HTC Desire Review

Introduction:

It all began with the Motorola DROID back in 2009, but things got quickly out of hand with all the fuss and excitement surrounding the operating system that escalated when Google announced the Nexus One (a device manufactured by HTC) at the beginning of 2010. This added fuel to the fire for HTC fans, who began to dream about a similar device, equipped with the famous HTC Sense interface instead (preferred by many). Said device was not to be introduced until MWC 2010, where we finally found out it would be called the HTC Desire. So, this is how eager high-tech buffs started counting the days...

But enough history. The important thing is the HTC Desire, the most powerful Android cell phone of the manufacturer to date has finally arrived and we got our hands on it. There is no way we fail to compare its specifications to the Nexus One and not notice the differences are... minor. The major distinction between them is the HTC Desire features extra 64MB of RAM, i.e. 576MB instead of 512MB.

There is nothing really groundbreaking or innovative into the box of the HTC Desire – just a wall charger, USB cable, headphones and 4GB microSD card. The latter is welcome indeed, since it provides ample space for your multimedia files. Unlike the Nexus One, the Desire doesn't come with a pouch, so you will have to find your own way of protecting the precious from dirt and scratches.

Design:

Now we're talking! We have recently had the pleasure to review the HTC Legend and this is how we chose to summarize everything about its design:

„All told, the HTC Legend is certainly among the best Android handsets today in terms of design. We can even go so far as to say that the Legend is one of the top three smartphones ever.”

The HTC Desire also belongs to the same category of "the best-made Android handsets to date", although it's not as spectacular as the Legend. Its body is not made from a single chunk of aluminum and therefore, it just doesn't provide the same feeling of a sturdy, reliable item. The only metal part of its body is the metal framing around the screen – the back is entirely plastic, unlike the Google Nexus One. The battery cover is coated with a soft, rubberized material that provides perfunctory cohesion between your hand and the phone body. By the way, the panel is relatively hard to remove, because it bends easily and gives off rather disturbing sounds in the process. Moreover, you will have to take out the battery in order to reach the SIM and microSD card slots underneath, which is somewhat inconvenient.


"It's huge!", "No, it's not!"... one of the arguments that split our otherwise solidly united office when the Desire arrived. We felt we had to resort and, therefore, invent an innovative visual comparison system (take a look at the results below). It turned out the cell phone has totally acceptable overall dimensions for its class... and screen. The iPhone is more compact, even if marginally, but its display is smaller. Actually, the major reason that provoked the unrest was the particular way the HTC Desire feels in your hand. Because of its overall weight or perhaps, the lack of proper balance (the upper part is slightly heftier, just like in the case of the Nexus One), the Desire feels enormous in to hold in your hand. Its thin profile, however, guarantees the device will certainly not make your pocket overly bulging.



You can compare the HTC Desire with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The reason behind the bulky size is, of course, the 3.7-inch display that utilizes AMOLED technology. Images are unbelievably vivid indoors and their colors are very saturated and pleasing. Unfortunately, it gets rather hard to use in direct sunlight, even with the brightness set to its maximum value. We suspect that, similarly to the Nexus One, the Desire integrates the PenTile RGBG technology or, in other words, does not really offer true WVGA resolution - rather, 392x653 pixels stretched to 480x800. Alongside of the Motorola MILESTONE/DROID, you will certainly notice that texts (say in the browser) are not as crisp and detailed. It's a good thing you need to peer into the screen really hard to spot such particularities. All told, the display of the HTC Desire is quite good indeed, features proper touch-sensitivity and supports multitouch. It would have been great if it came with oleophobic coating, because it can get dirty quite easily.


The standard set of buttons typical of Android handsets is located below the screen and you have home screen, menu, step back and search keys. The HTC has opted for an optical pad instead of trackball, but either way, this is not an overused hardware feature really. As a whole, we didn't encounter any issues pressing the buttons and they all have proper travel. The bad thing is that, when you hold the handset in such a way so as to use the entire display with one hand, the keys are too far away from your thumb (at the bottom) and you will have to keep adjusting your grip or, alternatively, use your other hand. This affects the usability of all massive displays and there is nothing you can do about it.

The HTC Desire is charged via standard microUSB port and there is a 3.5mm headphone jack located on the top side. The power on/off button is one of the most pleasing we have ever touched.



