HTC Desire HD Review
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"It Makes Sense".
This is HTC's tagline delivered along-side anything to do with their new UI and general user experience, HTC Sense. On the surface, it seems like a spruce up of a GUI we've become quite fond of. With some very useful bespoke widgets such as their news reader and calendar, the functionality you get out of the box with an HTC unit is truly astounding. These widgets have been re-worked for each new device, saving users from digging around for, say, an RSS reader widget that fills their whole screen (which sounds far easier than it is). This is, and has been truly priceless for anyone who isn't an Android fanboy/girl who want to dig deep into the Android Market and skin every crevice of their phone. HTC have improved the in-phone experience with their new Sense UI, improving caching of maps and compass orienting for example amongst a host of interface changes such as optimizing the menu that appears with a long press of the home screen to offer more options. More interestingly however, they've worked on an out of phone experience. With our HTC Desire HD hidden in another room for example, we logged onto our HTC Sense account on our PC and made it ring remotely. This works every time provided there's a network connection, even when the handset is on silent. It also enables settings to lock the phone and wipe information from it remotely. We think this is sci-fi awesome - well done, HTC.
HTC Sense takes a smidgen of getting used to if you've never used it before, however is no more challenging than vanilla Android. In fact, it’s easier. For example, you can personalize the homescreen and add icons without a long-press of the homescreen. Instead, just tap the paintbrush and palette symbol on the bottom left of the homescreen - very intuitive. As already mentioned, there are plenty of pre-loaded HTC widgets which are very functional further improving usability. For those of you who want a list of HTC Widgets, in alphabetical order - your wish is our command: Bookmark, Calculator, Clock, FM Radio, Friend Stream, HTC Likes (app suggestions), Locations, Mail, Messages, Music, My Shelf (ebook shelf), Navigate, News, People, Photo Album, Photo Frame, Search Anywhere, Stocks, Sync All, Tips for Home, Twitter, Weather.
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HTC Sense on the HTC Desire HD | |||
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You can personalize the homescreen | ||
Tap the "Phone" button, centered in the bottom of any one of the 7 homescreens and the dialler is pulled up. This works wonderfully, enabling you to numerically enter a name (i.e. bob as 262), with the HTC Desire HD displaying it instantly. Behind the dialler are all your contacts, so minimize the dialer, and intuitively, you're left with your contacts - great. The phonebook works well once you learn how to control it. By this, we mean that HTC Sense pulls in ALL your contacts from EVERYWHERE by default. This feels overwhelming at first, however, open "People", press "Menu" and then tap "View" and you can select which contacts to display (Google, Facebook, SIM etc). Once done, your contacts are a pleasure to thumb through. As for voice recognition, it works better than most, but still gets it wrong every so often.
Now onto the keyboard. We would go so far as to say, the HTC Desire HD gives one of the best on-screen keyboard experience we've used to date. We could actually close our eyes, carry on typing and the magical contraption would figure out what we were trying to type for nigh on a paragraph. Good haptic feedback, amazing predictive text, comfortable, intuitive key spacing all make for greatness. Now onto our little gripe. With the experience being so good for text entry, number and symbol entry requires a long press on a key. This long press is too long, breaking the speedy entry and what could have been a near perfect keyboard experience. Nevertheless, overall, amazing.
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The on-screen keyboard of the HTC Desire HD | |
Organizer tools performed very well indeed. Running Android 2.2, the HTC Desire HD is perfect if you use Google calendars and contacts for example, it all functions as would be expected from a high-end Android phone (great), with the added sprucing up that comes with bespoke widgets courtesy of HTC, such as calendar and calculator. There is also a swish alarm interface, a flashlight and voice recorder along with all the other organizer tools you would expect.
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Organizer tools perform very well | |||
Naturally, with a lot of HTCs widgets requiring network access, if you put one of them on every homescreens and let your HTC Desire HD Sync to its hearts content, you will notice a fair amount of lag. We even found HTC Sense having to close down and start up when we turned up the heat every now and then suggesting that for all it's offerings, it isn't as stable as it could be. Use the widgets wisely however, and manage your phone's connections (which you'll want to do anyway to preserve battery juice) and you shouldn't find it an issue.
