Later today, HTC Philippines will have announced local availability of the HTC Desire in the Philippines as well as revealing the suggested retail price. Before that happens, read on and check our full review of the handset below.
At the bottom end of the front panel are the familiar buttons for an Android phone — Home, Menu, Back and Search. In the middle of the four is a nice optical trackpad which looks like a cross between the marble trackball of the HTC Hero/NX1 and the optical trackpad of the BlackBerry Bold 9700.
HTC was able to retain a design signature yet able to address the problem with regular trackballs getting dust and dirt on the sockets. One drawback to this approach is that you don’t have any sort of tactile feedback. The physical buttons are similar to that of the Hero, only this one is probably made of stainless steel, but way better than the touch panel on the Nexus One.
One of the most attractive feature of the HTC Desire is its 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen (480×800 pixels) that offers a very bright and ultra-crisp display. The screen is impressive, matched only by very few other handsets like the Omnia II, Galaxy S, Legend and Nexus One. Once you tried AMOLED, you’d look at all other screens differently with a little bit of longing.
The display size is just enough — not too big and not small either. Couple that with haptic feedback and multi-touch and you get a nice experience browsing websites, maps and watching videos.
Powered by QualComm’s SnapDragon 1GHz processor, the HTC Desire is one of the fastest smartphones around. Here’s a short video I recorded showing the UI, responsiveness of the device and how fast it loads some of the apps.
The virtual keyboard is always a challenge on all full touchscreen handsets and the Desire is no exception. With Android handsets like the Desire, you’ll need some time to get use to it, especially that you have to “train” the built-in dictionary when auto-correcting your spelling. This experience might vary from person to person depending on what language and texting style they use with the unit.
The HTC Sense UI adds a bit more eye-candy and usability to the device, along with 7 homescreen panels to boot. The Desire comes out of the box with Android 2.1 OS so you get the latest features including multi-touch, phone tethering, live wallpapers and voice controls among others.
The 5MP camera performs very well with average to good picture quality, thanks to a relatively fast shutter speed. However, the camera seems to find it hard to autofocus on subjects. Gets even harder indoors or in low light. Here are sample shots (cropped and resized).
Battery performance is average (1400mAh) and depending on how heavy your usage is, it could last anywhere from one full day to two days. Like most other smartphones, connecting to 3G eats up the battery the fastest (in which case, portable battery packs like these helps).
The more obvious feature that the HTC Desire has that is missing from its Nexus One sibling would be the FM Tuner. Aside from that, the other differences are minor at best and both have almost identical DNA.
We’ve yet to get the final retail price of the HTC Desire but if the current prices in the gray market (Php31k) and the suggested retail price of the HTC Legend and Hero, we might see the Desire reach the Php35k range. It’s a bit pricey but the handset delivers in both the hardware and software department. The Desire is one of the top Android smartphones that can go head to head with the Galaxy S and the Xperia X10.
Update: Suggested retail price of the HTC Desire is Php34,900....
HTC Wildfire Review
It’s a little hard to size up a smartphone like the HTC Wildfire when you’ve been using its better sibling (HTC Desire) and given it good marks. Check out our full review of the HTC Wildfire after the jump.
However, if you take into consideration the price point at which the Wildfire has been set, it would definitely be a good contender for an entry-level Android phone.
Then again, when you compare the specs of the HTC Hero against the Wildfire, you’d realize they’re like fraternal twins, separated only by wide gap in the retail price (~Php15k vs. Php22k) and an odd form factor.
The Wildfire follows the same great design and construction as most of HTC’s Android smartphones to date — thin, sleek with a combination of matte and glossy finish all around. The plastic back panel also has a band of brushed-metal finish on the middle part to give it an elegant design accent.
The bottom section has a bit of a subtly curved end — not as much as the Legend or Hero but more like that of the Desire. The circular optical trackpad is smack in the center at the bottom end with a row of touchpad-engraved buttons just above it — similar to the ones we’ve seen on the Google Nexus One
The display is bright but not too crisp and while that LCD screen does the job well, I missed the AMOLED display quality of the Desire or even the resolution of the Legend or the Hero. Still, the brightness level of the screen looks better than any of the units in the Xperia X10 line we’ve tried.
The Wildfire is HTC’s comes with Android 2.1 Eclair pre-installed and despite the conservative processing power, the handset seems snappy and fairly responsive. You get 7 panels or homescreens on the HTC Sense UI. Check the short video clip below and how it looks like.
The smaller screen real estate did have an impact on the on-screen virtual keyboard — looks a bit cramp so texting could be a challenge if you’re used to bigger screens. You get used to it in time though so it’s not a big issue.
HTC Wildfire specs:
Qualcomm MSM 7225 528MHz processor
3.2″ TFT display @ 240×320 pixels
384MB RAM, 512MB ROM
up to 32GB via microSD
WiFi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP
3G/HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
5MP autofocus camera w/ LED flash
FM Radio with RDS
GPS w/ aGPS support
1300mAh Li-Ion battery
The specs on the Wildfire is actually decent and complete with all the necessary connectivity options. There’s not much internal storage here (384MB) but expansion via microSD up to 32GB is possible (card sold separately).
The built-in 5MP camera isn’t impressive but somewhat decent. The AF works but has a hard time to focus on subjects especially on low light conditions. Video capture didn’t perform as well too. It’s got the same over-all performance as the HTC Desire we tested here.
Battery life is also not impressive. The unit barely lasts 2 days on a single charge with light internet use and normal voice/SMS use.
What really made the HTC Wildfire and attractive smartphone, aside from the solid construction and design, is the price-point of the handset. The introductory price is almost half that of it’s better sibling, the HTC Desire. Even the similarly spec-ed HTC Hero was first sold at Php33,999 back in December.
The Wildfire’s suggested retail price of Php17,500 (with some stores selling it for as low as Php15,000) makes it an attractive buy for an entry-level Android handset. It’s not the cheapest in its category but the combination of a good set of specs and solid design puts it near the top of the heap for an affordable Android smartphone.......
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