Had my Desire for a week...

I've upgraded from a Windows phone (HTC Tytn II) and switched from Orange to T-Mobile (been some issues with the unlimited Internet from T-Mobile, but that's for another thread!).

Basically I'm thrilled with the phone, but there have been some surprises which I'd like to share with people who are considering this phone (and similar Android models).

My old Windows phone was brilliant at synchronising mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes from Outlook 2007 on my PC. The Desire does sync Contacts and Calendar with Outlook, but not mail, notes, or tasks. Finding a solution for the missing functionality is driving me mad! Any suggestions (MyLink Access for Outlook comes close, but is an imperfect solution).

The old phone was also brilliant at synchronising my Windows Media Player MP3 music and playlists. I have star-rated all my songs, and while the HTC player on the Desire is nice enough, it ignores all my ratings and the syncing process is far from simple. Suggestions for a solution to this will be gratefully received.

I realised that battery life would always be challenging, I think I have a reasonable system in place to manage the power - basically I use on widget to switch wifi off when I don't need it, and another to switch mobile data off as appropriate. I was wondering if there was a way (if not already active) of making the wifi off by default and only firing up when an app needed it. Then it would time out until the next time it was needed?

Google Maps Navigation is a big lure since it was activated a month ago here in the UK. It works, but there are many things not quite right. The text to speech synthetic voice is not very pleasant, but I can live with it. But the frequency of mutterings and repetition is very annoying. You can switch the narration off, but what I'd like to see is a middle setting. There is no lane guidance - not a big deal for me, but the inability to add your own Points of Interest (like camera alerts) is a major disappointment. Concerns about the need for data connection while you're driving are present, although (assuming I really do have 3GB fair use from T-Mobile - still to be confirmed) I'm not as worried as I was. You can load most of the map data for your journey from your local internet lan/wifi of course. It's when you make detour off your planned route that your data connection is required and of course you might be out of range in some locations. I urge Google to do what Nokia did and make the entire country downloadable. As a previous TomTom Navigator 6 user on my Windows phone, the general 3D as you drive view is not as slick, either. I don't rule out buying a dedicated satnav app (Sygic or CoPilot, for example) in the end. But let's see how Google evolves its navigation offering; it's in beta only after all.

There have been some moans about the Amoled screen - I think it's excellent, even for tiny text sizes. Maybe TFT is better, but I think we're talking marginal here. Amoled has no reflective capability (which some TFTs do) so visibility in bright conditions outdoors is relatively poor, but not impossible.

These are my primary thoughts on the Desire - I have no regrets in getting the Desire, it's a great piece of technology and I thoroughly recommended it as long as you don't expect it to be entirely free of imperfections.

Ian

 

Well my one other issue with the Desire, T-Mobile's Fair Use 'unlimited' mobile data, has been resolved today.

As I bought the phone from a reseller instead of T-Mobile direct, the 'unlimited' Internet was actually a free booster option 1GB fair use limit instead of 3GB Web n Walk Plus. To add insult to injury the 1GB provision is not full speed. I was only getting 250kb download speed.

After much to-ing and fro-ing with various (nice) T-Mobile customer help people, I was finally upgraded to the Web n Walk Plus 3GB allowance that T-Mobile direct customers get by default. And my download speed is now hitting 2000kb.

Initially T-Mobile wanted me to pay

 

Been in touch with 4ndyroid via PM, but the details are that my online plan details have not changed and may not changed until my next bill is processed according to T-Mobile. I will update this thread as soon as I have any news.

Ian

 

Contacts on the Desire is not a problem - the HTC Sync app worked fine for that. It's mail, tasks, and notes that I need a solution for...

Ian