HTC HD2

HTC HD2
Manufacturer HTC Corporation
Series HTC Touch family
Carriers O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, Virgin Mobile, Telstra, StarHub,[1] SingTel, M1
Compatible networks Quadband GSM / GPRS, EDGE and dual band WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA
Availability by country November 2009
Predecessor HTC Touch, HTC Touch HD
Successor HTC HD7
Related Nexus One, HTC Desire, HTC Evo 4G, HTC HD Mini, HTC Desire HD, HTC Firestone, HTC Tianxi
Dimensions 120.5 x 67 x 11 mm
(4.74 x 2.64 x 0.43 in)
(T-Mobile US version
122 x 67 x 11 mm)
Weight 162 g (5.54 oz)
(157 g T-Mobile US version)
Operating system Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
Unofficially: Android, MeeGo, Ubuntu, Windows Phone 7
CPU 1 GHz (1024 MHz) Qualcomm Snapdragon
GPU: AMD z430 with OpenGL ES 2.0 support
Memory 512MB internal flash ROM (1024MB on T-Mobile US version)
576 MB RAM
(Software is limited to using 448 MB on non-US versions, and 128MB is reserved for 3D Accelerator)
[2]
Removable storage microSDHC, up to 32 GB
Battery Rechargeable 1230mAh Li-ion battery (4000mAh extended battery available)(up to 490 hrs standby, 6.3 hrs talk time)
Data inputs Multi-touch capacitive touchscreen and stylus pen, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, digital compass (magnetometer)
Display 4.3 in. LCD capacitive touchscreen
480x800 px 65k-color WVGA, backlit TFT LCD
Rear camera 5 megapixels autofocus CMOS sensor, video up to 800×480 resolution[3]
Connectivity Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n, A-GPS, micro-USB, 3.5mm audio jack

The HTC HD2 (also known as the HTC T8585, HTC T9193 and HTC Leo),[4] is a smartphone belonging to the HTC Touch family, manufactured by HTC and running the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. The phone was designed and manufactured by HTC, and was released in Europe in November 2009, and in December 2009 in Hong Kong. In some other regions, including North America, it was released in March 2010.[5][6]The phone is the successor of the HTC Touch HD, and is succeeded by the HTC HD7.

Contents

Description

It is the first smartphone with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, the first Windows Mobile 6.5 phone with a multitouch capacitive screen and HTC Sense, and the second smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU (the first being the Toshiba TG01).[7][8]The Snapdragon CPU is clocked at 1024 MHz, but automatically underclocks itself to 553 MHz if extra processing power is not needed.[9]Tweaks have been made however, to clock the processor at a constant of 998 MHz.

The HD2 is fitted with a Asahi Kasei AK8976A magnetometer. [10]The magnetometer is used for applications such as the pre-loaded digital compass.

History

Rumours of the HTC HD2 began appearing in September 2009. It was codenamed Leo, although a decal on the back cover conflictingly identified it as the Pro.Three [11](which indicates it may have been intended as a bridge between the HTC Touch Pro and HTC Touch), and the About info in Bluetooth as the HD2. The specifications sheet released turned out to be true when the HD2 was launched, with the exception of the listed 320MB of RAM, compared to the final 576MB (448MB available to user) of RAM.

Sales

When launched in the UK, Vodafone quickly sold all of its stock and developed a backlog of orders, and O2 delayed putting the HD2 on its website so that it could fulfil all orders.[12] Similarly, in the US, the HTC HD2 sold out in most T-Mobile stores within 4 hours and T-Mobile struggled to keep it in stock for several weeks.[13][14]

Certain T-Mobile locations ran a promotion that stated that iPhone users who traded in their handsets could get anywhere from $100 to $350 dollars off the HD2.[15]

