HTC Desire

db

#chaplife
gk's help in the android thread has made me realise what a great platform it is, and you can all now consider me a convert.. i was dead set on getting an iphone in the summer, but now i reckon i'm gonna get an HTC Desire..

anyone used one? i'd welcome opinions :)
 

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
MSE and HUKD both have threads as long as your arm on this phone... many people saying they have traded their 3GS in to get a desire and then raving about how great it is.

I talked the missus into getting one so should hopefully have it by next weekend.

The one thing that let the Hero down was it isn't really fast enough to handle everything Android throws at it. The Desire gets around this with the 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

When the price comes down a bit I will sell my Hero to get one.
 

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
Here you go matey, a weekends light reading:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/642362/htc-desire-owners-thread-impression

Including this post from the guy who started the thread on there:

Review - 2 weeks on.

Since this thread has grown massively - i thought i'd give an updated review.. Share how it really is to live with day to day.

A hugely important part of any phone - and while all the bells and whistles are exciting at the beginning.. It's really how it performs over time.

Well i can tell you know - it's been fantastic..

It's never crashed, never slowed down.. It does the exact same job as when i got it 2 weeks ago..

The keyboard is still unbelievable, with the scarily intuitive corrective text being nothing short of a godsend. Lets face it, we all hit the wrong buttons half the time on a touch screen phone.. This almost eliminates that problem.

The general User Interface has just been a pleasure to use, with everything feeling like it's in the right place.

The thing i've also noticed, every friend i've shown it to just knows how to use it.. I guess it's built off the same elements as an iPhone.. You have a similar structure - yet everything goes just that little bit further to create a more substantial experience.. Such as facebook and Email integration into contacts etc.. It just goes that extra mile.

Web Browsing - by far the best phone to do it on..

With the AMOLED screen quality, resolution and general stability / speed of the Android Browser. It's unbeatable. Text reflow is the stand out - and while they've had it since the HTC Touch Diamond.. The other elements hadn't come upto scratch.. I could not go back to a mobile browser without text reflow, it's just such a huge benefit. (Text reflow is when you zoom it, the text displays adjusts to fit your screen.. So you are not panning from right to left all day to read an article etc).

App Store - i've mentioned it before on here.. When you buy an app, you can simply refund it within 24 hours if you don't like it.. If you decide to buy it again, you are unable to refund it.. Why on earth are Apple not doing this.. It protects developers by only allowing one refund - and allows me.. The consumer.. To try out all the paid outs i like, without the fear of wasting my money..

I see other phones goimg up going sale on forums, people wanting to trade their 16GB/32GB iPhone 3GS for a HTC Desire.. This is the first time i've never been tempted to offer my phone in trade in order to go back to an iPhone, it really has hooked me in that much..

Even if the iPhone match’s this in terms of hardware in the next revision - i think anyone would be insane not to buy the HTC Desire.. From a price point alone, it's such an obvious choice.

Tomorrow Apple are doing their regular iPhone software conference – showing off 4.0.

This is going to give everyone a pretty clear indication on what to expect from the next iPhone – will that extended functionality be part of the next iteration.. Apple isn’t known for making gigantic leaps with their product line, it only ever happens on occasion. But it's going to be interesting to see thats for sure .
 

db

#chaplife
excellent! i knew it was supposed to be a great bit of kit, but i didn't realise people were enthusing over quite so vigorously.. i'll be getting one of these when i'm back from holiday, i reckons.. although i'll probably wait to hear your personal review, gk ;)
 

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
Just had a play with one in the office. It's superb, so intuitive and is very asthetically pleasing. If only I wasn't on a crappy 3 contract...
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Sweet!

Just in time for the new google maps update, its got the directions thingy built in now so should act as a halfway decent sat nav.
 

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
Well contrary to my thought, the phone actually turned up yesterday... credit to Parcel Force - I wasn't in when it was delivered so instead of taking it back to the depot and having me trek to Stoke or Wolves or wherever, they just dropped it at the PO in town. Much better.

Anyway on to the phone.

Form factor is nice, very like the iPhone in terms of size and weight, slightly heavy which gives it that reassuring feel of quality and strength. The screen is amazing, so vivid, bright and detailed. In fact the Desire is literally 4mm taller than the iPhone, 1mm less on the width and 0.3mm thicker so you can see there is nothing in it. With the Desire's slight height difference it manages to cram in a 3.7" screen versus the iPhone's 3.5" so its worth the extra.

Size comparison can be see graphically on http://tiny.cc/ks5n9

Not really had chance to play with Android 2.1 on it yet and because my MoDaCo custom rom is so optimised I think there isn't a lot of difference between them anyway. Obvious exceptions to that are Google Maps navigation, the very good settings bar widget.

Now on to the obvious big plus of the Desire over my Hero / the iPhone... that lovely piece of 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Obviously its early days so the phone hasn't had chance to get clogged up with crap but all I can say is WOW. Compared to the Hero which isn't too bad when optimised.. the Desire is much quicker. Even start up takes probably 1/3 to 1/4 of the time.

