Manufacturer's Description
HTC Desire delivers intense brilliance, sharp contrast, and true colors on the expansive 3.7-inch SuperTFT display. The 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor makes the phone incredibly responsive as you multitask from app to app without skipping a beat, while the instinctive HTC Sense experience lets you wield the power of the HTC Desire with the greatest of ease.
Make it your way
Make It Mine
With the HTC Desire, it’s all about your information, your entertainment, your multimedia … your way. A multitude of HTC Sense widgets makes it easy to transform your Home screen with rich content that personalizes your phone experience.
If you’re a sports junkie or simply love to keep up to date with the latest news, the HTC Desire keeps you in the know with the News application. News makes it easier than ever to collect all your favorite articles from across the web. Choose from a selection of channels that cover top blogs, news sites or sports pages, or get news updates based on the keywords you select.
The HTC Desire excels at helping you stay in touch with the different circles of friends or colleagues in your life. The new People widget lets you bring any group you create on your phone right to the surface for easy access to calling, messaging, emailing or simply checking up on social networking updates.
Stay Close
The HTC Desire simplifies the way that you tend to all of your social networks. With Friend Stream, your interaction with friends across multiple social networks like Facebook®, Twitter™, and Flickr™ are brought into a single easy to follow stream of updates, photo posts, and shared links. Friend Stream also lets you shout out your thoughts or feelings to all your online friends with a single comment that gets broadcast to both Facebook and Twitter.
Discover the Unexpected
HTC Desire offers an expansive display, a blazing-fast processor, and a great interface. On top of that, it has a lot of little design touches that make a big impact on your overall phone experience: like quick and easy access to any panel of your Home screen with the new seven-panel ‘helicopter’ thumbnail view, or the polite ringer that lowers the ringer volume when you pick up the phone.
Discover the unexpected
Your work email, calendar appointments, and contacts, are right there on your phone - you can even look up any company contact in the global address book. The HTC Desire also has enhanced support for Exchange security features such as password protection and remote data wipe. And, if you forget to tell your colleagues that you are taking the much needed day off, you can set the ‘Out of Office’ status right from your phone.
HTC Desire was designed to thrive on the web. The screen size is perfect for mobile browsing, with the high resolution SuperTFT display making everything you view ultra crisp. The pinch to zoom feature makes zipping around websites intuitive - the text even automatically reflows when you take a closer look so you don’t have to pan left or right, and the Adobe® Flash® support opens up the vast video and gaming resources of the Internet.
HTC Desire’s browser is designed to do more than simply browse. With just a press and hold you can select text on a page and look it up in Wikipedia or have it converted into your native tongue via Google translation tools.
Which way to go?
Get voice-powered, turn-by-turn directions using Google Maps™ Navigation, with street view for easy orientation at arrival. Plus, find out if any of your friends are nearby using Google Latitude™. With Google Places™ you can use Google Maps™ and local search to explore an unfamiliar place. Use my location and search for local businesses, or get transit directions for help getting around town. Available for download from Android Market™.
Time to take a break
With its high-resolution screen and fast processor, the HTC Desire is a phone that is great for gaming. Immerse yourself in a full 3D gaming experience. Play against friends over the air or play on your own when you have a bit of down time.
Box Contains
- HTC Desire SIM-free Android smartphone
- Battery
- USB charger
- Data cable
- Stereo headset
- Quick Start guide
As I sit and write now, it seems difficult to sum up the HTC Desire, so instead let's look at what it does:
1) It's a Satnav - The HTC Desire has GPS and a very passable Satnav. What is also nice is how it integrates with google maps. Lookup a shop on the maps application, select navigate and the HTCD will direct you there. No rekeying.
2) It's an email client - It's not an exaggeration to say that since getting the HTCD, I hardly turn on my laptop to check email. Why bother ? I can manage my two email accounts on the phone and get notifications when new email arrives.
3) It's an internet browser - Not some irritating browser that you squint at or is very fiddly (like the iPhone one I've used before), but something quite smart. Zoom in with a two finger gesture and the browser homes in on the column of text and fits it to the screenwidth. Nice feature. On top of that, the screen is very clear and easy to read. The long and the short of it is that the laptop stays off for Internet bowsing.
4) It's a portable office - I am writing this review in a word document on my phone using 'Documents to go' combined with a hand writing recognition app called 'grafitti'. Both bought for less than 5 pounds. This also includes a simple Excel and Power point editor. They are basic however....
5) It's a social network client - Actually this sells it short. The built in widgets can display updates without having to run a separate app. It means you get updates from friends that seems like it's real time (although it obviously isn't). Take a photo 'touch' 'share' and your photo is uploaded. Very smart.
6) It's a document organizer (note this iPhone) -
What's the main drawback on the iPhone? Apple lock the os down so tight that there is no easy way to manage documents. On Android, it works like a computer. this means that I can move my documents where I want them and then setup shortcuts to the folders or documents on my desktop, just like a pc. Cool.
7) It's a 5 megapixel camera - and it takes nice photos, has a built in flash and gives me the opportunity to specify what to focus on, by touch.
8) It's a video camera
9) It's an MP3 player and multimedia player
10) It's an FM radio and uses the headphone lead as an ariel.
11) And did I mention it's also a phone ?
In short, it's a computer in your pocket with a 4gb sd card, expandable up to 32gb.
So what's the drawback?
Well there are a few, so it's good to be aware of what they are:
- It's not the easiest to use. If you struggle with your home pc, take my advice and get yourself an iPhone. This is like having a computer in your pocket.
- Android 2.1 limits how many applications you can download from the android market by only allowing you to install them to phone memory instead of SD card memory. Whoops ! This is fixed in Android 2.2 (froyo) which is out now as a free upgrade.
- Buy, buy, buy a screen protector. It makes no difference to the HTC desire operation and it needs it!
- The biggest drawback is the battery life which just isn't good enough. The standard battery doesn't last a normal day which has you either charging at your desk at work, buying a backup battery pack charger or going for a thicker extended battery. This is the phone's single biggest drawback and probably the only reason that I'd look at something else next time.
Overall, this is a brilliant device. Can't see myself looking at an iPhone in future. Enjoy :)
