HTC HD2 (Leo) - Telstra/Unlocked/Optus etc etc.

[Santaria]

I recently bought a HD2 after being on an i780 for nearly a year and a half. The HD2 was a huge step up (also had an N95 in between somewhere too) from what I had in terms of performance and looks.

The Story:

I opened the box and a the sparkle in my eye reflected off of the capacitive screen. I flipped it over looking for the way to get the back cover off, which turned out to be like a door, instead of a usual slide off cover. I then inserted my SIM and turned it on, the vibration first startled me, then a wave of excitement came over me. The splash screen came up and it said "Telstra NextG" and I was happy. It booted into the phones OS, I filled in the owner details, hit next and a BARRAGE of Telstra bloatware attacked me, I quickly ran to my PC and loaded up the ROM I had been eying off for the past week. "Miri will save me from the Telstra bloatware" I said to myself as I loaded up the HSPL 1.42 and began the 10min Miri ROM load. Like a mosquito buzzing around my head, there was a thought: "Apart from iTunes, iPhone doesn't need new ROMs, maybe a jailbreak". I squashed it when I remembered I already had Jailbroken the Mrs' iPhone and a few 'extras' had been added and removed. It didn't matter how good the phone was out of the box, I never gave it a go, I was going for a new ROM straight away anyways. I loaded Miri up for the first time and added a few cabs I had floating around that I wanted, like Soft key skins, Resco File explorer, IGO8 and a few tweaks.

I got my first SMS, I pressed the messages tab: "What the fuck is this shit!" I thought, as it wasn't threaded SMS, or Pocket outlook style, but some modern way HTC thought I could message. It was shit. Then I wanted to add a task! "Where do I view it?" I asked. It never came up on the hometab, only appointments. I CAN view tasks on the lock screen if I use a 3rd party app, so for now, appointment software does my 'Todo' list.

Pros:
- Super fast
- Great visuals
- HTC Sense is visually appealing
- HUGE screen
- Volume buttons are easy reach 1 handed
- Sensitive screen for answering calls, on hold calls, send message after ignoring calls etc etc.
- Brilliant battery life
- Sturdy build quality (Rivals iPhone, easily)
- Glass screen finish
- WiFi signals are sturdy

Cons:
- HTC Sense messaging sucks (too clunky) As does HTC messaging 6.5 in general
- No tasks (With what I do, tasks are great for not fucking up)
- Weather tab and 'My Location' is as useful as a pocket in a singlet
- Lock screen makes the phone look bare
- IE doesn't come 'pinch to zoom' as standard
- Finger smudges (can't be helped, but it's a downside)
- WiFi is a pain to turn on and off
- Keyboard is SUPER DUPER sensitive
- No streaming software like Air video (which pisses me off no end)

Fixed with Tweaks:
- Keyboard: Sensitivity turned down (worked a treat, I can type without too many mistakes now)
- WiFi on/off 'App' added (As well as a soft reset)
- Messaging reverted back to Pocket outlook with a few patches
- Lockscreen disabled and just leaves a little unlock button on the bottom (part of Miri's ROM)

Wanted to be fixed with Tweaks:
- Tasks in HTC Sense (and easily viewable)
- Pocket outlook to work with HTC Sense

Overall, it's a bloody great phone, it's stupidly quick and great to look at. As a social phone, like an iPhone, it's not that great, but I already new that. Trouble is, it isn't the perfect professional phone with HTC Sense enabled, it doesn't show the information I want shown. The i780 I used to bag out constantly, I hated the phone.... now I miss it. It did everything I wanted and very rarely did it hang or need a reboot. I'm certain the HD2 will surpass the i780 soon, just not right away.

It's also a new phone and to be honest, it'll excel past an iPhone (in my opinion) once everything catches up with it modding/development wise. It's the first capacitive screen for WinMo and I love it!(Except that Telstra bloatware crap... do they HAVE to do it to EVERY phone?)

Disclaimer: Nothing said is fact, but merely my own opinion.

p.s. The i780 and even my N95 were heavily modified. So is the Mrs' iPhone... I can't help it, it's an addiction!

[r8response]

Does it work inside a dragons stomach?