Just got to wait for screen protectors and a decent case now :( Don't know if its because the phone is so new or because of the volcano / flights problem but there aren't any decent cases on ebay at the moment and not many screen protectors.

Anyway now that the flight ban is lifted we should see more of these phones available to stores and networks... AFAIK ALL networks are going to be selling these phones and being this good and this cheap, I predict it will do big things even against the new iPhone coming out later this year.

HTH
 

db

#chaplife
had my heart set on the htc desire, but now i've got wind of the sony xperia x10 and it looks pretty tasty too!

the only thing i hate about the missus' hero is the fact it's nigh-on impossible to see the screen in sunny conditions.. apparently, the screen on the x10 is serious bidniz, and far superior.. still, it's sony, and they are well known for taking brilliant phone concepts and royally messing up the execution lol..
 

dylanf

Fat Git
tek-monkey said:
Sweet!

Just in time for the new google maps update, its got the directions thingy built in now so should act as a halfway decent sat nav.
My iphone google maps can act as a sat nav.

All google needs to do now is add voice directions and they get sued for anti competitive behaviour, lol
 

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
@ DB - I have heard a lot of bad reviews on the X10 - something to do with SE screwing with the Android software and making it cack.

The "seeing the screen in sunlight" issue is solved on the Desire (according to reviews).

"Sadly, Sony Ericsson built a few too many issues into the Xperia X10, something we're growing too used to saying with its phones.
The main culprit is the on-screen keyboard - it's awful. After a week's use, we were becoming more adept at it, but it still required a great deal of focus and effort to stay accurate.
The lag on the menu system when using Timescape as your home screen was ridiculous, and the slowdown when not employing any kind of task killer was almost terminal at times - we think some people will have a real problem with this.
Battery life is a little on the suspect side too, with a day's use the normal amount you can expect from the 1500mAh unit.
Audio quality on phone calls was also too quiet for our tastes, with people constantly being difficult to hear even in quieter situations."

Oh and its only running 1.6 with no guarantee of an update (although SURELY they will do).
 

db

#chaplife
gk141054 said:
@ DB - I have heard a lot of bad reviews on the X10 - something to do with SE screwing with the Android software and making it cack.
you're not wrong, just been reading a few reviews which basically say: great ideas, terrible end product..

let us know how you get on with your desire.. i'm particularly interested to know if there are any "niggles" that you find bug you on a daily basis..

on holiday, i used my nephews' ipod touches quite a bit, and i have to say i felt the on-screen keyboard was much better than that of the gf's hero.. is the keyboard on the desire the same as the hero, do you know?
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
HTC Desire - Would it suit an aged gentleman who struggles to work the tv remote?

I have a wonderful ten year old mobile that has decided to stop ringing when I am called so feel maybe its time to 'move forward'
 

joshua

Well-Known Forumite
John Marwood said:
HTC Desire - Would it suit an aged gentleman who struggles to work the tv remote?

I have a wonderful ten year old mobile that has decided to stop ringing when I am called so feel maybe its time to 'move forward'
More your style perhaps ?
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/05/04/grouptest_oap_phones/
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
joshua said:
John Marwood said:
HTC Desire - Would it suit an aged gentleman who struggles to work the tv remote?

I have a wonderful ten year old mobile that has decided to stop ringing when I am called so feel maybe its time to 'move forward'
More your style perhaps ?
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/05/04/grouptest_oap_phones/
I just got my Mum one of these :-
51WIAeJbqyL.jpg


A good compromise..
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
hmmm

thanks chaps

i guess it is all about need over want

these advertising chappies dont half cause us all grief
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
John Marwood said:
I have a wonderful ten year old mobile that has decided to stop ringing when I am called so feel maybe its time to 'move forward'
Kraftwerk have the answer - "A notable example of this eccentric behavior was reported to Johnny Marr of The Smiths by Karl Bartos, who explained that anyone trying to contact the band for collaboration would be told the studio telephone did not have a ringer, since during recording, the band did not like to hear any kind of noise pollution. Instead, callers were instructed to phone the studio precisely at a certain time, whereupon the phone would be answered by Ralf Hütter, despite never hearing the phone ring."

Simple. How did they manage to 'lose' the war?..
 

db

#chaplife
dammit, i've been off all week so thought this would be a perfect time to pop in to t-mobile and get me sen a desire, but they've been out of stock all week! looks like i'll have wait until next weekend now..

any comments from you gk, now you've had yours for a few weeks and got over the honeymoon period? no phone is perfect, so i'm sure there must be some niggles, no matter how minor.. i'd be interested to know what they are, if so!

do you have bluetooth in your car? if so, does the desire play nice? i'm still amazed that bluetooth is so badly crippled on the gf's hero (she can't do file transfer, or anything like that, bluetooth seems to exist solely to connect to headsets)..

edit: this thread seems to suggest it will work just fine.. it also seems to suggest that file transfer and all other useful bluetooth bizniz is supported! :dance:
 
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