Reply to: HTC Desire Review

[The Wikir Man]

The best bit about the stylus is that it was dead on arrival, so I get to sent it back for a refund and warns others not to buy it!

send
warn

Last edited by Bob The Drummer; Today at 01:37. Reason: Typos fixed (hopefully)

Nearly...

[Bob The Drummer]

HTC capacitive stylus review (sort of)

You can buy a stylus for the desire

I ordered the HTC-branded stylus the day I got my Desire, but it only turned up this weekend.

First impressions are that it is a flimsy p.o.s. that does not justify the premium over generic capacitive stylii available from e-bay. The stylus is very light, made from hard plastic, and if it didn't have the HTC logo on the side, you would never guess that it was a genuine accessory for the Desire.

The stylus tip differs somewhat from the sponge-like tips of some of the generics. It is a flat disc of transparent plastic approx 1cm in diameter, with a 1mm red dot in its centre. This disc is joined to the main barrel of the stylus by piece of silver plastic resembling the nib of a fountain pen.

The flat disc is angled slightly and forces you to hold the stylus at a particular angle away from the perpendicular in order for it to make a clean contact with the Desire screen.

The best bit about the stylus is that it was dead on arrival, so I get to sent it back for a refund and warns others not to buy it!

[stingman123]

I , too, have had an HTC desire for 2 weeks. I had an iphone before but wanted something more customisable and with less dominiation from Apple's whims!
Some aspects of the phone are great: ease of use, touch screen works very well for me, flash support. It is a fast system with background running apps (although too many will slow the system down quite a lot)
However there are some very, very annoying things:
- cannot edit or delete a single occurence of a repeated event. I can delete or edit all (this one and future or this one, the past ones and the future ones).... no suitable alternatiove in the Market (yet). HTC is looking into that... slowly...very slowly....
- no working hyperlink in the address book... so if someone you know has a website you cannot enter that information in their contact card! The sync from outlook did not import all the pictures linked to contacts... some did...some did not!
- Music player: easy to import from itune with a free app... but some albums/tracks will be imported with the album/track art and some will not... for no obvious reason.... this is annoying. The one thing I miss from the iphone is the music player. Head and shoulder above the rest.. again the apps on the market are far and few in between and do not compare well at all with the iphone music player.
- The music player does not import the all the genres you have asigned to your tracks... It will know "classical or Pop or Rock.... " if like me you happen to have french (for my sins), spanish, arabic orafrican music.... they are all bunged in the "unknown genre"!!!
- Internal memory:after 2 weeks usage only 25mb left after i have removed some apps I would not use... If I add up the memory available 175mb less the apps downloaded (28.7mb) I should be left with more than 25mb (cache/temp files cleared). all docs/videos/pics are sttored on SD card. Unfortunately HTC phone will not install apps on card to save space :-(

I am going to persevere a bit longer as the potential is good. But a system that sells itself on the ground that it can be customised easily has too many areas where you cannot customise the way you want (change label names in address books, free hand event alert selection etc.......)

at the moment I would give it only a 7/10

Google is your friend for the last point, many users have installad all their apps,data etc to their memory cards, I've looked into it and it sounds easy enough, never got round to it as yet though...

[casserced]

Not too impressed either

I , too, have had an HTC desire for 2 weeks. I had an iphone before but wanted something more customisable and with less dominiation from Apple's whims!
Some aspects of the phone are great: ease of use, touch screen works very well for me, flash support. It is a fast system with background running apps (although too many will slow the system down quite a lot)
However there are some very, very annoying things:
- cannot edit or delete a single occurence of a repeated event. I can delete or edit all (this one and future or this one, the past ones and the future ones).... no suitable alternatiove in the Market (yet). HTC is looking into that... slowly...very slowly....
- no working hyperlink in the address book... so if someone you know has a website you cannot enter that information in their contact card! The sync from outlook did not import all the pictures linked to contacts... some did...some did not!
- Music player: easy to import from itune with a free app... but some albums/tracks will be imported with the album/track art and some will not... for no obvious reason.... this is annoying. The one thing I miss from the iphone is the music player. Head and shoulder above the rest.. again the apps on the market are far and few in between and do not compare well at all with the iphone music player.
- The music player does not import the all the genres you have asigned to your tracks... It will know "classical or Pop or Rock.... " if like me you happen to have french (for my sins), spanish, arabic orafrican music.... they are all bunged in the "unknown genre"!!!
- Internal memory:after 2 weeks usage only 25mb left after i have removed some apps I would not use... If I add up the memory available 175mb less the apps downloaded (28.7mb) I should be left with more than 25mb (cache/temp files cleared). all docs/videos/pics are sttored on SD card. Unfortunately HTC phone will not install apps on card to save space :-(

