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HTC Desire Review Thread

  • 12-04-2010 04:30PM
    #1
    Slaanesh
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,699 ✭✭✭Slaanesh


    Following on from this thread: Pre-Ordering HTC Desire.


    So, some of you have been lucky enough to receive your Desires whilst the rest keep refreshing our mail clients waiting for the shipping confirmation. Tell us here at boards.ie how you are finding your new toy, pro's and cons over your last phone/smartphone and if it's going to change the world as you know it!

    I personally can't wait to get it so I can start playing around. I'm a developer myself and would love to start writing applications for Android, even if it is just as a hobby.


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Comments

  • #2
    jimmycrackcorm
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,371 ✭✭✭✭jimmycrackcorm


    I have min ordered and awaiting. I'm looking to develop an app too but trying to find something that people would find useful. I posted in the other desire thread that I discovered a review where there is a problem with the multi-touch when I wanted to see where to download an air hockey type game. I'll be interested to see how much this affects it.

    (the problem being that if the two touch positions cross Axis closely then their co-ordinates get reversed.) Still should be better than the Xperias single touch interface.


  • #3
    Slaanesh
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,699 ✭✭✭Slaanesh


    I think a lot of demand will be for popular apps that have already been developed for other OS's like the Iphone. When someone says 'I used to have an app for my iphone that did X but can't find one for my Android', it could be an idea to start there.

    But that's only if you're like me where being creative and original aren't exactly natural gifts.


  • #4
    DemoniK
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 604 ✭✭✭DemoniK


    Got mine this morning

    Is so much snappier than the Hero (now previous phone)

    Taking a while to adjust to the screen size/res. Is clearer, and all icons are scaled up. This makes the icon pages quite a bit wasteful of space. There doesn't seem to be any settings/option to adjust at this point.

    Some good changes to address book, and the friends stream app is very good for twitter and facebook notifications.

    Also - a tip for those switching android phones.
    Use Astro File Manager to back up your apps to SD Card from old phone. Handy to ensure you get those apps you want without having to search the store - and also get those that the store no longer carries like Skype ;)


  • #5
    DemoniK
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 604 ✭✭✭DemoniK


    an update after a full day of use..
    First up battery seems to be pretty good compared to the hero. On the whole, I think an hour or 2 of online connection. Been on wifi all day so far (8am to 3pm) and we're down 33%. That included a trip to work and back of ~25mins each and also on the way home I stopped off in a shop for an additional 30mins. So for almsot 1.5hrs it was searching for hot spots.
    Conversely charging is much slower.

    I hate the screen lock mechanism compared to the hero. On the desire you have to hit the power button on the top, and it's not as intuitive and I usually hit something on the way too it - grr....

    The new contacts was driving me nuts. It's great at linking your google contacts to your facebook and vice versa. But for 2 of these it got all confused - let me explain.
    First off most of the contacts linked the google contact to the facebook, i.e. google was the primary.
    But for 2 of my contacts it did it the other way round.
    When I moved these 2 contacts into a quick list group for display in the people widget it moved the facebook contact, but deleted the google contact (or at least all the pertinent details). After much playing around I figure out to delink the 2, go into the google contact and then link the facebook to it. Now works a treat, but was a real pain.

    Camera is very good compared to the hero. Much more responsive, clear and seems to have better colour reproduction.


  • #6
    aliocroc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 136 ✭✭aliocroc


    Thanks for the reviews so far RikD, good to hear how a real user is finiding it outside of all these review websites!! A1**

    LOVE the look of the desire and have been reading everyones posts about it, pre-ordering etc-Seriously want it!! (RikD you lucky b*#**rd!!! :))

    Only thing is im not sure touch screens for me-interested to know if anyone on here has moved from button to touch with the Desire and how are they finding the change? Yay or neigh?


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  • #7
    kave2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 639 ✭✭✭kave2


    aliocroc wrote: »
    Thanks for the reviews so far RikD, good to hear how a real user is finiding it outside of all these review websites!! A1**

    LOVE the look of the desire and have been reading everyones posts about it, pre-ordering etc-Seriously want it!! (RikD you lucky b*#**rd!!! :))

    Only thing is im not sure touch screens for me-interested to know if anyone on here has moved from button to touch with the Desire and how are they finding the change? Yay or neigh?

    Well, i moved from n95 to HTC Touch HD. I didn't have any problems[takes a few hours to get used to it] Touchscreen of Desire is much better then HD[capacitive vs resistive ] so it should even easier for you.


