The HTC Titan II is the manufacturer's latest flagship Windows Phone on AT&T, and while it may arguably have the best hardware among Windows Phones, it's overshadowed by the Nokia Lumia 900 that launched on the same day. For those of you who are willing to look beyond the Lumia 900, and don't mind spending a bit more up front, the Titan II might just have a perfect storm of features: an impressive 4.7" Super LCD display, LTE 4G and a 16 megapixel camera with backside illuminated sensor. That's right: 16MP in a US camera phone. And yes, it takes awesome photos.
Much of Windows Phone 7.5 specs are written in stone thanks to Microsoft's requirements. The phone runs on a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S2 single core CPU, it has 512 megs of RAM, 16 gigs of storage and an 800 x 480 capacitive display. The CPU type, RAM and resolution are MS requirements. Manufacturers can use the cameras, display size and storage allotment of their choosing. The Titan II has a front 1.3MP video chat camera that works with Tango and Skype Beta for video calls and it has the usual WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and a GPS that works with Bing Maps and AT&T Navigator.
Design and Ergonomics: Unibody Elegance
The 6.2 ounce Titan II has HTC's popular and proven unibody design. It looks elegant, classy, understated and it has a little flair--a curved chin and curved glass. The phone's casing is mostly aluminum, with plastic over the antenna area. There are no creaks here, no ugly seams and the back has a rubbery soft touch feel though it looks like metal. The gray metallic color changes as you move the phone, and a small door at the bottom has a stippled texture to improve grip. That door covers the full size SIM card slot; there's no access to the 1730 mAh battery and like most Windows Phones, it has no microSD card slot.
Despite the huge 4.7" display, the Titan II is barely bigger than the 4.3" Nokia Lumia 900 and it weighs about the same. It's actually lighter than the original Titan. We're impressed with HTC's design skills: somehow they managed to make a 4.7" phone that's close to the size of the Lumia 900 and 4.5" Samsung Galaxy Skyrocket.
The headphone jack and power button are up top and the micro USB sync/charge port is on the left side. The volume controls and dedicated camera button are on the right. The controls work well, as do the capacitive front buttons. Despite its size, the phone feels good in my admittedly large hand, and I appreciate the curved and tapered sides that make it more palm-friendly. The grippy back is another plus.
Calling and Fast LTE 4G Data
Call quality wasn't tops with the first Titan, released at the end of 2011. We're happy to report that the Titan II has very good call quality for both incoming and outgoing voice, and reception that's comparable to the very good Lumia 900. Incoming voice volume is average while outgoing voice is very loud (speak softly!). The phone has LTE 4G on AT&T, and it falls back to AT&T's also zippy HSPA+ 21Mbps network that the carrier also calls 4G (technically it's part of the 3G standard, but carriers play loose and fast with that 4G label).
We're in an LTE coverage area and speeds are impressive and every bit as good as our LTE Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and a tad faster than the Nokia. We averaged 19 Mbps down and 5.8Mbps up according to the "Bandwidth" test app available on the Windows Phone Marketplace. The smartphone has the mobile hotspot feature so you can use it as a wireless high speed access point for your laptop or tablet. This feature is included with AT&T's 5 gig, $50/month data plan.
