery charge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I use it constantly for the web and MSN (wifi/hsdpa/3g) as well as calls/sms. I could probably tweak it to last longer by disabling wifi/bluetooth etc when not connected but haven't found a good app to automate this yet.
Of course, once I find a 'cheap' car-cradle with built-in micro-usb (ie. put the phone in the cradle and it automatically starts charging - rather than fiddle around with cables and whatnot) the batterylife won't be a problem no more.

karkid said:
My phone history is no small list i've tried pretty much everything out there From N97, to Blackberry 9700... HD2 cought my eye because i originally had the HD, however it seems that i'm getting the itch to move on to possibly the N900 or E72
Anyways just wondering what your experiences have been like with your device, and what are your most cool applications?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No where near board with it but as you've most likely tried everything there is for the HD2 why don't you list your best top 10 apps that you've tried and then we'll compare notes

For me the HD2 is my very first PocketPC/Smartphone. For me this phone is very powerful that it'll do fine for the coming years, if the phone can last that long. My only reason for switching to another phone is when the specs are at least equal to the one of the HD2, MUCH improved battery life and support of both capacative and resistive touch with adequate software and UI support. You can't get better than that. I'm not a gamer, so more power and a higher frequency is not necessarily my wish.

HD mini ? No, thanks !

I was very disappointed by the HD mini.
I gave as a gift my wife and I returned with the Diamond

why you are disappointed
you can explain?

Lancillotto69 said:
I was very disappointed by the HD mini.
I gave as a gift my wife and I returned with the Diamond
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
explain,plz..otherwise we could think that your wife doesn't know how to use it! And I hope to use she's doing better with others stuff!!

I'm excited about this model

Lancillotto69 said:
I was very disappointed by the HD mini.
I gave as a gift my wife and I returned with the Diamond
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think he doesn't know what he is talking about,the mini is way better than the diamond...your wife just don't know how to use it...

This device is fantastic!!! I'm using it for two weeks and it works great. I had diamond 1 & 2, also fine machines, but to be honest both verry sluggish, poor battery life and needed manny tweaks to work for daily use. And that's ridiculous if you think about that; they where presented as high end devices and pricy so should work propper out of the box! And now the Mini. It's smood, fast responding and does work great right out of the box. Just what you need to aspect from a device at such price. Battery last 2 days normal use. I know the screen is an issue, specialy if you want to install apps, but for normal use it has al the features on board (excellent callender, twitter app, audio player, internet, e-mail, co-pilot and more). No need to install more. The device is powerful enough. Most people tweak for the fun of it and install most apps just to test and remove again. Fine for them. But for me daily use is the prime criterion, with apps and power I need, not for just to have. And this device delivers it all!

I agree with Hermanouk. If you are not so much into tweaking your device the Mini is good. I like its size, weight and the fact that the batt life is one of the best amongst all WM devices I have seen/used so far.

Fantastic Device
this is right.
the device is fantastic. the best windows mobile ever. a really tough competition to iphone and Android phones.
to be honest with you, i'm in love with MAC products. i own them all without any exception.
i'm in deep love with the iPhone with few concerns: multi-tasking, alarms and snoozing handling, very fragile and welcomes scratches, and finally a personal preference for little bit smaller device with 3 to 3.5 inch capacitive screen, not to forget a longer battery life.
The HD Mini solved them all. very smooth multi-touch screen, zooming, pinching, rotating, scrolling, awsome. the design is the best practical ever. i was sitting in the garden and very confidently i put the Mini on the glass table full of dust because of the sand storm, i would never even dare to think dealing with the iPhone like that.
the touch buttons are the best i have ever used, very responsive, no single complain.
the camera is superb, missing flash of course.
buy it without any hesitance.

even I have nothing to show for it. I have not found a kit iGO8 that contains resolution and 320_480 ; 480_320 , which is why I have not tested navigation

Good as vanilla...
I got one, and I am hugely disapointed. I was not aware of the HVGA resolution excluding me from installing more or less anything from 3rd party developers. (How can they release anything like this??) Since the native WM applications (since mid-90's) has not been tweaked to this new resolution, the fonts look really crappy unless you scale up to largest size (and then what is the benefit of HVGA?) The HTC-made UI looks good though.
So at the end of the day, what makes HTC HD Mini different from any non-windows phone like Samsung or LG or whatever? Nothing, except the 100% active sync compatibility. Can you live without that last feature, choose something different.

