In this article I will try to provide an extensive in-depth overview of the HTC HD Mini, the latest Windows Mobile device from HTC.

At first I would like to guide you trough the functional hardware design of the HTC HD Mini and compare the device to its bigger brother the HTC HD2 and with the Zune HD. Second I will focus on different software aspects of the HTC HD Mini, like Windows Mobile 6.5.3, HTC Sense and a few installed applications. Finally I will look at the connectivity and multimedia features and wrap-up with a summary and conclusive thoughts.

1.  Introduction

However let’s start with a brief introduction of the HTC HD Mini. In the overview section of the HTC HD Mini product page on the HTC World Wide website you can read:

“HTC HD Mini
Massive impact, Sensible size.

Say hello to HD Mini, the impressive experience of the HTC HD2 in a compact package. Crisp display and refined construction fuse with an intuitive HTC Sense interface that empowers you to use the rich phone features from your very first moments with the HTC HD Mini.”

The HTC HD2 has been reviewed on this website in the article “HTC HD2 review – A new era in Windows Phones’ history“, with the unanimous conclusion (based on three different perspectives) that the HTC HD2 was a real powerhouse that raised the bar of innovation in many different area’s of the product. Not only was the HTC HD2 the first Windows Phone with a capacitive touch display, but the 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor made it extremely powerful as well.

With the conclusion in mind I was very excited to read about the announcement of the HTC HD Mini back at Mobile World Congress 2010. I this review I will look how and to which extend HTC was able to transfer the HTC HD2 experience (a new era in Windows Phone history) to a significant smaller package.

2.  Specifications HTC HD Mini

On the HTC HD Mini product page an extensive overview of the HD Mini specifications is provided:

• Model:  HTC HD Mini
• Processor:  Qualcomm® MSM7227™, 600 MHz
• Operating System:  Windows Mobile® 6.5.3 Professional
• Memory:  512 MB ROM / 384 MB RAM
• Dimensions (L x W x T):  103.8 x 57.7 x 11.7 mm. (4.09 x 2.27 x 0.46 inches)
• Weight:  110 grams (4 ounces) with battery
• Display:  3,2″ capacitive touchscreen with HVGA resolution (320×480) and multitouch support
• Network:  HSPA/WCDMA: Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz, GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz,
• GPS:  Internal GPS antenna
• Connectivity:  Bluetooth® 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g, Wi-Fi Router, 3.5 mm audio jack, Standard micro-USB (5-pin micro-USB 2.0)
• Camera:  3.2 5.0 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
• Audio:  supported formats .aac, .amr, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .mp4, .qcp, .wav, .wma
• Video:  supported formats .wmv, .asf, .mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v, .avi
• Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, Capacity: 1200 mAh
• Talk time:  Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA / Up to 435 minutes for GSM
• Standby time:  Up to 500 hours for WCDMA / Up to 340 hours for GSM
• Expansion Slot:  microSD™ memory card (SDHC compatible up to 32GB)

In terms of form factor and most of the specifications the HTC HD Mini shows strong similarities with the HTC Touch2.

3.  HTC HD Mini hardware design

In this section of the HTC HD Mini review I will focus on the functional hardware design of this Windows Phone. Furthermore I would like to zoom in from an engineering perspective on some of the design highlights, and complement this hardware section with a few comparisons.

3.1  HTC HD Mini look and feel

However let’s start with a simple device overview to get a basic idea of the look and feel of the HTC HD Mini.

Front view

The picture above shows you the front surface of the HTC HD Mini when you put it down on a desk or table.

The most eye-catching aspect of the front surface is the 3.2″ capacitive touch screen with a 320 x 480 HVGA resolution. However the screen is less dominant compared to the 4.3″ capacitive touch screen on the HTC HD2. Remark for example the (black) spaces above the screen, between the bottom of the screen and the buttons and below the buttons and the bottom edge.

In the middle of the top edge of the front surface of the HTC HD Mini you see a small chrome part, with directly below the grille of the front speaker of the HTC HD Mini. Between the grille of the front speakers and the screen there is a nice silver HTC logo in the middle of the device (width).

Below the screen you can see a row of five touch buttons: (1) start call button, (2) home button, (3) start menu button with windows flag, (4) back button, and (5) call end button. These are the same five buttons that you see on the HTC HD2, however the buttons on the HTC HD Mini are touch buttons while the HTC HD2 has mechanical buttons (that you can really press down).

Right side-view

The right side-surface of the HTC HD Mini is shown in the picture above. As you can see the surface of the right side is clean and without any buttons.

Bottom view

The bottom surface of the HTC HD Mini is shown in the picture above, and in the middle of the device you can see a micro USB port to sync and charge your Windows Phone. I’m happy that device manufactures (although not all of them) have agreed to use micro USB as the standard to sync and charge their devices.

Slightly right from the micro USB port you can see a slit, via which you can attach the HTC HD Mini to a lanyard. I’m really curious if anyone really uses this design feature ? On the left side of the micro USB port you can see a small circular hole, which is the microphone to make voice calls.

In this picture you can also clearly see that the five buttons are touch buttons (and not mechanical buttons) completely embedded in the glass surface of the capacitive touch display.

Left side-view

The picture above shows the surface of the HTC HD Mini’s left side. While the surface of the right side was completely without any buttons, you can see that there are silver/chrome sound control buttons on the left surface of the HTC HD Mini. You furthermore see the + and – signs on the black cover of the HTC HD Mini, with its excellent rubber finish like the HTC Snap.

Top view

In the picture above you can see the top surface of the HTC HD Mini. The most striking fact here is the return of the dedicated power button in the left side of the silver/chrome middle part of the HTC HD Mini. I must admit that I have always enjoyed the dedicated power button, especially on Windows Mobile Standard devices, where the quick list was mapped to this button to easily switch profile.

Furthermore you can see the 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack on the right of the center of the HTC HD Mini. People will be happy being able to use  their own preferred headphones, for example the AIAIAI Y-Com in-ear headphones, with the HTC HD Mini.  Luckily this is becoming more or less the standard after a battle between various headphone connectors.

Finally I would like to bring the slit in the center of the HTC HD Mini (just below the silver/chrome part) to your attention. The idea is similar as the implementation implementation on the HTC HD2, where you can put in your finger nail in the slit to remove the battery cover. However the word battery-cover is not the appropriate in the context on the HTC HD Mini.

Back view

The backside of the HTC HD Mini is shown in the picture above, and you directly notice the four bolts that hold the device together. Where did I see this four bolt construction before ?

