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HTC Desire

For users considering buying a Google Nexus, or those who are jealous of a friend that already owns a Nexus, good news is at hand: HTC has unveiled a new handset that overtakes the Nexus and some wags have even referred to the new HTC device as the Nexus Two. The new phone which had originally been pencilled as the HTC Bravo has been unveiled with the name HTC Desire and is set to both impress and enthral tech junkies and casual users alike.

With such similar specifications to Google’s Nexus One the questions circling around for many people were ‘what extra will you get from the HTC Desire that you don’t get from the Nexus?’, ‘Will it be worth it when it eventually arrives in shops?’, and ‘Is the extra wait of a couple of months going to be worthwhile?’ Fortunately, tech journalists and reviewers got a taste of the new HTC Desire at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to help provide some greater insight into what the Desire has to offer as well as get some hands-on experience with the new model.

Google Nexus One

On first impressions the HTC Desire appears to be almost the spitting image of the Nexus One, with an almost identical 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED screen as well as similar rounded curves and the top-positioned power button. The Desire’s internal specifications are also very similar to those found in the Nexus, featuring as it does the same 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor allowing for ultra-rapid applications and browsing as well as a microSD slot for performing memory capacity upgrades. GPS and AGPS functions and 512MB of flash memory as well as 256MB of RAM help round off some of the device’s other key features, though one other big plus for many users is the device’s integral compass which can be readily and easily used along with the various different augmented reality applications found on the phone.

The Desire is also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HSDPA ready, as you might expect from a high end smartphone. It also comes complete with a 5-megapixel camera, which is a decent spec, and features a useful LED flash – great for those low-lighting snaps. The camera is even capable of capturing 800×480 video and can be accessed via the feature shortcuts which can be found on the home, menu, back and search options.

So, to one of the principle questions: What actually is the difference between the Desire and the Nexus?

HTC Desire

The first point to mention here is that Google’s device scores points for its active voice cancellation, and the user cannot use voice recognition to text on the Desire. This， however, is just one (not especially major) point, and HTC’s Desire has trimmed and improved upon some of the features found on Google’s device to make this slight drawback seem un-noteworthy. For example, the Desire has done away with the front-positioned mechanical trackball and the on-screen touch-sensitive button and has replaced them with actual shortcut keys. There is also an optical navigation button on the Desire, which works much more precisely than other hardware-based alternatives.

HTC have clearly sensed the way the wind is blowing in the market in replacing the trackball, and it is a decision that Blackberry themselves have also taken. There have long been concerns that trackballs are apt to fail and break which can atrophy possible phone usage – not something a user on an 18-month contract want s to happen. The Desire, however, provides the user with such great touch response from the on-screen display that users might never actually use the navigation button at all.

HTC Desire

The Desire’s handset also features HTC Sense UI, the same as is found on their Hero handset, although it has been improved to suit the Desire’s design in particular. It is faster on the Desire, for instance, and with extra added contract features it blows the Nexus One out of the water. Sense also features what is known as a helicopter view, and it operates in much the same way as Expose does on the Mac. The user simply pinches the home screen in order to display all home screen pages currently running and can then simply tap in order to go to the desired program or pinch back out again as needed as multi-touch is fully supported.

The inclusion of Flash Lite 4 also allows the user to view videos straight out of the box (a feature still not offered by the much-celebrated iPhone) and you can also select text on-screen and get it instantly translated or look it up on Wikipedia – two great little bonuses for those dealing with large amounts of information regularly. Along with the ultra-fast Android 2.1 operating system the Desire is completely user-friendly, and runs at a great lick.

Tags: HTC-Desire

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 11:12 am and is filed under HTC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.