[Santaria]

Does it work inside a dragons stomach?

The 'torch' feature is how I get around these days...

[Doso]

On the default Euro rom the sms are threaded once you double tap on a sms in Sense, or you go to that contact in the contact list and move over to the sms tab (also the same for emails/call log/facebook stuff)

[nutty]

Hey Santaria,

Won one of these last week, found windows mobile frustrating as shit.. so I ended up putting android onto it.. runs like a dream!

I can hook you up with links if your interested.

[Santaria]

Been running Android since it got ported. It's great except for battery usage and the "blank lockscreen" that happens. I'm actually running Scotmans OzROM 5.00 and running standard Sense with c00kies CHT tweaks etc etc and it's not half bad. The messaging still sucks and gets laggy after 50+ messages start to stack up. There's a tasks app you can have on your homescreen and because I change ROM's so much, it was great to have a half decent default ROM.

I run Android when I'm mucking around on it, but I still can't use it as a main OS due to not being able to be near a charger sometimes. It's down to about 1% drain on standby, but when using it, it can be anything up to 10% in 5mins as the CPU scaling isn't the greatest.

I actually love my HD2 more than when I first bought it. Best phone I've ever had, period. The Mrs likes it more than her iPhone as well. She wants one for her next phone instead of the iPhone 4.

[nutty]

Sweet! im loving mine

Im running ChuckysDroid WM6.5 Rom with that mattc 2.2 build with sense, and your only issues are the same as mine.. tho runing setcpu and advanced task killer I made it all teh way through the day with 30% left

[Doso]

Bit of an update, they have managed to port Android into the NAND memory on the HD2, just running one of the early Gingerbread (Android 2.3) builds and its fucking brilliant!

[nutty]

oh serious! sweeeet! I gave up on mine cause it was just abit random after awhile

[nutty]

Doso, what rom you using?

[Doso]

Doso, what rom you using?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877777" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

that one, only prob is supposedly the GPS isn't working but it seems fine on mine

[Scottie]

I got my HTC Legend in August and love it, but I was hoping that with android 2.3 out so soon after that, I'd be able to upgrade. I haven't found a way to do so though... any ideas?

[Doso]

I got my HTC Legend in August and love it, but I was hoping that with android 2.3 out so soon after that, I'd be able to upgrade. I haven't found a way to do so though... any ideas?

your best bet is having a look at XDA developers website, unfortunately most of the development work is done on a few phones (HD2 for example)

[pixelboy]

and the Desire I've got 2.3 on mine now

[Scottie]

cool, will check it out!

[nutty]

Hey doso, do you know if you upgrade from one build to another if you loose all your settings? heaps of new versons since I put it on my phone

[Santaria]

Hey doso, do you know if you upgrade from one build to another if you loose all your settings? heaps of new versons since I put it on my phone

You can use a mod called Clockwork. You'll lose your settings first, but future versions that use Clockwork will let you keep your settings.

Changed to the Pure 2.3 Gingerbread, and I must say it's quite good.

Also, HD2 now runs Windows Phone 7, but it's very locked down. I went back to Android.

[nutty]

Thanks for the clockwork recommendations, set it up the other day.

Hows everyone battery life with Nand roms? I cant seem to get a day. tho im a heavy user

[Santaria]

Thanks for the clockwork recommendations, set it up the other day.

Hows everyone battery life with Nand roms? I cant seem to get a day. tho im a heavy user

I'm a heavy user as well mate. Can't get a full day on 6.5 or Wp7 either. That's the way it is I guess.

In regards to Android builds: If you get a build that DOESN'T have Cyanogen (or however it's spelt), I seen to get a lot better battery results. I'm using http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=931803 at the moment and it's pretty snappy. Battery is about the same, but wont' know till I use it heavily for a full day.

Tries WP7, it's an acquired taste, and in my opinion, shit. Loved the keyboard/messaging system, but not enough to keep me.

I've been trying out different stock builds in NAND and will keep trying them until all the bugs are ironed out, but the one I linked seems to be the best so far with 1-3ma in standby (much better than most).

[nutty]

Ill try out that rom, using the cyanogen one now so keen to try a non cyanogen one

yet to try win7, not nreally intrested