HTC Desire review

HTC has launched HTC Desire soon after the launch of the HTC Wildfire and HTC Legend in India. Of these new launches, HTC Desire undoubtedly is quite different in specs and in price, with the Desire at the higher end on both counts. Yes, the HTC Desire and the HTC Legend do share a lot of similar specs, but there is no denying that the HTC Desire is the best of the lot.

HTC Desire stands out over the HTC Legend on many counts. First of all, it has a larger screen and a more powerful processor. It also has a bit more internal memory. And the physical design is different too.

However, on the design front, the Desire looses the Legend's lip in favour of a flatter, more standard look. There is still the tiniest trace of a lip at the bottom of the shell, but you'll need to peer really hard to see it. The chassis of the Desire has a rubberised finish making it a less slippery fish than the aluminium clad Legend.

And, without the aluminium of the Legend, the Desire has room for a proper backplate. Sadly HTC has not taken full advantage of this. The microSD card slot is under the backplate and you have to remove the battery to get to it. No hotswapping of cards, then.

But there are other points of differentiation that really make the Desire stand out as the more power-packed of the pair. The HTC Desire is offered with a bit more internal memory than the Legend - 576MB as opposed to the Legend's 384MB.

More noticeably, the Desire's screen is a real stunner. At 3.7 inches across diagonal corners and offering 480x800 pixels, it is great for viewing video, looking at pix, visiting YouTube, using Google Maps and viewing Web pages. All of which you can do right out of the box, of course. We do have to say, though, that in brighter sunshine the screen isn’t the most viewable outdoors.

The capacitive screen is very responsive to finger sweeps and taps, and the qwerty keyboard is probably the most responsive we’ve used in both wide and tall formats. The predictive text system means you can play fairly fast and loose with finger-accuracy and still enter text at a good old lick.

Just one additional word about the screen. If your hands are small you may not be able to reach right across it for one handed use.

Pinch to zoom and double tap to zoom both work really well in the Web browser, with pages zooming in and out quickly and efficiently. This efficiency is in no small part due to the 1GHz processor that beats at the Desire's heart.

We didn't find ourselves waiting for the Desire to do anything very much. The GPS pinpointed us in Google Maps really quickly, new Web pages loaded at speed, and generally the Desire is a speedy beastie.

There is plenty of other drool inspiring stuff going on here. Android 2.1 is supported by HTC's Sense UI which offers no less than seven home screens for you to populate with widgets that take you to apps, Web links, friends, and provide hard information such as weather, email and twitter alerts.

Just as in the HTC Legend, there's a neat feature called Leap for moving through the home screens. Pinch in on any home screen and they all appear as thumbnails ready for you to tap the one you want to go to.

If you are a social networking addict then FriendStream, which brings together your Facebook and Twitter activity in one place will be useful. And the Desire's ability to gather contact info from Gmail, Outlook and Facebook without too much intervention from you is a real plus point.

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