Background:
For the past 18 months, I've been an iPhone 3G 16GB owner and without a doubt, can say that the iPhone is one of the best phones I've ever had.
The iPhone just worked and worked whilst looking good. On top of that, the Application store was a treasure chest of useful and entertaining applications.
I read about the HTC Desire on here and had seen the HD2 in stores, before this I didn't know anything about HTC or Android.
I had no issues with the iPhone that made me want to change my handset, but a combination of wanting the latest things, CPW owing me money and the iPhone 3G 16GB fetching £206 on the O2, made me try out the HTC Desire.
I bought the HTC Desire from CPW for ~£190 and have installed my O2 Simplicity for iPhone SIM in and had zero issues.
Before you read more, I'll warn you there will be a lot of comparisons to the iPhone throughout this post. I'm not an Apple fanboy, I think the iPad is a joke and the only Apple devices I've owned are their iPods and the iPhone.
The Hardware:
You all know what a box looks like, so I'm not going to post pictures of it. You can also find out what the box contains and the specifications of the phone are on-line, so I'm going to jump onto the quality of the handset.
The iPhone is a very well built phone in my opinion, I've never had any issues with parts coming off, cracks or loose docking connectors. Part of this in my opinion, is down to the fact the iPhone is a completely sealed unit. Having no removable parts, like a battery cover - mean the device felt more "solid".
However, after getting the HTC out of it's box - you could instantly tell that the handset was easily on par with the iPhone. The phone feels very solid and has some weight to it, making you know that you have a good bit of kit in your hand.
The hardware buttons on the front are firmly seated into the body, they don't feel cheap and wobbly or look as if the coating will come off them easily. The optical tracking pad has a very precisely milled piece of metal around it that feels very premium, this is reassuring as the track pad is also the camera lens shutter button and precision web link following/clicking button so will be used fairly regularly.
The Screen
The screen is a definite selling point for this phone, it's much more vivid and crisp than the iPhone and as responsive when navigating the UI. I was concerned about the use of the screen in bright day light after reading reports on here but it hasn't been an issue.
I was worried it would be as bad as trying to use a cash point machine in intense daylight, but you can easily make out the UI/Icons whilst out and about.
Thankfully I've not had any pink tint issues either. There's an interesting article on the net about this, down to the way pixels are aligned on a AMOLED screen and web safe colours. I can't find the link but if I do - I'll put it up.
A few pictures:
Software
Another area where the iPhone is very strong, is the software. The UI on the iPhone looked so sleek and everything just worked, the only issue I ever had was with the O2 application sometimes quitting on me.
The software on the HTC Desire leaves me with mixed feelings. The HTC Sense software is excellent, it makes the UI look just as sleek as the iPhone and in some areas it actually excels beyond the iPhone OS.
The integration of Facebook with your contacts is a great feature, I know there are applications for the iPhone that download photos from Facebook but the Sense UI goes beyond that. Birthday's, address' and status updates are fed to the phone and get updated.
The FriendStream application is also very good, I personally only use Facebook but for those with Flickr and Twitter accounts as well would find this really useful to oversee all content without multiple applications.
The design ethos of Android really is clever, being able to access data from other applications really has its uses and really shows. I.e. Google Maps being able to pluck address information from your contacts.
The music player was never going to compare to the iPhone's in terms of looks, seeing as the iPhone had the history of the iPod built into it. However, the sound quality is the same as the iPhone's and this has kept me happy. I bought the iPhone simply because I used to have an iPod + N95 and the iPhone offered me the change to have it all in one.
The default Sync software gets the job done but could do with extra functionality. I don't believe it backs up applications and it lacks the ability to Sync play lists from any media players.
The only issue I've found so far is with the default email application, I've set Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm as "peak time" which I've set to push but this didn't take effect this morning. It stayed on manual which is what off speak is set to.
My main gripe with the software so far is to do with the Applications and the Market. The application offering is very poor in comparison to the App Store and any applications you find that have been coded for Android as well are usually worse than their iPhone versions.
The Market is full of spam applications, the iPhone/App store gets slated for this on here but the truth is, Market Place is worse. I mean there are Apps that put a Firefox icon on your home screen that launches the default browser.