Upgrades

The HD2 was originally slated, according to HTC and popular belief[16] to be upgraded to Windows Phone 7 (then known as Windows Mobile 7). Microsoft rejected it and other Windows Mobile devices[17] however due to it not being compliant to the company's hardware requirements for smartphones running Windows Phone 7 - including a lack of dedicated two-way camera button, and five hardware buttons on front as compared to three supported. Developers have however successfully ported Windows Phone 7 to the HD2. Microsoft has surprisingly expressed tacit and subtle approval of such ports, nearing the release of Mango for native Windows Phone 7 devices.[18]

Unlike its sibling, the HD Mini, the HD2 has not received an official upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5.3, the latest stable release of Windows Mobile (the HD2 natively runs 6.5.0). However, several developers at xda-developers have prepared unofficial 6.5.3 and 6.5.5 (the latter being the last unstable release of Windows Mobile) ROMs for the HD2.

Accessories

HTC officially sells an optional capacitive stylus pen for the HD2 to aid navigation through the interface.[19] Some Windows Mobile applications were designed to be used with a stylus, rather than finger-touch, and still need a stylus pen to be used effectively.

The HD2 is sold with a brown leather slip-case with a velvet interior in certain countries. [20]

An extended battery is available also officially from HTC. The official unit comes with a metal kickstand.[21]

Modifications

Android (versions 2.2 Froyo, 2.3 Gingerbread, and later 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich), Ubuntu, MeeGo and Windows Phone 7 have been unofficially ported to the HD2.[22][23][24] In addition, many customised versions of Windows Mobile are available for the device, with version ranged from 6.1[25], 6.5[26], 6.5.3[27] to 6.5.5[28]. Users who are not satisfied with the existing functionality of the device, or who are just curious, can mod the device to make it more usable and useful.[29]

In early October 2010, a video was released that appeared to show a HD2 booting into Windows Phone 7 by way of Russian developer Cotulla's MAGLDR tool (a bootloader), which was initially created to allow the booting of Android from the device's NAND flash.[30] As of January 13th 2011, MAGLDR and a WP7 ROM are publicly available. Windows Phone Genuine checks prevent access to Windows Live services.[31][32] A solution to this problem has been found, though the legality of the activation is still not fully known, and is frowned heavily upon by Microsoft. [33] Windows Phone 7 Mango RTM (Release To Manufacturers) was ported to the HD2 in August 2011[34], a month after ROM developers at xda-developers made successful an attempt to run a beta version on the device.

The HTC HD2 has also been modified to run Windows 95,[35] Windows 98 and Windows XP,[36] through a ROM image on QEMU Puppy, although networking does not function on Windows 95 and Windows 98 as of 2010.

