John Herrman at Gizmodo has released an overview of the HTC HD2. Needless to say he loved the hardware, but deeply hated the Windows Mobile software, even obscured as it is by HTC’s Sense GUI.

Despite the fact that to a great degree the review is used to once again make WinMo into Gizmodo’s personal software piñata (truly, the Gizmodo editors hate WinMo like it killed their dog), it makes several goodpoints about the physical features of the device, and Herrman really doesn’t even seem to mind the software overly much, in practice. The fact that it is Windows Mobile just seems to eat at him like a tick. One gets the clear feeling that if he just didn’t know it was Windows Mobile underneath the gloss, he would have actually liked the GUI.

In this review, Herrman’s hatred of WinMo is so overpowering he doesn’t even give reasons, just keeps repeating that the “tragic” part of the phone is that it runs Windows Mobile, end stop. He is actually taking a lot of flak for his bias in the comments, he was THAT over the top about it.

The review wasn’t ALL bile however. Regarding the power of the Snapdragon CPU which everyone was expecting to be such a highpoint of the device, Herrman says it doesn’t disappoint…

One of the benefits of Windows Mobile not having changed much in the last few years is that it’s easy to compare new hardware to old, and let’s be clear about the HD2: It’s unbelievably fast. Applications open almost instantly and close without the slightest hesitation, and over Wi-Fi, web pages render in Opera Mobile as if you’re browsing on a laptop, not a cellphone. (And hell, if you put your face close enough to this ridiculous screen, it’s easy to forget you’re not.)

But about that OS?

Every time you notice the absurd lengths to which HTC has gone to deny this phone is running Windows—they’ve even replaced the calendar and text messaging apps, for god’s sake—you find yourself asking the same question: Why even bother?

Of course I could list lots of reasons to bother…but opinions are opinion and biased reviews are just that. The undeniable fact we could likely agree on is that this seems to be one fantastic phone.

See the entire review HERE.

Zealot (468 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).