Furthermore you the silver/chrome grille which protects both the speak on the backside of the HTC HD Mini and the 5 megapixel color camera with auto-focus. The camera lens(surface) is not embedded in the “surface” of the device cover, but is about 1.0 mm. deeper into the device. The advantage is that the camera lens is better protected against scratches, while the disadvantage of this construction is that it becomes difficult to clean the camera lens from smudge and dirt.

Finally you can see a silver/chrome HTC logo in the center of the HTC HD Mini, just below the camera lens. The HTC logo is not printed on the backside of the HTC HD Mini, but seems to be pressed / embedded into the cover. More to the bottom and difficult to see is the line “WITH HTC SENSE” just above the bottom bolts, which is printed on the cover.

3.2  Another “unibody-like approach” a little different than on the HTC Legend

In the description of the back view of the HTC HD Mini you have noticed that there are four bolts that hold the device together. In addition you might remember a great design feature of the HTC Legend called unibody. If not you certainly want te check out the video of Dieter Bohn, MVP Mobile devices and Editor on the SmartphoneExperts community-network, published on AndroidCentral and in which John Wang from HTC discusses the unibody design of the HTC Legend.

The HTC HD Mini front surface is completely the glass surface of the capacitive touch screen. If you put the finger in the slit on the top of the HTC HD Mini you can completely remove the cover that encloses and protects all surfaces of the HTC HD Mini (except the screen).

In other words there is just one single cover that protects the HTC HD Mini. The picture above shows you the front view of the HTC HD Mini with the removed cover. You can see that the cover adds a few mm. to the overall dimensions of the HTC HD Mini.

3.3  Internals – A yellow surprise ?

The picture above shows you the back view of the HTC HD Mini with the removed cover. A colorfull surprise comes to the surface, since the complete “inside” of the HTC HD Mini is yellow. It is not only a welcome deviation from the standard black and silver colors, but it also shows the craftsmanship of HTC.

3.4  HTC HD Mini hardware comparisons: Zune HD and HTC HD2

The picture above the chapter 3 heading shows a comparison shot of the HTC HD Mini with a few other mobile devices. From left to right: Zune HD 32GB, HTC HD Mini, HTC HD2, and on the right HTC Snap.In this section I will provide a more detailed comparison with two devices.

HTC HD Mini vs. Zune HD 32GB

The picture above shows you the back view of both the HTC HD Mini and the Zune HD 32GB. At first you may notice that both devices almost have similar dimensions.

In the previous description of the back surface of the HTC HD Mini I pointed you to the construction with the four bolts that hold the device together. Furthermore I asked the question “Where did I see this four bolt construction before ?” The answer is: “Zune HD” and the picture above clearly shows this. The same special bolts are used, and I would like to know what type these bolts are (no Torx).

The picture above shows you the front view of the HTC HD Mini and the Zune HD 32GB. I included this picture to show you that the screens in both devices have an almost similar size as well (in addition to similar overall dimensions). Someone might argue that it is not fair to compare a mediaplayer with a smartphone, however I think the hardware similarities are a solid argument for comparison.

HTC HD Mini vs. HTC HD2

Since the HD Mini is marketed as ”the impressive experience of the HTC HD2 in a compact package“, it makes sense to put the devices side by side. The picture above shows you the front view of the HTC HD Mini and the HTC HD2.

The most remarkable and eye-catching difference is the effective screen size. The HTC HD2 comes with the biggest capacitive touchscreen on a Windows Phone, making it very attractive for multimedia-purposes for example. I personally can read PDF-files attached to an e-mail very well and without much of zoom and browsing web pages or viewing a YouTube video is excellent. On the HTC HD Mini you simply get less effective screen size, and you should think about that in various applications. Furthermore you can see that the HTC HD2 has mechanical hardware buttons, while the HTC HD Mini shows a  row of touch buttons.

In the picture above, that provides the back view you can clearly see the different approach in terms of the used cover. Also the design and implementation of the camera is completely different. The HTC HD Mini camera lens is more protected by design as on the HTC HD2. While on the HTC HD2 you can see the dual LED flashlight, which is obsolete on the HTC HD Mini.

4.  HTC HD Mini from a software perspective

The previous sections about the hardware design have been quite extensive, but in addition to great hardware you need excellent software to make a smartphone powerful and a real commercial success.

In this section I will focus on several software aspects of the HTC HD Mini. However I would like to start with the following remark for the dear English readers.

REMARK:

The received HTC HD Mini has a localized Dutch ROM preloaded on the device, so therefore the screenshots consist of Dutch translations. However I honestly do hope that you will be able to get an idea of the device software and its functionality.

4.1   Windows Mobile 6.5.3

Back in February I wrote an article about Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and its features, and despite the fact that it is a dot-dot-release it includes a significant set of incremental improvements.

While the Sony Ericsson Aspen was announced as the first Windows Phone running on Windows Mobile 6.5.3, the HTC HD Mini is for me the first Windows Mobile 6.5.3 device that I can test. So I’m excited to test a few of the incremental innovations described in the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 article on this website:

• Soft keys are replaced by touchable tiles;
• Icon drop bar;
• Drag and drop icons in the start menu;

In the screenshots above you can see the one of the most striking changes in Windows Mobile 6.5.3, where the soft keys are replaced by touchable tiles. You can see that the bottom toolbar is slightly higher, while the top toolbar is a little smaller compared to Windows Mobile 6.5.

When you tap on the right corner of the top toolbar you activate the icon drop bar, which results in the “notifications” screen we have already seen on the latest Windows Mobile devices from HTC. Furthermore the lockscreen is customized, and I really like the changed position of the unlock-slider, that was in the top area of the HTC HD2.

• Horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs;
• Internet Explorer for Windows Phones;

Another improvement in Windows Mobile 6.5.3 is the more touch friendly horizontal scrollbar that replaces tabs in the previous Windows Mobile versions. The scrollbar has a larger area and is therefore more easy to touch. In the left screenshot above you can see the horizontal scrollbar in the time and alarm screen.

The final change in Windows Mobile 6.5.3 that I would like to address is Internet Explorer for Windows Phone. As you can see there is a row with touch optimized buttons in the bottom area, which was also present in Windows Mobile 6.5. However new in Windows Mobile 6.5.3 is the optimization for touch of the top toolbar, especially remark the favorite button and the pull down address field.