The Market Place application is no where near as index/search friendly as the App Store on the iPhone and each application is spammed with negative comments from clear retards who couldn't turn on a light switch.
I know this will only get better with time, but for now the iPhone stomps all over Android in this respect.
General phone usage: Texting
Texting is pretty similar on both devices, there used to be occasional slow downs with the iPhone which I don't get with the Desire. I would say I can text at the same pace on both and make the same amount of uncorrected errors.
However, Android does have the advantage in Swype - I've not used it but I've seen videos of side by side comparisons of note taking vs the iPhone. The Swype method really sped things up.
General phone usage: Browsing
The default browser is far better than the iPhone one. You don't get that checker board effect like on the iPhone and everything seems so much faster, especially page rendering.
The default browser occasionally doesn't fully reload the previous page after I've hit the back hardware button but a page reload quickly sorts this.
General phone usage: Calls
Nothing much to report here, call clarity is about the same whilst using the handset both in terms the sound quality coming out of the earpiece speaker on both the Desire and the other callers phone.
I've not tested the speaker phone yet, but god the iPhone loud speaker was awful so I hope and would imagine that the Desire's is better.
General phone usage: Camera
The camera isn't that brilliant considering it has a flash and a bigger sensor, so it's not that much better than the iPhone in my opinion. Not a major issue for me though as camera features aren't a huge selling point for me when it comes to phone.
Summary:
This really is a fast, good quality piece of kit.
The phone isn't at it's peak yet though, but once the Android picks up more market share along with the expansion of the Market place - this phone will bridge the small gap it has in terms of software with the iPhone.
I know alternate media players for the device exist, but none of them match the usability and sleekness of the the iPhone. The good thing is that Android is clearly a more open platform to develop for the iPhone and if a competing media software package came along with the ability to sync with a media player on your PC - the Desire could be just as good if not better.
If none of the following bother you:
Then I highly recommend you take a look at the Desire.
For the past 18 months, I've been an iPhone 3G 16GB owner and without a doubt, can say that the iPhone is one of the best phones I've ever had.
The iPhone just worked and worked whilst looking good. On top of that, the Application store was a treasure chest of useful and entertaining applications.
I read about the HTC Desire on here and had seen the HD2 in stores, before this I didn't know anything about HTC or Android.
I had no issues with the iPhone that made me want to change my handset, but a combination of wanting the latest things, CPW owing me money and the iPhone 3G 16GB fetching £206 on the O2, made me try out the HTC Desire.
I bought the HTC Desire from CPW for ~£190 and have installed my O2 Simplicity for iPhone SIM in and had zero issues.
Before you read more, I'll warn you there will be a lot of comparisons to the iPhone throughout this post. I'm not an Apple fanboy, I think the iPad is a joke and the only Apple devices I've owned are their iPods and the iPhone.
The Hardware:
You all know what a box looks like, so I'm not going to post pictures of it. You can also find out what the box contains and the specifications of the phone are on-line, so I'm going to jump onto the quality of the handset.
The iPhone is a very well built phone in my opinion, I've never had any issues with parts coming off, cracks or loose docking connectors. Part of this in my opinion, is down to the fact the iPhone is a completely sealed unit. Having no removable parts, like a battery cover - mean the device felt more "solid".
However, after getting the HTC out of it's box - you could instantly tell that the handset was easily on par with the iPhone. The phone feels very solid and has some weight to it, making you know that you have a good bit of kit in your hand.
The hardware buttons on the front are firmly seated into the body, they don't feel cheap and wobbly or look as if the coating will come off them easily. The optical tracking pad has a very precisely milled piece of metal around it that feels very premium, this is reassuring as the track pad is also the camera lens shutter button and precision web link following/clicking button so will be used fairly regularly.
The Screen
The screen is a definite selling point for this phone, it's much more vivid and crisp than the iPhone and as responsive when navigating the UI. I was concerned about the use of the screen in bright day light after reading reports on here but it hasn't been an issue.
