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HTC Desire opinions?

Alonzzo2

Well-Known Member
Nov 23, 2009
106
3
Hi

I have samsung galaxy for ~8 months now, and it doesnt perform well.
its quite lagging , especially the browser.

overall im very disappointed of it.

i wanted to see what are the opinions on the HTC Desire - performance, battery, camera (night shot and video), and general opinion.

im thinking of buying it at 630$, just want to make sure it's as good as the reviews say it is.

Thanks
 
Hi

I have samsung galaxy for ~8 months now, and it doesnt perform well.
its quite lagging , especially the browser.

overall im very disappointed of it.

i wanted to see what are the opinions on the HTC Desire - performance, battery, camera (night shot and video), and general opinion.

im thinking of buying it at 630$, just want to make sure it's as good as the reviews say it is.

Thanks

Performance - very fast, although have seen some menu lagging. Not often though

Battery - not great - but it depends on how many features/syncs you have on. So, you should be able to tailor the phone to match how often you will have access to a charger.

Camera - not bad, but have had better in the likes of Nokia N95. The flash seems to work better than my previous phones for low light shots. I've not been able to find a macro shot feature though, which I was disappointed about.

Overall, the phone is awesome, it's a pleasure to use and I've not been able to put it down since I got it! ;)
 
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This phone trumps every other phone I have ever had or used (although, to be fair, it is on a par with the iPhone, but I'd say better performance in almost every aspect), even when thinking about them in the context of when they were released. I had an N70 when that came out (2004?) as one of the best smartphones and it was a dog! Plenty of features, good camera etc, but no usability.

My one and only concern is an Android issue, where it does not at present support proxy settings on wifi (which I require to use the network on-campus). Otherwise, I cannot fault it; smooth, fast, beautiful, easy to use, extremely versatile/adaptable and the screen is, well, gorgeous (unless in sunlight wearing sunglasses!)

I have no problem with the camera and have no idea what the 'pink spot' is. It is not the best camera on the market, but it functions well for snaps and general pic taking and has no discernible shutter lag (LG... I'm looking at you!). The flash is adequate if not exceptional, and the pics are comparable to those from the SE C902 (a decent 5mp cam phone).

I am new to Android, so cannot comment on apps/memory debate. I have downloaded stuff to keep, whilst others I uninstall (no use, not good, whatever). However, other than games, it appears that most apps are between 1Kb and 2Mb (rough estimate), meaning a capacity between dozens and hundreds, and that's before the sd/apps rumoured upgrade.

Overall, I cant recommend this phone enough. Everyone I know, including iPhone'rs, rate it as the best they have seen. It is a beauty, and it is a beast!
 
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by far and away the best phone i've owned its my first "true" smartphone.
the touch screen is amazing
the apps and the features are amazing
and as a facebook geek, i love the way u can integrate ur fonebook to FB
the battery life does leave a litle to be desired (no pun) but i ordered a car kit with has a detachable usb lead which i take to work with me

over i can't really fault this phone without being seriously picky
 
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I am enjoying using the Desire very much, although as far as smartphone use goes I probably put a fairly light burden on mine.

Previously I used a Nokia 5800 running Symbian^1 and before that a first-model iPhone. The Desire definitely feels like an upgrade from the 5800 and feels nicer to use than the iPhone OS (I still keep in touch with iPhone OS with my iPod touch). The Android OS seems to work very well, slightly less slick than the iPhone OS but I like the more open App Marketplace, despite the drawbacks of not really having 'professional' quality control.

As a phone it's mostly on par with the 5800. Nokia handsets in general are very good at making calls and the Desire has a lot to live up to. The call quality is not the absolute best I have heard (that would be a Samsung D600 from years back) however it is more than good enough for my purposes. The person I am calling can hear me clearly and I them.

I am still exploring the different apps I can use, the barcode scanner was a nice novelty when I tried it and I am tempted to try using it as a pricechecker the next time I am out shopping, although I would probably need to be discreet.

