HTC Desire Review Thread

djgaillimh

Meteor Henry Street are holding one for me, but I've already got one...

If you want I'll send you my phone number and you can give me a text when you're heading in. I'll ring them up and cancel the booking in time for you to pick up the phone.

That's if they don't have any others in stock...

jk86

djgaillimh wrote: »

Meteor Henry Street are holding one for me, but I've already got one...

If you want I'll send you my phone number and you can give me a text when you're heading in. I'll ring them up and cancel the booking in time for you to pick up the phone.

That's if they don't have any others in stock...

Wow, if it's not too much trouble that'd be brilliant.

bean

Yay, got the HTC desire today from Meteor Liffey Valley. Got the phone for 200 euro ish (would have been cheaper if id switched networks) got the connect 25 and a 5 euro internet plan for 250MB all for 30 Euro. Ill be mostly using home office cafe wireless internet. Got google navigator working today too! So far so good

takamichinoku

I'm moving up from a Motorola e770v, so naturally this phone is a revelation, considerably thinner than that phone too.
Only getting used to the touchscreen still. Able to read incredibly small text easily so the screen's great. Haven't had a chance to test the battery life.

Some questions though:

1. Anyone else with 32bit Vista have trouble getting it to sync? I disabled all non-Microsoft services while installing it and everything, the phone still isn't detecting HTC Sync on the computer.
2. Whats a good freeware video convertor to use? Same conversion settings as for an iPod? I assume the video player is in with the photo viewer app?

Slaanesh

takamichinoku wrote: »

1. Whats a good freeware video convertor to use? Same conversion settings as for an iPod? I assume the video player is in with the photo viewer app?

Download Handbrake.
Use the IPhone profile for transcoding video, I found it worked brilliantly.
I'm sure someone will come up with a profile specifically for the desire but I find this works just fine.

The videos will appear in the photos section, I think it scans the SD card for videos.

I suppose I should really write my Desire review!

davehey79

what size memory card does it come with as will eb gettin one soon and wanna know it its worth buying a larger card than the one supplied

Slaanesh

davehey79 wrote: »

what size memory card does it come with as will eb gettin one soon and wanna know it its worth buying a larger card than the one supplied

It comes with a 4GB memory card.

Theta

Anyone else getting TERRIBLE battery life from it?

I love the phone! Its class, top notch stuff but im charing it nearly everynight!

takamichinoku

Theta wrote: »

Anyone else getting TERRIBLE battery life from it?

I love the phone! Its class, top notch stuff but im charing it nearly everynight!

Haven't really had it out of the computer much, but "nearly everynight" sounds better than what just about every review says.

...and thanks Slaanesh!

Royale with Cheese

If it gets through the day then you've nothing to worry about really.

floggg

I have on id these bad boys on hold with meteor for collection tomorrow. Very excited. Upgrading from my hero (with money back from meteor on that). Looking forward to the bigger screen, snappier performance and the 2.1 apps (might have to get a car to make use of these free sat nav).

Battery could be better but at least with micro usb chargers will be easy to borrow than the hero (or my previous Samsung).

EPM

Anyone try out the music player yet? Is it a bit laggy like the Hero's or is there an improvement? Might pick one up today and this is the only thing that would turn me off it

djgaillimh

I've found the music player to be pretty good, and not too hard on the battery either.

I'd recommend getting the last.fm app too. Streaming and scrobbling work perfectly with it.

MagicMarker

I had the last.fm app but it stopped working after a while and said I had to pay $3 a month!

partyatmygaff

EPM wrote: »

Anyone try out the music player yet? Is it a bit laggy like the Hero's or is there an improvement? Might pick one up today and this is the only thing that would turn me off it

No lag whatsoever in the music player. Then again I only have about 260 songs loaded until I get a bigger memory card. But it's smooth as butter without any hiccups.

Honda08

cormie wrote: »

Seems to be a bit of confusion amongst the meteor staff alright. In one store I was told that it's locked to meteor, in another I was told "unofficially" he thinks it's unlocked and in another he wasn't sure.

Has anyone here bought it from Meteor and tried another sim in it to discover it is in fact locked? I still have that one booked for me but would prefer to know rather than making the trip only to find out when I'm there.

got a HTC desire yesterday and its unlocked!! yay! comes with a 4GB card installed!

moved my number to meteor and phone cost €149.99

whats the meteor network like? compared to voda?

cormie

I haven't really been using the Meteor sim really, just have it in the phone and been messing around with the phone, not sure if I've even made a call off it. Would be able to test it as I'm in a good coverage area for both at the moment anyway.

You must have gone for a more expensive plan to get it at 149?

EPM

partyatmygaff wrote: »

No lag whatsoever in the music player. Then again I only have about 260 songs loaded until I get a bigger memory card. But it's smooth as butter without any hiccups.

