The HTC HD2 began its life unassumingly enough back in 2009 as a simple Windows Phone 6.5-powered smartphone. We highly doubt HTC knew of the legacy the phone would end up carrying. As most of you probably know, we’re talking about how dev-friendly and dev-embraced the phone has been over the years, finding various ports of Unix, modern versions of Windows Phone up to 8, Firefox OS, and of course Android.
Over the years, the HTC HD2 has seen Android 2.1, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, and now Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
The HD2 might be the greatest phone of all time.
Hidden behind the countless headlines of new OS versions being installed on the HD2 is the fact that the majority of them are not actually usable. There’s a huge difference between installing an OS well enough to take screenshots vs. actually using it as a smartphone. Once these screenshots and headlines are made, development often stops shortly after (edit: its debatable if this even qualifies as “development”)
Sure, it’s interesting, but the greatest? Pfft–please, get a grip and some perspective. These posts are the digital equivalent to a child hammering a square peg into a round hole.
Edited 2015-12-04 23:27 UTC
I have to agree. HD2 is an awesome device but probably a bit to old to be jack of all trades.
On the other hand, nexus 4 is an unsung hero, being able to run androids, firefox os, sailfish, ubuntu mobile, luneos etc. Too bad plasma mobile team doesn’t support it and it would be my ultimate deice if it ran win phone.
Although, you got to give it props for being ahead of its time with regards to screen size. Where it would be considered a midsize phone today it was unapologetically huge when it first appeared.
Edited 2015-12-04 23:37 UTC
The Nexus 4 is a great phone for developers, sure. But its hardware bugs make it too unstable for a daily driver. I know, because I used it for nearly a year, then my wife used it for another year after that. Its biggest flaw is the audio randomly cutting out, no matter which OS or which version of that OS is installed. It also seems to freeze at least once every couple of days. The audio issue wasn’t so bad, since neither of us talk on the phone much. But Murphy’s Law would inevitably rear its head and the few times either of us needed to make a call, we couldn’t.
I would chalk it up to getting a bad unit, except there are tons of forum posts about both issues.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/314920-nexus-4-no-s…
http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/55359/nexus-4-speaker-no…
https://jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-5728
http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/270434-no-sound-ear…
http://www.googlenexusforum.com/forum/nexus-audio/7284-no-audio-all…
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/4C0ynidQBS8
http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/60814/how-can-i-determin…
http://www.usoftsmartphone.com/t64425.html
Never had such issues with mine. Its ultimate undoing was its ‘premium’ glass build, which shattered after a 2 foot drop. Otherwise, it was very stable for me. I guess either I got lucky, or some people just got lemons.
Conversely, I never had the glass (front or back) shatter, even though it’s been dropped many times.
As for the bugs, you got lucky. Soon after I got mine, I sent it back for warranty replacement due to the audio issue. I ended up with a new replacement (verified by serial number so I know I didn’t get the same one back “fixed”) and it had both the audio issue and the new-to-me random freeze issue. Both issues persist throughout all available Android versions, Firefox OS, and Ubuntu Touch/Ubuntu Phone. This makes it clear it’s a hardware/firmware issue, and five minutes of Google searches will confirm that. It’s a widespread and well known, but never solved, issue. Google and LG certainly don’t give a shit.
Our N4 is sitting in a drawer now, serving as a ready-to-go backup to my wife’s current Blu phone. I’m tempted to get it out and play with other OSes on it again just for fun.
Something you may or may not know; the N4 has an LTE modem that is disabled in firmware. You can enable it with a special kernel build and custom modem firmware. I never tried it myself but I’ve read that it works fairly well with certain carriers.
I knew about the LTE mode, but thought it only worked on T-Mo, or some such. (I was on AT&T.)
Yeah, I wonder how many of these operating systems/versions were in a usable state? IMO, if you can’t run it as your daily driver, it doesn’t count