We can hardly think of a new handset manufactured by HTC with a disappointing design. The Taiwanese company does offer one of the best-made and most spectacular smartphones today and the HTC Desire is an illustrative example. By the way, the handset is expected to hit the shelves not just in brown, but silver color solution as well. 

Interface:

We have already mentioned the HTC Desire runs the famous Sense interface and this is the major software difference to the Nexus One. Other than that, the operating system is the same, Android 2.1 and it does have its advantages over older editions. The most significant differences include faster speed and support for multiple accounts (plus Microsoft Exchange) and this is more than welcome for business users who store information on remote servers. Live Wallpaper (animated background for all the seven start pages) makes its first appearance within the framework of Sense, since the HTC Legend does not feature the function, probably due to its less impressive hardware specifications.

Speaking of operational speed and specifications, we just have to admit the HTC Desire is lighting fast. It's like a cheetah. This is to be expected, of course, given the snappy 1GHz processor and 576MB RAM. Still, nothing is perfect and the rules applies here as well – you can sometimes evidence software lagging when switching on an interactive Live Wallpaper, especially if you try to bring down the machine to its knees by running too many applications at the same time (say player, browser etc.). All told, we would use the animated wallpapers to impress a nice girl, but would never sacrifice the operational speed on a daily basis.

Since we have already covered all major functions of the Sense interface in our review of the HTC Hero and took a closer look at the improvements brought by the latest OS edition in our review of the HTC Legend, we are not going into details here, because the software of the HTC Desire does not offer any novelties (aside from Live Wallpapers). We will only indicate the most important aspects, so new readers may get a rough idea about the functionality of the handset. If you need further information, please, take a look at the above-mentioned reviews.


The home screen consists of seven pages that can host various widgets, shortcuts and folders. Some of the available widgets come with compact versions that do not take up much screen space, but others like FriendStream require a whole page. By the way, this is an application that provides latest Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates from your relevant accounts. Moreover, it allows for simultaneous Facebook and Twitter status updates. We cannot call the program innovative, since it closely resembles the Happenings widget of Motorola’s MOTOBLUR interface, plus it cannot really replace dedicated applications for access to the mentioned networks.


You can save your home screen page settings in the form of themes called Scenes or, alternatively, use one of the preloaded ones made by HTC. We do like the “helicopter view” that shows all seven pages at the same time. You can enter this mode by double-pressing the button that takes you to the home screen or simply “pinching” the screen. Thanks to the extra feature, you can get right to the page you need in a snap, without having to scroll pages until you get dizzy.



Phone contacts:

The application "People" is one of the seven great wonders of modern smartphone software. You might need some time to get used to it and learn how to get around, but the phone book offers access to an excruciating amount of information and shows your Facebook contacts. You can also add a great number of extra details about each person, browse their latest pictures and profile status updates.



Organizer:

As a whole, pretty much everything here is awesome. The calendar can be synchronized with various sources of information like Google (multiple accounts), Facebook and PC Sync. Moreover, you will be able to take a look at the weather forecast for your region on opening the calendar in daily view, which is handy indeed. The alarms, world clock, stopwatch and timer functions are unified in a single and totally cool menu. Unfortunately, the HTC Desire lacks pre-installed tasks application, although Android Market is brimming with programs with similar functionality.



Messaging:

You are allowed to set up several email accounts, but you will have to put up with the fact you cannot browse them at the same time, meaning only one can be active at a time. Like all other contemporary handsets, the HTC Desire offers automated email set up if you are registered with a popular service provider. Still, all settings relating to specific servers, like our own, require manual entry (it seems only BlackBerry devices can automatically handle the task).


Typing away is a dream come true when using the screen keyboards of the HTC Desire. The 3.7-inch display and its high native resolution provide ample space for keys. It’s available in several modes, including alphanumeric, compact QWERTY, full landscape and portrait QWERTY keyboards. Important symbols are brought onto all full QWERTY layouts and they can be typed in by holding the corresponding key pressed for a while. The feature may come in pretty handy, especially in case you need to enter passwords containing several special symbols. All told, the HTC Desire is really comfortable when it comes to message composing.



Connectivity and Internet:

Just like the HTC Legend, the Desire supports Flash (its Lite version, if we have to be punctual). This makes web pages more lively, because animated elements get loaded properly, plus you can watch videos (not everywhere) and listen to online music. Whatever it is that Apple claims, Flash is still in power today and we don't think this will change soon.

