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The HTC Gratia is a new offering from this Taiwan company. It is nearly a carbon copy of the older Aria. Get a closer look at the HTC Gratia here in this snappy article.

The HTC Gratia looks like an identical twin of the Aria, a smartphone being offered on AT&T. The displays are also the same size, but there is a difference on the inside. The older Aria has version 2.1 of Android. Gratia has version 2.2. This results in a noticeable increase in speed.

Looking at the screen features, the HTC Gratia has plenty to offer. The resolution is rated at 320 by 480 pixels, which will present average clarity to the user. An accelerometer is included to turn the screen contents from portrait to landscape mode automatically. The Gratia also turns the screen off automatically when accepting a call. There is no trackball or manual keyboard for this smartphone, but it does come with a optical trackpad for navigation.

The camera is not as powerful as other flagship smartphones, but is sufficient for nominal photos. The five megapixel ability is accompanied by geo tagging, auto focus and face detection but not flash. It is possible to turn off geo tags in the menus of the HTC Gratia for personal safety and privacy. Video is included with the rear camera. There is no front facing camera for video calling.

The Sense user interface is becoming a standard for HTC phones and the HTC Gratia also features it. It covers the trivial Android operating system with something more lively and enjoyable to use. HTC includes the Friendstream service into the software to keep track of contacts from social networking sites.

The HTC Gratia is running a 600 megahertz processor. This is somewhat behind-the-times, but will pan out with success thanks to the increased speed of Android 2.2. The battery on this smartphone will give around six hours of talk time. It will come in three different colors; black, green or white. Look for HTC Gratia offers to come out before December in Europe.

After releasing its first full-QWERTY sliding Android HTC Dream back in June 2009, the Taiwan leader in smartphones now has the second full QWERTY with the HTC Desire Z. Feature-wise, it’s no different from the Desire HD that has sprouted a QWERTY keyboard but when closed, it has more affinity to the earlier Desire in looks and dimensions. In case people ask why designate it a “Z”, one has to look at the sliding mechanism from the side to see a similarity in the formation of its halves and its diagonal hinge forming the letter.

From AMOLED to S-LCD

The HTC Desire Z carries forward the company’s switch from Samsung’s inventory-starved AMOLED to Sony’s Super-LCD screen. Engadget has a good comparison between the two screens on the same HTC Desire and there’s nothing to conclude that one is superior to the other. Both have the same 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen technology with multitouch, a 400 x 800 resolution, 16 million colors and the usual sensors for proximity and accelerometer auto-rotate viewing.

Flagship Features

What adds to the appeal of the HTC Desire Z is its latest Android v2.2 Froyo OS while other Androids using a v2.1 Éclair are stilling awaiting upgrades. But it does step a lower wrung with a Qualcomm MSM7230 clocked 800 MHz when the earlier Desire had a 1 GHz Snapdragon. Other than that, the Desire Z is another upscale Android that has the following:
• Quad band GSM with class 32 GPRS/EDGE on 2G;
• Dual band 3G/UMTS with HSDPA at 14.14 Mbps and HSUPA at 5.7 Mbps data speeds;
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0;
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, geo tagging, face detection and 720p video recording
• 1.5 GB internal memory with 512 MB RAM and microSD support for up to 32GB;
• 9.8 hours on 2G and 6.6 hours on 3G with 430 hours standby time from a 1300 mAh Li-ion battery.

There are plenty of great mobile phones out there on the market. But when it comes to overall features, hardware capabilities, accessibility and functionality, it is hard to find a handset that is as impressive as the HTC Desire.

Of course, the Desire is more than just a great, well rounded mobile phone. It does have certain special aspects that make it stand out against other mobile phones.

The Android OS

First off, the HTC Desire is an Android device. This means that users will get the full range of Google’s web applications and phone features in a single stroke. For those on the move, there is Google Maps and Google Earth. The integrated search function instantly seeks out address inputs and can even give you the quickest route to the nearest pub.

Google Mail and Google Chat bring users in touch with important contacts while Picasa and YouTube handle media uploading needs. The Google Goggles augmented reality app allows users to instant seek out information on the things and places around them –used in conjunction with Google Street View and the satellite navigation; it will also help users get around easier.

Screen and More

The second great feature about this handset is the touch screen display. At 3.7 inches, the screen is quite big (though not as spaciously large as the 4.3 inch screen on the upcoming HTC Desire HD or the 5 inch display on the Dell Streak). In any case, size is not the main advantage of the screen on the HTC Desire, and the capacitive touch screen technology is pretty much a standard for the handset.

What makes the screen on the Desire very special is the fact that it uses AMOLED technology. With a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels the screen is able to handle HD video content without much problems –this is particularly useful since the Desire is a great handset for viewing media content.

Last Monday, HTC has released a new update intended for Hero units running Android 1.5 to upgrade to Android 2.1. Unfortunately, it seems that Orange, T-Mobile UK and Three’s HTC Hero toting customers will have to wait a little while longer to get their Android 2.1 upgrade.

This may be a big letdown for those who are expecting to have their ‘Droid update at the same time as those with unlocked units, but the mobile network operator has assured the press that this is for the benefit of concerned users. To ensure network stability and smooth operations all the way, tests are being conducted using the new update.

The new update is scheduled to be out around “mid to late July” for Three customers. HTC originally planned for all their phone operating system upgrades to happen before the end of the month, but it seems it is just not possible for subscribers.

Although no exact date was given, Three has stated that it would be more likely for the update to happen later instead of sooner.

T-Mobile UK has given a similar statement, saying that everyone will just have to wait for their official announcement. At this rate, a June 30 release date is an optimistic estimate. G2 (their HTC Hero) owners using their service will just have to be a little more patient.

Like the two operators, Orange has been equally vague, saying that the mobile phone upgrade will be live in the “very near future” although no release date estimates were given.

This is truly a big blow for HTC Hero owners, seeing as Google already released version 2.2 of the little green robot, but at least having a delayed update is better than none. Hopefully, network performance will not fail to impress once the update is officially released.