HTC HD2 is one of the latest devices on WM

The HTC HD2 (also known as the HTC Leo) is well-known among readers for its many personalization options, such as the ports of Android, Windows Phone (which was based on Windows CE, exactly like Windows Mobile), and Ubuntu. However, in 2009, what capabilities did the device's native WM offer? Were there significant differences from today? It will be revealed today.

HTC HD2

For a long time, I have been touching the HD2's handles, thinking about placing an order at a single flea market for 500 rubles. The gadget may be ancient, but it still has a lot of useful capabilities, and the idea of using two systems at once was amusing. It was very neat when I was a kid (around seven or eight years ago).

Finally, my reader arrived and said they had up to three gadgets they could give away. To be clear, this is the second, and the third will be shown closer to the new year (batteries are just on order, but I don't want to collective farm it). It all started with the Samsung SGH i750:

The HD2 is up next. Another flaw is that there is no volume button and an extra strip above the screen. To hell with it! Let the broken one sit "in reserve," since replacing the display only costs 150 rubles if you know where to search.

However, I will be placing an order shortly for a large quantity of replacement components for many devices at once (spoiler: there will be reviews of an x86 flagship smartphone, a tablet laptop for 3,000 rubles, and a cheap fly from that era) (no money so far). If the reader is unfamiliar with the process, a separate article explaining it (in the form of a brief remark) will be included. The gadget arrived in its own packaging, which was a nice touch. Excellent news.

Everything else about this gadget works well and never needs fixing. However, it is essential to demonstrate what the smartphone legend of 2009 is, since its "successors" can only be called Nexus's (I looked purposely in the area - I did not find it at all), to which they also transferred many things.

I haven't been keeping up with the Google device modding community for very long, but I really doubt that the pixels are being continually tweaked as they were on nexuses.

HD2 was a massive "shovel" by itself compared to other technologies of the time. It was visible from every angle, even on the box itself. It was a salute to mobile Windows with its huge high-quality display, capacitive touchscreen (if I'm not incorrect, HD2 and HD Mini, which came out a year later), and as many as 4 hard buttons. The "final" WM supplied by the manufacturer was WM6.5, which was essentially Win7 (and the designs are very similar). From WM6 to WP7, WM6.5 has evolved into a bridge.

The 2007-era Qualcomm QSD8250 processor served as the device's brains. The Adreno 200 GPU (acquired by Qualcomm ATI Imageon) kept things moving along at 1 GHz. The name Adreno is a play on the word Radeon. For a Windows Mobile device, the gadget's maximum RAM of 512 MB was quite impressive. 

With moderate WM demands and generally modest RAM use by apps (the Explorer consumed 100kb of RAM, for example). Even if it is obvious that icons and other graphical resources are saved in the GWES visual server process, this is nevertheless a successful implementation of multitasking on mobile devices.

Similar to previous HTC smartphones, this one uses the HTC Sense shell (for example, in the legendary Desire, Wildfire). Here's an Android 2.3 screenshot of Sense:

I decided to use the HTC Sense launcher on my Fly Era Nano 4 since I like it so much. Compatible with HTC Sense, the HTC Hero

The original TouchWiz was available on the Samsung Omnia:

Additionally, it was amoled. There's no doubt that it seemed refreshing and juicy back then.

HTC also released the TouchFlo (a forerunner to the Sense):

HD2 has an early implementation of this user interface. Their user interface is predicated on the idea that the launcher between the tabs is a one-stop shop for all of your needs (as far as I remember, the omnia had a similar principle).

He used Android's covert notification shade (to which, however, he made little alterations):

Also, WM6.5's chic honeycomb-shaped menu.

Not to mention, WM6.5's chic honeycomb-shaped menu.

As opposed to how things work today (click a button, and the task manager pops up), users had to find their own way to the system's menu and launch programmes (or install a widget that displayed running ones in the statusbar - this way you could switch between windows just like in the desktop Windows). 

There are no button clicks or swipes, making the system seem foreign to anybody coming from an Android or iOS background. However, after you've adjusted, you'll find that everything works just fine. However, not all of the system has been modified for finger use.

All connections are working properly. Mail from Yandex's pop server was automatically imported by the app's built-in email client. That's right, the primary inlet is spot on.

As I said before, the interface is based on the idea of tabs. Here's a music player; all it takes is a swipe. I have tried music in my high-impedance ears, and the quality of the sound is rather good (and this is even before buying Beats Audio). The Galaxy Y Pro, Xperia U, and the Chinese console powered by the GP chipset are the other three gadgets that provide respectable audio quality to the ears.

