Handset porn
At a recent trade event we bumped into Doran Davies, head of product marketing at smartphone maker HTC. Within seconds of us revealing we're tech journos he whipped out an HTC handset he was clearly excited about - the HD2.
And we have to admit, he had a point. The HTC HD2 has the biggest screen we've ever seen on a handset - 4.3 inches - and they've chucked in Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset to ensure the graphics and video playback are as sexy as possible.
Doran also insisted that the combination of Windows Mobile/Phone 6.5 and HTC's software now offered a much better user experience than in past Windows Mobile phones.
Well, the good news for high-end smartphone fans is that O2 has announced it is selling them today. At least that's what the press release says. We rang up our local branch and they didn't have it yet, so this could be a bit of a ‘soft launch'. Also, some people in the HEXUS community seem to have already got hold of one from other suppliers.
We asked our O2 local store what the HD2 would cost us and it seems to be available on most regular tariffs as follows: ‘Free' on a £70 per month, two year tariff; £50 upfront on a £40 per month, two year tariff; £100 upfront on a £30 per month, two year tariff. The latter two can be converted to 18 month tariffs at the cost of an extra fiver per month, and the deals seem to be a bit different if you go online.
Jon French, UK HTC boss, said: "The close partnership between HTC and Microsoft means we are able to bring HTC Sense, a customer experience which makes the phone work in a more simple, natural and personal way, to a Windows phone for the first time with the HD2."
Here's a video of an O2 ‘Guru' talking us through the HD2.