4.2  HTC Sense – Make it mine, stay close, discover the unexpected

HTC Sense first introduced on the HTC Hero is ”an intuitive, seamless experience built upon three fundamental principles - make it mine, stay close, and discover the unexpected.” HTC Sense on Windows Mobile is more or less the successor of the TouchFLO interface.

The HTC Sense interface on the HTC HD Mini has a similar structure as on the HTC HD2. In the HTC HD2 review the complete HTC Sense interface was described in more detail, and in this section I will only highlight some interesting points that are different or I didn’t discover before. This is the familiar structure we all know.

1. Home ;
2. People;
3. Messages;
4. Mail;
5. Internet;
6. Calendar;
7. Stocks;
8. Photos & Videos;
9. Music;
10. Weather;
11. Twitter
12. Footprints;
13. Settings;

If you compare the version- and build numbers of HTC HD2 and HTC HD Mini you can see that HTC Sense is under continuous development, and a significant part of the value proposition of HTC devices.

You might have noticed the fresh new background on the HTC HD Mini, which of course can be changed to your personal preference. In the home tab I could notice that by default there three applications pre-configured in the 3 x 3 icongrid when you make a swipe gesture from the bottom to the top. HTC decided to preconfigure the (1) camera application, (2) Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and (3) YouTube application on the first row of the grid.

In the people tab I haven’t seen any significant changes, however if you tap on the more button you can notice new icons in the bottom toolbar. These new icons are shown in the left screen shot above and consist of (1) all contacts, (2) favorites, (3) groups/categories,  (4) updates, events, and (5) call log.

For the messages- and e-mail tabs I would consider the software keyboard the most important change. When you tab and hold on the keyboard icon in the bottom toolbar of Windows Mobile 6.5.3 you can see that there is only one input method left, while on the HTC HD2 there were several types of software keyboards. Furthermore the layout of the keyboard has slightly changed:

• There are no arrows anymore to navigate the cursor, which I really did like in the HTC HD2 software keyboard;
• There is a button to change the language of the text-prediction, in the left bottom corner next to the shift key;
• There is no button anymore to switch between the XT9 text prediction and the simple ABC input;

Honestly I don’t like the XT9 text-prediction in general (so not just on the HTC HD Mini), however HTC has tackled the problem for people like me who communicate in different languages (Dutch, English and German). Furthermore the software keyboard supports also landscape mode, like we have seen on the HTC HD2. This results in slightly larger keys in the familiar QWERTY layout, AND the return of the arrows for cursor navigation.

Jack Cook, Windows Mobile MVP & Editor in Chief of ExperienceMobility and Mike Temporale, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor in chief of MobileJaw discovered a limitation within the calendar tab of HTC Sense.  Apparently “HTC Sense on HD2 will not Allow Birthdates Prior to 1941” and this is also the case on the HTC HD Mini.

You might remember the really nice feature on the HTC HD2, which showed you several pictures if you turned the Windows Phone into landscape mode (and the g-sensor recognized this change). However this coolness isn’t available on the HTC HD Mini, which is caused by the significant smaller screen. It probably makes no sense to implement this feature on the smaller screen.

In the music tab of HTC Sense on the HTC Hd Mini I discovered a feature that I wasn’t aware of before (mainly because I use the Zune HD as my media player). However if you use your Windows Phone to listen to music, you can update/add album art with just two clicks. At first you select the option update album art, and second you choose to update the album art for (1) all songs, (2) the current song, or (3) all songs on the current playlist.

I didn’t find any huge changes in the other tabs of HTC Sense, and if you would like to have a more general overview I would like to recommend that section in the HTC HD2 review.

4.3  Applications on HTC HD Mini

In terms of applications there are a lot of similarities between the HTC HD2 and the HTC HD Mini, which is good for the end-user in my opinion.

Of course the default Microsoft applications are included like Internet Explorer for Mobile, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Office Mobile 6.1 , Windows Live for Windows Phone and Microsoft MyPhone.

In addition you can find applications like the YouTube client for Windows Phone, Facebook for Windows Phone, Google Maps and a trial version of CoPilot. Furthermore you can find applications like Adobe Reader LE, Internet Sharing, Worldcard Mobile and a Calculator developed by HTC.

In the multimedia folder you can find some additional applications developed by HTC like the Audio Booster, MP3 Trimmer, Streaming Media application and the FM Radio application for which you need to connect the headphones to the HTC HD Mini.

However I think there are two additional shortcuts in the start menu of the HTC HD Mini that deserve some attention. At first there is a link to the configuration wizard to easily set-up your device (at first use). This is the icon with the magician hat in the left screenshot above.

The other icon has the label more information (green circle with !), which fires up the Opera webbrowser on the HTC HD Mini. This results in a kind of hosted knowledge base for the HTC HD Mini, where you can learn more about the device.

You can select to navigate to the (1) how to section, which consist of 10 items now, or (2) the guide section, that consists of the user manual and quick start guide. I think this somewhat replaces the default Windows Mobile Getting Started Guide that was introduced with Windows Mobile 6.1.

Furthermore I addressed that the HTC HD Mini features a 3.2″ capacitive touch screen with a 320 x 480 HVGA resolution. Currently I use two applications that don’t support this resolution, and therefore can’t be installed on the HTC HD Mini. The applications are the touch optimized TouchTwit twitterclient and the WinMoSquare Foursquare client.

5.  Connectivity

Overall I think it is fair to conclude that the HTC HD Mini features every connectivity option that you need. In the left screenshot above you can see the Comm Manager on the HTC HD Mini.

Probably the most striking fact is the included Wi-Fi Router application, that transforms your Windows Phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot (was first introduced on the HTC HD2). This is a great application and I’m happy that HTC implemented this on the HTC HD Mini as well.

Furthermore the HTC HD Mini features Bluetooth 2.1 ith Enhanced Data Rate (EDR). While the avaialbility in current smartphones is a no-brainer you sometimes forget to look at the implementation on a device. Since HTC also has done some work on the graphical user interface front (GUI) I would like to elaborate a little on the bluetooth implementation.

If you access the bluetooth icon from the settings menu, the first question you need to answer is “Do you want to turn on bluetooth in order to use this function ?” In the left screenshot above you can see this question and the answer is a simple yes of course. This results in a redirection to the middle tab of the bluetooth settings that gives an overview of devices that the device has been paired with (right screenshot above). You can clearly see that HTC has done some touch optimization work here.

