Is Desire Overrated?

aussienitro said:

Also Ruggedness is definately something that I require.

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ruggedness as in robust?

not sure what you're planning to do with your phone mate but, from the amount of threads about cases and screen protectors, i'm not sure that the desire or the galaxy or the iPhone would be able to take much abuse.

Desire is the best gadget I have ever had. And that means a lot.

The 3d/gpu whatever tests..., I would not put too much weight on it.

1) As a phone, desire (for me) is perfect.
2) As a PDA, same.
3) As a GPS unit, same. (Samsung lacks in this area, a lot)
4) As a walkman, almost (had to install proximity tool)

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.... Buy it, I am sure you won't be disappointed as it is currently imho the best smartphone on earth.

the OP has had ALL of his questions answered, so if he's still not happy then find another forum.

I'm happy to answer questions like anyone else here, but there comes a time when someone seems intent on proving everyone wrong just for the hell of it; this thread has that written all over it.

Maybe I should join an Apple forum and ask questions about the iPhone4 then demonstrate how crap it is, just to wind them up?

Like everyone else here, I did my research and bought the phone based on what I found. The OP has plenty of evidence from people who actually own the phone supporting why he should get one, if that's not enough then I don't know what is.

I'll steer clear of this thread, I'm not trying to annoy anyone, but the OP sounds like a stirrer.

Mate - anyone who gets "stirred", wound up, or upset because someone else wants to discuss/debate the merits of an electronic device, needs to seriously get a life.

Sometimes, the purchase decision involves a bit of devils advocate debate on the publicised downsides of a product - and this is an ideal forum for aussienitro to do this.

That wasn't the point partridge was making elbraddo.

Short, No.

Long, it's an all round good package.

Yes, the SGS's screen is better
Yes, the ip4's battery is better

However the Desire packs a much better overall package.

Sense is the most mature and best skin for android.
2.2 makes the battery completely fine.
Build quality is fantastic and solid while remaining entirely comfortable to use.
Hardware buttons, are just better than capacitive ones.
Massive root community producing some stunning hacks for advanced users.

Ive used a few SGS's and i wouldn't swap my desire for one given the choice (same goes for ip4)

Soulforger said:

games are better played in high definition and big screens..I have PS3 and a nice PC setup for playing games..once you play there you wont really want to go back to small screen gaming...

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I agree, but carrying a PS3 and a 42" plasma on the train to work may get a bit awkward!

(edit....silly me, forgot the Generator too to power it all)

Current USCellular HTC Tp2 user looking @ something of the Android flavor...the Desire is supposed to be available here next week, with the Galaxy S in another month or so. I'm leaning Desire, but have a couple quick questions:

is TV out available on the Desire?
can it be used as a WiFi hotspot?

A year ago I never dreamed I'd ever say this, but these are 2 *must* haves for me! Thanks!!

TV Out - no
Hotspot - yes (you may need Froyo)

spenspuma said:

I agree, but carrying a PS3 and a 42" plasma on the train to work may get a bit awkward!

(edit....silly me, forgot the Generator too to power it all)

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But at least while you have it you can keep your phone topped up as well!!!

Griff_LI said:

TV Out - no

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Well that sucks...

I know I am going to get slaughtered for this but I'm prepared Well to be honest I want convincing

I am really let down by the Desire, I bought into the hype and am not impressed.

I've had 2 desire's in a month and after being an iPhone 3G user here is my thoughts on the 2.

My first desire when I got it the first thing it did was wipe the memory card, and what I mean by wipe was it was not recognized by either the phone or computer, it had completely blanked it, so that was not a great start but it may well have been a faulty phone, I also noticed the FM Radio went something like this.

Radio 1

Hssssssssssss Oh yeah hssssssssssssss wow wow hsssssss

Radio 2

And conser hsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss Labour hsssssssss

You get the picture, nothing but static So I thought it had to be faulty and returned it.

A week later got my replacement. As I mentioned previous I am a music lover, I loved the way iTunes was simples, getting music onto the Desire was a pain because I wanted all my iTunes playlists on there, I tried various things, One were you installed an app on the phone and on the PC and it was supposed to sync wireless, anyway it didn't work, the phone couldn't find the computer. I then tried DoubleTwist, an iTunes rip off, I only thought iTunes was sluggish until I tried this baby, 30 mins to sync Needless to say it was quickly uninstalled.