The slight delay on my hero means I never use it. Hero died completely on me yesterday so just heading into carphone warehouse now...hope they've got stock!

_Kaiser_

EPM wrote: »

The slight delay on my hero means I never use it. Hero died completely on me yesterday so just heading into carphone warehouse now...hope they've got stock!

Hope you've better luck than me. I've been trying meteor and carphone warehouse stores within an hour's drive for 2 days now and none of them have them, or want to know if it's an upgrade (which it is), and THEN say they don't

EPM

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Hope you've better luck than me. I've been trying meteor and carphone warehouse stores within an hour's drive for 2 days now and none of them have them, or want to know if it's an upgrade (which it is), and THEN say they don't

Just got it. Very impressive. Bought it sin free in UK as needed it fast after my heros touch screen died on me yesterday

Honda08

EPM wrote: »

Just got it. Very impressive. Bought it sin free in UK as needed it fast after my heros touch screen died on me yesterday

got one yesterday in car phone warehouse... €149 on meteor. or €500 sim free.

my phone that i got on a meteor contract is unlocked!!

lafors

Anyone with battery issues, keep an eye on this thread on xda.
XDA Forums - Desire Battery
I've the exact same issue on mine, calendar is keeping the device from sleeping.
Mine is a sim-free UK desire.

floggg

Got mine yesterday, and have to say, I'm loving it.

The screen is absolutely gorgeous, and I'm loving all the little graphical features e.g. weather effects on your home screen. The "Leap" thing is great as well - with my Hero, I never really strayed to far from the home screen and maybe one screen either side. With Leap, you can just pinch the home screen to pull up all 7 panels, and everything at your finger tips.

The benefit of the google contact sync really comes into play when you are upgrading between android phones. Once i turned mine on and entered the details I had everybody from my hero contacts up in a about a minute or two, with the correct facebook links still set up. So for all of you saying how much of a pain the initial set up can be, it will pay dividends going forward.

Also the phone is amazingly fast! Apps download and install in seconds (even a 20mb download was up and running in no time, quicker than my laptop). there is little or no lag ever no matter what you do. internet seems pretty zippy as well, although i haven't played with it to far.

Its nice to have android 2.1, although the differences aren't all that vast from 1.5. the main thing is access to the newer apps like maps navigation, goggles etc.

Overall, a great phone, and one I haven't been able to put down since i got it!

EdgarAllenPoo

Honda08 wrote: »

got one yesterday in car phone warehouse... €149 on meteor. or €500 sim free.

SIM free? Didn't know anywhere sold it SIM free in Ireland.

From looking around online the average price SIM free is about €450, anyone know anywhere online(trusted) with a better price than that?

elderlemon

pixmania.ie for around 440. clove (clove.co.uk) and handtec also have them. All are trustworthy.

GDM wrote: »

SIM free? Didn't know anywhere sold it SIM free in Ireland.

From looking around online the average price SIM free is about €450, anyone know anywhere online(trusted) with a better price than that?

EPM

Has anyone else noticing how bloody hot the handset gets when it's being used for anything even a little battery intensive? Kinda strange...

partyatmygaff

EPM wrote: »

Has anyone else noticing how bloody hot the handset gets when it's being used for anything even a little battery intensive? Kinda strange...

That's the Snapdragon that's causing the heat there. The battery heats up whenever it's charging or being used heavily.

boc121

Honda08 wrote: »

got one yesterday in car phone warehouse... €149 on meteor. or €500 sim free.

my phone that i got on a meteor contract is unlocked!!

Where?? did'nt think cpw had it yet.
Cheers.

cormie

Could somebody test this for me please on the HTC Desire;

If you could go to "people" and go to the group tab and click menu, do you only get "add group" and "delete group" or are there more options, including "sync groups" in which you can see the options:

- Sync all contacts
- My Contacts

when you go into it?

I need to get this "Sync Groups" option on my desire but it's not there, I've read that a hard reset makes it appear on reboot, but I'd prefer not to do one in fear of it not working and having to start over again. I'm prepared to do it if it's definitely going to give me the option!

So if anyone could report back as to whether they have the "Sync Groups" option it would be great and if you do, did you, or did you not ever do a hard reset?

Any feedback appreciated

Grudle

Only have add or delete groups on mine.

cormie

Ok, so I tried a hard reset and the "sync group" option is still not present on the group tab menu option, still only add or delete group If anyone could advise on this I'd appreciate it and also if anyone could report on whether they have a "Sync Groups" option on their HTC Desire and let me know if yours was ever given a hard reset or anything else you may have done to get it please.

S.M.B.

Only add or delete groups here too.