landy88 said:
I got one, and I am hugely disapointed. I was not aware of the HVGA resolution excluding me from installing more or less anything from 3rd party developers. (How can they release anything like this??) Since the native WM applications (since mid-90's) has not been tweaked to this new resolution, the fonts look really crappy unless you scale up to largest size (and then what is the benefit of HVGA?) The HTC-made UI looks good though.
So at the end of the day, what makes HTC HD Mini different from any non-windows phone like Samsung or LG or whatever? Nothing, except the 100% active sync compatibility. Can you live without that last feature, choose something different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Noone cares about those applications,and anyway the most importants works...if you want to use a bunch of useless applications buy another phone...what makes the mini different it's the design,dimension and battery duration,and i think that that's what really matters in a phone..

Lancillotto69 said:
I was very disappointed by the HD mini.
I gave as a gift my wife and I returned with the Diamond
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously?! I've played with and enjoyed most of HTC's WM phones of the last few years, but the original Diamond is the only one I've really hated. Dreadfully tiny screen, awfully slow, horrible buttons and poor battery life. Maybe ROM updates improved it, but the Diamond2 leaves it for dust, IMHO, and with some caveats the Mini edges ahead of the Diamond2.

Hermanouk said:
This device is fantastic!!! I'm using it for two weeks and it works great. I had diamond 1 & 2, also fine machines, but to be honest both verry sluggish, poor battery life and needed manny tweaks to work for daily use. And that's ridiculous if you think about that; they where presented as high end devices and pricy so should work propper out of the box! And now the Mini. It's smood, fast responding and does work great right out of the box. Just what you need to aspect from a device at such price. Battery last 2 days normal use. I know the screen is an issue, specialy if you want to install apps, but for normal use it has al the features on board (excellent callender, twitter app, audio player, internet, e-mail, co-pilot and more). No need to install more. The device is powerful enough. Most people tweak for the fun of it and install most apps just to test and remove again. Fine for them. But for me daily use is the prime criterion, with apps and power I need, not for just to have. And this device delivers it all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As my signature: GMTA!

Espada88 said:
Noone cares about those applications,and anyway the most importants works...if you want to use a bunch of useless applications buy another phone...what makes the mini different it's the design,dimension and battery duration,and i think that that's what really matters in a phone..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but you are absolutely wrong. If you want a small size phone with long battery life - choose an old Ericsson T610 or similar. Applications such as Navigon and Worldmate may be useless to you, but for me they are utterly important for dealing with my professional life. The only reason for me to have a wm phone is the 100% compatibility to Active sync.
Thanks

Lady88 I see you got what I mean, sure the battery lasts long, the processor is very fast, but my Diamond is very personalized with HD mini spent my time trying to run applications with fingers without success, with third-party software parties is useless
.... My wife is happy

My battery lasts about 10 hours... With some internet wifi, bluetooth and some solitair, the battery fall down from 90% to 20% in 3-4 hours...

redeye998 said:
My battery lasts about 10 hours... With some internet wifi, bluetooth and some solitair, the battery fall down from 90% to 20% in 3-4 hours...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you have automatic backlight adjustment on?

tzacapaca said:
do you have automatic backlight adjustment on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and normally is about 60-70% i thing.
Is that a problem?

redeye998 said:
Yes, and normally is about 60-70% i thing.
Is that a problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YES,AND VERY BIG PROBLEM MAN!
switch it and put backlight to 40-50%,then your battery will last longer.I use 50% now and battery lasts for 2 days at least,sometimes 3 if i dont use internet much

Ok! i will try that and post again... Ty man...

[Q] Would you buy NOW an HD2 to use it ONLYwith Android?

Hello and merry xmass to everyone.
Here is my question. I'm going to chenge my devices soon, so I dewcided to take a brand new LG Optimus 7 to test the infamous WP7. I never had a proper android device, so I'm thinking about a cheeeeep 2nd hand device to play with the green thing.
The question is: can the HD2 be in the list with devices such as the Milestone/Droid, Nexus One and other former top range android devices?
As far as I can read (and it took me so long to read every single thread in the developement forum) the android experience in the HD2 is so close to the Desire HD that you can't almost notice the difference.
So... would you buy now and HD2 to use it as an android device full time?

