Categories: Mobile Phones Reviews   Tags:
We love
Screen is stunning, HTC Sense works like a dream
We hate
No need for trackpad at the bottom, aluminium unibody would make it even better
Verdict
An amazing phone with stunning software and only a handful of design quibbles
Launch Price
£Free
3 Pages
123

HTC Desire

The HTC Desire arrived at Mobile World Congress off the back of weeks of hype. A Nexus One-alike in all but name, this top end smartphone was billed as HTC’s flagship handset, yet was quickly ignored out in Barcelona when the HTC Legend’s aluminium frame popped up and caused us to weep tears of gadget joy. So how does the Desire measure up now we’ve had a proper play? Read our HTC Desire review now to find out.

Read the rest of our HTC Desire review:

HTC Desire review: Software
HTC Desire review: Design and build
HTC Desire review: Screen
HTC Desire Froyo review

At first glance, it’s tough to tell the HTC Desire and the Google Nexus One apart. They have the same DNA, with the usual HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 smarts, that Snapdragon processor, gorgeous 3.7-inch AMOLED panel and teflon-coating.

But there are a few subtle differences which mark the Desire out. There’s a slightly protruding lip on the Desire, a design quirk HTC seems insistent on sticking with in spite of being might infuriating. Then there’s the optical trackpad rather than the trackball on the Nexus One. And, of course, the mighty HTC Sense kicking it inside.

The latter is the newest version of the software, doing everything as the HTC Legend does. We’re talking Friend Stream for aggregating your social networking in one live homescreen, Leap for Apple Expose-style overviews on the front page and advanced RSS settings for chowing down on absurd levels of tech news. It’s stunning and the best UI on any phone going right now.

There are some added software skills we love too. Google Translate and Wikipedia are available directly in the browser just by holding down on text you’re typing, letting you get results in seconds. It’s a nifty and addictive extra.

There’s no denying that the HTC Desire’s hardware is superb either. Ok, it’s not a unibody like the smaller HTC Legend, but it still warrants praise. It feels sturdy in the hand and in spite of its plus size, sits well in your pocket. The choice of a trackpad is welcome, and while it works brilliantly as the capture and record button on the excellently advanced camera and video apps, it does feel like something of a needless frivolity. Like the Legend, the touchscreen is so good that it’s hardly worth having and we have to say we never used it to scooch around the browser or pick out apps in Android Market. Our digits did all that and worked just fine thank you very much.

But the Desire’s biggest draw is its beautiful, bright 3.7-inch AMOLED screen. No apps miss a beat thanks to the Snapdragon processor, at last showing off what it can do after some shonky showings in the likes of the Xperia X10 and Toshiba TG01. The panel is perfect to the touch, registering keystrokes with no errors and utilising pinch-to-zoom to full effect. When we cranked up videos on the Desire, they looked astounding. Every bit as good as on an iPhone or iPod touch, this is the best video watching experience we’ve had yet on an Android device.

Design hounds might prefer to plump for the Legend. But if you want a phone that’s powered up to maximum, comes with next-gen tech that sees off every competitor and still looks the part, the HTC Desire is it. One of the best handsets ever, this sets the standard by which iPhone 4.0 will be judged.

Read the rest of our HTC Desire review:

HTC Desire review: Software
HTC Desire review: Design and build
HTC Desire review: Screen
HTC Desire Froyo review

HTC Desire: Robot falls in love with Android phone

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  • MJ

    After owning a few Milestones, Nexus Ones, Magics and one Samsung Galaxy, I was really tempted to order one of these, but the thing about Android is the lack of decent software to get media onto them.

    Doubletwist is ad filled and doesn’t do video very well, MissingSync is good, but expensive and Salling Media Sync doesn’t do video (Mac user btw).

    The other thing that put me off is it is actually too similar in style to the N1, which was a slippery handset with rather bland 1996 PC look about it, this feels the same to me for some reason (it’s a shame as we all know HTC can knock sexy phones out, the original Diamond, Legend, HD2).

