HTC Desire

If you wanted to know which mobile phone manufacturer stands out from all the others, it would have to be HTC.  After a careful collaboration with Google, they were the first to market with an Android phone, but are also one of the few to have tempted to take the OS further with a very successful customisation. 

And 2010 is looking set to be another great year for the company.  So far we've tested two of the three handsets launched by HTC at the start of the year, the HTC HD Mini and the HTC Legend, and both were a big hit.  We might as well tell you know, the Desire is a worthy match for the both of them.  Let's take a closer look at what makes this top-of-the-range phone so good ...



HD2 on Android or Nexus One branded as HTC?

You shouldn't be too surprised if you find yourself thinking that the Desire seems strangely familiar.  It's a lot like the famous Google Nexus One and the only real technical difference with the HD2 is the latter's larger screen, which can sometimes be a burden.


There is really no denying the visual similarity between the Desire and the Nexus One, with both handsets relying on the same basic elements of design: the colours, shapes and sizes are identical from one to the other.  The only thing that's different is the presence of the trackball and the touch-sensitive buttons on the Nexus One, which are different to the Desire's optical trackpad and physical buttons.

The upshot of all of this is a phone that's easy to handle but doesn't take up too much space, despite of its large screen.  It's not exactly a style revolution, but is probably a good counterweight to the more fashion-forward Legend.

Sense: HTC sticks with it--wisely

We're not going to bore our loyal readers by going through the details of what new features are available in the new version of Sense that sits on top of Android 2.1.  In case you've forgotten, though, a quick look at our test of the Legend should be enough to fill you in.

In case you're worried, though, the wheel of different homescreens that borrows from Mac OS X's Exposé feature is still there, as are the tools for managing your social networks.  Right down to the finest details, this is an exact copy of the interface on offer on the Legend.  The larger screen and the higher resolution on offer here make using it a little bit easier to use, but it really doesn't change things that much from the perspective of the user.

We still like the spell check, which is spot on and manages to handle both 'real' spelling mistakes and errors that crop up because you hit the wrong spot on the virtual keyboard.  It's impressively accurate, as is the selection tool, which is well designed, easy to use and a real time-saver.  If you get a chance, we suggest you try them both!
 

Left: the Desire homescreen.  Right: switching between homescreens.

Internet: Snapdragon doesn't hold back

 

One of the use cases that some phones really struggle with is browsing the web.  Pages can take a long time to load, and the relatively large files required to display Flash-based content don't help matters.  The Desire sticks to Flash lite, though, and its browser does well.  In general, we didn't see the Desire struggling with many things.  With 576 MB or RAM, there's plenty of room for manoeuvre, and you won't have to use TaskKiller for quite a while.

As we said, social networking sites are still very tightly integrated with the phone itself.  Although for once HTC wasn't the first manufacturer to do this, they do it very well, which isn't true of everybody who has tried sin.  We love the way you can start with small thumbnails of your favourites (like in Google Chrome), flicking through them like album covers in iTunes.

Multimedia: perhaps the best yet from HTC

That's certainly true for the camera, anyway.  Then again, that wasn't too difficult given how bad HTC's earlier phones were.  We're not going to complain about the improvements though: this is definite progress.  There's support for a long list of audio file formats, and only FLAC is missing.  It's not that much of a problem though given the dreadful headphones that come with the handsfree kit.  It's about time that HTC started paying as much attention to the accessories on its phones as it does to the handsets themselves.

You might think that there'd be room for HD video on a phone like this, but, for the time being at least, it's not there.  DivX and other video formats were supposed to be supported at 720p, but instead you'll have to wait for a firmware update.  The FM radio that was on the Legend is back.


Of course, the Desire comes with an A-GPS chip too, which works well with Google Earth, now supplied directly with Android 2.1.  Although being able to move around your maps using the phone's accelerometer isn't exactly essential, it's great fun and it would been silly to leave it out.

There's one sticky subject though: battery life.  As big as the battery is, and as powerful as the power management system is, they can't work miracles.   The Desire has a bad case of 'iPhone syndrome': it's a great smartphone that's fun to use and powerful enough to make you want to use it the whole time, so you end up doing a lot more than you would with an ordinary phone.  It's difficult to expect to get more than a day out of it without recharging it.  That's reasonable, but could be better.  

Although the choice between the Nexus One and the Desire isn't one that a lot of UK customers have had to make yet, it's interesting to see how the latter compares to some of HTC's other handsets which are more easily available.  Between the stylish all-rounder that is the Legend, the small but perfectly formed HD Mini and the huge screen on the HD2, there is a lot to think about before you buy.  That said, the Taiwanese giant has done a good job of making its two leading Android phones distinctive enough so that they don't end up stealing market share from one another.