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Paul Miller at Engadget raises a good point for many HD2 owning hopefuls: that the amazing new Windows Phone 7 Series will be making it to the Snapdragon powered HTC smart phone.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has just declared that the HD2 will never have an update to Windows Phone 7. Despite the fact that an update has the potential to boost the sales of the already available HD2, allowing the device to be compatible with the new OS would potentially lead to a loss of sales for the new batch of WP7 mobile phones that are expected to be launched within this year.

HTC was among the first to announce that they will be working on their own WP7 device and are expecting to have it ready by the end of the year. If the HD2 will get WP7, it could very well threaten the sales of the newer HTC device.

Hardware-wise, the HD2 is an impressive smart phone, provided that the Snapdragon is more than enough for the new OS. Despite the fact that 1GHz of processing power is already good for current standards, the new Windows mobile platform features so many dynamic elements and animations that it actually makes the Android and the iPhone OS look like bland interfaces. Another interesting point is that the new OS will be incorporating the Xbox Live Games service, which means that the new game apps might be pushing the HD2’s capabilities.

Even if the hardware on the HD2 could run the new OS, there is also the fact that the 7 series is a completely new operating system. Sadly, WinMo 6.5 will never have an update to WP7. Instead, a phone would have to be completely wiped or formatted (including the HTC Sense UI) in order to install the new mobile platform. This cannot be done with just a simple downloadable patch.

Head over to Engadget to read Paul Miller’s article.

HTC Desire

For users considering buying a Google Nexus, or those who are jealous of a friend that already owns a Nexus, good news is at hand: HTC has unveiled a new handset that overtakes the Nexus and some wags have even referred to the new HTC device as the Nexus Two. The new phone which had originally been pencilled as the HTC Bravo has been unveiled with the name HTC Desire and is set to both impress and enthral tech junkies and casual users alike.

With such similar specifications to Google’s Nexus One the questions circling around for many people were ‘what extra will you get from the HTC Desire that you don’t get from the Nexus?’, ‘Will it be worth it when it eventually arrives in shops?’, and ‘Is the extra wait of a couple of months going to be worthwhile?’ Fortunately, tech journalists and reviewers got a taste of the new HTC Desire at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to help provide some greater insight into what the Desire has to offer as well as get some hands-on experience with the new model.

Google Nexus One

On first impressions the HTC Desire appears to be almost the spitting image of the Nexus One, with an almost identical 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED screen as well as similar rounded curves and the top-positioned power button. The Desire’s internal specifications are also very similar to those found in the Nexus, featuring as it does the same 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor allowing for ultra-rapid applications and browsing as well as a microSD slot for performing memory capacity upgrades. GPS and AGPS functions and 512MB of flash memory as well as 256MB of RAM help round off some of the device’s other key features, though one other big plus for many users is the device’s integral compass which can be readily and easily used along with the various different augmented reality applications found on the phone.

The Desire is also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HSDPA ready, as you might expect from a high end smartphone. It also comes complete with a 5-megapixel camera, which is a decent spec, and features a useful LED flash – great for those low-lighting snaps. The camera is even capable of capturing 800×480 video and can be accessed via the feature shortcuts which can be found on the home, menu, back and search options.

So, to one of the principle questions: What actually is the difference between the Desire and the Nexus?

HTC Desire

The first point to mention here is that Google’s device scores points for its active voice cancellation, and the user cannot use voice recognition to text on the Desire. This， however, is just one (not especially major) point, and HTC’s Desire has trimmed and improved upon some of the features found on Google’s device to make this slight drawback seem un-noteworthy. For example, the Desire has done away with the front-positioned mechanical trackball and the on-screen touch-sensitive button and has replaced them with actual shortcut keys. There is also an optical navigation button on the Desire, which works much more precisely than other hardware-based alternatives.

HTC have clearly sensed the way the wind is blowing in the market in replacing the trackball, and it is a decision that Blackberry themselves have also taken. There have long been concerns that trackballs are apt to fail and break which can atrophy possible phone usage – not something a user on an 18-month contract want s to happen. The Desire, however, provides the user with such great touch response from the on-screen display that users might never actually use the navigation button at all.

