We first saw the HTC Desire back in February at Mobile World Congress and were delighted to see HTC outfit one of its HTC Sense Android handsets with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a large AMOLED(INFO) display. Now we've managed to get our hands on a Desire to put it through its paces and see if it's a handset to be lusted over, or one to be loathed. Read on to find out what we thought of this exciting new handset.
Physical Aspects The HTC Desire is much the same as the recently released Google Nexus One handset, primarily because both handsets are made by HTC and share most of the same parts. There are a few discreet differences though - mainly the lack of the Nexus One's aluminum parts on the Desire's exterior and also the Nexus One's trackball, which has been replaced with an optical d-pad on the Desire. There are also software differences, such as HTC's fantastic HTC Sense user interface, which is mentioned on the back cover of the handset. For those that don't know what the Nexus One looks like, the Desire is a large slab-shaped handset, like most touchscreen phones these days. As with many HTC Android handsets, the Desire has a very slight chin at the bottom, though this one is much less pronounced than on other HTC handsets such as the Legend or Hero. The whole rear of the phone is coated in soft touch paint that resists scratches and fingerprints well, and offers improved grip. This paint also surrounds the buttons that are located below the screen. Those buttons serve the usual Android functions: the Home button, Menu button, Back button, and Search button. These are set either side of the new optical d-pad that we saw previously on the HTC Legend, as well. Around the optical d-pad is a silver ring that is used as the enter/select button for the d-pad. Above the display is the Desire's earpiece, and in the top of the display's black frame is a notification LED, plus an ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor. The screen itself is a large 3.7-inch AMOLED display, with a WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution. It is also a capacitive touchscreen(INFO) display, and is used to control most aspects of the handset. Thanks to this capacitive display, the Desire is very responsive to touches and also features multi-touch in the web browser, email reader, photo viewer, and Google Maps. Atop the Desire is a 3.5mm headphone port, which allows users to connect a regular set of headphones to the Desire, and the handset's power button, also used for sleeping and waking the screen. On the bottom of the phone is the microphone pinhole and a micro-USB port for charging and data. The phone's left side is home to the volume rocker, which is used for changing the ringer, multimedia, and earpiece volumes, while the right side is totally bare. On the rear is a shiny HTC logo, above which is the lens for the 5 megapixel camera and its accompanying LED flash. Next to the flash is the grille for the Desire's loudspeaker. The HTC Desire measures a rather significant 119mm x 60mm x 11.9mm (4.7in x 2.36in x .47in) and weighs 135g (4.76oz). Although it's a pretty large handset (to accommodate the large screen), it's still pretty thin and doesn't feel that big in a pants pocket. http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=9195 -- Salam, Agus Hamonangan http://groups.google.com/group/id-android Gtalk : agus.hamonangan Tweet :@agushamonangan Japri : [email protected] -- "Indonesian Android Community [id-android]" Join: http://groups.google.com/group/id-android/subscribe?hl=en-GB Moderator: [email protected] ID Android Developer: http://groups.google.com/group/id-android-dev ID Android Surabaya: http://groups.google.com/group/id-android-sby ID Android on FB: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112207700729