  • #8
    aliocroc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 136 ✭✭aliocroc


    kave2 wrote: »
    Well, i moved from n95 to HTC Touch HD. I didn't have any problems[takes a few hours to get used to it] Touchscreen of Desire is much better then HD[capacitive vs resistive ] so it should even easier for you.

    cheers Kave! thats it, im getting it!!! :D


  • #9
    Bomber6
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 85 ✭✭Bomber6


    Collected my HTC Desire last night so have spent a good bit deal of time with it (hardly got to sleep last night :D). My impressions so far:

    Software
    • Sense UI is damn good. Very sleek and stylish (and usable!)
    • Android works very differently to Symbian! I needed to do the simple task of copying numbers from my SIM to the phone. It took me 20 minutes on the net to find out how to do it in 2.1. Also, messaging is not sorted into the traditional Inbox/Outbox folders but more like iPhone (threads). Probably better but takes a bit of getting used to...
    • The android market is pretty decent. Not as sleek as the App Store but there's plentiful amounts of apps there.
    • Syncing Music to it is quite tedious. I was stuck using DoubleTwist. It imitates iTunes but isn't anyway customisable and has a habit of displaying songs in an album as different albums in Grid View :mad: So your stuck with list. Songbird didn't work on my pc either (Win7 x64). I'm used to Zune though so I guess I'm spoilt for choice normally :p
    • You will need a data plan! To make the most of the software, get a good data plan!
    Hardware
    • The screen is huge and beautiful. The OLED goodness really shows and films look great on it as does Youtube. I suggest getting a good few screen protectors from youtube though.
    • The camera isn't half bad either. Decent pictures in most light conditions, face recognition and autofocus all help. Much better than the Hero's and iPhones camera imo.
    • But the speaker! I may have a defective unit or something, but the speaker is attrocious! I had a nokia 5800 prior to this and the difference is huge. The speaker is 'very' tinny and quiet. Headphones are a must!
    • Very nice to hold and better looking than the nexus one. The rubbery back helps grip and while it is big, it's comfortable to hold. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess though

    That's it, back to messing with it :D


  • #10
    apope8
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 279 ✭✭apope8


    Bomber6 wrote: »
    [*]Android works very differently to Symbian! I needed to do the simple task of copying numbers from my SIM to the phone. It took me 20 minutes on the net to find out how to do it in 2.1.

    Hey Im also going to be switching from my 5800 to a desire soon could you post the best link you found on how to import the contacts? Or even a quick list of what you did??

    Thanks


  • #11
    thegoth
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 966 ✭✭✭thegoth


    Thinking about buying one of these sim free. I am with o2 as it suits me. I would not consider using a phone like this on meteor because of the 3G issues.

    My question is this.

    If I buy this phone sim free and put in my O2 sim. Will I be able to access in Internet via 3G immediately or will I have to wait for O2 to certify the phone ?

    I had a bad experience a few years ago. Bought a HP phone sim free. Was with 3 at the time. Put in my sim, and I could not access the web. Rang 3 and they said they did not support the phone


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  • #12
    100gSoma
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,288 ✭✭✭100gSoma


    bought a sim free one from clove and I'm with O2. No problems. Instant data access like any other phone. O2 plan to launch the phone in May if you want to buy from them though.

    here is a review I posted on another forum.
    also, apparently the battery gets better after 5 or 6 full charge discharge cycles. The phone is indeed a beauty to behold. I won't get any of those silicon/plastic screen covers, I'll instead use a microfibre bag/pouch to carry the phone in the pocket. I also won't keep it with keys or coins etc, I think the screen should be fine then. It's not soft as you wuold expect and would need some sharp item to damage it. sand/grit/metallic item etc.

    I am new to android and it took a while to adapt to this phone coming from Symbian. couple of things I noted as a new user.

    I think its essential to install the widget for turning on and off the mobile internet. This widget can be added as a little switch icon and is found in widgets/settings/mobile internet switch.
    Leave it switched off when not using the internet or net services. When you want to check your facebook or email or surf, just flick it on, and away you go. Will save a lot of battery rather than leaving it on all the time.
    I have my friend stream and news feeds and weather etc on manual update. So I just click to update them myself when I want to see whats new. It won't suit everyone to do it this way, but you'll be lucky to get 24hours from the battery with always on mobile internet connection and auto-updating for your 'live' pages.
    Also set your wifi to sleep after 15minutes of phone inactivity. This can be set in settings/network and wifi/wifi settings/menu key - advanced settings.
    btw, wifi is much more battery friendly than mobile internet. (based on others opinion too).

    some cool apps are barcode reader & google skymaps.

