HTC Wildfire Review
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HTC Sense at that pixel density looks stretched, and its elements jagged. We won't dwell on it too much since we already reviewed the last changes to Sense UI brought in by the HTC Legend - that's exactly what you will find on the HTC Wildfire, from the widgets and messaging to the gallery. The HTC Desire had live wallpapers behind the latest Sense UI - a nice perk that Android 2.1 brought - but they are absent on the Wildfire. Most probably HTC wisely concluded that the interactive wallpapers might choke the slow 528MHz Qualcomm processor, and omitted them, as they did with the Legend. The interface is actually smooth since the CPU speed, and the 384MB RAM, are obviously enough for Sense UI. The helicopter view (where the seven homescreens appear as six cards circling the minimized default one with the clock) can be most easily accessed on the HTC Wildfire with the usual homescreen pinch-in with two fingers.
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Homescreen | Helicopter view | Main menu |
A 3.2” screen size is certainly not great for an on-screen keyboard, especially for bigger thumbs. The HTC Wildfire's default Sense UI keyboard does make you look at it all the time for mistypes, since responsiveness is a bit slow. Same goes for the screen reaction to the accelerometer - it takes just a tad more than it should.
Connectivity and Data:
The HTC Wildfire has the usual range of connectivity options you can find on smartphones lately – HSDPA 7.2Mbps, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio and A-GPS.
The biggest drawback in terms of speed we found in the browser - scrolling full pages there is a pain. They load quickly and render properly, but when you start scrolling heavy pages, the browser skips beats, and takes you to the end in choppy slow-mo stages. Double-tap-to-zoom transitions normally, though, and once zoomed in, scrolling becomes fairly fluid again. Still, it is nowhere near the exemplary experience on handsets with 1GHz cores, for example. We noticed a similar scroll lag in documents, opened in the preinstalled QuickOffice suite, but this we are used to seeing, save for the most powerful handsets on the market.
Camera and Multimedia:
It would be good to have a dedicated icon in the camera interface for changing from camera to video modes – now this is done by pulling out the settings pane, tucked in neatly on the left. There are a lot of effects which can be added to pictures and video, but there aren't any preset scene modes.
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Camera interface | |||
These above are not deal breakers, however the samples from the 5MP camera on the HTC Wildfire left us with a bad aftertaste. Most outdoor photos came out blurry; However, should you play a bit with the touch-to-focus feature, you would be able to get a normal result in close-up shots. More epic scenes though will still lack detal. Another thing to worry about with the Wildfire's 5MP shooter is color representation. All in all, outdoor shots that feature a good deal of sky tend to get their white balance mixed up, coming out with a bluish tint.
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Outdoor samples shot with the HTC Wildfire | |||
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Strong light | Medium light |
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Low light | Darkness with flash |
Indoor samples | |
The MPEG-4 video recording mode goes only to CIF (352x288 pixels) resolution, which means subpar quality already, and the slow 15fps capture rate certainly doesn't add for a smoother experience. Last, but not least, videos are also suffering from that bluish tint issue.
HTC Wildfire sample video at 320x240 pixels resolution and 24fps.
Listening to music with the supplied headset is a much better experience, although we could hear a lot of the ambient noise around.
The gallery interface and options don't differ from the recent Sense UI ones, and the Wildfire has the habit to search for media each time you enter it. It takes not more than two seconds, but is annoying nonetheless. The handset was able to play our MPEG-4 videos up to 800x480 pixels, but froze badly once on such resolution, so be prepared.
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Gallery | ||
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17 Comments
2. samir (unregistered) posted on 07 Nov 2010, 12:57 0 0
this phone looks good , and i am going to get the phone soon. i have never had a htc phone beforeXD
5. kunnyfunt (unregistered) posted on 04 Dec 2010, 09:50 0 0
jeeeeeeez man.wat a review. it scks. r u guys on nokia or samsung payrolls. get a life guys. this phone rocks. u guys need a holiday to clear ur heads. cheeeeeers
6. samir (unregistered) posted on 06 Dec 2010, 10:51 0 0
mmm this review sucks, but the phone is still best and i going to buy it soon XD
7. halides (unregistered) posted on 10 Dec 2010, 06:14 0 0
Worth to have this Android Phone. It will give value for your money spent.
Touch is pretty good, very near to apple touch devices, quiet responsive and rugged and sleek design.
8. vineet (unregistered) posted on 19 Dec 2010, 03:11 0 0
bought this set couple of days back n it rocks:) the review is total shit!!!
9. Nilanjan (unregistered) posted on 04 Jan 2011, 08:15 0 0
The phone surely lacks in the display (therefore no support for live wallpaper) and the processor. However, the processor has not let me down till date.
I have expected performance while listening to music, be it the built-in music player or market apps, reading books in market app and searching a file at the background. The book reading did not hamper, the pages flipped normally, the music played unhindered and the search yielded results in expected time.
I have tested HTC Legend as well. And I have not noticed much difference in performance, keeping in mind the difference in processor capacity among the phones.
In such a price, HTC Wildfire rocks, if you are not much obsessed with the display, which I must say, is not bad at all.
10. ryq (unregistered) posted on 09 Jan 2011, 09:17 0 0
other web site which reviewed this phone also have same conclusion. they just don't like this phone. but are all praise for HTC high end phones.
11. bharat bhatia (unregistered) posted on 12 Apr 2011, 23:45 0 0
this is d zakas fon................go 4 it.............
12. janam (unregistered) posted on 03 May 2011, 02:12 0 0
yes its rite...... seems dat u guys hve got d agency of nokia. inspite of slow processor n camera quality the phone still keeps it fair position... good goin.....
15. tourist (unregistered) posted on 30 Jun 2011, 02:35 0 0
This phone got 7.5 which is fairly above average. I also have it - the drawbacks have been properly pointed out, however it is still a good phone, hence 7.5.
16. lion-killer (unregistered) posted on 11 Sep 2011, 11:36 0 0
this phone is very pretty n sexy in look , slim and fit to hand.
17. Sharadakanta Dash (unregistered) posted on 14 Oct 2011, 05:07 0 0
I am having HTC Wildfire. It has a very less batery back up. If u browse for continuously for 1 or 1 n half hr the batery levels reduces to red signal. Otherwise it is a good android handset. Till now HTC wildfire has given the best features so far within a budget of 11000 only. Sound quality in head phone is very nice. Over ally its performance is very good. No call drops is here like other phones. Even u talk with the loud speaker it gives a very audible voice to the listener at the other end.
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