SorenStirner said:
As far as I can read (and it took me so long to read every single thread in the developement forum) the android experience in the HD2 is so close to the Desire HD that you can't almost notice the difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not yet, there are many things (and time, of course) to do before Android on HD2 is close to Desire HD
if you love Android you should buy Desire HD

siunhanu said:
not yet, there are many things (and time, of course to do before Android on HD2 is close to Desire HD
if you love Android you should buy Desire HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's exactly what I thinks as well
Or get the Nexus S and install the Cyanogen build
merry christmas

Well... the DHD and the Galaxy S are not exactly cheep as they are the flagship devices in androind environment. Thay would make my ne LG O7 look like the secondo choice phone and took over as main phone.
I got 200 to 250eur left for an android toy, a 2nd hand Milestone should be the best choice for that range... better than an HD2 with android on it?

SorenStirner said:
I got 200 to 250eur left for an android toy, a 2nd hand Milestone should be the best choice for that range... better than an HD2 with android on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
If you got 200-250e, yes, I could buy HD2 rather then milestone..
Merry Christmas

buy hd2,cause it can run multiple operatin systems already-imagine what will hapen in 3 months

#1 For HD2.........

I bought the HD2 second hand to run and test Android.
That is the one and only reason I bought it.
My situation might be a bit different as I have a E71 to do my calls with and the HD2 to toy with. Yes, that is right my HD2 has never ever made a useful phonecall.
I love it to bits but if I was only to have 1 phone I would go for a full native Android phone!

I don't see any problem with android on hd2, just don't install desire hd rom. Maybe in a few months even it will work perfectly. There isn't a cheaper and better android phone than hd2

to much battery drain, that is the main problem. also sometimes apps make problems with error messages. i made tests with several builds, but no build is for daily use.
the developers made a very good job, there is nothing to say against them.
but i think, if you want to use android for daily use then buy a desire or desire hd

I haven't found a sense build that is as smooth as it should be, but I don't know how smooth it is on a EVO or DesireHD either.
Using JDMS everything works perfectly except:
1. USB transfer - there might be a way to fix this, i just use dropbox
2. Slow GPS lock time - it takes 2-3 minutes in android, in winmo it took about 15s
3. Battery drain high in standby if GPS is left on - so you have to turn it off then turn it back on when you want to use maps. (otherwise battery is about as good as I got with WinMo
Looking at the build this is really the only 3 problems I can find. Everything else is smooth as butter and extremely stable (haven't had a freeze or restart in about 10 days with it)

The main problem right now is bettery consumption. The HD2 used to last two days with my usage pattern, with Android it's less than a day. Then speed is another issue: I haven't tried the latest RAM builds yet as they are really immature, but as is, the HD2 running DesireHD's Sense it damn slow.
That said, and given that you can find an HD2 for a very low price these days, I think it's a nice choice. I.e. an actual Desire HD consts 3 times the money. But don't expect a reliable phone that you can use daily with no problems. On the contrary, expect to try ROM after ROM and spend countless hours on XDA.

papajohn said:
The main problem right now is bettery consumption. The HD2 used to last two days with my usage pattern, with Android it's less than a day. Then speed is another issue: I haven't tried the latest RAM builds yet as they are really immature, but as is, the HD2 running DesireHD's Sense it damn slow.
That said, and given that you can find an HD2 for a very low price these days, I think it's a nice choice. I.e. an actual Desire HD consts 3 times the money. But don't expect a reliable phone that you can use daily with no problems. On the contrary, expect to try ROM after ROM and spend countless hours on XDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think battery drain isnt to much of an issue if you let it run flat at least once a week to recondition the battery.theres not much difference between this and my old Hero or my girlfriends desire when it comes to battery,dont forget it is a big phone with only a 1230mAh battery,a htc wilfire has 1300mAh,even in winmo battery is not great,it just depends how you use it and what your going to use it for,if you keep the clock speed at normal and reboot a few times it should stable out after a few days,I use android everyday now,never really used Winmo only as a backup wich is rarely,yeah you have to expect a thew lags here and there but having used it and compared with my girlfriends desire its on Par with that at the mo

At this time, Android on HD2 is not 100% stable and the big problem still battery drain. If price is not your matter, you should buy DHD with 8 mpx camera, support 720p movie, 1.5gb rom, 768 MB RAM, 16M color.
and of course, if you think about a cheap phone with powerful performance, HD2 is the best choice

The only concern I have with my HD2 running Android is the battery consumption. The battery only last almost a day. Other than that, I use strictly Android and have been doing so for months. I have been running without a reboot for over 11 days just to see how long I can go without a reboot. I normally reboot at least once a week just to clean up my phone. Android is the only way to go for me. Have tried all OS except BlackBerry. Android in MHO is the best. Happy Holidays!

