Can the successor to the HTC Hero scale the same epic heights?

The HTC Hero was T3’s gadget of the year in 2009; so to say we’ve been eagerly waiting for it is an understatement. Instead of a few lazy tweaks like some manufacturers, HTC’s made significant changes to produce a far superior handset.

First impressions are impressive. Constructed from a single piece of aluminum, with a rubberised battery SD card cover and camera section, build is fantastic – it really feels like a quality product. This is a handset you’d be proud to show off, in contrast to the drab Google Nexus One. The Legend is exactly the type of product we’d expect if Apple were to transfer its unibody laptop design to a handset. There's no trackball, instead you get an optical joystick, which looks sleeker, but we barely used it.

HTC has upgraded the processor from a 528 MHz to 600 MHz processor and the difference is instantly noticeable. Windows load quickly and you can open several browser windows, listen to music and run several apps without any sluggishness. Running Android 2.1 you get support for Microsoft Exchange, otherwise it syncs seamlessly with Hotmail and Gmail accounts.

Beating the competition

What set the Legend apart from the Nexus One is the combination of HTC's fantastic Sense interface and multitouch, making the whole experience incredibly fluid. Customise seven homescreens with widgets, shortcuts and favourites, and within seconds you can check the weather, update your Facebook status and view pictures, without digging into menus. A quick tap of the home button now brings up the new Leap screen, giving an overview of all seven simultaneously.

When browsing pull and pinch controls are a cinch. Even highlighting text is a breeze. See a joke or quote you like, press down and move pins to select, before copying, sharing or even looking it up in Wikipedia.

Whether it’s BBC.co.uk or more complex websites like T3.com, web pages load quickly and Flash support surpassed the Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS. Videos on T3.com look pretty good, they’re not too blocky and the sound is loud enough for a few people to listen.

A highlight is Friend Stream, which syncs your Twitter, Facebook and Flickr accounts, much like MotoBlur. It’s fantastic to have all your social networking contacts in the same place and means you don’t have to swap between Facebook and Twitter apps, but lists can be a bit sluggish to scroll through.

At 3.2inches the AMOLED screen is small, with a lower resolution than the Nexus One (480x320 to 800x480). But it’s so bright you barely notice. Movies from the onboard camcorder look very clear, even if you're viewing from the side.

With moderate browsing, a few photos, calls and texts, the battery drops right down to about 25% at the end of the day, which isn’t terrible, but as with any smartphone, hit the browser hard and you’ll end up charging it every night.

Multimedia maestro

Our main criticism of the Hero was multimedia and while the Legend is an improvement, but the music player feels very much like a secondary feature. It’s fine for using on the train on the way to work, but lacks features you’d find on a dedicated music player – you can’t even adjust the EQ. The headphones are ok, but aren’t very comfortable for too long, although the 3.5mm jack means you can swap them easily enough.

The 5MP camera is pretty good for quick snaps though if no match for the Sony Ericsson Satio. The LED flash is a welcome addition, we took a few shots indoors in dim light results are grainy, but not bad. You can tweak White Balance, ISO and Exposure Compensation and add filters though. Video footage isn’t bad though, certainly fine for uploading to the web.

Despite 512Mb memory, you can’t take a picture or play music without using a MicroSD card and there’s no news yet on what card it will be supplied with.

On paper the Legend might not match the Nexus One’s and its 1Ghz processor for power, but that doesn’t matter. It’s quicker than the Hero and thanks to HTC Sense and features like Friend Stream; it’s a far slicker and easier to use then its Google rival. Factor in the gorgeous build and the HTC Legend is the best Android handset available.

Specification

Physical

Size:

Weight:126 grams (4.44 ounces) with battery

CPU Processing Speed

600 MHz

Power & Battery¹

Battery type: Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer or Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1300 mAh
Talk time:

• WCDMA: Up to 440 mins
• GSM: Up to 490 mins

Standby time:

• WCDMA: Up to 560 hours
• GSM: Up to 440 hours

Camera

• 5 megapixel color camera
• Auto focus and flash
• Widescreen photo capture
• Geotagging

Sensors

• G-Sensor
• Digital compass
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light sensor

Social Networking

• Facebook™ integration
• Friend Stream
• Photo sharing on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter
• Video sharing on YouTube™
• HTC Peep for twittering

Recommended Windows System Requirements

• Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, or Windows XP
• HTC Sync

Special Features

• Automatically lowers the ringer volume as soon as the phone is picked up
• Mutes the ringer when the phone is flipped face down
• Backs up certain data and settings to the microSD card automatically, such as SMS/MMS messages, bookmarks, and Wi-Fi passwords

Display

Type: AMOLED capacitive touch screen with pinch-to-zoom capability
Size: 3.2 inches
Resolution: 320 X 480 HVGA

Platform

Android™ 2.1 (Éclair) with HTC Sense

Storage

ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 384 MB
Expansion slot:

• microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• Supports up to 32 GB

Network Bands²

Europe:

• HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
• GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Asia Pacific:

• HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
• GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Internet³

• 3G:
  Up to 7.2 Mbps download speed
  Up to 2 Mbps upload speed
• GPRS: Up to 114 kbps downloading
• EDGE: Up to 560 kbps downloading
• Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth® 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate
• A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
• FTP and OPP (object push) for file transfer
• Other supported profiles: AVRCP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, PBAP, SPP, Service Discovery Application Profile

Multimedia

• Photos application for viewing photos and videos
• Music
• FM Radio
• Audio supported formats:
  Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma
  Recording: .amr
• Video supported formats:
  Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv
  Recording: .3gp

Location

• Internal GPS antenna
• Google Maps
• HTC Footprints™

By Hannah Bouckley

You’d have to have been hiding under a rock for the past week or two to not notice Google is making its own phone and it’s finally here: the Nexus One.

