HTC Desire The Best SmartPhone :: Exclusive Owner's Review

use the task manager and kill unwanted process and apps!...keep btooth & wifi switched off when not needed!....switch of the display once you are done with working on it...there are lots of wino apps out there for battery management...they help a bit!......yeah no matter what htc's battery sucks and you will need to replace it in a year n a half!....
 
^^ I have done all of the above and much more .... trust me guys, when it comes to battery drain no one beats Desire, I have iPhone 3GS as well and its far better than Desire .....
 
Sam, thats a great review! If you have done more phone reviews, please provide a link.
I had used the HTC Desire for some time last month, awesome phone it is, and yes even I find HTC UI better. But finally went in for a Samsung GS because of the screen and a good offer.
With the SGS too, battery life is an issue, so trying to ensure min apps running in the background, switching off gps/wifi when not needed. Only keep auto rotate and haptic feedback on, as I cant do without it.
Now need to try Tayutama ROM and see what it does to battery life.( running on stock Froyo now).
 
reduce the brightness turn off 3g btooth other unnecessary that you are not using. Btw no one can beat apple in sucking battery life :lol:.

thanks guys...
Desire HD with a 4.3 inch screen and 1gig processor saps the battery twice as much as the 3gs.(just upgraded to the desire hd from the 3gs). Downloaded the app Advanced Task killer lets see if it helps...
By the way I too am stuck with the Iphone 4 and am waiting for the unlock for the 4.2.1...what a waste to have it sitting in the cupboard...sigh:sad:
 
Nice review Sam..

I also like sense UI..
using htc wildfire with android 2.1..
will soon update it to 2.2 once available..
I get good battery life (may be due smaller screen and low processor on wildfire).
 
sam@ i hv 1 question here
Battery drains due to h/w or android eats up?

Kinda both, but I think the applications and OS is not yet optimized to work on a powerhouse of an hardware with so less juice to provide. They have to keep the cost margin in limits, so they have to compromise on something, else why not a 2000miA battery at the first place .......
 
Sam, thats a great review! If you have done more phone reviews, please provide a link.
I had used the HTC Desire for some time last month, awesome phone it is, and yes even I find HTC UI better. But finally went in for a Samsung GS because of the screen and a good offer.
With the SGS too, battery life is an issue, so trying to ensure min apps running in the background, switching off gps/wifi when not needed. Only keep auto rotate and haptic feedback on, as I cant do without it.
Now need to try Tayutama ROM and see what it does to battery life.( running on stock Froyo now).

Thanks iaudio, This is my first phone review... :) not the first review though, i love writing reviews, mostly for gadgets. I dont write a review unless I own an item, as that makes my reviews always genuine and non biased, else anyone can cook up a review by collating information from net ......

I am trying to upgrade to Desire HD, if I manage to sell my current Desire, so that might be my 2nd phone review, which I can add in the existing review itself .... :)
 
Thanks iaudio, This is my first phone review... :) not the first review though, i love writing reviews, mostly for gadgets. I dont write a review unless I own an item, as that makes my reviews always genuine and non biased, else anyone can cook up a review by collating information from net ......

I am trying to upgrade to Desire HD, if I manage to sell my current Desire, so that might be my 2nd phone review, which I can add in the existing review itself .... :)

Any idea on the price of Desire HD store and street price ? I am also fedup with iphone ...and itunes :mad:
 
^^ Well few sources tell me is 30K on stores, 2K more than with what Desire was launched. Desire prices have been reduced to 23,24K ......
 
I ended up picking a Desire HD too! Have not rooted it yet -- I'm planning to try out HTC Sense UI for a while. Changing the default theme and turning off most of the HTC widgets did help me get the phone to where I wanted it.

@kittu1977, the price the dealers are quoting in Kochi is 28,500/-. I bought the phone from a dealer I know well, for 26,500/-. The price on the box is 32,490/-
 
Thanks Hydra , that is a pretty good price... does it include the warranty and any accessories....:) ?
 
thanks guys...
Desire HD with a 4.3 inch screen and 1gig processor saps the battery twice as much as the 3gs.(just upgraded to the desire hd from the 3gs). Downloaded the app Advanced Task killer lets see if it helps...
By the way I too am stuck with the Iphone 4 and am waiting for the unlock for the 4.2.1...what a waste to have it sitting in the cupboard...sigh:sad:

You really shouldn't kill tasks. Android is designed to have part of the tasks resident in memory to speed up loading times. In fact, killing tasks can actually have the opposite effect - of sapping the battery.

