New to Android - Desire or Desire HD?

[TheKirk]

Hi folks!

I'm going to buy a new phone soon, and I'm quite hooked on HTC. Their phones nowadays (Since Android came along) seem to be superb.

I was determined to get the Desire, but couldn't afford it at the time. Now I can, but now the Desire HD is out aswell. So when the HD came out, I changed my mind and I was determined to get that instead.
I have read a lot of reviews, comments, praisings and hatings on these two phones, cause I really want to pick the right one. The thing is that after having read a lot of worrying comments about the battery life on the DHD, I'm beginning to doubt if it's the right phone to buy.
I'll try to list my pros and cons about the phones (Some of the things I think are the most important to me)


Desire pros:
- Better battery life (I know the processor on the DHD is supposed to consume less power, but it still seems to be a problem that the battery capacity is that small.)
- I like the looks of it better.

Desire cons:
- Plastic cover
- No htcsense.com
- Is it already starting to be outdated? :/

Desire HD pros:
- Enormous screen
- htcsense.com
- Aluminum
- DLNA

Desire HD cons:
- The battery life
- The battery cover (I've read from some people that it's quite loose - And you don't use tape on a DHD!)


I've read that the Desire now comes with Froyo aswell, so that's one less con for that.
But I really need your help, guys. Am I worrying too much about that damned battery issue? Is the DHD really that surpreme compared with the Desire? Or will I enjoy my first Android phone just as much if I start with Desire?
Are there any other important things I've not mentioned?

Thanks!

 

[HTCWozz]

The battery improves vastly on the DHD, its not great but its not a whole lot worse than the desire.

The battery cover only becomes a pain if youe taking it off wrong.

Go for the DHD, I had a desire now I have a DHD, not looked back since

 

[AstralZero]

Not used the Desire enough to comment on it really... but the screen is too small
A lot of people have had problems with the battery cover. I followed the instructions in the manual and have had no problems. I can see it becoming annoying if you replace your battery regularly though.

My DHD usually has about 40% - 50% battery left when I go to bed with average use. Some people think the battery is fine, others say the opposite, I suggest reading through the threads in this forum.

I've not noticed much difference from any other smartphone tbh.

 

[Harry2]

Desire HD pros:
- More than 1GB memory for downloaded apps

Desire cons:
- Only 0.14 GB memory for downloaded apps The source of constantly worry

Harry

 

[springy]

I think the battery is all about how you use your phone. If you surf the web a lot, listen to music, videos etc then obviously it is going to drain your battery. Also about screen brightless and also have live wallpaper.

I have read on here some people get like 12 hours out of the phone and others get over 2 days.. so yeah it depends how you use it

 

[THE ANDROID]

The battery on a stock DHD is pretty good, lasts 2 days with about 7 hours of web browsing in them 2 days.

As soon as you start downloading apps and letting them run in the background, the battery becomes bad, will last just below a day.

 

[Pauwus]

I had a sony ericsson before I got my desire HD so really had lost touch with the times. Gotta say I'm loving this phone. Got no issues with battery life either, if you dont use the phone much it will last as long as any other phone. Charge it to full while turned off as soon as you take it out of the box, and just give it a few full recharge discharge cycles, and within 5-7 days you'll see the battery life improves dramatically.

Clearly, in the first couple of days you'll be fiddling with it constantly so battery is bound to drain quickly. However, being new to android, I'd highly reccomend the desire HD. Lovely big screen, gameboy and snes emulators, loads of free ebooks, radio, music, pictures, etc etc. It's an amazing piece of kit and really packs a punch. I look at other peoples phones and don't feel envious at all anymore, knowing mine can do what theirs can, and more!

One thing, the battery cover is a bitch to get back on, spent about an hour at first trying to get it snap into place. Other than that, I've got no issues with the phone at all.

 

[sonesh]

I'm not going to say the battery is bad, but it is worse than the Desire, and the con you missed was Price.

Go for the DHD though, because the fact you've come on this forum to ask tells me you'll resent your Desire every time you see someone with a DHD.

 

[ynwa]

I am finding the battery to be worse on the DHD. I also preferred the colours on the Desire screen. People keep telling me it was over saturated with colour but i think the DHD screen looks faded by comparison. I also loved the size and weight of the DHD handset. Having a bigger screen is great but it does feel quite big in comparison. I hated running out of space on the Desire, which i havent done yet on the DHD.

 

[TheKirk]

Thanks for the replies, folks

The battery improves vastly on the DHD, its not great but its not a whole lot worse than the desire.

The battery cover only becomes a pain if youe taking it off wrong.

Go for the DHD, I had a desire now I have a DHD, not looked back since

Feedback from a guy who's owned both of the phones is always reliable

Desire HD pros:
- More than 1GB memory for downloaded apps

Desire cons:
- Only 0.14 GB memory for downloaded apps The source of constantly worry

Harry

Yearh, this is kind of a problem IMO. But maybe they will add a feature so you can install apps directly on the micro SD card in the future?

I think the battery is all about how you use your phone. If you surf the web a lot, listen to music, videos etc then obviously it is going to drain your battery. Also about screen brightless and also have live wallpaper.

I have read on here some people get like 12 hours out of the phone and others get over 2 days.. so yeah it depends how you use it

I'm going to use it quite a lot as MP3 player. I'll do a lot of browsing too, but I'm probably not gonna watch a lot of videos on it in my daily use. Though it's a cool feature, I can probably live without a live wallpaper.
Regarding screen brightness, I've had to adjust that aswell on my old iPod Touch to save power. I've never owned a smartphone before (I've followed the developement on them though). My last phone was a Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, which was quite a disappointment. I'm not sure if I can call it a smartphone, if so it would have been one of the first generations of smartphones.

The battery on a stock DHD is pretty good, lasts 2 days with about 7 hours of web browsing in them 2 days.

As soon as you start downloading apps and letting them run in the background, the battery becomes bad, will last just below a day.

This, I understand, can be solved with an app that closes all open apps, so this wont be a big problem either.

I'm not going to say the battery is bad, but it is worse than the Desire, and the con you missed was Price.

Go for the DHD though, because the fact you've come on this forum to ask tells me you'll resent your Desire every time you see someone with a DHD.

Yearh, the price is of course a factor too. But I am willing to pay the price of the DHD.



Another question - Is it possible to turn of Flash? A lot of it goes to annoying ads, so turning it off would be a nice feature.

 

[springy]

Yes you can disable flash

 

[K24A3]

If you are just going to use it for phone and sms functions, then perhaps just get the Desire.

However if you are going to use it for websites, read ebooks and PDF's, run games, then the HD is the better option. You get used to the big screen quickly and buying the HD will future proof your choice for much longer imo.