  • ian

    Got my desire the other day and ditched my iphone with hesitation, however it was a very good move. I havn’t been able to fault the desire once and the speed of the desire makes the iphone look slow. Is the desire better than the iphone in my oppinion ? YES.
    Would I ever switch back to the iphone ? NO the iphone has had its day. The i phone changed the face of the smartphone in every way but now the competition has well and truly taken over. Apple will still sell millions to the masses but anyone who experiences the HTC desire and has an understanding of android would swap in a second given the chance.
    Thank you apple and the iphone for leading the smartphone revolution but you have now been dethroned.

  • Craig

    I’ve had my Desire a week now and although I’m getting used to it’s strange little nuances I’m still bitterly disappointed by the lack of attention to detail by the OS and, to some extent, the hardware.

    I’ve come from using an iPhone 3G and being bored of Apple and they’re lazy hardware iterations I decided to jump ship and look elsewhere for my next gen device. Granted the screen and speed of the Desire is a welcome step forward for me but in terms of software I feel like I’ve gone back to the bad old days of using a Nokia.

    I’m not going to write a full review here, or list the good points, they’re well documented but the following bad things didn’t come up in any reviews (at least before I bought mine) and would have put me off buying:

    * The mail app doesn’t support folders so I can’t categorise my email which is just plain ridiculous. People have been complaining on code.google.com about this since sep 2008 and Google wont even give them the time of day. The thread I was reading must have had at least 500 comments pleading for at least a comment from Google.

    * Why the hell is there a separate app for just GMail, that’s just pointless repetition. Most people don’t have the option to abandon their existing email accounts and it’s not like Gmail polls pop3 accounts often enough to be able to use forwarding. If nothing else, at least make this app be able to properly support external pop3 and imap accounts.

    * The Optical joystick is ridiculously over sensitive and can’t be disabled. Can’t I just have the button and not the pointless eye that I keep catching?

    * Placing your cursor in a text box is hellish, I know Google can’t copy Apple’s little spy-glass but they desperately need something better than trying to hit the one pixel between the last letter in a text box and the edge of the box. Maybe just allow me to run my finger along the box to move the cursor. Seriously; anyone who’s got a Desire, try using the browser to google for a long search term and then try to remove the last word. you’re a better man than me if you don’t want to snap your phone in half before you give up and just type the whole damned thing again).

    * The ‘all apps’ list is just that, all your apps, in alphabetical order. No ability to sort, create folders or make the list tidy in anyway, so my list currently exists of game, game, ebook reader, file manager, game, app, app, etc, etc. UGLY, and lots and lots and lots of scrolling every bloody time!

    * No Divx / Xvid support. There are 3rd party apps but they’re really bad, I created a video that was the screen’s native res and tried playing on yxflash and it stuttered all the way when reading from my class 6 sdhc card.

    * The app store expects you to put your card details in every time, even though it uses Google Checkout. Why the hell can’t I just use my Checkout account? If it was this fiddly to buy apps on iPhone the app store would never have made any money.

    * Considering how amazing the screen is, why the hell does the tinny little speaker sound like listing to someone else’s earbud from across the room. the iPhone’s little speaker was never great but at least you could comfortably watch iPlayer for more than a few minutes without wanting to stuff cotton wool in your ears. And my £50 Sennheisers hiss when connected.

    * Lastly, the 3G signal is pants, There’s several places in my day where I used to use 3G for browsing or checking email on my iPhone, now I can only get signal in one of them and only in a pretty specific spot (read: standing still in the middle of a field, if I walk 10 steps I’m back to gprs).

    Don’t waste your money, Android is NOT ready for the big-time yet, and from the anecdotal evidence I’ve read from other users Google seem to treat it as a beta and can’t be bothered to respond when real users are desperate to have a dialogue about their issues. The desires hardware is great but lacking is a couple of crucial areas and HTC have already followed it up with a better alternative, the Incredible.

    Ascii

  • Whinging Aussie

    I really wish you'd get rid of that YouTube video with Romeo the robot. It starts up automatically, a real pain.

    • GUEST

      Use flasblock, no flash can run until you click o n it.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000314962648 James Kelly

      I know, it’s SO annoying and loud :L

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