Editor's Review of the Desire
HTC have a reputation for bringing powerful, stylish smartphones to the table, and they don't disappoint with the HTC Desire. It looks good, it comes packed full of features, and is certainly lives up to its name.
Design and Build
The HTC Desire, available in black, brown and white, is certainly one of the best looking Android handsets on the market. It features a massive 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen display which has led to comparisons with the iPhone 3GS. The handset manages to remain slim and stylish, measuring a mere 119 x 60 x 11.9 mm and weighing in at just 133g. Its casing is made from rubber, which makes the handset comfortable although sometimes difficult to grip, and features aluminium keys which are embedded into the curved chassis.
OS & Interface
The handset comes operating on Android 2.1, but this can now be upgraded to Android 2.2, which packs the smartphone's customizable interface full of exciting widgets and Google Services support, including Google Maps and Google Voice Search.
Its large AMOLED touchscreen is the Desire's stand out feature, making everything seem much brighter and clearer than before. It's resolution is high enough to make viewing TV shows and films enjoyable, even when in bright sunlight. When browsing the web too, text appears clear and there's no need to squint, and with its pinch-to-zoom feature you can adjust the text size to suit you.
HTC's Sense user interface is slick and easy to use too, providing you with seven home screens which can be customised with widgets, icons and apps as you see fit, to create a totally unique experience for each user.
Multimedia & Storage
The HTC Desire also comes equipped with a 5 megapixel camera complete with auto focus, flash, face detection, a wide screen shot function and video recording capabilities. You are also provided with integrated photo-editing software, allowing you to tweak your photos before uploading them to Facebook. It may not have the best camera on the market, but it's certainly enough to replace a basic digital camera.
Music lovers are also provided with an FM radio and MP3 player, which allows you to navigate through Artists, Albums, Tracks, Genres and more, which works quickly due to the Desire's 1GHz processor.
The handset's memory is expandable up to 32GB, providing you with plenty of storage for all your music files.
Everything Else
With both 3G and WiFi connectivity, social networking is made easy on the HTC Desire. The handset syncs contacts from all your favourite websites and e-mail accounts into your address book, a feature that also provides you with instant access to new Facebook updates and Twitter posts. Although there is no Windows Messenger support, you are also provided with an Instant Messaging service, making it quick and easy to stay in touch with friends and family, and typing is quick using the handsets virtual QWERTY keypad.
The HTC Desire features an impressive integrated web browser too, with super-speeds, Flash support and pinch-to-zoom and copy and paste functionality. Web pages also look fantastic on the Desire.
You may find its battery life a bit disappointing, providing you with 6.6 hours of talk-time and 340 hours on standby. That said, it's plenty for most, it just may need to be charged frequently.
User Reviews
Pros: nice screen, fast 1GHZ processor, GPS, WIFI, HOTSPOT, HSDPA, quite OK camera, nice performance. All you might need there. I miss the QWERTY keyboard. But the touchscreen works just fine. Altogether happy with it. Google Android 2.2 Froyo is a fantastic OS, certainly looking forward to try some Gingerbread on it.
Cons: battery does not last too long. No QWERTY
Lets start off by saying, I gave up my iPhone 3GS to get this! I have not been disappointed. Android is such a better OS than iOS, with some great apps in the market - like free turn by turn Google sat nav.
Positives:
- Responsive keyboard
- Great apps
- Completely open customisable Operating System
- Great Camera
- HTC Sense is beautiful, has some great built in widgets, and is easy to use
- Expandable memory with micro sd cards
Negatives
- Battery life is pretty bad; in some cases of heavy use it won't last a full day
- Default music players isn't the greatest; though there are some good music apps like winamp, or 3
The Desire is an all-round solid handset. The screen is high resolution, although some newer handsets such as the Galaxy S provide a richer colour depth. The 1GHz Snapdragon has proven popular in many handsets since the Desire, for good reason; the interface is snappy and lag is relatively rare. With Froyo (Android 2.2), further speed increases are seen and the only real downside to the handset is the battery life. However, with a phone this powerful and feature-rich, that is not too surprising. The screen is large, but the handset should still fit comfortably in smaller hands for usage, unlike some of the larger handsets like the aforementioned Galaxy S. It should also be noted that the 3D performance is not outstanding. Despite having a lot of CPU power, the GPU feels relatively weak compared to the Galaxy S or iPhone variants.