The Flash capabilities of the Desire are similar to those of its sibling, the Legend, although some online videos play more smoothly. We didn’t encounter any issues with YouTube, because the website is opened in the browser’s Flash Player (not to be confused with the dedicated YouTube player that has to be started manually). Some of the videos available at other pages like Viddler are watchable (without using the player), but they tend to stutter, while websites like the non-mobile version of Vimeo won’t load at all. The same applies to listening to audio tracks in Flash-based players – some of them work fine, other simply won’t and that’s that. Still, let’s keep in mind that many modern handsets do not support Flash at all, so we have to admit the Desire is pretty capable on that point. If you, however, feel like watching YouTube videos with proper quality, we would recommend that you stick to the dedicated YouTube application rather than resorting to the HTC Flash Player (set up as the default program).


The HTC Desire is an awesome device for surfing the Internet. You can zoom in and out on things via multitouch and the function works smoothly. Scrolling pages is as easy as ABC and page text gets resized so as to allow for easier reading. The 3.7-inch screen is convenient for reading and shows the larger part of most pages. Certainly, it will never replace your iPad... we are joking, of course.


The HTC Desire features both HSDPA 7.2Mbps and Wi-Fi functionality. We do like the option that allows for local sharing of audio tracks and pictures over Bluetooth, a feature that is conspicuous in its absence with the HTC Hero (and all other Android-based handsets for that matter). If you need to be able to send over documents, you will have to get third-party software from the Android Market.

Camera:

The HTC Desire is equipped with 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash. It is really snappy and focuses objects in a split second (you don't need intervene in any way), plus snapshots get saved almost instantaneously. The interface is relatively poor in terms of options, although it does feature modern functions like face detection and manually adjustable contrast, color saturation and sharpness. The maximum video capture resolution is 800x480 pixels and the frames per second vary from 26 (outdoors) to nearly 17 (indoors).


The snapshot quality is similar to what the Legend and Nexus One deliver – proper details, relatively realistic colors (somewhat darker than we would have liked). The situation gets worse indoors though and the most severely affected image element is the color representation. The camera flash is capable enough to guarantee images don't come out blurry, but that's pretty much all. The same applies to the videos you take and we can say a good word or two about the proper sound capture, if the object is close enough, i.e. 3 to five feet away from you.




HTC Desire sample video at 800x480 pixels resolution

As a whole, the camera of the HTC Desire is acceptable for daily use and allows for instantaneous sharing of images over social networks. Of course, it cannot replace your digital camera, but this applies to almost all cell phones anyway. It would have been great if the handset was HD video capture capable, but it seems the feature will be exclusively available with the smartphones that are to hit the shelves this summer, like the Samsung Galaxy S, HTC EVO 4G.

Multimedia:

We have to admit one of the first tests we made with the HTC Desire was watch several videos. Still, this is one of the best ways of killing time while waiting or travelling. We are pleasantly surprised the handset plays videos with resolution of 1280x720 pixels and high bitrate. Unfortunately, the device does not support DivX and Xvid, so you will have to make do with your MPEG-4 (H.264 and H.263) files. Generally speaking, movies are downright a marvel to behold in full HD, so we hope the rumor speaks true and the update that adds DivX support is on its way. We still do not have any information about third-party software that allows the device to play files in this format (like Core Player for Windows Mobile and Symbian).


HTC's audio player is certainly not a sight unseen. It features various content filtering options and none that pertains to audio playback modification (lacks equalizer). In case you don't like that, you can always visit the Android Market and get one of the numerous players available there. Personally, we like "³" (also known as Cubic) best, because of its spectacular interface.


The loudspeaker does pack some punch, but the sound is overly sharp. It will certainly wake you up in the morning, the quality is exceptionally well suited for the task, but you better forget about listening to music through it. The boxed headset pair looks good, comes with handy controls and proper microphone and can be used as a hands-free. The sound though it is not really powerful and the slight audio sharpness is easy to notice, but they are fit for use on daily basis. In case you happen to be an audiophile, you better get yourself proper earphones, because the overall audio quality benefits from them to the extent it becomes similar to what standalone music players deliver.

You will have no choice but to plug in the headset in case you feel like listening to the FM Radio. It’s actually a novelty feature for the Android line-up of HTC and comes with super simple interface. Still, what’s important here is the application is snappy and equipped with functional RDS that detects radio channel names instantaneously.



