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HTC has been pushing the boat out with its recent smartphones, but its HD2 is a knock-out. While everyone has their personal preferences and little fads, it would take an Orc-like perspective on the world not to be impressed by the display that fronts its feature-rich core.

Thirteen years of working with Microsoft has certainly paid off. Essentially, the HD2 is a big screen in your pocket: 4.3 inches (diagonal) of high-resolution touch cinema, yet housed in an amazingly skinny shell. It is the world’s first capacitive touch technology to run under Windows: Windows Mobile 6.5 to be precise.

Just to be clear, capacitive is the name for a technology made famous on Apple’s iPhone. It relies on the electrical properties of the human body to detect when and where on the display you are touching. This means you can be as delicate as you like, but it generally doesn’t work effectively or at all with a stylus or wearing gloves.

Also for the first time in Windows, HTC has allied the touchscreen with its HTC Sense concept: customising the HD2 with favourite apps on the home screen, one-touch contacts, easy flipping from email to call and, should the need arise, setting up a conference call. Whether it matches your expectations of a “holistic” experience as described by HTC, it is undoubtedly impressive and user-friendly, with a logical layout and many one-touch operations to watch, browse and flip through your stuff.

It weighs in at 157g - heavy even for a top-of-the-range PDA/ smartphone - but somehow, because it is so thin, the heft of the HD2 enhances its attraction: it lets you know its there and gives you something to press against.

The sheer clarity and definition of the display is remarkable and for those of us no longer able to spot a gnat on a fencepost half a mile away, it makes Web page and document viewing not only feasible, but pleasurable. Navigation is slick, straightforward and easy to control; viewing is crisp and rich, whether or not it actually conforms to high definition in the strictest sense.

Once experienced, Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir’s culinary and sensory experience puts most eateries in the shade. In similar fashion, the HD2’s sumptuous visual experience makes it hard to return to a smaller, less striking display.

HDC has raised the bar for smartphones and with the likes of Motorola and its Android-based Milestone also emerging, 2010 should see some amazing devices on the streets going head-to-head.

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