Well, it’s been 3 days since I sent off my HTC Desire S for repair and going back to my N95 hasn’t caused as many problems as I feared it might.
Firstly – wow: what a fantastic little phone. I remember it was good but had forgotten just how good it was.
The thing I’ve missed since getting a Desire is definitely the physical buttons for texting. I send a lot of texts and can type very quickly with physical buttons andb T9 turned on. I can still type fast on a touch screen but nowhere near as quick as on a keypad. The other benefit of having a keypad is you can type whilst not looking at the phone. I’m not trying to show off honest! This is something I could and still can do with the phone. Because you can tell which button is where you can easily type whilst walking along and not looking at the screen. Granted you may have a few predictive errors but you learn to know which words need correcting after a while.
Secondly, the two speakers on this handset are awesome. I hate saying awesome but there is not other word to describe them. Compared to the Desire’s and Desire S’ single small speaker they win hands down.
The next thing to talk about is apps. Have I missed any apps? Yes, of course I have. Nokia phones and their current Ovi Store just don’t compare to the Android Market at all. That being said however I was surprised to find nearly all I needed was freely available. From Tweets60 for Twitter to Spotify and the BBC iPlayer I found everything I’d need to keep me by for the next few days.
I think, in all honesty, the thing that would stop me from using this phone permanently are as follows:
No wireless syncing – Data such as contacts and bookmarks can’t be synced over the air. I managed to find a great app called GoogaSync which I have on a 14 day trial (long enough for the time I’ll be using it) which syncs with my Google calendar. It brings back memories of the days with Nokia PC Suite and the likes. This was never ideal. Having my Desire sync constantly over the air so all my data is backed up and current really is something I would hate living without.
Speed – the speed of the phone does show its age in comparison to newer handsets. Boot-up time is extremely quick and takes around 15 seconds compare to around 60 for the Desire. It does obviously have a lot less to load. The web browser is incredibly slow and basically unusable on any site that isn’t tailored for a mobile handset.
Apps – although we can all live without apps it’s not as fun is it? The Ovi Store will close soon and then the older Nokia phones will have to rely on websites to get their new (or old?) games and apps. This is a shame because you can already tell developers have pretty much stopped developing for it. Spotify although works very well is not as up to date as the Android version (scrobbling is not supported). The cost of some of the applications are extortionate as well.
At the end of the day there is obviously no way I’d give up my Desire S. Everything is just less clunky and more “up to date”. I’ll probably still keep my N95 just for old times sake (and to put my Orange SIM in for Orange Wednesdays) but I am looking forward to my repaired Desire S being back with me soon.
Well my poor little HTC Desire S will be shipped off tomorrow by UPS to HTC repairs. This is to have the USB socket/mainboard repaired as I mentioned in my previous post.
It can take up to 7 working days for the repair to be done so that’s more than a week I’ll be without my phone
I have a couple of phones I can use in this time of mourning – firstly I still have my Nokia N95. This was a great little phone in its time but now, with the demise of Nokia, Ovi and S60, it might be a bit old-hat.
I also have a new Nokia 6303 Classic phone. This runs a custom S40 6th Edition.
Do I want to just forget about having a decent phone and use the Classic or should I attempt to be able to tweet and update my Google+ on my ancient N95?
That’s all very well for US users but what about us UK folk who probably won’t see 4G for another 5 years?
Well I’ve put together my comparison list for reasons NOT to choose the HTC Evo 4G over the HTC Desire. I will use the same comparisons that Androidandme but will use the Desire as the example phone rather than the Nexus One
The Internet has been full of posts about this new “prototype” HTC Desire that comes in a sleek, sexy black colour.
Granted it looks nice but isn’t “prototype” too strong a word? I think it is. You wouldn’t have called a Nokia 3310 with a red casing on a prototype would you? Well if you would then you’re stupid.
As sleek as the black prototypeversion of the phone looks, I can’t help but to still be in love with the original silver version.
If you want to see a black HTC Desire in action then check out the video below:
The official news from 3 (Three) UK is that they will be offering the HTC Desire but not until mid/late April.
3 - Can you wait for the HTC Desire?
The team who run the 3 Blog have been listening to the comments of their customers to offer more of the latest phones on their network.
Having only been with 3 for about a year I was surprised to hear that they’re not the best operator for offering the latest and greatest phones on their network (I got my Nokia N97 on the day of release after all) so this is obviously a big thing for them.
Here’s what they said on the matter earlier today:
HTC Desire – We’ve already said we’re ranging this one. It’s one of the most exciting handsets of the year and we’re over the moon to be ranging it. It’ll launch on 3 mid/late April. We won’t be the first to market but we won’t be as late as we have been with other big phones in the past. Our pricing will be competitive…
So hold on 3 customers, you may be envious of T-Mobile users (as I am) but if you can wait a couple more weeks then you should be able to get the phone for free on a £35 a month contract. Don’t forget you’ll get free Skype, MSN and Spotify. No word on pre-orders yet though.
Worth the wait? Possibly, can I wait? Not sure… :s
I must admit; I was quite saddened when I first saw Android’s Market website – almost embarrassed. Coming from an N97 and the Ovi Store, I was used to being able to search and browse through thousands of applications all through my web browser. It seems however that this is not possible from the official Android Market website — until NOW!
A lovely little site called Android Tapp (it’s nothing to do with taps by the way) gives you the ability to search through the Market place and even *shock horror* browse categories too! If things get any more advanced I may just fall off my chair.
Android Tapp App Search Website
In all seriousness though, it’s a great site that opens up what seems to be a very closed Market that’s only browsable on an Android handset.
This surely has to be the battle of the titans in the phone world? FoneHome.co.uk have posted an article where one of their staff has compared all three phones.
Most articles I’ve seen like this are normally biased towards a particular manufacturer or phone but I’d say that this is quite a fair comparison.
Esato have a good phone comparison tool which I’ve set up to compare these 3 giants with each other. Although no entirely accurate (e.g. the N97 does have an RSS reader and games ‘are’ applicable) it gives you a good quick view into how they compete with each other spec-wise.
T3.com HTC Desire Hands-on Review