Manufactured by HTC but sold by Google, the phone has had early adopters and the casual user alike interested in what it will be like, so read on to find out how the UK version fared in our hands.

A lot has been made of the screen, and it's probably a bit overhyped. Yes, at 3.7-inches it's a little large, but it's not the biggest: both the Toshiba TG01 and the HTC HD2 beat it comfortably.

In our eyes, it's the perfect size for an internet and media glutton – big enough to wander around great expanses of internet browsing and watching videos without eye strain, but small enough that it doesn't get wedged in any pocket you put it in.

Slimmed down

At less than 12mm thin as well, this is certainly more iPhone than any other phone out there – in fact we bet that some Google employees have been hiding these phones in iPhone cases just to use them safely in the street, such is the similarity.

The top of the phone houses the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is nicely tucked away into the chassis. However, it follows the contours of the shell, meaning that when using your headphones there may be some of the jack left exposed.

The bottom of the Nexus One houses the microUSB port, as well as four golden dots, which we assume will be used for docking add-ons (possibly Google Navigation Sat Nav?).

The OLED display is also beautiful, as we've come to expect from this kind of technology – not only do the blacks look super dark and the whites clear and crisp, but the colour rendition is superb. Some early reviews have hinted that the saturation levels are too high, but in our eyes it only increases the beauty.

Specification

By Gareth Beavis

The HTC HD2 is the world’s first Windows Mobile-toting phone with a capacitive screen, and also packs the world’s largest mobile phone display too.

It’s also the first WinMo phone to use HTC’s Sense UI, previously used on the company’s Android handsets, bringing with it Facebook integration and direct Twitter access, as well as masking well the operating system beneath it.

Running Windows Mobile 6.5, it certainly makes use of the all the good bits of the upgrade, but HTC decides to do its own thing on around 95 per cent of the HD2.

The first thing that most people will notice when picking up the HTC HD2 is the sheer size of the screen, which is justified when you realise it’s a whopping 4.3-incher.

The screen dominates the whole front of the phone, reaching very close to the edges on either side and only leaving room for a speaker at the top and buttons at the bottom, meaning it’s a very nice tablet-style look.

The buttons on the front of the HD2 look like brushed metal, and are nicely rounded and raised, making them easy to hit. There’s the usual suspects on offer, with the call and terminate keys flanking the home, back and Windows buttons.

Other than that, there’s very little else on the HD2 button-wise. On the left-hand side, around half way up, there’s a volume up/down key, which is flush to the chassis. This is actually a little hard to hit at times, as it’s difficult to find it when not looking.

The bottom of the phone houses the microUSB slot for charging and PC connection, along with the 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s an odd place to put this pair, with the common option being at the top or in the top corners, and it means a headphone jack can sometimes get caught up in the pocket.

It’s also hard to text in portrait mode when listening to music – we know that sounds like a pretty niche situation, but as the multimedia aspects of the HD2 have also been upgraded, this is important.

The rear of the phone is also pretty minimal as well – apart from the camera (with dual LED flash) there’s very little else to look at. It takes a while to work out how to get the battery cover off as well, with a slight groove on the right-hand side needing to be pulled pretty hard to remove it.

The battery looks pretty small, although that’s probably just to do with the scale of the HD2. It basically holds in the SIM card and nothing much else, with the microSD card slot sitting away from it, making hot swapping possible.

The other noteworthy aspect when picking it up for the first time is the weight of the phone – it’s just 157g with battery, which is pretty darn light for a phone this size.

The camera protrudes slightly at the back, which can get in the way of holding it, but this is a minimal problem as you swiftly learn to shift it to a more comfortable position.

The phone is curved nicely on the back, meaning it sits well in the palm. And despite the huge screen size, it’s actually not that hard for the average (admittedly male) palm to navigate to all the important areas of the screen, with the thumb easily called into action to hit the upper levels.

In the box

Keeping with HTC tradition, the box is a slim design featuring just the basic components. This means a microUSB lead, an adaptor to let you plug said lead into the wall, a pair of headphones that double as a (pretty cool with remote control for the music player) hands-free kit, and of course the phone itself.

We’re not too sure we like the fact we only get one USB lead that doubles as both the charger and the computer connector, but with the polar bears in trouble the way they are, it’s only fair we all do our bit.

However, we do like the lack of CD in the box for software, with that being either available on the phone or downloadable from the HTC website.

Specification

Weight: 157 grams (5.54 ounces) with battery

Resolution: 480 X 800 WVGA

Operating System

Windows Mobile® 6.5 Professional

Storage

* ROM: 512 MB
* RAM: 448 MB
* Expansion slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

CPU Processing Speed

1GHz Snapdragon™ processor

Power & Battery1

Battery type: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1230 mAh
Talk time:

* WCDMA: Up to 320 mins
* GSM: Up to 380 mins

Standby time:

* WCDMA: Up to 390 hours
* GSM: Up to 490 hours

Video playback Up to 8 hours
Audio playback: Up to 12 hours

Camera

* 5 megapixel color camera
* Auto focus
* Dual LED flashlight

Connectors

* 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
* Standard Micro-USB
(5-pin micro-USB 2.0)

Sensors

* G-Sensor
* Proximity sensor
* Ambient light sensor

Multimedia

* Windows Media® Player
* Albums
* Pictures & Videos
* FM Radio
* Audio supported formats:
aac, .amr, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .mp4, .qcp, .wav, .wma
* Video supported formats:
wmv, .asf, .mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v, .avi

Recommended Windows System Requirements

* Windows XP or Windows Vista®
* Microsoft® ActiveSync® 4.5 for Windows XP
* Microsoft® Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1
for Windows Vista

By Gareth Beavis – TechRadar