This phone is a great choice if you want to stand out from the Icrowd. There is plenty of freedom to customise this phone to you own liking and it allows you to watch flash videos. Things are only let down by the touchscreen not fully supporting multitouch gestures.
The HTC Desire is one of the most impressive phones of all time. Despite being significantly cheaper than the iPhone, it can match or beat everything that the iPhone does. An Android smartphone with a fabulously responsive touchscreen, the Desire packs in a huge choice of apps, brilliant web browsing, one of the biggest and best screens ever, a good camera, a music player and GPS too. The phone comes in various of colours and has good battery. Overall i would recommend this phone.
I recently had a play with the HTC Desire, it seemed so much quicker and clearer than my HTC Magic. Made me realise its time to upgrade.
Find out more about the HTC Desire at htc.com
HTC Desire News
Sky Go app coming to the Samsung Galaxy S2 next month
Sky Go, the popular TV streaming app available on the iPhone and iPad, will finally be launching on Android next month. There is a slight catch, however, as the Sky Go app won’t be available on all Android handsets. Instead, it’ll just be launching on the platform’s high-enders, including; the HTC Desire, HTC Desire S, [...]
HTC Desire Android Gingerbread update now available
The saga that is the HTC Desire Android Gingerbread update has finally ended, as HTC has confirmed that the update is ready and available to download. Sadly, as expected, the Gingerbread ROM has been modified to fit the memory confines of the Desire â?? which had originally prompted HTC to cancel the update. According to the [...]
HTC Desire to get Android Gingerbread this month
It looks like Desire users will have a happy ending after-all, as HTC has finally confirmed that Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) will soon be coming to its 2010 flagship. Last month, the Taiwanese firm claimed that the HTC Desire didn’t have enough memory for the Gingerbread update, before it then change its mind just one day [...]
HTC Desire Android Gingerbread update “in testing”
HTC has confirmed that Android Gingerbread for the Desire is now “in testing”, which means it’s one-step closer to finally being released. There’s been a hell-of-a-lot of confusion regarding the Android 2.3 update for the HTC Desire. Earlier this month, the Taiwanese firm said that its ex-flagship wouldn’t be getting the update, before backtracking just [...]
HTC to scrap Desire Sense UI to make room for Gingerbread
There’s yet another twist in the tale of the HTC Desire Gingerbread update, as Australian network Telstra has confirmed that it’ll be scrapping HTC’s much-loved Sense UI. Earlier this month, HTC announced that, despite previous announcements, the HTC Desire wouldn’t be getting upgraded to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS due to their being “not enough memory” on [...]
HTC: Android 2.3 will come to the HTC Desire
In a surprise U-turn, HTC has announced that it will be bringing Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to the HTC Desire. Emotions ran high yesterday as the Taiwanese firm announced the HTC Desire won’t be upgraded, explaining that thereâ??s simply not enough memory on the 2010 flagship. However, 24 hours later in a short statement on Facebook, [...]
HTC Desire Specifications
Size
119mm x 60mm x 11.9mm
Weight
135 grams
Display
Full capacitive touch screen
Type: AMOLED
Size: 3.7 inches
Resolution: 480 x 800
Input
Keyboard: On-screen
Scroller: Optical trackpad
Operating System
Android 2.1
Interface: HTC Sense
Storage
Internal: 512MB
External: microSD up to 32GB
Miscellaneous
CPU: 1GHz
A-GPS with Google Maps
Internet
Data Speed
Up to 7.2 Mbps download speed
Up to 2 Mbps upload speed
Data Protocols
3G, HSDPA
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g
Connectivity
Audio: 3.5mm stereo jack
Data: Standard microUSB
Quad Band
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 2.1
A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Camera
5.0 megapixel camera
Auto Focus and LED Flash
720p Video Recording
Power
Battery Capacity: 1400 mAh
Talk Time: 400 minutes
Standby Time: 360 hours
Multimedia
Radio: FM with RDS
Audio supported formats
Playback:
Recording: Supported
Video supported formats
Playback:
Recording:
Social
Social Networking Features
Twitter and Facebook Widgets
Email Access