The HTC Desire HD was unleashed upon the world yesterday, so we thought it only fair to size it up against its biggest Android rival and mac daddy of Google smartphones right now: the Samsung Galaxy S. Fiiiiight!

Screen
This one’s tight: HTC’s pretty much had to abandon AMOLED displays of late due to shortages, and the 4.3-inch panel on the HTC Desire HD is an LCD number. It’s the same resolution as the Samsung Galaxy S’ slightly smaller 4-inch capacitive touchscreen (800×480 pixels, if you’re counting), but doesn’t have quite the same vivid contrast ratio of Samsung’s Super AMOLED screen smartphone. Since it’s LCD though, it could have one useful one up: it might actually be visible in sunlight. The wonders of technology, eh? We’ll be sure to check this one out for ourselves come review time.

Check out the HTC Desire HD Facebook fan page now!

Looks
The Samsung Galaxy S just can’t compete here. We love its beautiful screen, but the unibody(ish) build of the HTC Desire HD is just too swish. The 4.3-inch display takes up so much of the front face that it simply looks like you’re holding a screen and nothing more. Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S’s plastic looks make it look like a knock off of the two year old iPhone 3G.

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Software
Right now, the HTC Desire HD’s looking the better option. We love Android 2.1 on the Samsung Galaxy S, but Froyo Android 2.2 on the HTC Desire HD has too many extra bells and whistles, like Flash 10.1, speed improvements and support for new Google voice actions and Chrome To Phone. Add to that HTC’s new cloud services and precached maps, and we know which we’d choose. And who knows how long that leaked Froyo update for the Samsung Galaxy S will take to roll out officially?

Camera
We’ve not had a chance to test the HTC Desire HD’s camera just yet. But don’t necessarily assume that its eight megapixel sensor will turn in better pics than the super sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S – just ones with more pixels. HTC’s never really had the reputation for solid cameraphones, and the superb 720p video recording on the 5 megapixel Samsung Galaxy S will be hard to beat. On the other hand, that the HTC Desire HD has a flash at all will make it preferable for some.

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Speed
It’s one 1GHz ARM-based CPU versus another with the HTC Desire HD and Samsung Galaxy S. Clock speed isn’t everything though – and Android veterans will know that the number of apps and widgets you’ve got running can bog a Google smartphone down like no other, so we’ll have to wait to put the finished version head to head with the Samsung Galaxy S.

Verdict
Of course, the best smartphone provides the best experience above the best specs so don’t read too much into this – instead wait for our full HTC Desire HD review. But at first glance, the Samsung Galaxy S has a rival it should be seriously worried about.

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  • tman

    The Desire HD seems like a very nice phone and the Dual-flash included will certainly help the camera. The HTC Sense has also been improved, (which I think its the best UI out there, except for Palm's WebOS or should I say HP now). Bigger screen than Galaxy S (only a little though 0.3″).

    Also includes the new and supposedly improved Qualcomm processor which is more efficient in tems of battery and overall performance, however the 1230mAh certainly will not help. The new HTC cloud system is a nice addition where you can back up your messages and emails and remotely lock your phone if it gets lost or stolen.

    However, considering all the above improvements, I still think that the Galaxy S is far superior.

    For starters the screen on the Galaxy S is a thing of beauty and unmatched by anything out there in terms of colour reproduction and contrast, which excels when watching videos.

    HD video recording is still better on the [Galaxy S 720p @ 30fps] VS [Desire HD 720p @25fps].

    The ARM Cortex A8 processor with dedicated GPU found on the Galaxy will still be superior when it comes to speed and performance to the one offered by Qualcom even after the improvements on the latter.

    Although it looks like a nice phone, I will not be upgrading to this. I will hold out for the successor of the Galaxy S. Now imagine what that is going to be like?

    • bensillis

      A Samsung Epic 4G with Froyo is my dream phone. Unfortunately, I can't get it in the UK :(

      • tman

        Same here. When I first saw the Epic 4G land on sprint, I though damn it, why do those Americans always get the better handsets, the luck bastards.

        I wish it had been released here in the UK. I mean its just awesome isn't it. What more could you want from a phone.

        @Muhammad Ali. Couldn't agree more with you. Like I said on my previous post, HTC sense its the best UI to come about since Palm's WebOS, no doubt. Its become HTC's USP and it will certainly be a huge deciding factor for a lot of people wanting to upgrade, when the Desire HD and Z land next month.

    • tman

      Same here. When I first saw the Epic 4G land on sprint, I though damn it, why do those Americans always get the better handsets, the luck bastards.

      I wish it had been released here in the UK. I mean its just awesome isn't it. What more could you want from a phone.

      @Muhammad Ali. Couldn't agree more with you. Like I said on my previous post, HTC sense its the best UI to come about since Palm's WebOS, no doubt. Its become HTC's USP and it will certainly be a huge deciding factor for a lot of people wanting to upgrade, when the Desire HD and Z land next month.

  • http://twitter.com/sheikhali Muhammad Ali

    HTC Desire HD's HTC Sense is a killer feature in my opinion as well.

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