Our HTC Desire HD Review

It's bigger, but is the HTC Desire HD mobile phone any better? Certainly the Taiwanese company thinks so, but are they right?

Well, for one thing, the 4.3 inch touchscreen is a delight, intuitive and responsive, clear and bright. Because of the handset's slim design, the screen seems exactly the right size and shape for its setting. The camera is impressive, too, boasting 8- megapixels with twin LED flash.

The HTC Desire mobile phone makes good use of Sense UI, which sits happily on top of Google's Android OS to provide a wealth of widgets and more home screens to keep you organised. Simply pinching the screen explodes the view of icons for easy access. The interface is a delight to use, fast and intuitive. Multitasking on this phone is sleek, and operations are smooth even when app downloading is going on in the background. The designers should be applauded for tweaking things under the bonnet, while leaving well alone on the interface.

One ugly thing about the HTC Desire mobile phone is the ugly digital clock on the top, but the handset's ease of customization removes it in seconds while giving you access to a multitude of editable themes for homescreens. You also have the option of opening favourite or recently-used icons with ease.

The contacts menu is superbly functional, easily syncing your Twitter, Facebook and Google lists, which you can link together individually or in groups. Once you've used this function when setting up the phone, you'll be amazed that no-one has developed this simple system in the same way before.

Dialling these contacts is simplified by predictive text, and call quality was good in a number of situations, even with the loudspeaker, although it could have done with a little boost in volume.

The large QWERTY keyboard works just as well in both portrait and landscape modes, and the addition of four-way arrow keys makes moving around text as simple as it could be without a mouse. The predictive text is cool and educable, and won't suggest daft words that nobody uses. Messaging is also simple to use, and you can swipe along to order messages from your favourite people before deleting the junk.

The inclusion of Flash 10.1 is a great bonus. Watching live streaming video from sites like the BBC can be a little choppy, but quality is good enough not to make this an unpleasant experience.

With the amount of apps that come with the HTC Desire mobile phone, you may not ever need to visit the Android Store. There's a flashlight, ebook reader and Soundhound for when you name that tune. And once you have registered for an HTC Sense account, you can unlock a huge amount of cool stuff.

What We Liked

The screen and slick operation were a delight to use

What We Disliked

For a handset that you will want to use all the time, battery life was disappointing

Our Final Verdict

One of the most user-friendly devices around, which makes full use of both Sense UI and Android

Compare Handsets

	Read Review
	HTC Desire HD
General
Form Factor	Candybar
Dimensions	123 x 68 x 11.5 (mm)
Talk Time	300 mins
Standby Time	290 hours
Weight	164 g
Quad Band	Yes
Photo and Video
Integrated Camera	Yes
Camera	8.00 megapixels
Camera Flash	Yes
Video Player	Yes
Phone
Polyphonic Ringtones	Yes
Smart Phone	Yes
Internal Memory	1.5GB
Memory Card Type	MicroSD (max 32GB)
Messaging
Instant Messaging (IM)	Yes
Screen
Colour Screen	Yes
Touch Screen	Yes
Screen Resolution	WVGA touchscreen
Connectivity
3G	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Email	Yes
HSDPA	Yes
WAP	Yes
Web Browser	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
GPS	Yes
Music and Radio
FM Radio	Yes
MP3 Player	Yes
MP3 Ringtones	Yes
Additional Content
Downloadable Content	Yes
Downloadable Games	Yes
Downloadable Ringtones	Yes

HTC Desire HD Full Specification

General

Photo and Video

Phone

Messaging

Screen

Connectivity

Music and Radio

Additional Content