Smartphone Wars: Nokia N900 versus HTC HD2 versus Motorola Droid (4)

For instance, the biggest drawback of the HD2 is simply its OS - Windows Mobile 6.5 browser.

Windows Mobile 6.5 has no "real" multitouch feature and one still needs to use a stylus for certain application, such as Windows Media Player. This is rather, unfortunate, considering that Windows Mobile 6.5 release was meant to be a move-away from the use of the stylus and toward more touch-friendly icons and buttons.

In fact, there isn't really much more to Windows Mobile 6.5. It's really just the same old Windows Mobile 6.1 with a smoother interface, touch-based navigation and some updated programs. Perhaps that's why Steve Ballmer recently referred to the OS as a "stop-gap."

Other letdowns are:

* The HD2's video recording capability is poor compared to its peers (video capture in the HD2 comes in at 640x480 and seems to hold a regular 25fps);

* Another drawback of the HD2 is that it lacks a front facing camera, so no 3G video calls. And, though the 5-megapixel camera around the back performs well, yet it does suffer from some shutter lag and though the dual LED flash promises to keep indoor shutterbugs happy and ISO runs up to 800, it is accompanied with noticeable noise.

* The HD2 also has a slightly laggy multi-touch browsing feature and the lag is especially noticeable when the accelerometer doesn't work right away when browsing the Internet.

* Unlike other smartphones, the HD2 hogs a lot of memory and some lag time can be noticed when opening and switching applications;

* Furthermore, the internal memory of the HD2 seems slightly lacking as at 512MB, you will pretty much find yourself running low on space soon enough. Which is unfortunate as considering that the HD2 is being billed as a heavy-duty multimedia phone thanks to its large screen, it hardly has sufficient space for storing media files, particularly videos. Of course, you could buy a high capacity SD card for the SD card slot, but you will still want your other files and map data stored internally on the device.

On the other hand, the N900 boasts of a 32GB internal storage while the Droid ships with a 16GB microSD card.