The e-mail solution is not optimal for me. I have several e-mail accounts spread across different providers. The GMail app is used for GMail and HTC Mail for the others. This is less ideal than Nokia Messaging or iPhone e-mail which both can hold all the accounts in one app, but I recognize that I could use HTC mail for GMail IMAP access too (which is what NM and iPhone do), and that I gain push access to my GMail account, so I do not hold this as a drawback against the Desire.

The battery life is shorter than my 5800's was. The Nokia could easily go two days between recharges but the best I have got with the Desire was a day and a half. I knew this when I chose to buy the phone though. It is a good consolation that the Desire charges over USB as it means I can use cheap cables to charge it off the PC at work too, if needed.

My main concern about the Desire, which applies ot HTC phones in general, though, is the delay or possible impossibility of keeping up with new Android OS releases, as HTC Sense would have to be retested on the new OS version. HTC might decide not to do this for business reasons and leave users in the lurch with regard to future OS releases, although if they are competing with the iPhone I think they would try to follow Apple's example with software. This is where the Nexus One shines in comparison. However, thanks to the open Android approach the clever ones at xda-developers can address this issue.

Overall, though, I do not regret blowing nearly
 
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have to agree, an excellent phone. Well worth the money. It has made my laptop semi-redundant.

i've been looking for a new phone for about 2 years. Almost went for a Samsung omnia2... glad i held back a little more.

battery life is an issue if you sit on the internet browsing for a while.... in plain phone mode with everything else switched off it aint a problem.

My only real issue is that for music and music syncing the ipod currently rules by a long way..... but that is android not the HTC.

google missed a trick here. they should of had a great music app and backed it up with an even better pc version. doubletwist just doesn't cut the mustard - I am back using itunes and double twist together and it aint nice at the moment.
 
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I used to think the iPhone was amazing, but after some weeks of using it I discovered so many things it was missing. I was an early adopter and it was missing copy/paste, the ability to send the same text to multipler recipients, the ability to forward texts, etc. It is still missing bluetooth file transfers, a camera flash, social networking integration, flash support in the web browser, etc.

The Desire doesn't have that problem!

It includes all of the featurs that the dumb phones have had for years, whilst adding the intuitive UI. One of my favourite things about the phone is that it doesn't lag or freeze... ever. It's so smooth.

Battery is similar to other smartphones - if you turn all of the bells and whistles on and browse, play music, navigate using GPS and talk/text all the time, expect it to last about half a day if you're lucky. For moderate use (keeping your social networks in sync, listening to music, browsing a couple of sites, etc), it can easily last over a day.
 
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I love this new toy - I'm a big kid with it - but it is very useful too.
Email acess to five different accounts great - hardly need the PC.
Wi-fi at home etc pretty good but it doesn't show full strength even right next to hub - which everything else (PC's, Macs, Wireless printers, etc) find perfectly good all around the home.

All the basic stuff works, and the new smartphone experience is great... Marketplace - great idea, alarms etc all work well so no problems. BUT...

I upgraded from an old SE C902, and direct comparison for:

Signal Strength
SE C902: Excellent
Desire: Not awful, but not as good

Picture (as the guy above said)
SE C902 Good quality Desire Even Better maybe..

Sound
SE C902 - Good and Loud for a phone - almost decent.
Desire - BIG BIG let down tinny and distorted without headphones

Video
SE C902 - Good Enough for YouTube - with bands / music generally.
Good bass audio recording - makes up for lack of video resolution.

Desire - Video may be as good if not better, but as the audio recording is also totally crap I can't record anything above normal conversation volume without terrible distortion. I've transfered to PC's but yes it's the recording not just the terrible speaker.

This is something I used to feel very relieved about comaparing the SE C902 recordings to a lot of stuff shared around the internet that often sounds dreadful. I would need to use something completly separate to record sound - which is kinda pointless.

I can not believe anyone could do such a poor job with regard to audio recording and playback after doing such a good job with everything else.

There I said it.

So if you don't need to record any live music - not extreme even - then it's a great fun phone with useable service capabilities, and you'll be as adicted as I have been with everything else (generally).

But when the dust settles, unless I can get any updates that resolve the audio recording I might have to give it to my son and get my not so smart but much more reliable C902... :mad: :(
 
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