EPM

Add or delete only here three

cormie

Thanks for the replies. I just hope I can find a solution for this

I've a thread on it here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055893797 if anyone comes up with a solution

IKnowYou

Anyone experience issues with multitouch/touchscreen responsiveness?

Apparently the HTC Desire uses an older/inferior touchscreen (Clearpad 2000).

Really puts me off when US are getting the better Incredible and Evo.

johnny_adidas

does anybody else's phone get hot when the mobile network is running, in particular when its charging?

partyatmygaff

IKnowYou wrote: »

Anyone experience issues with multitouch/touchscreen responsiveness?

Apparently the HTC Desire uses an older/inferior touchscreen (Clearpad 2000).

Really puts me off when US are getting the better Incredible and Evo.

That is correct. The nexus one and desire both use the clearpad 2000 which can detect at most two fingers (or four but on the same axis). They currently have an axis crossing issue that you will only ever notice in some multitouch games like toonwarz. Android 2.2 will fix the axis crossing issue but there will never be support for more than two fingers (Not that most people will use more than dualtouch.

cormie

Well today I used my Garmin sat nav for the first time since getting the Desire and I was surprised how much better the desire is. It was never even something I noticed in the Garmin until I got the desire. So if you're not used to anything better, the Desire will seem great.

Loggie

Vodafone appear to have the desire for upgrading pay monthly customers starting at €179.
18 month contract
http://forum.vodafone.ie/index.php?/topic/2816-the-htc-desire-is-definitely-being-launched/page__st__200

cormie

Funny that it's more expensive than the iphone 3Gs 16gb. Guess I wont feel so bad if I don't sell mine and break even

partyatmygaff

There price plans are same old same old. Atrocious.

cormie

Ah the one I'm on is good, Perfect choice access plus 500, 80 quid a month. Works out much better than the o2 one I was on. I think Meteor may be a little cheaper, but not when it comes to UK/roaming charges and Three, well I don't like three after the service I received from their mobile broadband

EPM

johnny_adidas wrote: »

does anybody else's phone get hot when the mobile network is running, in particular when its charging?

Someone said it's because of the processor.

Personally I think it gets way too hot for my liking and when charging I place it on something thats not likely to burn very easily...

partyatmygaff

EPM wrote: »

Someone said it's because of the processor.

Personally I think it gets way too hot for my liking and when charging I place it on something thats not likely to burn very easily...

It's not THAT hot :P

It may feel roasting but in reality it only goes to 37.5C which won't be burning much.

aliocroc

Hey folks, I got the desire and i love it and blah blah blah-thats not why im posting!

Just got a great deal/bargain alert for ye! Get onto Zagg.com and enter their ipad giveaway competition , you'll get an email saying thanks for entering with a 50% discount voucher!

I went on, bought the Zagg HTC desire full body protectionhttp://www.zagg.com/invisibleshield/htc-desire-cases-screen-protectors-covers-skins-shields.php worth $30 (inc P&P) for $16-all told and converted-high quality full body HTC Desire protected for 12 euro! Not bad!!!

(BTW-any of ye win an Ipad i wanna cut...or some major kudos!!!

Sorry folks, guess i just got lucky-vouchers are obviously varying from 10-50%-if you're not happy with ur voucher, u could try again the next week if you're really in the mood for fishing! or try from a different IP!

JimiMac

Thanks for the tip alio,
I only got a 20% voucher though
Ah well, better than nothing!

partyatmygaff

JimiMac wrote: »

Thanks for the tip alio,
I only got a 20% voucher though
Ah well, better than nothing!

I got a 40% voucher

Might buy myself a leather case with it...

seanin4711

aliocroc wrote: »

Hey folks, I got the desire and i love it and blah blah blah-thats not why im posting!

Just got a great deal/bargain alert for ye! Get onto Zagg.com and enter their ipad giveaway competition , you'll get an email saying thanks for entering with a 50% discount voucher!

I went on, bought the Zagg HTC desire full body protectionhttp://www.zagg.com/invisibleshield/htc-desire-cases-screen-protectors-covers-skins-shields.php worth $30 (inc P&P) for $16-all told and converted-high quality full body HTC Desire protected for 12 euro! Not bad!!!


(BTW-any of ye win an Ipad i wanna cut...or some major kudos!!!

Any experience i had in buying from the US and asia is extra customs charges.
any idea would this be party to that?
thanks
john

dragona

I got a 10% voucher! But I don't care.......anyone else here managed to not do ANYTHING but play with their Desire??:D I LOVE it like I've never loved a gadget/phone before:)

partyatmygaff

seanin4711 wrote: »

Any experience i had in buying from the US and asia is extra customs charges.
any idea would this be party to that?
thanks
john

Probably not. They won't bother for items worth less than €20.