HTC Desire

The Desire’s handset also features HTC Sense UI, the same as is found on their Hero handset, although it has been improved to suit the Desire’s design in particular. It is faster on the Desire, for instance, and with extra added contract features it blows the Nexus One out of the water. Sense also features what is known as a helicopter view, and it operates in much the same way as Expose does on the Mac. The user simply pinches the home screen in order to display all home screen pages currently running and can then simply tap in order to go to the desired program or pinch back out again as needed as multi-touch is fully supported.

The inclusion of Flash Lite 4 also allows the user to view videos straight out of the box (a feature still not offered by the much-celebrated iPhone) and you can also select text on-screen and get it instantly translated or look it up on Wikipedia – two great little bonuses for those dealing with large amounts of information regularly. Along with the ultra-fast Android 2.1 operating system the Desire is completely user-friendly, and runs at a great lick.

HTC is pretty much a big name mobile phone manufacturer these days. The Taiwanese company has been busy with Google’s Android operating system and is also expected to be coming up with new Windows Phone 7 device.

They were part of the Mobile World Congress this February at Barcelona, Spain. They showed off the HTC Desire and the HTC Legend. The two Android devices have been expected to arrive by March so it was not surprising to see them being readied, though it was a bit of a news that the Desire got a name change (it was originally the Bravo).

The Desire runs on a Snapdragon processor clocked at 1GHz. It uses a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen and a 5 mega pixel camera with 720p D1 video recording capability. It is considered to be the basis for the Nexus One. The Legend on the other hand is a successor to the Hero with its 600 MHz processor, 3.2 inch AMOLED touch screen and 5 mega pixel camera. One new device at the MWC is the HTC HD Mini which features the new Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Maldives operating system.

Aside from the devices shown at the MWC, HTC has also a couple of new smart phones coming later this 2010. The first is the HTC Scorpion that is expected to arrive sometime later this year as a high end competitor in the Android market. The HTC Incredible on the other hand boasts specs closer to the Desire.

It will also have a 3.7 inch touch screen, a 1 GHz Snapdragon and a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash. The Incredible is currently a Verizon exclusive for now, though we would not be surprised if it gets a new name and is brought over to the UK soon.

Get to know more about the HTC Incredible at Tech Radar.

When you have four new products coming out, it is not surprising that the marketing budget will be pretty large.

HTC just reported that it will be having its largest marketing spend, ever. The HTC Desire, Legend, HD Mini and Smart are going to be coming out around March which means that plenty of money will be allocated into marketing the devices.

The Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, Spain has already brought those four mobile devices to our attention, but with the commercial release of the phones coming up, it is not surprising that HTC wants the rest of the world to know. The Taiwanese company has a pretty good reputation when it comes to the reliability and efficiency of their mobile devices, and a big marketing spend is just the thing they need to get the word out.

Anyway, for those of you who missed out on what the four new phones are, here’s a quick recap of the HTC devices:

The whole lineup is lead by the HTC Desire. This phone was originally known as the HTC Bravo and just got a name change when the device was shown off at the MWC. Specs wise, the phone has kept the same specs when it was first announced. It runs at a speed of 1GHz thanks to the Snapdragon CPU, perfect for handling heavy apps. The 5 mega pixel camera comes with D1 video quality recording and the 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen gives accurate controls and clear graphics.

The HTC Legend is the sequel to the Hero (which makes it famous) and will have a 600 MHz Qualcomm CPU. The HTC HD Mini is a WinMo 6.5.3 Maldives device while the HTC Smart is an “entry level” smart phone that is exclusive to O2 Mobile.

Read more about the HTC marketing spend at Mobile Today UK.

Technology is always on the move with today’s innovations becoming tomorrow’s standards.

While it is hard to actually predict what the industry trends will be, there are some aspects which pretty much speak for themselves. Such is the case with processor technology. While the whole CPU versus GPU argument is still up in the air, there is no mistaking the fact that faster speeds will always be better.

