HTC DESIRE

Launched at the same time as the
HTC Legend, the HTC Desire is an
Android 2.1 handset with HTC's
Sense UI loaded on top and
improved social networking
support included, but the Desire
comes with a much bigger
display and packs in a lot more
pixels.
It looks a little like the HTC
manufactured Google Nexus
One, and indeed the
specifications are very similar.
But the HTC Desire isn't simply a
Nexus One with HTC branding, as
there are a number of
improvements.. but you will
have to wait until sometime next
quarter to get your hands on
one.
Inside is a 1GHz Snapdragon
processor, which is about as fast
as a mobile phone processor will
go. The 3.7" 800 x 480 pixel
display uses OLED technology to
ensure that it is bright and clear,
and with this sort of resolution
and processor power, the Desire
should be ideal for web surfing
and video playback. Internal
memory is an impressive 576 MB
of RAM which should allow
plenty of applications to run at
the same time.
On the back is a 5 megapixel
camera with autofocus and flash,
the sort of thing that most rival
Android devices also offer.
There's a multimedia player,
microSD expandable memory, FM
radio and a 3.5mm audio socket.
At 135 grams in weight, the HTC
Desire might seem a little on the
heavy side, but for a large
screen device such as this it is
fairly average, the Desire is also
a little on the large size physically
coming in at 119 x 60 x 12mm,
but again this is fairly typical.
The large 1400 mAh battery can
power the Desire for up to 6.5
hours talktime and 15 days
standby time on 3G.
Unlike the Nexus One, the HTC
Desire has been overhauled with
HTC's Sense User interface which
gives a slightly more polished
look and feel. HTC have also
developed an application called
Friend Stream which integrates
all the social networking updates
from your contacts in one place.
Flash 10.1 support is built in as
standard, and of course as this is
an Android device then you can
add more applications as you
wish. The user interface
supports multi-touch use as well.
HTC say that the Desire should be
available in April, although no
guidance was given on price, we
would guess that it will be fairly
expensive though and be
something in the region of €550.