My first concern when purchasing a phone was the price to performance ration. How much bang for the buck are you actually getting? In my case, I got my HD2 for free (not refurb), so I would have to say it was well worth all the lil tweaks and bugs here and there to run Android. I would have gotten it even if android was stock on it. I've had WinMo for way to long. Happy Holidays!
Ps, yes the battery drain is an issue, but it is true on how you use it and for what. If your like me, your on your phone a lotttttt, and 10-12 hours is a good length. Plus I'm not far from a charger most of the time.

Tnx all for your opinions. Though I read a lot of different experiences and feedbacks and I really can not understand if the HD2 can be a good replacement for a native android device.
I might add this: as I'm pretty new to android, the market should be my playground. I'm also trying to learn some Java coding on Ubuntu environment (keeping my Silverlight SDK in the Win7 partition for the LG O7). Would the [email protected] be an hand brake? Should I get a Nexus/Milestone instead to test my experiments and the apps to avoid software issues?

We bought a HD2 for our Son as a joint Christmas & birthday present with the sole intention of installing Android.
I left it as late as possible and then installed MDJ's Desire HD 4.6 after reading the many positive posts.
He has been playing Dungeon Defenders on it today.
Phone plus 16 gig class 6 microSD card came in at £250.
Lots of bangs for your bucks.
(EDIT: been running Android on my HD2 since June thanks to the guys and gals at XDA Devs)

aenedor said:
(EDIT: been running Android on my HD2 since June thanks to the guys and gals at XDA Devs)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really impressive! Can you please tell me the avarage usage of you [email protected] and its battery life? Do you use it as main phone (calling texting mailing googling marketing etc) or it's a backup/toy phone?

SorenStirner said:
Tnx all for your opinions. Though I read a lot of different experiences and feedbacks and I really can not understand if the HD2 can be a good replacement for a native android device.
I might add this: as I'm pretty new to android, the market should be my playground. I'm also trying to learn some Java coding on Ubuntu environment (keeping my Silverlight SDK in the Win7 partition for the LG O7). Would the [email protected] be an hand brake? Should I get a Nexus/Milestone instead to test my experiments and the apps to avoid software issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quite honestly, being a developer myself, i was worried about this as well. However, i successfully developed a 3D app using opengl java wrapper , capable of loading .OBJ files and using the compass/accelerometer as well as bluetooth. It runs quite well in my HD2 (running MDJ's Desire HD 4.6 build). Deployment is easy and you won't encounter any issue. So yeah, i developed for WinMo and Android using the same device. Hope i'll be able to say the samething when it comes to WP7...

[Q] Quick general info about different HD2 ports

Hi,
I'm standing in front of a quick decision of whether or not buy an HD2, have to give a quick answer.
I have done a quick search and found out hat there are several options to get rid of the stock WM6.5:
Nand wp7;
Nand android (sense hd or cm7);
SD android;
Dual boot wp7 and SD android.
Is that all? Another question is how is the general battery life?
I have an HTC desire and I've configured it so well that my wife wants to have it to replace her phone. So my question here is that if someone can give me some general info on what status these options are at right now. Which one do you think is more mature than others? I'd like to have a rather stable build and I personally prefer nand android coz I have good experience with desire and I am familiar with the customization.
I can do the mods myself later, but I have to decide very soon if I'd buy an HD2 from a friend, under time stress I cannot get an overview very fast...
Thank you guys for understanding!
Typed with my Desire.

First of all, if the price is right no matter what you're planning to do with it, the hd2 is an awesome device! It has been a long time since I have kept a phone for this long, me being a die hard htc modder, I find myself not needing to do much modding after I went nand back in january 6th, I love my phone and I'm planning on using it the full 22 months on my TMO contract until I can get an upgrade.
Now you're gonna get a one sided opinion from me since I hate windows phone 7, I can only tell you about my android experiences with my hd2.
I started to use dual boot sd android builds back in late october last year and I found that with a bit of tweaking I had a build that I could use every day and with the hot reboot option I totally stopped booting into windows mobile 6.5 unless I was gonna make some changes in my sd card. even when I was on sd card builds I got a decent battery life, around 10 to 14 hrs of moderate to heavy use, and now I'm running nand cyanogenmod7 android 2.3 and I unplug my phone around 3am to go to work and I still have about 15 to 20% around 8pm.
I'm sure you can tweak it to your hearts desire and make it run like a beast.
Now I don't know if you're a skilled phone modder/flasher but it's quite easy for everything to be done. I've been modding phones for a long time and it's a no brainer to me when it comes to phone flashing. Now you got to ask yourself this question, do I want to have a phone capable of running 5 different OS and have the capability of modifying it like no other phone I've owned before?
Now on the stability part of your question, it all depends on what you're looking for , a sense build, cyanogenmod, or miui. Depending who you talk to , they'll tell you their build is the most stable and it's perfect, meaning there's a lot of stable builds for the hd2, and there's a lot of developer support, so if there's an issue, a solution will be around the corner. So if you like the phone and it's within your price range then you wont regret it.