Furthermore to you can see the two additional tabs of the bluetooth settings in the screenshots above. The left tab is mainly focused on the bluetooth functions itself, while the right tab of the bluetooth settings mainly focuses on the “environment” and data exchange.  For example you can exchange business cards or sent a bluetooth object, while in the left tab of bluetooth settings you can configure the visibility mode, change advanced settings or simply add a bluetooth device.

The HTC HD Mini also features GPS functionality. While on the HTC HD2 there was still a Quick GPS shortcut available in the startmenu to a stand-alone application, it now seems to be integrated in the location services menu item of the HTC Sense settings tab. As you can see in the left screenshot you can set the automatic downloading of the file with satellite positions. Furthermore Google Maps and CoPilot Live 8 are preloaded on the HTC HD Mini and work seamlessly with the GPS hardware of the Windows Phone.

When you insert a SIM card for the first time in the HTC HD Mini, this SIM card is recognized and the cellular data settings and sms center are configured automatically. HTC also has implemented a configuration wizard that I mentioned in the applications section. This configuration wizard helps you to set-up your device connections to a Wi-Fi network,  Twitter- Youtube- and Facebook accounts, and ofcourse your e-mail accounts as well in a step-by-step approach. This is a more user friendly way of device configuration that really helps end-users with the sometimes painful process of setting up their device.

6.  Multimedia

The final main area that I would like to zoom in on are the multimedia capabilities of the HTC HD Mini.

In the hardware section of this review I already mentioned the use of a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus, however without a flash like on the HTC HD2. HTC has done a really nice integration job in the photos and videos experience, since it connects and to some extend integrates four different applications: (1) HTC Sense, (2) Camera application, (3) Camcorder application, and (4) Albums application.

Click here for the original-sized version

The sample picture above is taken in less light conditions outside in the backyard. I don’t know if the dual LED flash would have made a real difference in this setting. While I do think that the camera on the HTC HD Mini is sufficient for capturing simple pictures in everyday life, you can’t compare the camera on a mobile phone with a professional digital SLR camera. However my judgment would be “more than sufficient for the majority of people” !

The screenshots above show you the albums application, and the options in the albums menu. You can easily select the slideshow mode or share a picture via e-mail or on Facebook. However you can’t upload to other online services, for example Flickr. On Android devices there is an integration with the Flickr service, and I hope this will become available for Windows Mobile as well.

If you select the album tile from the bottom toolbar you will get an overview of your pictures and albums. As you may notice the location doesn’t seem to matter since a kind of aggregated view is provided. In addition you can see a tab with the Facebook logo in the bottom toolbar, that gives you access to the Facebook albums on your account. You might remember that HTC released a HTC HD2 hotfix to “repair” this Facebook integration.

Finally the right screenshot above gives you an overview of the multimedia applications in the start menu of the HTC HD Mini. Windows Media Player is still the default media player for Windows Mobile 6.x devices, but you can also see Audio Booster, MP3 Trimmer, Streaming Media application and the FM Radio application, all developed by HTC. Combined with the Music tab in HTC Sense there is also a great music and audio experience on the HTC HD Mini.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTtCGiykDW0

Final thoughts and overall conclusion

The HTC HD Mini is a really nice compact and powerful Windows Phone that has an impressive set of features. It reminds me of the HTC Magician, which was my first converged Windows Mobile device. There are a lot of similarities in terms of software and usability.

If you would like to make the comparison with the HTC HD2, the main differences are in my opinion the screen (and screen size) and the pricepoint.

1. The HTC HD2 has an impressive 4.3″ capacitive touchscreen while the HTC HD Mini has a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen. The colors, contrast are better on the HTC HD Mini, despite the fact that the overview of the e-mail inbox is sometimes a little harder to read. The cleartype screen options seem to be hidden or removed from the settings menu;
2. The HTC HD Mini is on sale for €379,- (including vat) and without a subscription while the HTC HD2 is on sale for €499,- under similar conditions. The price difference is €120,- and the question remains if you are willing to pay this or not.

If your primary use is not aimed at multimedia and web browsing, the HTC HD Mini is a perfect allround device that gives you a lot of value and power. Remark the Wi-Fi Router application or the special features below:

“Lowers ringer volume automatically when you pick up the phone, or raises ringer volume when the phone is in your bag or pocket;

Mutes the ringer when you flip the phone face down;”

The HTC HD Mini is snappy (really impressed with the Qualcomm MSM7227 at a clock speed of 600 MHz), very small and HTC has pushed new boundaries in terms of design and craftsmanship. Finally you really get a lot of HTC HD2 for your money, just not the impressive 4.3″ capacitive touch screen.

In the showcase section of Windows Marketplace for Mobile I noticed a “new” Twitter client for Windows Phones called TouchTwit. I was looking for a new fast Twitter client for use on the HTC HD2, that would take more advantage of the Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon and the massive 4.1″ capacitive screen.

Based on the positive feedback from users in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, I decided to buy TouchTwit from the Windows Marketplace for Mobile for the reasonable price of € 1,89 !

First launch of TouchTwit on HTC HD2

If you don’t mind I will skipp the purchasing process part from Windows Marketplace for Mobile, since this is very simple and intuitive to do. Even the setup and configuration of your payment credentials is easy to do from your Windows Phone or Windows PC.

TouchtTwit is based on the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5, which is additionally installed on your Windows Phone. On the TouchTwit website you can read back the additional system requirements. In the left screenshot above you see the very cool and well designed TouchTwit program icon in the start menu of the Windows Mobile 6.5 powered HTC HD2.

At the first launch of TouchTwit you will see an information screen with a disclaimer and the reminder of possible data charges, which is shown in the left screenshot above. Perhaps it is the German accuracy, but I think it is good to inform your end-users about this (although it won’t be much of a surprise). Click the left softkey, OK, to continue witch the TouchTwit configuration.

The next step in order to use TouchTwit is adding your account credentials or the creation of a new account. In the right screenshot above you can see both these options. In addition you can see that I have added both my personal remoknops account, and the mobilityminded account. Yes, one of the unique features is that TouchTwit manages multiple Twitter accounts easily from your Windows Phone.

In order to continue with the step-by-step application overview Iselect my personal remoknops twitter account and will be redirected to the home-tab of the TouchTwit application.

TouchTwit – A step-by-step application overview

In this section of the article I will provide a step-by-step overview of the TouchTwit application. As you can see in the screenshots above there is a static navigation toolbar with five tabs/buttons on the bottom of the screen: (1) Home, (2) Mentions, (3) Messages, (4) More, and (5) Update.