First PlayStation Emulator for Windows CE, a PlayStation 1 emulator for Windows CE devices, was ported to the HD2 in December 2009, a few months after the initial release of the HD2.[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ "Xda-developers: HTC Leo/HD2: 448 or 576?". Xda-developers. 28 January 2010. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=622964. Retrieved 29 January 2010. 
  3. ^ "HTC HD2 Review: The best smartphone ever?". MobileTechWorld. 18 December 2009. http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2009/12/18/htc-hd2-review-the-best-smartphone-ever/. Retrieved 25 December 2009. 
  4. ^ "HTC HD2 specifications". PDAdb.net. http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1783. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
  5. ^ "HTC Unveils First Windows Phone with HTC Sense, the HTC HD2". Htc.com. 2009-10-06. http://www.htc.com/www/press.aspx?id=112668&lang=1033. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
  6. ^ Advertisement. "HTC's Peter Chou Promises an HTC HD2 to America by Q1 2010". Htcpedia.com. http://htcpedia.com/news/htc-peter-chou-promises-htc-hd2-america-2010-q1.html. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
  7. ^ "HTC HD2 specifications". Htc.com. http://www.htc.com/www/product/hd2/specification.html. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
  8. ^ John Herrman (9 November 2009). "HTC Touch HD2 Review: A Tragedy". Gizmodo. http://gizmodo.com/5400593/htc-touch-hd2-review-a-tragedy. 
  9. ^ [2]
  10. ^ [3]
  11. ^ HTC Pro.Three Leo
  12. ^ Gareth Beavis (11 Dec 2009). "Vodafone dropping HTC HD2 after two months". TechRadar. http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/vodafone-dropping-htc-hd2-after-two-months-657470. 
  13. ^ Genius, Boy (2010-03-25). "T-Mobile HTC HD2 sells out in four hours?". Boygeniusreport.com. http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/03/25/t-mobile-htc-hd2-sells-out-in-four-hours/. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
  14. ^ "T-Mobile HTC HD2 Sold Out for the Third time". Sizlopedia.com. http://www.sizlopedia.com/2010/04/11/t-mobile-htc-hd2-sold-out-third-time/. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
  15. ^ "T-Mobile offering up to $350 off an HD2 in exchange for your iPhone, soul". Engadget. http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/t-mobile-offering-up-to-350-off-an-hd2-in-exchange-for-your-iph/. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
  16. ^ Windows Mobile 7 to be ported to HTC HD2
  17. ^ Windows Phone 7 Series not coming to Windows Mobile phones
  18. ^ [4]
  19. ^ "HTC HD2 Stylus Now Available". Best Mobile Contracts. 30 November 2009. http://www.blog.best-mobile-contracts.co.uk/2009/11/htc-phones/htc-hd2-stylus-now-available.html. 
  20. ^ [5]
  21. ^ [6]
  22. ^ "HTC HD2 Android and Ubuntu builds now available for mass consumption". Engadget. 03 Jul 2010. http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/03/htc-hd2-android-and-ubunbu-builds-now-available-for-mass-consump/. 
  23. ^ "HTC HD2 gets a shot at MeeGo, still suffering from abandonment issues". Engadget. 03 Jan 2011. http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/03/htc-hd2-gets-a-shot-at-meego-still-suffering-from-abandonment-i/. 
  24. ^ "Windows Phone 7 HTC HD2 port completed, cloud services still not working". WMPoweruser.com. 13 Jan 2011. http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-phone-7-htc-hd2-port-completed-cloud-services-still-not-working/. 
  25. ^ http://www.tompda.com/soft/HTC/HD2%20T8585/24417
  26. ^ http://pockethacks.com/htc-hd2-wm6-5-energy-rom-series-28244-21916-sense-2-5/
  27. ^ http://htcpedia.com/forum/htc-hd2-rom-development/1688-%5Brom%5D%5Bwwe%5D%5Bwm6-5-3%5D%5B28205%5D%5B23515%5D-freyberryrom-v5-3-clean-fast-rom-%5B11-01-2010%5D.html
  28. ^ http://htcpedia.com/forum/htc-hd2-rom-development/3282-%5Brom%5D%5Bwwe%5D-cleanex-ozrom-v5-00-wm6-5-5-24627-%5Bandroid-tmous-friendly%5D.html
  29. ^ "How to properly flash a ROM, run Task 29, and install Android". mel5150. 8 Oct 2010. http://www.htchd2forum.com/htc-hd2-step-by-step-guides/how-to-properly-flash-a-rom-run-task-29-and-install-android/msg23215/#msg23215. 
  30. ^ Windows Phone 7 on a HD2
  31. ^ "Windows Phone 7 - The "Genuine Windows Phone" certificate". xda-developers Forum. 2010-03-21. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5939168&postcount=1. Retrieved 2011-01-05. 
  32. ^ "Microsoft has a Genuine Software checker for Windows Phone 7; complicates custom ROMs". Windows Phone Central. 2010-11-22. http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-has-built-genuine-software-checker-windows-phone-7-compicates-custom-roms. Retrieved 2011-01-05. 
  33. ^ "Windows Phone 7 Cloud Security Cracked, But There's a Catch". pocketnow.com. 07 Jan 2011. http://pocketnow.com/windows-phone/windows-phone-7-cloud-security-cracked-but-theres-a-catch. 
  34. ^ [7]
  35. ^ YouTube - Windows 95 running on a HTC HD2
  36. ^ YouTube - Windows XP running on a HTC HD2
  37. ^ [8]

External links