HTC HD2 "Leo" announced with Windows Mobile 6.5

Posted by Katherine Hannaford on Tue 6 Oct 2009

The fastest WinMo device yet?

HTC has just taken the lid off another leaked device, this time the HD2. You might know it as the Leo, thanks to a bunch of leaked photos appearing online in the last month. Running Windows Mobile 6.5, we're confident in proclaiming this device to be the best handset ever to run WinMo.

- See our hands-on photos of the HD2 here

After an extensive hands-on session (which you can read about over here), we're happy to report that the HD2 is the perfect device for anyone wishing to keep in touch with the office through emailing and reading/editing documents, but also keen on watching films, listening to music and updating their social networking profiles. People much like you and us, we imagine.

The 4.3-inch screen is certainly capable of turning heads, with the miniscule bezel resulting in the display taking up most of the front's real estate. HTC has crammed 800 x 640 pixels into the capacitive screen, which is twice as many as the iPhone can boast. In terms of size, the closest competition we've seen recently comes from the Toshiba TG01, however with Windows Mobile 6.5 and HTC's Touch Sense overlay, the TG01 has a lot of firmware updating to do before it can rival the HD2.

The HD2 is the first Windows Mobile phone using HTC Sense, which turns Windows Mobile 6.5 (admittedly a minor upgrade) into something you can actually imagine using. The homescreen has a large weather-centric top half, which uses HTC's animated 3D weather effects to tell you what's happening outside.

Considering it's the first capacitive screen on a Windows device, viewing and editing documents is a breeze. Edit Word and Excel documents until your heart's content, but pdfs and PowerPoints are read-only. Use two fingers to pinch the screen, zooming in and out.

Everything's done with speed on the HD2, thanks to the addition of a 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the second device to use one after the Toshiba TG01.

Along the bottom of the screen 13 widgets are displayed, for fast access to your most-used programs or apps. Much like on the HTC Hero, you can add as much information to your contacts as possible - and view all of your communication with that contact, such as emails sent between the two of you.

Hardware-wise, it measures 120.5 x 67 x 11mm, and weighs just 157g. It's remarkably thin and light. Internally, there's 512MB of storage, but that's expandable through a microSD card - HTC ships a 2GB one with each HD2. The camera is a 5.0-megapixel one, typical fare for HTC nowadays, and includes a flash and auto-focus. GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (with Wi-Fi and 3G tethering offered) have all been crammed into the HD2's slim casing, as you'd expect.

Battery life is listed as up to 380 minutes of talktime, and up to 490 minutes of standby time. It will be possible to increase battery life by more than double the length with the addition of an extended battery pack, which will go on sale after the HD2 launches. It includes a handy stand for the mobile, so users can place it on a table and watch films on the hi-res screen.

On sale in late October, the HTC HD2 won't be exclusive to any network in the UK, with T-Mobile and O2 already being confirmed.

Link: HTC

Windows Mobile 6.5: All you need to know