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24 Comments
1. jaadx posted on 05 Nov 2010, 07:57 1 0
Great review for great phone
Thank u phonearena but wish to see a galaxy s vs desire hd review that will be so nice
2. Jigar (unregistered) posted on 05 Nov 2010, 13:04 1 0
well the review looks fantastic...great job phonearena...
i've been using n95-8gb for over 2.5 yrs and m currently looking for a gud android phone..
had shortlisted Desire and Galaxy S...but now Desire HD looks simply awesome...
Only concern is the battery life...hope its taken care of in future updates...the phone should at least last a day (like n95-8gb)
Good job HTC...
4. ghost_uwi posted on 05 Nov 2010, 22:31 0 0
WOW @ N95 had that a while back great phone. When you upgrade you will be blown away by almost any of the new high end (grade 9.0+) phones out
3. ghost_uwi posted on 05 Nov 2010, 14:34 1 0
Wow excellent review. After reading about 20+ reviews on this phone you hit the nail on the head with this one. My only gripe is where is the video review :(
5. fakhri (unregistered) posted on 06 Nov 2010, 01:31 0 0
reviewer,
how realistic would the desire hd be as a primary ebook reader?
if anybody here is a ebook reader, please do chip in your opinions. id like to know whats the minimum screen size for comfortably reading an ebook.
trying to decide whether i can get a big screen phone like Desire HD or Droid X, or go with a phone + separate ebook reader.
thnx PA. great review
7. PhoneArena Team posted on 06 Nov 2010, 15:26 0 0
Hey Fakhri,
Thanks for the positive feedback on the review.
As for whether the HTC Desire HD could double up as an ebook reader, this is subjective. The onboard ebook reader is a bit harsh on the eyes, though we really like Aldiko. It's a free ebook reader that lets you make the background black and text white, making it much easier on the eyes. Also, it isn't really usable in portrait as lines are way too short, though landscape is ok.
If you're looking for a "pocket friendly" Android phone that could double up as an ebook reader, we're using the Dell Streak at the moment and it does a really great job of handling ebooks and just about fits in your pocket. You will be sacrificing on Sense UI however.
A good idea would be to try out the native app and if possible Aldiko in a store near you.
Hope that helped,
The phoneArena Team
6. bbbb (unregistered) posted on 06 Nov 2010, 10:07 0 0
its really funny that symbian^3 smartphones with 'outdated' cpu and tiny amount of RAM are more stable and can do better multitasking than desire hd.
8. Donny Dee (unregistered) posted on 06 Nov 2010, 18:23 0 0
Verizon this month I hear? Incredible Pro or HD?
9. Mark (unregistered) posted on 07 Nov 2010, 13:27 0 0
Reviewer,
If you have heard about the Voodoo lagfix (it speeds up Samsung Galaxy S, and avoids the 'lag' you were facing in your review), then can you please tell me which phone is better, this or the Samsung i9000 Galaxy S
11. ..... (unregistered) posted on 08 Nov 2010, 07:19 0 0
guys can you help me pick. i can't choose between the desire hd and samsung galaxy S wich 1 is better
12. Eingild (unregistered) posted on 08 Nov 2010, 08:28 0 0
It's nice to know that Phonearena is now responding to the comments of the readers. This is a definitely + points for the user experience. Kudos to PA.
13. admin (unregistered) posted on 08 Nov 2010, 13:31 0 0
guys, I have the Desire HD.
BUT.
It doesn't last as long as my "old" Galaxy S.
Nor does it have as much storage 1.5gb vs 8gb.
Doesn't take as good photos as my SGS, not videos either.
In the complete darkness yes the DHD CAN take pictures/videos but...
Also I prefer the more nimbler body of the SGS, but I do like the metal body of the DHD. btw is there a swype app out there? I really need it in order to type fast but thats me.