Is that all? I don't think many other phones can run that many OS's.
But yeah its a beast. Most if not all the NAND ROM's are stable now and they're just improving as the days go on. If you're getting the HD2 for cheap and giving your wife your desire it would be well worth it. You could show off the fancy new Sense too.
Oh and XDA app might say I'm on a N1 but I'm actually on a very stable Gingerbread ROM.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

On a HD2 ofcourse lol.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

If you love to tweak, try out new stuff, explore, then this is your phone sent down from the heavens. Performance is great in every aspect, good enough for normal use. However it is non comparable to a true android device flashed with a custom rom and tweaked. Battery is okie. On normal use you could prolly get two days worth. However normal daily use meaning 45 mins of talkng/texting/email, 1 hr of internet, 30 mins of music, 30 mins of videos/games and then the rest on standby.
Now if you're looking for something that just works great, then get a true android phone, it'll save you the reading since you already know how to operate android phones and it'll run better than the HD2.

Kailkti said:
If you love to tweak, try out new stuff, explore, then this is your phone sent down from the heavens. Performance is great in every aspect, good enough for normal use. However it is non comparable to a true android device flashed with a custom rom and tweaked. Battery is okie. On normal use you could prolly get two days worth. However normal daily use meaning 45 mins of talkng/texting/email, 1 hr of internet, 30 mins of music, 30 mins of videos/games and then the rest on standby.
Now if you're looking for something that just works great, then get a true android phone, it'll save you the reading since you already know how to operate android phones and it'll run better than the HD2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the reply I most agreed with. It's the most versatile phone and most moddable... but if you're just looking to run android, a native phone will give you better, more stable performance when properly rooted and modded, and you will get better battery life out of a native phone. The android port on android gets good standby time, so if you don't use you phone much and it's usually on standby, you can get 2-3 days out of it. But it will only last about 3 hours of straight use... even less with some games or processor intensive apps. Surfing the web or using xda app will eat your battery up in about 3 hours, while with my brothers stock galaxy s phone with a similar sized battery, I will get double that, at least. The thing is, android is a port on the HD2, so the drivers used are not always the best and are usually based off of drivers meant for other devices.
But if you like modding and hacking your phone, and you want to dual boot wp7 and android, and can deal with the occasional bug or problem, and can deal with the bad battery life while using the phone, the HD2 is a great phone. I wouldn't trade it for any other phone out right now... but I dualboot wp7 and android, and like them both equally and couldn't decide which os I wanted if I had to pick another phone. And to think I originally bought this phone because it had winmo6.5... now I don't even have that OS on my phone!
Oh, another difference between the HD2 and a native android phone is that with the HD2 you only get 65,000 colors on the screen and only 2-point multitouch which can be buggy... with a native android phone you have something like 4million colors and newer android phones usually have true multitouch, which is more than 2 points. So you might get color banding on your screen with some launchers or apps on the HD2, and apps that use multitouch may have problems.
Many people who use android exclusively are looking to switch to native android phones, especially with the next gen phones coming out. But for the price that you can get the HD2, it can make a great android phone. So if you have the money to spare and just want android, I'd get one of the next generation android phones when they're released or get a DesireHD or something native if you need a phone now. But if you're on a budget, or love to play with phones, or want to dual-boot, then the HD2 is perfect.
Sorry for such a long. dragged on post. Tired right now, and kept thinkingof more things to add.