I was worried it would be as bad as trying to use a cash point machine in intense daylight, but you can easily make out the UI/Icons whilst out and about.
Thankfully I've not had any pink tint issues either. There's an interesting article on the net about this, down to the way pixels are aligned on a AMOLED screen and web safe colours. I can't find the link but if I do - I'll put it up.
A few pictures:
Software
Another area where the iPhone is very strong, is the software. The UI on the iPhone looked so sleek and everything just worked, the only issue I ever had was with the O2 application sometimes quitting on me.
The software on the HTC Desire leaves me with mixed feelings. The HTC Sense software is excellent, it makes the UI look just as sleek as the iPhone and in some areas it actually excels beyond the iPhone OS.
The integration of Facebook with your contacts is a great feature, I know there are applications for the iPhone that download photos from Facebook but the Sense UI goes beyond that. Birthday's, address' and status updates are fed to the phone and get updated.
The FriendStream application is also very good, I personally only use Facebook but for those with Flickr and Twitter accounts as well would find this really useful to oversee all content without multiple applications.
The design ethos of Android really is clever, being able to access data from other applications really has its uses and really shows. I.e. Google Maps being able to pluck address information from your contacts.
The music player was never going to compare to the iPhone's in terms of looks, seeing as the iPhone had the history of the iPod built into it. However, the sound quality is the same as the iPhone's and this has kept me happy. I bought the iPhone simply because I used to have an iPod + N95 and the iPhone offered me the change to have it all in one.
The default Sync software gets the job done but could do with extra functionality. I don't believe it backs up applications and it lacks the ability to Sync play lists from any media players.
The only issue I've found so far is with the default email application, I've set Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm as "peak time" which I've set to push but this didn't take effect this morning. It stayed on manual which is what off speak is set to.
My main gripe with the software so far is to do with the Applications and the Market. The application offering is very poor in comparison to the App Store and any applications you find that have been coded for Android as well are usually worse than their iPhone versions.
The Market is full of spam applications, the iPhone/App store gets slated for this on here but the truth is, Market Place is worse. I mean there are Apps that put a Firefox icon on your home screen that launches the default browser.
The Market Place application is no where near as index/search friendly as the App Store on the iPhone and each application is spammed with negative comments from clear retards who couldn't turn on a light switch.
I know this will only get better with time, but for now the iPhone stomps all over Android in this respect.
General phone usage: Texting
Texting is pretty similar on both devices, there used to be occasional slow downs with the iPhone which I don't get with the Desire. I would say I can text at the same pace on both and make the same amount of uncorrected errors.
However, Android does have the advantage in Swype - I've not used it but I've seen videos of side by side comparisons of note taking vs the iPhone. The Swype method really sped things up.
General phone usage: Browsing
The default browser is far better than the iPhone one. You don't get that checker board effect like on the iPhone and everything seems so much faster, especially page rendering.
The default browser occasionally doesn't fully reload the previous page after I've hit the back hardware button but a page reload quickly sorts this.
General phone usage: Calls
Nothing much to report here, call clarity is about the same whilst using the handset both in terms the sound quality coming out of the earpiece speaker on both the Desire and the other callers phone.
I've not tested the speaker phone yet, but god the iPhone loud speaker was awful so I hope and would imagine that the Desire's is better.
General phone usage: Camera
The camera isn't that brilliant considering it has a flash and a bigger sensor, so it's not that much better than the iPhone in my opinion. Not a major issue for me though as camera features aren't a huge selling point for me when it comes to phone.
Summary:
This really is a fast, good quality piece of kit.
The phone isn't at it's peak yet though, but once the Android picks up more market share along with the expansion of the Market place - this phone will bridge the small gap it has in terms of software with the iPhone.
I know alternate media players for the device exist, but none of them match the usability and sleekness of the the iPhone. The good thing is that Android is clearly a more open platform to develop for the iPhone and if a competing media software package came along with the ability to sync with a media player on your PC - the Desire could be just as good if not better.
If none of the following bother you:
- Lack of hardware keyboard
- Current lack of decent iPhone app alternatives
- Potentially not as good camera as other phones like the X10
Then I highly recommend you take a look at the Desire.
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