The screen on the SGS, must be hands down the best I have ever seen (so far)
I don't know if I shall give the DHD back to the store and get my self a Galaxy S again (remember 2.2 is out now)
I dont have any lag on my DHD, phone arena you should check out "USB DEBUG" mode on the device, some are having problems that the CPU is active for no given reason.
and I do agree on the plastic covers, I fear I might break them if I need to open it up again...
15. Mike (unregistered) posted on 10 Nov 2010, 17:07 0 0
I bought the htc desire HD after letting my iphone 3gs go which i had since release. First impressions were good, but sadly i didnt turn out to be very happy with this phone. I was impressed with the camera, htc sense and the speed of phone, oh and the best thing it can be used as wi-fi hotspot, but it was not long before i had some niggles.The internet crashes very frequently, when i take pictures using the camera after perhaps a day the pictures are shown only as error grey boxes, a surprising amount of the apps i downloaded either dont work properly or cause the phone to crash and occasionaly the phone crashes where i cant even make a call without restarting the phone (only happened 2/3 times but not good with owning this only 2 weeks or so). I had really high expectations due to the hype of the original desire so its a shame!
16. admin (unregistered) posted on 10 Nov 2010, 18:18 0 0
Mike, have you installed the latest 2 updates?
17. notlying (unregistered) posted on 11 Nov 2010, 01:38 0 0
i have the desire build on my hd2 and i have had no problems with apps, maybe you should learn to use your phone first before complaining...
18. icooon (unregistered) posted on 12 Nov 2010, 02:04 0 0
how's the comparison b2een HTC desire HD and the samsaung galaxy tab which plays phone role. Ur comments pls.
19. Dan_p (unregistered) posted on 13 Nov 2010, 05:13 0 0
I'll play the devil's advocate here. I'm not really that into what the HTC Desire HD's offerings. Will gladly go for a stock android experience on any day as it is more stable. The phone should at least give the user the option to turn Sense off.
Aside from iPhone 4 and Nokia N8, the attempt on HTC Desire HD to marry steel and plastic looks desperate at best. There have been reviews in other sites heavily criticizing the clunky handling of battery cover, ill fitting parts, and physical gaps... I hope these get fixed. Totally unsightly for a supposed flagship.
The impact of battery life is simply understated, a dead high-tech device is simply unacceptable for the corporate types who need to be connected most of the time.
I would still gladly recommend the older HTC Desire or the Samsung Galaxy for a more rewarding Android experience.
Symbian-wise, N8 makes up for a very compelling offering with its excellent build quality, unrivalled spec list, and a reliable and functional OS.
iOS-wise, iPhone 4 is definitely the only choice that offers simplified OS to cut across all intellectual levels, a compelling collection of apps in its app store, and a universally likable build.
20. Mad Max (unregistered) posted on 13 Nov 2010, 11:57 0 0
@desire HD users:
can anybody tell me something about the Microphone-quality?
I need a recorder, that works quite as good as the iphone-recorder.
A friend has got the old desire and that has got a real bad mic-quality...
21. dkvc (unregistered) posted on 18 Mar 2011, 23:14 0 0
Symbian^3 got dated functionality? What hell? What you think about iOS then that doesn't even have Widgets? That was such a biased "observation" from the reviewer.
22. diogorva (unregistered) posted on 05 Apr 2011, 19:47 0 0
The phone was way overated. You got a giant screen but you can't see anything in direct sunlight, the battery is terrible, the HD video-recording is bad, if you read the GSMArena review, you will see that even the audio quaility is poor. You can have better phones for way lower prices.
23. dkvc (unregistered) posted on 05 Apr 2011, 19:52 0 0
Dated functionality is much more related with iOS doesn't even have a proper homescreen or widgets, but how PhoneArena would dare call the almighty iOS dated? It's much more convenient to say that Symbian that got dated functionality, since it became usual to bash this OS.
I really like PhoneArena reviews, but sometimes you act so biased.
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