Multimedia

The player is nice on the eyes, and it even offers equalisation settings, but it still can't compete with Windows Media (not at all adapted to the finger).

This is Windows Media, by the way:

To grind 480p h264 video, such as a drive trailer, is not an issue since the chipset contains a hardware video decoder. It would be cool if there was another HDMI and it would be stylish in overall. If you wish to move your media collection throughout the network, DLNA isn't adequate but an FTP server may be installed on the gadget.

And in what role?

As a GPU-equipped Windows Mobile device, gaming options are available. Also, Adreno has several that no one else on this system has. At any rate, there are a good number of games, albeit not quite enough, given the availability of emulators and support for J2ME games (of which there are many under the touchscreen). Nonetheless, there was a catch:

Both D3D Mobile and OpenGLES were available as GAPIs for WM. While D3DM didn't make an appearance till WM5 was released, ES arrived before. It was HTC's decision to forego including a standard d3d driver in HD2's development. My current project is an essay for WM about developing 3D video games. On HD2, the frame rate was one every two to three seconds. The game was being rendered using the reference renderer, not the hardware renderer. I also attempted to install the d3d driver for the ati imageon, which was a wrapper for GLES but didn't work for some reason. Next, I put in an Intel PXA software renderer, which did the trick and did it really swiftly (for such a processor and screen resolution).

To illustrate (Intel's softrender uses the Game API; that is, it bypasses the OS and writes straight to the framebuffer), here is a screenshot:

Mini-game that was originally designed to educate people how to utilise a gyroscope has now been converted to Android.

However, this is only a demonstration. What about a hefty and substantial item? So it went! For instance, NFS Shift port on iOS and Android:

The Sims 3 is doing averagely. According to the forum, the Android version may be used to replace resources as the game runs well on that platform. This version of the game is more like the j2me one than the desktop one, although both are enjoyable distractions from work.

Those 60fps really exist, therefore we're playing NFS: Undercover. However, it is made for computers without a graphics processing unit (GPU) as well:

Integration of Networking, Synchronization, and Direction Finding

And what about synchronisation? This phone has built-in vCard functionality (but one contact per file, so vcf from Android will have to be split into several special utilities). ActiveSync (or WMDC if you're using Windows 7 or later) also has built-in support for syncing many kinds of data, including messages, contacts, files, media, etc. If you'd like to sync wirelessly, Bluetooth is an option.

Syncing services, such as iCloud and Microsoft's MyPhone, used to exist but now do not.

Google Maps is pre-installed on the phone and is fully functional, thus locations other than streets may be seen. Smartly implemented, yet lacking in navigation features. You can get a Navitel licence from a Russian HD2 communication salon, and w3bsit3-dns.com is a good resource for installing maps. After that, navigating will be possible.

Moreover, the selection of couriers is a timeless one. Communicating through Jabber, VK (via JBed), or telegram (via JBed or a browser wrapper, namely a wrapper and not web.telegram.org).

There aren't many browsers to choose from, only the basic Pocket IE and Opera Mini. Opea Mini runs moderately hefty websites pleasantly and without putting any stress on the device. Although slow and cumbersome, the donkey can bypass certificate issues and automatically load desktop versions of websites (changes in the settings)

Is it feasible for a contemporary individual to use this device?

In a word, yes. Not only as a phone dialer, however. This is precisely how I ask the question of what the device's modern applications may be in the pieces I write. Also, while Bada 1.0 phones are limited to voice calls, music playback, and Java games, Windows Mobile communicators can provide nearly the same functionality as Android phones (well, in the case of HD2 - Android itself:) 

In addition, android ports is on HTC Gene and Axim X51V, which is what I immediately remembered). That being said, allow me to provide my viewpoint. My guess is that you're not that creative.

Conclusion

HTC made an effort to occupy four different platforms at once by developing for Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, Qualcomm's BREW, and Google's Android. What they set out to do in 2009 they accomplished magnificently, as HD2 quickly rose to prominence as a famous gadget.

He achieved this level of fame because to the adaptability of the OS, which can be installed on a USB stick and booted into Windows (haret), flashed into NAND, or started from a customised bootloader.

So although this gadget was quite useful in 2014, it is progressively becoming obsolete in 2015. Any collection worth its salt has to have such a gadget on display. This gadget, however, is really useful to me first and foremost because of its compatibility with mobile Windows. I had a crush on her when I was younger, and now seems like a good moment to reconnect.

Finally, I'd want to thank the reader who contributed this to me, but who asked that their identity not be revealed. Nice work, ;)