Try using JuiceDefender: JuiceDefender - Latedroid | awesome apps
This app is known help a lot. (I haven't tried it myself yet)

I personally find the battery life on my Desire HD better than it has been made out to be. I'm on my second charge and it has lasted me 18 hours now, since disconnecting from the charger. I've made/received 4 short calls in between, and I have Facebook, Twitter, Calendar, Contacts, Email & Gmail on full-time sync. I've also used the browser for at least 2 hours in between. I don't have the Friendstream widget or the news widget active, though. I've also enabled the blackest theme (Blackboard) and I make good use of the Android Power Contol Widget.
 
Thanks Hydra , that is a pretty good price... does it include the warranty and any accessories....:) ?

It includes only what came in the box and warranty. Nothing extra. It was a proper with-bill-&-warranty buy. :)

The box contains an 8GB microSD, a battery, a charger, USB cable and the hands-free (wired) set. No case. I've ordered an Otterbox Commuter case online and expect it to land in a week or so. Currently using a cheap slip-case and an uh, iPhone screen protector :D
 
Very nicely written review! I remain impressed by HTC's build quality, although I haven't owned one myself (use a crackberry for work, and my wife uses an LG Optimus One). However, I've used this phone a bit and came away impressed (although I ended up playing Tower Defence most of the time.. addicting game that it is ;-)). Extremely well put together product, and you get the feeling that you are holding a solid well built and well engineered product.

In roughly this price range, the Dell Streak would also be a strong competitor. 5" display, Gorilla glass, 1GHz Snapdragon, 16GB inbuilt memory..

I also have to say that the Samsung Super AMOLED screen is probably the most stunning screen I've seen in a phone, iphone4 included. The colors and vividness are just too much! However, the phone itself feels a bit plasticky (rather, it is decent, but not as well built as its competitors), and doesn't give the same impression of being a premium product like the HTC. Plus, if I am not mistaken, it doesn't have an LED/Xenon flash, which is quite a shame for a product of its class... considering that camera phones are really poor at low light photography to begin with.

One other thing - Android 2.2 is quite neat! Even on an entry level phone like the Optimus One with a 600MHz, it runs quite smooth.. and Swype really is a must-have.
 
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some of the pics taken by blackberry in daylight amaze me, while those in night clearly disappoint. A good flash is very helpful, specially for those who do not always carry a separate camera all the time.
 
Very nicely written review! I remain impressed by HTC's build quality, although I haven't owned one myself (use a crackberry for work, and my wife uses an LG Optimus One). However, I've used this phone a bit and came away impressed (although I ended up playing Tower Defence most of the time.. addicting game that it is ;-)). Extremely well put together product, and you get the feeling that you are holding a solid well built and well engineered product.

In roughly this price range, the Dell Streak would also be a strong competitor. 5" display, Gorilla glass, 1GHz Snapdragon, 16GB inbuilt memory..

I also have to say that the Samsung Super AMOLED screen is probably the most stunning screen I've seen in a phone, iphone4 included. The colors and vividness are just too much! However, the phone itself feels a bit plasticky (rather, it is decent, but not as well built as its competitors), and doesn't give the same impression of being a premium product like the HTC. Plus, if I am not mistaken, it doesn't have an LED/Xenon flash, which is quite a shame for a product of its class... considering that camera phones are really poor at low light photography to begin with.

One other thing - Android 2.2 is quite neat! Even on an entry level phone like the Optimus One with a 600MHz, it runs quite smooth.. and Swype really is a must-have.
@ali BTW How is LG Optinus one?
 
@ali BTW How is LG Optinus one?

Very happy with the Optimus One so far.

Good build quality, decent screen (better screen resolution than most - 320x480), good battery life, Android 2.2 out of the box, able to run most apps smoothly (can play Angry Birds with only a rare stutter).

Average camera, and touchscreen could have been better though.

I'm arun, by the way :)
 
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