    Oh yeah, maybe install the android power widget into the bottom of one of your windows. It's handy for quickly switching between screen brightness modes and switching on or off services like wifi, gps, bluetooth, or synching etc. The screen obviously looks beautiful in full brightness, but its not always required if just surfing in a dark room etc.

    playback of H.264 video. I tried a few h.264 mp4 files and could not get them to play. I ended up installing an evaluation of Any DVD converter professional 4.0.5. and that did the job. you can choose the Nexus One 800x480 profile. You can also crop a wide screen video to chop off the sides and avoid the letterbox black bars. great program and worth trying the evaluation one anyway. will be handy for converting TV shows etc.

    Well, thats about it after 24hours. I've also heard the battery life will improve after 4 or 5 full discharge/charge cycles.


  • #13
    Atomic Pineapple
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,272 ✭✭✭✭Atomic Pineapple


    thegoth wrote: »
    Thinking about buying one of these sim free. I am with o2 as it suits me. I would not consider using a phone like this on meteor because of the 3G issues.

    My question is this.

    If I buy this phone sim free and put in my O2 sim. Will I be able to access in Internet via 3G immediately or will I have to wait for O2 to certify the phone ?

    I had a bad experience a few years ago. Bought a HP phone sim free. Was with 3 at the time. Put in my sim, and I could not access the web. Rang 3 and they said they did not support the phone

    You will need to get the 3g settings for the device from o2, should be the same as the G1 and I know they are available as one of the women in the office here has one and I set it up on o2 for here after google returned the info from o2 forums


  • #14
    godskitchen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,849 ✭✭✭godskitchen


    RikD wrote: »

    Taking a while to adjust to the screen size/res. Is clearer, and all icons are scaled up. This makes the icon pages quite a bit wasteful of space. There doesn't seem to be any settings/option to adjust at this point.

    I am not sure we will ever see HTC/Google offer an option to change the size of the icons.

    You would have to imagine they thought about it. I am guessing they did not implement it as anyone picking up an Android device after using an iPhone would be put off. I am talking mass market here, not us geeks that would have 1900x1200 on a 4" phone screen.

    How many people do you know that set their PC monitors below the native resolution because "oh i can just see things better". You try to explain that they are infact seeing less and they look at you like you have two heads.


  • #15
    Suebee
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32 ✭Suebee


    New to android, and first smart phone so still very much getting used to the Desire. Having said that, even after 2/3 days it is alot of fun and I feel like there is tonnes more on this phone I haven't even touched.

    Battery doesn't seem to be great but prob need a few more charges & I need to figure out Wifi settings - currently on all the time. I should prob download internet on/off widget mentioned earlier - sounds very handy. Am currently with vodafone, and can't get me onto the plan I want until May 1st - so will be charged 99c for every 50MB - which is daily limit. Bit of a pain for the next couple of weeks.

    No probs sticking SIM into the phone, was connected to Wifi at home within minutes of turning the phone on.

    The UI does take a bit of getting use to, coming from Nokia tho that was to be expected I suppose, the SMS application streams SMS's as a thread which is different but again I'm sure I will get used to it..

    There doesnt seem to be a facility to change font type on emails - they are being sent as Times New Roman - plain ugly, but I prob need to dig a bit more on that. The Market is a piece of cake, downloaded Google Listen and have managed to subscribe to a couple of podcasts easily.

    Am struggling with the on board Music App- again am a newbee to Android so there is prob a better way to sync the library on Windows PC (using Winamp) with the phone. Just dragging and dropping at the moment.

    ..so - so far so good!


  • #16
    jon1981
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭jon1981


    hey, was seriously considering this phone untill i realised you cannot store apps on the SD card only internal memory..which is far too small for this phone. So you have to uninstall apps to install apps you want. it isnt clear of google are going to change this as its to do with some security issue...so i think im swaying towards iphone here.


  • #17
    DemoniK
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 604 ✭✭✭DemoniK


    You can try sync up the contacts in outlook on Nokia first, and then use HTC Sync to sync them over to the android later if you want..
    I used this method. The only downside is those contacts stay as "phone" contacts. Ideally you want them as google contacts.. There are apps out there to sync outlook and google contacts if you look.

    No need to download an internet switch - it's all ready on the Desire.
    When on an empty screen, click + to add a widget. You want to add "Widget->Settings->Wi-Fi". That adds a nice toggle switch to the desktop :)
    Also you can add BT, GPS, 3G and an Airline Mode


  • #18
    100gSoma
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,288 ✭✭✭100gSoma


    jon1981 wrote: »
    hey, was seriously considering this phone untill i realised you cannot store apps on the SD card only internal memory..which is far too small for this phone. So you have to uninstall apps to install apps you want. it isnt clear of google are going to change this as its to do with some security issue...so i think im swaying towards iphone here.

    google are working on this. There are security aspects they have to solve before allowing apps on removable media.
    There is over 500mb internal memory which is more than enough for 300 LARGE apps... How many apps are you planning on installing?

