London - Vodafone, the UK's second largest wireless carrier, has stolen a march over its competitors by selling the much-awaited HTC HD2 smartphone at least two weeks ahead of others.

Vodafone is offering the HD2 for free on 2-year contracts for £35 per month and £40 per month as well as 18-months contracts for £40 per month and £45 per month.

And, with rivals O2 and T-Mobile set to sell mobile HD2 sometime later this month, Vodafone is hoping that the early launch advantage will work in its favour and will enable it to generate huge sales and win many customers.

But what's so great about the HD2£ Why is it the most talked about smartphone£

According to Peter Chou, CEO, HTC, "The HD2 melds the power and flexibility of the Windows platform with the most advanced phone we've ever created."

Yes folks! Unlike other smartphones, the HD2 is being billed as a heavy-duty multimedia phone, whose rich features can make any other smartphone look dumb.

And, that's not surprising because, to begin with, the HD2 is a smartphone with the biggest touchscreen practical - it sports a whopping 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen with 480x800 resolution display (larger than the one featured by its predecessor HTC Touch HD, which itself boasted of a generously-sized display). In other words, things like web browsing or watching YouTube videos are, not surprisingly, more enjoyable on the HD2 than in other smartphones.

The capacitive touchscreen also means that the HD2, like the iPhone 3GS (the latest from the Apple stable), allows you to pinch, flick and swirl your fingers across the screen for intuitive navigation. It also allows you to scroll, zoom in and out and flip through web pages, photos, spreadsheets and more.

The HD2, incidentally, is also the first Windows Mobile-based device to do away with a stylus for navigation and control.

Thanks to the ultra-powerful Qualcomm 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, the HD2 is also road-ready for mobile internet use. This is somewhat welcome news as so many of the latest-generation Windows Mobile-based phones have just 528 MHz chips.

The HD2 also boasts of a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LED flash, which means that the smartphone promises to capture clear and sharp images even in low light conditions.

The smartphone will also have integrated applications that connect directly for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube allowing users to access data more easily.

The HD2, which runs on the latest Windows Mobile 6.5, also promises to deliver "new customer experiences" through an easy-to-use interface (including large 'finger-friendly' icons that make item selection easier than on previous Windows Mobile handsets) and improved web-browsing capabilities.

Other amazing features about the HD2 are HTC Footprints (geo-tagging), Digital Compass and the NaviPanel and thanks to the large display screen of the HD2, maps are clearly visible and you can even replace a conventional GPS system with the HD2 while driving.

Other features of the HD2 include WiFi, GPS, HSUPA, 3G HSDPA, GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, FM radio, HTML (Opera) browser (which promises quick, full-screen browsing with support for multiple pages), virtual touchscreen-based keyboard, G-sensor (like accelerometer in iPhone that senses if you rotate the device and changes the display to match), 448MB internal memory, microSD card slot, support for multiple audio and video formats, proximity sensor (to conserve battery life), ambient light sensor, FM radio, micro-USB connector, built-in stereo speakers and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

The HD2's virtual keyboard, which comes with options for a full Qwerty, a compact Qwerty, or a standard 12-key phone keypad, is also pleasantly responsive and thanks to the predictive entry support, mistakes are ironed out automatically as you type a message.

The battery life of the HD2 is also surprisingly good. The 1230 mAh Li-Ion battery has enough juice to power the phone up to 380 minutes (talk time) and up to 490 hours (standby time). In other words, you'll get a full day of average use from it.

But most, importantly, the HD2 is the first Windows Mobile-based device to come equipped with HTC Sense UI, which makes multitasking possible.

HTC Sense UI, which is based on the principles: "Make it mine," "Stay Close" and "Discover the Unexpected," allows you to create his own environment, to conveniently communicate with contacts through multiple channels, while the innovative features make the difference between local phone and online disappear. HTC Sense slightly resembles the TouchFlo which we have seen on other models, but HTC Sense, which lets you create personal widgets and screens for your own personalization and is capable of multitasking, takes things just that little bit further.

"At HTC we believe that the best things in life should be experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is based on this principal by making the phone more simple and natural to use and by enabling people to personalise their mobile experience in their own unique way. And, the HD2 brings the HTC Sense UI to Windows Mobile," said HTC's Chou.

No wonder, the HD2's being touted as an iPhone killer but whether or not it can usurp the iPhone's title as the most coveted smartphone ever made, is another story.