GPS and Software:

The only software pack for navigation and maps that is pre-installed on the HTC Desire is Google Maps version 4 that brings certain novelties like information layers. If you decide to help the GPS module and activate it in assisted mode, getting your exact location pinpointed will take just a few seconds. Without it, you will have to wait for 4-5 minutes to find out where you are (after hardware reset) and less than a minute if you have already been located exactly.


We post news about the evolution of the Android Market in our news section on regular. The latest data shows more than 9,000 applications have been added to the application catalogue in March alone and some estimate the total number of programs is well in excess of 40,000 today. Still, keep in mind that some applications are unavailable in certain regions, for an instance, you might be unable to access paid-for programs. As a whole, the Android Market is a great source of more (or less) useful software, but is exceptionally poor when it comes to proper games (alongside of Apple's App Store). One of the titles with the best graphics we have seen is Raging Thunder II that plays relatively smoothly on the HTC Desire, although not as much as on the iPhone 3GS.

Performance:

We tested the in-call quality of the HTC Desire in various conditions - in the still calm of the office, busy street, noisy pub etc. We didn't encounter any issues, were able to understand our callers perfectly and they didn't have any complaints either, although they said they could hear environmental noise. Voices of people are loud and realistic in close to perfect conditions and frankly, in this case the in-call quality is nearly the best we have experienced.

HTC claims the Desire provides up to 6.5 hours of continuous talk time and remains operational for up to 15 days in stand-by on 3G networks. In real life, if you use it for surfing the Internet, listening to music and moderate number of calls, you will have to charge it once a day or day and a half.

Conclusion:

Let's get back to what we said at the beginning. We started the review with:

„The important thing is the HTC Desire, the most powerful Android cell phone of the manufacturer to date has finally arrived and we got our hands on it.”

We went on to say:

„The HTC Desire also belongs to the same category of the best-made Android handsets to date, although it's not as spectacular as the Legend.”

...in terms of interface...

„The HTC Desire runs the famous Sense interface and this is the major software difference to the Nexus One.”

...and its operational speed...

„Speaking of operational speed and specifications, we just have to admit the HTC Desire is lighting fast. It's like a cheetah. This is to be expected, of course, given its snappy 1GHz processor and 576MB RAM.”

We said something in the style of "Steve Jobs at the presentation of the iPad" about the phone book, messaging and browser functionality (we are joking, of course):

„The application "People" is one of the seven great wonders of modern smartphone software.”

„Typing away is a dream come true when using the screen keyboards of the HTC Desire.”

„The HTC Desire is an awesome device for surfing the Internet.”

We mentioned the camera and multimedia capabilities are decent, but there is much to be desired.

„As a whole, the camera of the HTC Desire is acceptable for daily use and allows for instantaneous sharing of images over social networks.”

„Unfortunately, the device does not support DivX and Xvid, so you will have to make do with you MPEG-4 (H.264 and H.263) files. Generally speaking, movies are downright a marvel to behold in full HD, so we hope the rumor speaks true and the update that adds DivX support is on its way.”

We believe you already know what we are driving at – the HTC Desire is one of the best Android-based handsets today, but it's not perfect (not that there is such a device really). That's why we believe you should know more about your alternative options:

-    The Google Nexus One – Google's cell phone that features almost identical specifications, but slightly different design. Some people might consider the lack of Sense a definite advantage (we are not of them).
-    The HTC Legend – superior to the Desire when it comes to overall design and build quality, but equipped with less capable hardware. We can recommend it to people on the lookout for a compact Android handset with proper quality.
-    The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 – Although it comes with several limitations that are downright absurd (say the lack of multitouch support), the X10 is equipped with 8-megapixel camera and display that measure 0.3 inches more. Timescape is a more innovative way of working with social networks than HTC's FrienStream.
-    The HTC Droid Incredible – features 8-megapixel camera, different design and works on Verizon's network.

We expect to see two more cell phones throw the gauntlet to the HTC Desire to win over people who have a soft spot for high-end Android-based cell phones – the HTC EVO 4G (WiMAX for Sprint) and the Samsung Galaxy S. This is, however, what all handsets are destined to – to fight fiercely against newer devices that offer more extra features and are sometimes released just a few months down the line.


Is the HTC Desire worth its price? Yes, definitely. We would have to become rather petty in order to come up with a list of shortcomings. If you like handsets with compact size and feel willing to sacrifice extra features for it, you better consider the HTC Legend – talking from experience here. Eager fans of high-tech devices surely know by now that the HTC Desire is what they want.