Home

In the left screenshot above you see an example screenshot of how the “homelist” looks like. At first you see a wide dark titlebar that marks the top of the list and provides information about: (1)  the selected account with help of the title “remoknop’s timeline” and the sync status.  In the bottom line of the bar you can see the timestamp of the next automatic refresh and more important you see a big round synchronization button (with blue arrows) right next to it for manual synchronization.

Furthermore you see the line: “Friends, Mentions & Messages” which gives you information about which types of tweets are showing up in the homelist feed. Via the more tab, which I will discuss later in this section, you can change the home(list) settings, that are shown in the right screenshot above. You can choose to uncheck the mentions or direct messages to show up in the home(list) feed. If you uncheck on of these options, the line in the wide dark titlebar is changed as well. Finally you see the option to search through your homelist feed as well.

If you switch back to the left screenshot above you see that the complete Twitter messages are shown in a clean well designed look. The lack of showing the complete tweet in Twikini, has been one of my main drivers for the search to an alternative Twitter client. Clicking on a link in TouchTwit directly opens this link in the default Opera Mobile browser from the HTC HD2.  A Twitpic link that is included in a tweet will be opened internally in the TouchTwit application !

The wide dark title bar marks the top of the home(list) twitter feed, where the top means the most recent tweets. This titlebar isn’t static, and will move away when you scroll down to older tweets. The bottom of the home(list) feed is marked with wide dark more button, similar to the implementation of the Twitter experience in a webbrowser on your Windows PC. By clicking on the more button you can extend the home(list) feed with the next set of older tweets. A screenshot with the more button is shown in the left screenshot below.

Mentions

The second tab/button in the navigation bar on the bottom of the screen is called mentions. Again you can see the wide dark titlebar in the mentions screen as well. The main difference with the home(list) twitter feed, the mentions feed has a light blue background ! The right screenshot above gives an impression of the mentions overview.

(Direct) Messages

The next tab/button in the navigation bar covers another main ingredient of most Twitter clients, (direct) messages. In the left screenshot above you see an overview of the direct messages tab with the remarkable light orange background. Furthermore is the wide dark titlebar here implemented as well.

The home(list) feed, mentions, and direct messages, are the main ingredienst which we can see in most Twitter clients for Windows PC and Windows Mobile.

More

The more tab/button in the navigation bar of the TouchTwit application for Windows Phone includes a few unique features in comparison with other Twitter clients for Windows Mobile. The three screenshots above give you an idea of the different options which are part of the more tab.

At first you have the possibility to check a few additional account details on your Windows Phone:  (1) Favorites, (2) Followers, (3) Following. In the TweetDeck twitter client on my Windows 7 notebook I have a separate column for the favorite tweets, as a kind of reminder/note to check them later, because they link to interesting content.

Second, under the tweets-heading within the more tab of the navigation bar, you can create or select a picture or video you want to share on Twitter. While these aren’t unique features it is helpful to be able to share multimedia both from the more and the update-tabs in the navigation bar.

Remarkable however is that these features are integrated with two services, Twitpic and Twitvid. I hope that in future versions of the TouchTwit application the integration with other services will be added, or the end-user will get the possibility to choose his preferred service to share multimedia. For example you like MobiPicture more than Twitpic and want to use this service as default.

Third you can see a search heading within the more tab of the navigation bar. You can not only search for tweets and users from this screen, but it is also possible to search for current-, daily-, and weekly trending topics. This Twitter Trends implementation on a Windows Phone is unique as far as I know.

The fourth and final heading within the more tab of the TouchTwit application is called advanced. Here you can change the settings of the home(list) feed which is discussed in a previous section, or you can switch accounts -in the scenario where you use multiple accounts-, read the about details of the TouchTwit application for Windows Phones or finally exit the application.

Update

“Update” is the final tab/button in the navigation bar of the TouchTwit application, and not surprisingly this tab is used to compose messages. In the top of this screen you can see six buttons: (1) @reply, (2) short URL, (3) Location, (4) Media, (5) Cancel, and (6) Update. The screenshots above give you an impression of composing a tweet within TouchTwit on the HTC HD2.

By tapping on the @reply button you can select friends you follow and want to address from an alphabetiacal ordered list. The function of the short URL button is obvious, however with the small remark that the included full link needs to start with http:// so it doesn’t shorten when the URL is started with www. Furthermore the used shortening service is TinyURL and just like the integration with multimedia services Twitpic and Twitvid, choice for other default services would be a great improvement.

Adding pictures and location is also possible with the fingerfriendly buttons in the update screen. With the update button you can publish the tweet to your twitterfeed. Remarkable is that you can’t select or creat video’s from the update tab (just from the more tab).

The screenshots above show you the exceptional clean looks of the interface. However the right screenshot above shows you the unfolded full qwerty softkeyboard on the HTC HD2. You can see the light grey “cutouts” on the usual position of the softkeys, and I personal think that this would be a visual point of improvement (it doesn’t affect function) !!

Settings, new favourite, retweet & other functions

In this additional section I woul like to address a few main functions of the TouchTwit application for Windows Phone.

The left screenshot above shows you an overview of the settings, which can be changed via the advanced heading in the more tab of the navigation bar. For example you can change synchonisation interval, and honestly 2 minutes is a really short interval that hasn’t my personal preference (from a batterylife perspective).

However you can also change settings like the fontsize, notifications and sounds, or the scroll speed. This is something I wanted to highlight, the navigation and scroll experience in TouchTwit is blazing fast !! I would like you all to put this on top of your list with pro’s to justify a purchasing decision.

In the application overview I didn’t address how to reply, retweet or favorite tweet directly from the home(list) twitter feed. The developers of TouchTwit have come up with a really nice, easy to use implementation. You simply make a swipe gesture from right to left on a specific tweet, that results in a new tweet screen lik is shown in the right screenshot above.

As you can see I can easily favorite the tweet, retweet the particular message or simply reply to the user @gervercom via @reply. If you are engaged in a conversation you can also view this conversation in a sort of chat-mode ! Overall the implementation with swipes and gestures works really well, and foremost fast. Finally you can also copy a tweet and past it into an e-mail for example.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBidqUG2R2g

Final thoughts and overall conclusion

In order to summarize you could have a look at the video above with a demonstration of the TouchTwit application.

Some time a go I have looked at Twikini, a nice Twitter application for Windows Phone, and its features. While I still like Twikini for use on the HTC Snap, I was looking for a different and slightly more stable Twiter client for the HTC HD2. I can assure you that TouchTwit works very solid and lightning fast on the HTC HD2.

