HTC Desire review (2)

The HTC Desire's 5 megapixel camera, with LED flash, autofocus and face detection is also surprisingly good. Although, cameras aren't meant to be a strong point for Android handsets, but this one has accessible controls and takes a reasonable picture too.

Music playback benefits from a provided set of in-ear buds that have inline music controls, and the 3.5mm headset slot is on the top edge of the Desire's chassis so pocket snagging potential is minimised. However, we'd have liked a two-piece headset so we could ditch the horridly uncomfortable flat in-ear buds that just refuse to stay in place. When you tire of your own music, you can listen to the FM radio.

If your pockets are small there may be a size issue with the HTC Desire. That large screen obviously needs a big chassis and the HTC Desire measures 60mm wide, 119mm tall and 11.9mm thick. It weighs 135g. This makes it significantly bigger than the HTC Legend (112mm x 56.3mm x 11.5mm).

In use we had no problems with call quality, but we did have an issue with battery life. Now to be frank, this is not unusual. Android handset have a lot going on, GPS, Wi-Fi, social media alerts and email coming in all the time, and if you want to make the most of these features you need to have 3G data switched on, Wi-Fi available and GPS in use some of the time. These are all battery drains.

We reckon you can get a day out of the HTC Desire if you go easy, but if you are a serious user of its features you may need to find a power source at some point during your day too. We found the same with the Legend.

Overall the HTC Desire is a top-notch piece of kit and its big screen and fast processor are huge plus points. If you don't need these and want to save some money, the less expensive HTC Legend might be a better choice. But the Legend doesn't have quite the wow factor.

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