Thanks all you guys!
I think most of you are satisfied with your HD2.
zarathustrax said:
This is the reply I most agreed with. It's the most versatile phone and most moddable... but if you're just looking to run android, a native phone will give you better, more stable performance when properly rooted and modded, and you will get better battery life out of a native phone. The android port on android gets good standby time, so if you don't use you phone much and it's usually on standby, you can get 2-3 days out of it. But it will only last about 3 hours of straight use... even less with some games or processor intensive apps. Surfing the web or using xda app will eat your battery up in about 3 hours, while with my brothers stock galaxy s phone with a similar sized battery, I will get double that, at least. The thing is, android is a port on the HD2, so the drivers used are not always the best and are usually based off of drivers meant for other devices.
But if you like modding and hacking your phone, and you want to dual boot wp7 and android, and can deal with the occasional bug or problem, and can deal with the bad battery life while using the phone, the HD2 is a great phone. I wouldn't trade it for any other phone out right now... but I dualboot wp7 and android, and like them both equally and couldn't decide which os I wanted if I had to pick another phone. And to think I originally bought this phone because it had winmo6.5... now I don't even have that OS on my phone!
Oh, another difference between the HD2 and a native android phone is that with the HD2 you only get 65,000 colors on the screen and only 2-point multitouch which can be buggy... with a native android phone you have something like 4million colors and newer android phones usually have true multitouch, which is more than 2 points. So you might get color banding on your screen with some launchers or apps on the HD2, and apps that use multitouch may have problems.
Many people who use android exclusively are looking to switch to native android phones, especially with the next gen phones coming out. But for the price that you can get the HD2, it can make a great android phone. So if you have the money to spare and just want android, I'd get one of the next generation android phones when they're released or get a DesireHD or something native if you need a phone now. But if you're on a budget, or love to play with phones, or want to dual-boot, then the HD2 is perfect.
Sorry for such a long. dragged on post. Tired right now, and kept thinkingof more things to add.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I can handle the tweaks pretty well.
It seems that one can find a smooth build or ROM without big difficulty. But is the battery drain that bad? Three hours of constant use? I also read some other posts that say their battery can last about 10 hours with heavy use... I'm a little bit confused.
My Desire has a standby of more than 2 days with moderate use. With constant use is in any case more than 12 hours...

3 hours depends on what you're doing. Eg. Listening music and playing games will prolly eat it up fast enough for maybe 3 hours or later, depends on whether the game is CPU and GPU intensive. If say your watching flash videos, you can expect prolly 3-4 hours also. but just surfing internet, I'd say 4-6, listening to music on speaker 5-6 , on headphones about 7-8, (both listening to music on standby), yeah pretty much that.

CrisperNeO said:
Thanks all you guys!
I think most of you are satisfied with your HD2.
I think I can handle the tweaks pretty well.
It seems that one can find a smooth build or ROM without big difficulty. But is the battery drain that bad? Three hours of constant use? I also read some other posts that say their battery can last about 10 hours with heavy use... I'm a little bit confused.
My Desire has a standby of more than 2 days with moderate use. With constant use is in any case more than 12 hours...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think when people say heavy use they are saying using it often, but not constantly on. If you have the screen constantly on and use it, the battery drain very quickly. When people make descriptions of heavy, moderate or light use, everyone means something different, so its hard to know what that means... but with constant use, the battery will drain in a few hours. That's where you really see the difference with the port on the hd2 and a native device. A native phone will get at least 6-8 hours of constant use usually. But the HD2 will drain quickly while you have screen on and web browsing or gaming, etc.
I've noticed a lot of people will like to exaggerate to try to prove their HD2 is as good as a native phone, but if you look around, most will admit that with constant web browsing or activity where the screen is on and in use, the phone only lasts 3-4 hours, maybe less with games. Personally I think the HD2 is better than a native android phone because of the ability to run wp7 also, and I have a spare battery I carry with me, and a big external battery I can take with me if I know I won't have anywhere to charge my battery.
Also, if you use a bluetooth headset, leaving bluetooth on really drains battery a lot during standby... the bluetooth driver for the HD2 android really needs to be worked on.

Thanks a lot!
So far you guys persuaded me.
I think I'll take the deal and give HD2 a try.
Typed with my Desire.

CrisperNeO said:
Thanks a lot!
So far you guys persuaded me.
I think I'll take the deal and give HD2 a try.
Typed with my Desire.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have fun... I'm sure you'll like it. All the stuff you can do with it kinda makes up for the bad battery life. You'll learn to conserve it, and it's not difficult carrying an extra battery. It gets addictive flashing your phone and updating all the time. It can become very time-consuming if you let it.
Good luck.

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.