The Snapdragon processor pretty much turned the benchmark for smart phone CPUs up to 1GHz. Despite other devices sitting comfortably in the 600 MHz zone, the jump to 1GHz practically bypassed devices at lower 700 to 800 MHz speeds. Most of today’s best devices use a 1GHz processor; the HTC Bravo, Nexus One, HTC HD2, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 and other phones all rely on the Snapdragon.

Recently, it was announced that a new dual core Snapdragon processor would be coming; shortly after, it was announced that the upcoming Apple iPhone 4G would be equipped with its own high speed processor (some reports say a dual core A4 hybrid, others simply say that it will be 1.6GHz –who comes up with these numbers anyway?). In any case, it is obvious that the next generation of smart phone will have more powerful processors.

HTC is getting ready to strike early with their very own high speed Android smart phone, the HTC Scorpion. The device is rumored to support WiMax, 4G, a new never before seen Android 2.2 version and an incredibly fast 1.5 GHz processor –pretty close to the new Intel Atom running at 1.6 GHz.

The next few months are bound to be exciting. With Apple’s upcoming announcement for the iPhone 4G, it looks like HTC has cooked up the perfect competitor.

Read more about the new 1.5GHz processor on the Scorpion and more at Tech Radar.

It was estimated that over 20 Android devices will be launched this year, and at the rate HTC is going, it looks like the Taiwan based mobile phone manufacturer will be making plenty of these Android gadgets.

HTC is the manufacturing company behind the Google Phone, Nexus One. They have been working closely with Google and the Android operating system. They have been the first to come out with an Android device so it makes perfect sense that they also made the first Google phone.

Of course, HTC has its own Android projects. The HTC Bravo which probably served as a big inspiration of the Nexus One has been confirmed to be launching around March of this year. The Bravo is not the only HTC Android phone coming out, next in line is the HTC Legend.

The Legend has been referred to as the next Hero phone, or the Hero 2. The device first appeared with the Bravo in the leaked HTC 2010 roadmap. There are a total of eight devices in that list; five Android smart phones and three Windows Mobile devices. The WinMo phones were named Photon, Trophy and Tera.

The devices were meant to be using WinMo 6.5 reskinned with the HTC TouchFlo user interface. With a newer WinMo 6.5.3 version coming, it is likely that the production of that has been delayed for a while. The Android phones on the other hand, seem to be in production. While no word about the Salsa, Tide and Buzz have been released; the Bravo and the Legend are well on their way to store shelves.

The Legend will come with a 3.2 inch AMOLED touch screen, a 5 mega pixel camera and a 600Mhz Qualcomm CPU. No word has been given on the Legend’s release date.

Get more info about the HTC Legend from the source.

HTC Bravo

In more ways than one, the HTC Bravo and the Google Nexus One have been closely related devices. Aside from the fact that HTC manufactured both devices (though the Nexus was Google branded), they are similar to each other in terms of specs and form. In December, when there were plenty of news and rumors about the Nexus One, some people even mistook the two devices as one.

The Nexus One was unveiled and released early this January at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California where it was revealed that the device would be exclusively sold through the Google online store. While this may have been a bad move for Google (they only managed to sell 20,000 units in the first week of sales), this was beneficial to many other mobile phone manufacturers who were also working on Android devices.

Google Nexus One

Still, many people want the Nexus One. In the UK, the only way to get the Snapdragon powered Android smart phone is to order the device online with an additional cost of 30 Pounds for the shipping and the UK adapter. No, it looks like HTC is going to deliver a cheaper and equally impressive alternative, the HTC Bravo.

The reason why people mistook the Bravo for the Google phone was because the two devices are similar in specs. The Bravo comes with a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen and a 5 megapixel camera –just like the Google phone. But unique to the Bravo is the ability to record videos in 720p HD quality. It has also been reported that the HTC will be available locally in the UK and that the device will have a much lower price than the Nexus One.

Want more info? Details about the HTC Bravo are available at the Guardian UK.