I also love podcasts, I tried various apps but most had limited search results and required you to enter a long .xml address, Listen seems to be the one recommended, However once installed I get an error along the lines off,

"Listen needs a google mail account in system preferences" even thought I was signed in a synced up, so I eventually gave up.

On listening to music on the Desire I found volume to be rather low even when up full, I also had the annoying problem of it skipping tracks randomly, you take the phone out of your pocket to discover it has some how managed to unlock itself even with a lock pattern.

Then we have battery life, you get loads of excuses floating around boards like this that the desire needs a few charge cycles to get to optimum performance, funny you never hear these excuses with any other phone, My iPhone played 8hrs music per day with a few twitter updates etc and it was still half full, my desire has the red battery light on ready to go flat.

Next is the android market place, do Google not screen it? There is a load of carp in there and some of the apps are very high priced compared to iTunes however one thing I did like was you have 24hrs to change your mind and get a refund.

The other elements of the phone like internet browsing is great however doesn't interest me, I have a laptop for that.

The camera I posted elsewhere about this, I updated to FroYo for the 720p and I got better clips out of my old iPhone, The photos for a 5mp camera are also not very vibrant and actually look washed out and yes I know you can remove the cover etc to get better pics but you shouldn't have to.

Someone once said "Some people can make love standing up in a hammock but there is an easier way" and this has certainly been my experience with the Desire.

I then phoned up to return the handset and the store said they would give me

If you want something to play music well, buy an MP3 player. If you want a phone that plays music well, buy a phone made by the worlds biggest manufacturer of MP3 players - Apple.

You don't really seem to be interested in any of the particular benefits the Desire offers. So why, pray tell, did you buy it? You say the other features like internet browsing are great, but you don't care as you have a laptop for that. Why do you need a smartphone then? You seem to have bought the phone for a bunch of things it isn't really optimised for, and decided all the best features aren't something you need.

Save yourself some money, return the Desire, and get a cheap dumbphone and an iPod Touch.

So let me get this right.... you actually like iTunes?

some things in life weren't meant to be. you may learn to love it but to avoid further frustrations, i'd sell the desire and get an iPhone 4. it might not be to everyones taste but it is simple to use and does what it says on the tin.

Nodders said:

So let me get this right.... you actually like iTunes?

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well, compared to the android alternatives, at least...

Nodders said:

So let me get this right.... you actually like iTunes?

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With itunes its easy to just sync to the phone, its far easier to create playlists and add content on the PC and then just hit sync, I also like the amount of content in iTunes, however on a PC its slow as hell, still x10 faster than double twist though and thats saying something

Yeah but the PC sync world isn't just iTunes and doubletwist. iTunes is badly written bloatware with a horrible interface and even horribler (new word) bugs. Ever tried reinstalling a library on your PC into iTunes after a springclean wipe?

To be honest Windows Media Player knocks iTunes into a cocked iHat. Give that a try.

iSyncR works flawlessly for me syncing iTunes playlists on my Mac onto my desire.

Phenomenological said:

If you want something to play music well, buy an MP3 player. If you want a phone that plays music well, buy a phone made by the worlds biggest manufacturer of MP3 players - Apple.

You don't really seem to be interested in any of the particular benefits the Desire offers. So why, pray tell, did you buy it? You say the other features like internet browsing are great, but you don't care as you have a laptop for that. Why do you need a smartphone then? You seem to have bought the phone for a bunch of things it isn't really optimised for, and decided all the best features aren't something you need.

Save yourself some money, return the Desire, and get a cheap dumbphone and an iPod Touch.

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I was thinking exactly this when I read slugger09's post. So +1

slugger09, wouldn't you be better off with something like one of the Sony Walkman phones? They have all the features you seem to want and none of the extras you complain about. Why buy a smartphone and then moan about the features? Just get something for a tenner from Tesco and a crappy iPoo to listen to iTunes nonsense on. Let's face it, no other music software manages to mangle MP3 tags quite as well.

I'm not being sarcastic with my post, I just can't understand why anyone buys a product and then complains about the things the product is designed to do

The faults you mention with the mem card and radio hiss seem to be with your phone and aren't representative of the phone in general. I think you've just been incredibly unlucky.

jim_h said:

I was thinking exactly this when I read slugger09's post. So +1

slugger09, wouldn't you be better off with something like one of the Sony Walkman phones? They have all the features you seem to want and none of the extras you complain about. Why buy a smartphone and then moan about the features? Just get something for a tenner from Tesco and a crappy iPoo to listen to iTunes nonsense on. Let's face it, no other music software manages to mangle MP3 tags quite as well.