    BTW, there is an App called Appsaver app which allows you to store apps on the SD card. Check it out. Then you can store 32.5GB of apps. That should cover you. maybe. This app also works without rooting the phone or doing anything else to it.


  • #19
    DemoniK
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 604 ✭✭✭DemoniK


    jon1981 wrote: »
    hey, was seriously considering this phone untill i realised you cannot store apps on the SD card only internal memory..which is far too small for this phone. So you have to uninstall apps to install apps you want. it isnt clear of google are going to change this as its to do with some security issue...so i think im swaying towards iphone here.

    It's not a big deal. I've a tonne of apps resident on the phones memory. I've yet been forced to do this.

    Remember - you're music, pics, etc.. will be on the SD card.


  • #20
    jon1981
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭jon1981


    100gSoma wrote: »
    google are working on this. There are security aspects they have to solve before allowing apps on removable media.

    There is over 500mb internal memory which is more than enough for 300 LARGE apps... How many apps are you planning on installing?

    well comparing with iphone, the tom tom app is 400+MB in size. that would be one app id like. a couple of games were 40-50 mb each


  • #21
    Bomber6
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 85 ✭✭Bomber6


    jon1981 wrote: »
    hey, was seriously considering this phone untill i realised you cannot store apps on the SD card only internal memory..which is far too small for this phone. So you have to uninstall apps to install apps you want. it isnt clear of google are going to change this as its to do with some security issue...so i think im swaying towards iphone here.
    There are quite a few workarounds for this. It's not a big problem. A quick google search will help and it will turn up soon in an update.
    apope8 wrote: »
    Hey Im also going to be switching from my 5800 to a desire soon could you post the best link you found on how to import the contacts? Or even a quick list of what you did??

    Thanks
    I sort of cheated. Copied all my contacts to the SIM card, put it into the Desire and copied them all back off again.
    An alternative would be to use Nokia PC suite to backup your contacts. If I remember rightly the PC Suite saves your contacts to the Contacts folder (Visa/7 only?). HTC Sync (which comes with the phone) will allow you to copy these to your phone.
    This looks like a good third option too:
    http://blog.lickmyear.org/2009/01/story-of-nokia-and-android-contact.html
    Hope that helps.


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  • #22
    jon1981
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭jon1981


    RikD wrote: »
    It's not a big deal. I've a tonne of apps resident on the phones memory. I've yet been forced to do this.

    Remember - you're music, pics, etc.. will be on the SD card.

    are the quality of the apps up there with iphone? Do you find alot of them are functionally useful?


  • #23
    Bomber6
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 85 ✭✭Bomber6


    jon1981 wrote: »
    well comparing with iphone, the tom tom app is 400+MB in size. that would be one app id like. a couple of games were 40-50 mb each
    As far as I knew, Tom Tom copies all the maps to the SD card. The only thing on the inbuilt memory is the .exe or equivalent to launch it. Most other big apps work a similar way


  • #24
    jon1981
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭jon1981


    Bomber6 wrote: »
    As far as I knew, Tom Tom copies all the maps to the SD card. The only thing on the inbuilt memory is the .exe or equivalent to launch it. Most other big apps work a similar way

    ah right so they don't install the full app on the internal memory, its divided between the two? do all apps work this way?


  • #25
    Bomber6
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 85 ✭✭Bomber6


    jon1981 wrote: »
    ah right so they don't install the full app on the internal memory, its divided between the two? do all apps work this way?
    Yep that seems to be the case (I could be wrong but don't think so). Therefore no problems with storage. Not all apps work that way but the larger ones do


  • #26
    jon1981
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭jon1981


    the google apps market place is still not available right?


  • #27
    DemoniK
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 604 ✭✭✭DemoniK


    It's there - but no paid maps in Ireland at this time.
    Quality of Apps is good cosnidering they are free.


  • #28
    jon1981
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭jon1981


    yeah the apps and the memory issue are kind of influencing my decision to go with Iphone although the phone looks class!!


  • #29
    DemoniK
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 604 ✭✭✭DemoniK


    phone is class.

    The only issue with Apps and Memory is the lack of paid apps in Ireland. Don't believe the hype on the rest.

    But, to be honest, if you feel there are "issues" then I'd say get the iPhone as that is probably what you really want anyway.


  • #30
    jon1981
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,349 ✭✭✭jon1981


    i like the style and look over the iphone but would like the variety of apps! might take the plunge with the desire, im sure the apps will come in time.


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  • #31
    DemoniK
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 604 ✭✭✭DemoniK


    trust me - there are a lot of apps for both.

    Best thing - find someone close to you and have a look, or even pop into a meteor store over the weekend and see if they have one to look at.


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