The standard 1230 mAh battery on the HTC HD2 does a very good job at keeping the phone running for over a day’s worth of heavy usage. Still, the capacity may not be enough for those times when you have no access to a wall outlet or a car charger.

In these cases, it makes perfect sense to be bringing a spare battery along, or simply have one that is built with lots of energy. The 2300 mAh extended use battery for the smart phone certainly looks the part, it is huge. HTC has yet to announce the exact number of usage hours the new battery will deliver, but we certainly expect to be able to go for several days without charging on this device.

On a side note, HTC has decided to add a little extra feature on the back of the new battery –a small flip open kick stand which will enable you to place the device on a table for viewing your videos (you no longer have to hold the device when you are watching a video).

For those who are wondering why this little WinMo smart phone has been so successful, the secret lies in the use of the HTC Sense user interface as a workaround to using the user interface of Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile 6.5 and its earlier versions have been criticized for the difficulty of use due to the fact that it was made for resistive touch screens and the use of a stylus. With many touch screen users used to capacitive screens, WinMo is awkward to handle.

Aside from the HTC Sense UI, the HD2 also comes with a Snapdragon processor running at 1GHz and a large 4 inch capacitive touch screen.

Get the rest of the info regarding the new battery for the HD2 on GSM Arena.

For the past few weeks, it seems like people in the United States are getting some better deals. Not only were they the first to get Android 2.0 through the Motorola DROID (though the Milestone did eventually follow after a few weeks), they also go an upgraded version of the HTC HD2. Or so we thought.

The HTC HD2 is one very well known device for it is one of those few Windows Mobile phones that are actually worth owning. It all starts with the hardware; the device comes with a 4.3 inch touch screen with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels and can display 65 thousand colors. It also has a Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon processor running at 1GHz. The built in 5 mega pixel camera comes with auto focus, LED flash, and geo-tagging –and it will also take VGA videos at 30 frames per second. Best of all, the WinMo user interface does not pose a hindrance thanks to the HTC Sense UI which allows the device to use a capacitive touch screen.

And apparently, T-Mobile USA got 576MB of RAM over the standard 448MB of RAM available.

In truth, all HTC HD2 units actually have 576MB of RAM. A recent custom ROM from XDA developers will allow users to unlock the extra hardware. While this does void warranty, it proves that all the HD2 units were made equal. As to why this specification was hidden remains to be explained.

Aside from the RAM, it has also been known that the GPS and FM functions of the HD2 have to be enabled through unconventional methods as the hardware is present but is inaccessible when used straight from the box.

To get more details on the hidden functions of the HTC HD2, the extra RAM and links to XDA, go straight to GSM Arena.

Looks like HTC is spawning plenty of mobile phones. Between confirmed leaks and rumoured devices, it seems like there is one new HTC phone being reported almost each week now. Photos of HTC’s Bravo and Supersonic phones popped up just a while back and it looks like the Taiwanese manufacturer is about to spring two impressive mobile phones soon (at the very least, the images are authentic, unlike the fake images of the supposed HTC Obsession).

The HTC Bravo has already been revealed late last year when the HTC 2010 roadmap got leaked. The document contained 8 mobile phones (5 Android phones and 3 Windows Mobile devices) with the HTC Bravo sporting the highest specs in the list. So far, it has already been confirmed that the Bravo will be getting a launch this March (so expect to see the Bravo and the XPERIA X10 to go head to head).

Specs wise, the Bravo and the Google phone Nexus One resemble each other. Both devices have large AMOLED capacitive touch screens, both run on 1GHz Snapdragon processors and the two devices have 5 mega pixel cameras. The two phones resemble each other physically too, and at some point last December, some assumed that the Bravo would be the Google phone. Anyway, the Bravo takes the specs a little bit higher from the Nexus One with its ability to record videos in 720p HD format.

The HTC Supersonic on the other hand will be the very first WiMax Android phone to be released. At close view, the Supersonic sports a very nice touch screen display and four buttons along the bottom of the screen. Both devices are expected to appear on the floor of the upcoming MWC next month.

Want to read more on the new HTC phones? – Head to Softpedia for all the details.