I'm not being sarcastic with my post, I just can't understand why anyone buys a product and then complains about the things the product is designed to do

The faults you mention with the mem card and radio hiss seem to be with your phone and aren't representative of the phone in general. I think you've just been incredibly unlucky.

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A SE phone doesn't have wifi, doesn't update twitter, doesn't have apps, doesn't have facebook the list goes on.

Google FM radio on Desire there are quite a few issues, I admit the mem card I was unlucky but there is also a few complaints about that aswell.

While I may not need all the features of the desire I do need more than a basic handset delivers,

slugger09 said:

A SE phone doesn't have wifi, doesn't update twitter, doesn't have apps, doesn't have facebook the list goes on.

Google FM radio on Desire there are quite a few issues, I admit the mem card I was unlucky but there is also a few complaints about that aswell.

While I may not need all the features of the desire I do need more than a basic handset delivers,

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Ahh, fair enough. I haven't seen anything about the problems with the radio or mem card issue, so my bad.

I know the radio use the headphone cable as the aerial on a mobile, so maybe it's something about the headphones? I've had no reception problems with mine and I'm using a pair of cheap Sennheisers.

spenspuma said:

I agree, but carrying a PS3 and a 42" plasma on the train to work may get a bit awkward!

(edit....silly me, forgot the Generator too to power it all)

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you got me mate.. but fortunately i donot need to commute more then 5 minutes in a work day..so i really do not need to carry my PS3 and 32" LCD(not plasma and 42" is too big for my tiny room) TV anywhere..
too bad that i cant use my mobile either in that 5 minutes time becz i ride a bike for my work..
then I do love to access game blogs, watch game trailers and news from my desire..

I own a cellular agency and have had the chance to try many handsets, including the iP4, Galaxy, Desire any many of the other top smartphones. I totally understand that everyone has different needs and expectations from their phone but what I see from many customers is blind purchases. They either do very little or no homework before making their decision. They listen to friends, family, tv ads and anyone else without really assessing their actual needs and then doing some serious research on their own. Please people, the internet has some great reviews and forums to get most of the your questions and needs answered before buying a phone.

For the iPhone users who are totally happy with their phones and have really taken a hard look at the competition, and are ok with it's shortcomings, good for you. As for the blind, loyal iPhone users who have no idea that there is something else out there.......come on folks, wake up and see that Apple is losing ground quickly to Android. Yes, the sales are there because many of you, especially the ones that either can't think for yourselves or see it as a status symbol, won't open your eyes and really see what's going on in the smartphone world. If you really think it through, the initial answer that Jobs had concerning the antenna issue was what... hold it a different way!!! You've got to be kidding me. And then, instead of recalling the units, he offers a free case to everyone. How do you like that? You spent a lot of money up front for the unit and you got a $5 case to solve a serious hardware problem. That's how Apple treats their die-hard customers. If you don't see anything wrong with that then go ahead and keep your head in the sand and watch technology pass you bye.

The inevitable future is Android and, I for one will move forward with it.

Sorry for the rant.

MrJingles said:

I own a cellular agency and have had the chance to try many handsets, including the iP4, Galaxy, Desire any many of the other top smartphones. I totally understand that everyone has different needs and expectations from their phone but what I see from many customers is blind purchases. They either do very little or no homework before making their decision. They listen to friends, family, tv ads and anyone else without really assessing their actual needs and then doing some serious research on their own. Please people, the internet has some great reviews and forums to get most of the your questions and needs answered before buying a phone.

For the iPhone users who are totally happy with their phones and have really taken a hard look at the competition, and are ok with it's shortcomings, good for you. As for the blind, loyal iPhone users who have no idea that there is something else out there.......come on folks, wake up and see that Apple is losing ground quickly to Android. Yes, the sales are there because many of you, especially the ones that either can't think for yourselves or see it as a status symbol, won't open your eyes and really see what's going on in the smartphone world. If you really think it through, the initial answer that Jobs had concerning the antenna issue was what... hold it a different way!!! You've got to be kidding me. And then, instead of recalling the units, he offers a free case to everyone. How do you like that? You spent a lot of money up front for the unit and you got a $5 case to solve a serious hardware problem. That's how Apple treats their die-hard customers. If you don't see anything wrong with that then go ahead and keep your head in the sand and watch technology pass you bye.

The inevitable future is Android and, I for one will move forward with it.

Sorry for the rant.

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I think I love you. May I ask what you mean by 'I own a cellular agency' though? I'm intrigued!