That chiselled HTC chin at the bottom makes the desire ever so comfortable in your hand. The device seems well built and engineered to last.
Running Android 2.2 Froyo, It's snappy to say the least in terms of speed.
Pro's :
-1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
-3.7inch 16M capacitive brilliant AMOLED screen.
-5 MP autofocus camera w/LED flash and 720p Video recording at 25fps.
-Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS and A-GPS.
-Seems built to last.
-3.5mm audio jack.
-Smart Dialing.
-Slim and very pocket friendly.
-Optical Trackpad.
-Amazing Loudspeaker Performance.
Con's:
-Roughly 100MB for installing apps available on the actual device.
-Memory Card not hot Swappable.
-Beauty of a camera is let down by the lack of lens protection.
Unboxing:
HTC Desire offers nothing out of the ordinary in the sales package, it's just the bare essentials and honestly I'd have wanted a little more. Maybe a carry pouch or something to set it apart from the competition.
The box isn't too big, still has the essentials.
-A micro usb cable.
-A charger.(Uses the micro usb cable)
-One piece headset with audio controls on the remote.
-A cleaning cloth.
-A 4Gb Memory card(An 8GB card would have been much appreciated!)
And also came the usual paperwork!
Exterior:
The HTC desire in flesh is rather handsome. It's minimalistic at its best.
It's a sober phone, by no means an
"out there.. look at Me!" Handset.
It's thin profile and broad shoulders thanks to that 3.7 inch screen make it perfect to hold in the hand!
On the face of the device is are 5 actual hardware buttons.
They're the usual Android Search, Home, back and menu buttons.
The addition being a spherical Optical Trackpad.
The left of the desire houses the long yet sleek one piece volume rocker. The right of the device left empty.
Turn the device over and you'll be greeted with a soft touch rubber coating which grips on slant surfaces.
Also you'll notice the 5MP Shooter with grooved metal rings around it.
Beside it is the powerful LED flash, next to which is the loudspeaker grill.
Last on the rear is a HTC logo on glossy black inlaid into the soft touch rubber coating making the phone feel very elegant.
On the top of the desire is a Power/Lock and unlock key and also a 3.5mm Audio jack!
To the bottom there is the usual Micro USB port and the primary microphone.
Screen:
The desire has a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacative touchscreen which is nice and luminous.
The front of the phone is occupied by that large piece of real estate which makes watching videos, images and browsing the web a pleasure.
The screen is extremely responsive and responds to the slightest of your touches. Scrolling is a joy and pinch zooming is fast thanks to the blazing speed of the processor and partly the responsiveness of the screen.
Sunlight legality is a let down as with all other AMOLED Displays. This can be overcome by leaving the phone in auto brightness, this should sort things out if they get messy.
User Interface:
The desire run Android 2.2 with a HTC Sense overlay. It's basically the best add on pack you could have gotten for stock Android running on devices such as the nexus one and the Nexus S now.
Many changes have been made, and in my opinion, all for the good.
There are the regular Android widgets and a lot of add ons from HTC.
HTC also changed the look of most widgets and now offers 7 stock Homescreens!!
After toying with this phone and the type of widgets it offers, I wouldn't have minded a couple more screens.
Pressing the home button or pinching out of the homescreen shows you all the Homescreens at a glance.
All the widgets come in different sizes and looks. For example, there are 12 different clocks and 3different music players!
Your custom home screen setup can easily be saved and used again, or you can use a default configuration from HTC!
Such configurations are being called scenes by HTC.
Sense also redoes the whole organizer part of stock android making it pleasing on the eye without neglecting functionality and usability!
Messaging:
Messaging seems the stronghold of The HTC desire!
All messages between you and a contact are threaded. The phone has an amazing keyboard thanks to its slim side profile and the HTC redesign of the keyboard. Portrait mood typing is a joy and with the phone in landscape, it becomes a messaging monster.
To convert an sms to an mms, you just have to attach multimedia to that message. Simple!
Email setup is as simple as typing in your email address and password.
Poof! The desire gets you all your settings off the internet.
Gmail is most supported, it being a native Google app, its as simple as refreshing your email or selecting to use push email(beware as this drains battery crazily fast). Attachment support is almost near unmatched.
Phonebook:
HTC calls its Phonebook People. Rather apt.
The contacts can be linked to each other with relations, To their Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Whatsapp and company directories.
The fields offered are more than anything you'd probably need.
There is more!
You can see all the messages, calls, emails, Facebook activity and any other activity between you and the contact to the last detail.
Telephony:
Telephony is simple and nice. There is a near unlimited call log.
There is smart dialing which is native. Searches for contact names and numbers.
The let down being the lack of native voice dialing which can be over come by using third party apps!
The signal reception is decent. It loses network at places you'd expect to, maintains it well at others!
Conversations are clear and the listeners are happy and can hear you pretty clearly!
The Desire uses its proximity sensor pretty well! It locks and unlocks the phone during calls.
It silences calls by turning the phone over, If you touch the phone while ringing, it rings much much more quietly.
Same goes for alarms!
Camera, video and music:
The Camera on the desire is decent. Colours are realistic and warm. Pictures do appear a little saturated during high amounts of flash at close distances.
The camera interface is also dated, but touch to focus and face detection(additions with froyo) do seem to be making progress.
My only complaint would be about the lack of any lens protection what so ever. That should drastically reduce image quality with time!
The same camera also records 720p HD video at 25 fps. Video quality is decent and a constant video light is a nice and neat touch!
The gallery is not much of an eye pleaser with white text menu's.. photo thumbnail's can be selected to view actual photo which can then be pinch zoomed and sent/uploaded straight from the gallery.
Music player is a bit primitive. It's got a constant coverflow with shuffle, repeat, next, previous and play/pause as the features!
The biggest letdown for the audiophile has to be the lack of an equalizer of any sort!
Browser:
The highlight of android 2.2 froyo has to be the ability to support full flash!
A simple Android market download will transform your browser into a PC browsing experience!
Pinch to zoom, video in screen support and even the blazing fast processor helps load pages in a blink of few eyes over wi-fi!
The browsing speeds are unmatched by almost any other mobile phone currently on sale!
Text and video are also crisp thanks to the high resolution screen!
Connectivity:
The HTC desire being a high end smartphone, has got its connectivity right up there with the best.
It's got wi-fi with b and g support, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP support and a built in GPS receiver with A-GPS.
3G HSDPA/HSUPA is flawlessly supported and doesn't drain much battery on standby.
The standout feature is the presence of a portable hotspot(wireless tethering). It converts your mobile data connection into a WiFi connection for upto 9 devices at a time!
GPS and Google Maps:
Google maps are a cornerstone of Android. It's amazing as it could lock position without the A-GPS switched on in less than 2 minutes. Impressive.
With the GPS switched on, It's got enough power and detail in every aspect to replace your car GPS unit.
It'll get you directions to places using Google's amazing array of resources.
Conclusion:
After all this I guess very few phones can go toe to toe with this fella in terms of speed and functionality.
Main rivals of the desire are the
Samsung Galaxy S
Blackberry 9780.
PR :)
You should be a professional phone critic :D
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