“It’s easy to view your timeline, messages, replies and favorites. TouchTwit has a Powerful Tweet-update screen that lets you write Tweets, upload photos and videos, short url’s and include your GPS coordinates. And TouchTwit is always finger-friendly!“

Like you can read in the product description on the TouchTwit website, this application is 100% optimized for touch control. I woudl furthermore like to compliment the designer who did a great job of implementing a clean, professional look for the TouchTwit application.

Also some advance features like the trending topics, chat view of the conversation and the possibility to manage multiple account justify the purchasing decision for TouchTwit. The reasonable price of € 1,89 can’t be a real deal breaker, certainly if you look what amount of functional value you get for this price.  You can’t go wrong with TouchTwit …

The HTC HD2, which features a massive 4.3″ capacitive screen, has been reviewed a few months ago in the article:  “HTC HD2 review – A new era in Windows Phones’ history“.

The new era in Windows Mobile history is reflected in the use of capacitive screen technology and the resulting absense of a stylus which has dominated the mobile market for many years. Those among us who worked with the Palm III, Palm V, Compaq iPAQ 3650 or any later Windows Mobile PocketPC do exactly know what I’m talking about !

Since the launch of the first generation iPhone back in 2007 (which also featured a capacitive screen), the complete mobile market is trending towards this “touch control” with you fingers.

However …. on the DAGi website you can read the following announcement, which includes a lot of recent smartphones:

“Dagi Corporation Ltd. announced the first patent protected transparent capacitive touch panel stylus for Apple all generation iPhone 3GS / 3G / 2G, iPod Touch, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, HTC Google Phone G1 G2, HTC HD2, HTC Droid Eris, RIM Blackberry Storm 1 / Storm2, Android Phones, LG KM900 Arena, LG GC900 Viewty Smart, LG GD900 Crystal, Motorola Droid Verizon, Nokia X6, Samsung i7500 Galaxy, etc.”

Handwritten notes and sketches – A practical engineering example

In order to illustrate why there is still a market for a stylus, despite that the majority of the market seems to be heading towards touch control, I will give you a practical personal example.

You probably know the proverd “A picture is worth a thousand words“, and I personally think that this applies to engineers. With a mechanical engineering background I always use (and used) sketches or models to explain a certain technical problem, and I would suggest that construction drawings are a kind of language for mechanical engineers.

A Windows Mobile PocketPC of Windows Phone can be a powerful tool for that use, especially when you are -for example- working on a construction site for trouble shooting. The massive 4.3″ capacitive screen of the HTC HD2, combined with the DAGI capacitive stylus is perfectly suited for this kind of mobile use on location.

Furthermore it is great to capture ideas, and have them with you in a central place. As you can see in the screenshots above I use Phatware PhatPad 4.7 for a few reasons.

At first Phatware PhatPad provides six different penmodes, and a lot of options to create and edit notes (different pen colors, etc.), which are not present in the standard notes application on the HTC HD2. In other words it is a more complete and specialized solution, where you can even run text recognition, or structure notes over different pages.

Second Phatware PhatPad is feels far more accurate than the standard notes application, both when I write with my finger and with th DAGi capcitive stylus. The main point is that the fine locomotion for handwriting is far more accurate with the DAGi capacitive stylus (remark the red dot). Especially at the points where lines connect, for example in case of the capital A or the sketch of the house. When you try to write or sketch it with your finger, the lines don’t connect but are offset which makes the notes less usable.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

While Devicewire reported this week to have the official HTC HD2 capacitive stylus in stock, the DAGi capacitive stylus looks identical. I personally think they even come from the same factory, especially if the capacitive stylus is patent protect as you could read in the introductary announcement.

On the DAGi website you can furthermore see there are a few different  models available. In the review I used the P001-Black model/type of the DAGi capacitive stylus. The clip on the back makes it easy to carry in the front pocket of your blouse (if you like).

In practice there are still a lot of situations in practice where the stylus is a helpful tool. In addition to my personal example outlined above, you can see screenshots of people playing a minesweeper or chess game on their smartphone with help of the “more accurate” DAGi capacitive stylus.

If you want to learn more about capacitive screen technology, I want to recommend the article “Resistive vs Capacitive: the invisible tech war in which both opponents can win?” of Steve Litchfield, Editor on All About Symbian.com, and the article “How do touch-screen monitors know where you’re touching?” on the How Stuff Works website.

To wrap-up I hope that the practical example above gives you an idea of a realistic scenario where the DAGi capacitive stylus is really helpful. I’m using this stylus for a few weeks now, it has earned a default place in my Crumpler BeanCounter L bag, and I must admit I use it frequently.

Are you a curious HTC HD2 owner, please head over to Brando Workshop and order you DAGi Capacitive Stylus !!

MobilityMinded reviewed the HTC HD2 a few weeks ago, and my personal wrap-up conclusion was the following:

“The HTC HD2 is a very well balanced Windows Phone for various usage scenarios, and with a bulk load of added value not only in terms of technology and hardware but also in terms of software innovations as well. HTC has done an amazing job and set the bars significantly higher.”

In this article I would like to have a thorough and in-depth look at another software innovation on the HTC HD2, which is the WorldCard Mobile application from PenPowerInc. This application helps endusers, in particular business people, to capture contact details from business cards and export this information to the contacts on your Windows Phone.

Sequence of capturing contact information from a business card

On the HTC HD2 you simply start WorldCard Mobile from the renewed Start Menu in the folder “Tools”. In the left screenshot above you see the WorldCard Mobile icon (right column, second row), while in the right screenshot above you see the mainscreen of WorldCard Mobile.

As you can see the WorldCard Mobile mainscreen consists of a huge start button with a camera logo on it, and just below you see a kind of toolbar with three additional buttons: help, about and exit. I will come back later in this article on the latter buttons.

You want to capture contact details from a business card, so you tap on the start button and the camera software on the HTC HD2 opens to take a picture / photo from the business card. In this example I used my own mobilityminded business card and removed some content for “privacy” reasons. So I let the HTC HD2 camera autofocus on the business card, take the picture while you are being redirected to the WorldCard Mobile screen below.

In the left screenshot above you can see the picture of the business card, and if you are not satisfied with the picture quality or the picture is overexposed you can re-capture with use of the right softkey.  In the toolbar just above the softkeys you can zoom in, or rotate the picture 90 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise if WorldCard Mobile hasn’t recognized the orientation by itself. The buttons in this toolbar are optimized for fingerfriendly use.

Furthermore you can see a large button on top of the screen (above the picture of the business card), which shows the language -in case of the screenshot- English (USA). By tapping on the button you can change the language. The right screenshot above shows you the possible options on the HTC HD2 running on a WWE ROM. I would love to hear if a Dutch language file is included if you run a NL ROM on your HTC HD2. If you have selected the right language, you complete this step of the overall process with the recognize command on the left softkey.

The screenshot above shows the first result from the ocr text recognition of the picture of the MobilityMinded businesscard. I don’t know if it is that my name is not very common or that it is because of the fonttype and height but my name isn’t recognized by default. The company info, webpage and the second part of the e-mail address which is shown on the bussiness card.

The recognized texts are in this example without any error. I want to manually add the first and last name by tapping on the + button of the grey name heading. In the right screenshot above you can choose the field you want to enter, so I select first name and enter it. To enter the last name I tap on the + button again (and remark you can’t select first name anymore) and enter the last name, while I don’t need to enter any additional notes.

The left screenshot above shows the contact information after manually editting the contact information. I would like to emphasize the importance of having this edit step, otherwise uncomplete or wrong contact details would be saved in your phone’s memory. In the worst case scenario it would irectly be synchronized with your Microsoft Exchange account as well.

You can furthermore see that you can select a category from the pull down menu in which you want to save the specific contact. When you are satisfied with the contact details all the fields and you reviewed them on correctness and accuracy, you can complete the whole contact details capturing process by using the export command on the left softkey.

As you can see in the right screenshot the contact details are saved successfully into the phone’s memory and synchronized with my Microsoft (hosted) Exchange account with Sherweb.

Three other buttons in the WorldCard Mobile mainscreen

In the left screenshot above you can see the WorldCard Mobile mainscreen again. In this section I would like to quickly look at the additional buttons on the mainscreen in order to provide a complete (as possible) overview of the WorldCard Mobile application.

The most right button, in the left screenshot this button is completely grey and has two arrows pointing to the left, triggers the exit command and results simply in closing  WorldCard Mobile. The button in the middle with the folded corner opens the about screen, which is shown in the right screenshot above. For example you can see the version number of WorldCard Mobile.

The most left button with the question mark opens WorldCard Mobile Help. The helpfile of an application is sometimes an underrated part. The screenshots below clearly show that this is not the case with WorldCard Mobile Help.

The WorldCard Mobile Help is pretty extensive and there are various way to explore. The first option is by tapping on “contents” which opens a table of contents with clickable hyperlinks, which is shown in the right screenshot above. Another way to explore the WordlCard Mobile Help is tap on “search”, which opens up a search box and lets you enter a search string. Finally there is also the way of going to the previous or next page of WorldCard Mobile Help.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up 

I would like to start this concluding section with some quotes from George Ponder, Editor of WMExperts in the article: “WorldCard Mobile – Business Card Scanning that Actually Works“

“In testing WorldCard, I found it to be more productive with business cards with simple layouts. The more elaborate layouts tend to throw the recognition software more curve balls but have no fear, when thrown a curve ball, the application can be adjusted manually.”

I can only agree with George Ponder that the graphical design and layout out a business card can impact the quality and accuracy of the output after the first text recognition step. However like outlined in the application overview it is no problem to manually review and edit the contact details, before saving the information into your Windows Phone.

“I found the more you use WorldCard Mobile, the more it learns the card layouts. WorldCard can also be used for other text documents such as return addresses on envelopes or advertisements in publications. Keep in mind that the recognition of fields may need a little more adjusting in these situations.”

There is indeed -or at least it seems that way- a self-learning mechanism build-in in the WorldCard Mobile software on the HTC HD2. Furthermore very cool that George Ponder has found different scenarios in which he can use WorldCard Mobile.

Overall I’m very satisfied with WorldCard Mobile and this software is a valuable addition on the HTC HD2, like the Wi-Fi Router application which I recently reviewed as well. The accuracy of the ocr text recognition is more than ok, and therefore WorldCard Mobile increases you productivity and efficiency when entering contact details. WorldCard Mobile can even beat entering contact details in Microsoft Outlook on my Lenovo X60 tablet, but is a superior tool for the mobile professional on the road.

The HTC HD2 is, without any doubt, one of the hottest and most powerful Windows Phones on the market today. MobilityMinded has been very fortunate to conduct a very extensive and indepth review of the HTC HD2, which is published in the article “HTC HD2 review – A new era in Windows Phones’ history“.

UPDATE:

If you are using a T-Mobile USA branded version of the HTC HD2, the HTC Wi-Fi Router application won’t be pre-installed in the ROM. WMWifiRouter is aN excellent third-party alternative that you might want to check out here: WMWifiRouter 2.00 review – Turn every Windows Phone into a Wireless Hotspot

However I would like to highlight one specific application on the HTC HD2, which is a helpful addition for every mobile professional:  Wi-Fi Router, which turns the HTC HD2 in a true Access Point that shares your cellular data connection.

The screenshots above show two ways of launching the Wi-Fi Router application on the HTC HD2. The first way is simply to tap on the Wi-Fi Router icon in the improved Windows Mobile 6.5 start menu. The second way is via changing the switch for Wi-Fi Router in the Comm Manager on the HTC HD2, which is shown in the right screenshot above.

Both ways of launching the Wi-Fi Router application result in the same first step of “transforming” the Windows Phone into a Wi-Fi Router / Access Point. The mainscreen of the application is shown in the left screenshot above.

There you can see the Wi-Fi Router status and you can configure Network name and WEP key as the Wi-Fi Router parameters. Furthermore you need to select the Cellular Data Connection that you want to share, in the example this is called “Vodafone Live!”

The right screenshot above shows the status change “Connecting Vodafone Live!” when you hit start on the right softkey.

After this status change or in the case when you hit “Help” on the left softkey a screen with (help) instructions is shown on the massive screen of the HTC HD2. As you can see in the left screenshot the (help) instructions consist of four simple steps, while the right screenshot above shows the Wi-Fi Router status: “Wi-Fi Router running, ready to accept connections“.

One of the best improvements of Windows 7 on my Lenovo X60 tablet is the improved way of managing the wireless networks, which I described in the acrticle “Windows 7 RC reviewed on HP Mini 1000” as:

“Windows 7 makes viewing and connecting to all of your networks simple and consistent. You’ll always have one-click access to available networks, regardless of whether those networks are based on Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up, or your corporate VPN.”

In the left screenshot you can see that I’m connected with the Linksys WRT54GS Router of the Home network, while you can see the the Wi-Fi Router is in the list of available wireless networks.

Connecting to the Wi-Fi Router Wireless Network is simple. At first you click on the Wireless Network, and you click on the connect button. From the previous device screenshots above you probably remember that the WEP key is 1234567890, which I need to enter in order to get connected with the Wi-Fi Router Wireless Network.

In the right screenshot above you can see that I’m connected to the Wi-Fi Router Wireless Network. The left screenshot below shows the status of the Wi-Fi Router application on the HTC HD2 as: “Wi-Fi Router running, Connection established” so on both devices you can clearly see that connected status !!

If you want to stop the Wi-Fi Router application you simply hit “Stop” on the right softkey, while as a result the Wi-Fi Router status directly changes to “Stopping Wi-Fi Router“. All connections are disconnected and the Wi-Fi Router application returns to its main screen.

Concluding thoughts on the Wi-Fi Router application

At first I would like to compliment HTC for developing this great application and pre-loading the Wi-Fi Router application on the HTC HD2. In the review I concluded that the HTC HD2 addresses also business needs or the needs of power users and mobile professionals:

“The HTC HD2 is a very well balanced Windows Phone for various usage scenarios, and with a bulk load of added value not only in terms of technology and hardware but also in terms of software innovations. HTC has done an amazing job and set the bars significantly higher.”

Wi-Fi Router vs. Internet Sharing

Jaap van Ekris, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor in Chief of ModernNomads.info, has written excellent articles related to the internet sharing functionality in Windows Mobile:  “Bluetooth Internet Connection sharing” and “Use your Windows Mobile device as modem for your laptop“

Internet Sharing on Windows Phones can substitute devices like the Option GlobeTrotter GT MAX HSUPA modem card or a Huawei E160 USB modem. But it is not possible to share the cellular data connection with more devices or people. This is the biggest advantage of the Wi-Fi Router application on the HTC HD2, while it furthermore is extremely simple to use.

However I would also like to address a few points for improvement in future itterations of the Wi-Fi Router application.

1. The security of the Wireless Connection is just a 10 digit WEP key, while I use the more secure WPA security on my Linksys WRT54GS Router. In the extreme case that you work with a project group on location, and have your Wi-Fi Router application up and running for the whole day, you simply want the corporate project data to be secure.
2. In the same usage scenario of a project group working on location, it would be extremely helpful to have a central and secure sharing folder, which acts like a document dump. In the case of a “normal” router you can use a USB-stick for that purpose, and it would be great if the Wi-Fi Router application could somehow take advantage of the storage on microSD card of the HTC HD2.

In order to wrap-up I find the Wi-Fi Router a very helpful application, and honestly I do think that this should become standard available on ALL Windows Phones (which would mean that it needs to become part of the core OS). With the Internet Sharing functionality already available the Wi-Fi Router would be a great addition.

What do you think of the Wi-Fi Router application ? If you want to learn more about the features and performance of the HTC HD2, you might want to check out the extensive review on this website.

UPDATE:

If you are using a T-Mobile USA branded version of the HTC HD2, the HTC Wi-Fi Router application won’t be pre-installed in the ROM. WMWifiRouter is an excellent third-party alternative that you might want to check out here: WMWifiRouter 2.00 review – Turn every Windows Phone into a Wireless Hotspot

Today at the local Windows Phone launch event in Amsterdam, HTC announced a new device called the HTC HD2 (of which the codename is HTC Leo) in addition to the introductions from Windows Mobile 6.5 and Microsoft MyPhone.

Luckily HTC didn’t just announce it, but also had a few HTC HD2 demo units in Amsterdam so we could play a few minutes with this powerhouse.

HTC HD2 hardware

The HTC HD2 is a phone with the largest screen available. A whopping 4,3″ screen with WVGA resolution. Based on my first hand experiences I can only say:  This screen is LARGE! Furthermore the HTC HD2 will be the first Windows Phone with a capacitive touchscreen, which means multitouch.

The HTC HD2 is the first HTC device based on the Snapdragon chipset running at 1 Gigahertz. The device is from what I can judge one of the fastest devices I have ever used. Some more key features from this device are its 5 Megapixel camera with a Dual LED Flashlight, and that again, is something HTC has never done in a device! Five Megapixels and a decent Flash to make nice snapshots in the dark.

For a complete overview of the hardware specifications I would like recommend the specification list on the HTC HD2 product page.

HTC Software on the HTC HD2

The HTC HD2 will be shipped with Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5, which makes it the 5th Windows Phone from HTC. Furthermore HTC has replaced the TouchFLO 3D with a Windows Mobile version of HTC’s sense.

HTC Sense user interface was first introduced on the Android powered HTC Hero. The prediction I made back then seems to be true – HTC Sense will eventually become a cross-platform experience to all the HTC users. Just like the Android version of HTC Sense and SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 the Windows Phone version of HTC Sense is completely widgetized. HTC really points to three basic sense thoughts:

1. Make it mine – Personalize you Windows Phone the way you like it
2. Stay Close – Keep all you contacts, E-Mail, SMS and Phonecalls together
3. Discover the unexpected – Basically all the nice Sense features HTC built in and makes you say: “WOW!”

HTC not only drives great innovations in hardware,but certainly invests in software innovations as well.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

The HTC HD2 is the fastest Windows Phone I have every tried. But not only the speed is impressive. The fact that there is a 5 Megapixel camera with flash, a capacitive touchscreen, and a 1 Gigahertz Processor indicates that this is a really powerful device. The only downside of the device I could see from the few minutes I had it in my hand is it’s width. Using the device with one hand simply isn’t possible (to me) because when I keep the device in my right hand, my thumb doesn’t reach the top-left corner (Start menu) of the device.

Basically the only drawback is that the screen it too big – But who would mention this as a downside of a device??

Pricing and Availability

According to countrymanager Mark Moons the HTC HD2 will be available from the end of this month in Europe and will cost €599,- (without a subscription and including VAT). When the HTC HD2 will be available in the United States is unknown at this moment.

Instant update: It looks like the HD2 will be available in the US in Q1 2010 according to Slashgear:

Meanwhile Peter Chou confirmed to us that HTC are working on a US-spec version of the device, which will cross the Atlantic in time for Q1 2010.  No word on pricing as yet.