I am going to persevere a bit longer as the potential is good. But a system that sells itself on the ground that it can be customised easily has too many areas where you cannot customise the way you want (change label names in address books, free hand event alert selection etc.......)

at the moment I would give it only a 7/10

[administrator]

I have had mine since Friday now. I like it.
The free android market apps cover the same needs I had covered by free apps on the iPhone.
I think the screen is better.
I like that you can mix widgets and program shortcuts on the desktops.
I can now see flash websites!!!
I have not tried tethering yet but I expect it to work.
I feels much faster than my 1Gen iPhone.
I now have a decent camera.
I now have video camera in the phone.

I am happy with it.

I love the camera and the video quality seems really good too.

You may be able to see flash but you can't see animated gif files! That was a bit of a let down

[ThomasSoerensen]

I have had mine since Friday now. I like it.
The free android market apps cover the same needs I had covered by free apps on the iPhone.
I think the screen is better.
I like that you can mix widgets and program shortcuts on the desktops.
I can now see flash websites!!!
I have not tried tethering yet but I expect it to work.
I feels much faster than my 1Gen iPhone.
I now have a decent camera.
I now have video camera in the phone.

I am happy with it.

[TykeMerc]

The HTC has built in GPS so no need for a bluetooth GPS device. As for handsfree, the one I linked to works via output from the headphone socket and transmits to FM so may be no need for bluetooth there again. I have never used hands free though so cannot vouch for any of this, hence me asking

I've used a handsfree speaker thing in the car for years, it's small and clips to the sun visor by all accounts of people that I've spoken to on it it's pretty good. I'd feel a total pillock with one of those Bluetooth earpieces.

I had no idea the Desire had a built in GPS!!! I've not gone for an unlimited internet deal so I hope it's not dependant on connectivity for ordinary navigation purposes.

Stylus wise it's a shame they didn't go with a similar design to the one on my current phone which is a perfectly ordinary LG Cookie and has a collapsible stylus that fits really neatly into the bottom edge of the phone. It comes in very handy for those fat fingered moments, I will miss having one, but I'm not going to carry one around that's seperate from the phone.

[administrator]

I've seen several cradle doofers on eBay.

That Google navigation application relies on an internet connection? Or works happily with a standard Bluetooth GPS receiver and just does updates with internet?

I've never tried this with Bluetooth, but is it possible to connect the Desire to more than 1 Bluetooth device at once? I'm thinking hands free and GPS in this case. If the satnav works for me I will stop carrying my PDA around.

The HTC has built in GPS so no need for a bluetooth GPS device. As for handsfree, the one I linked to works via output from the headphone socket and transmits to FM so may be no need for bluetooth there again. I have never used hands free though so cannot vouch for any of this, hence me asking

[TykeMerc]

Google Maps Navigation for mobile

Winner! Just had a quick play with this and seems really good. Was going to buy CoPilot but certainly won't be bothering now Need to get a cradle for it for the car though - anyone got any suggestions?

I've seen several cradle doofers on eBay.

That Google navigation application relies on an internet connection? Or works happily with a standard Bluetooth GPS receiver and just does updates with internet?

I've never tried this with Bluetooth, but is it possible to connect the Desire to more than 1 Bluetooth device at once? I'm thinking hands free and GPS in this case. If the satnav works for me I will stop carrying my PDA around.

[administrator]

Navigation

Google Maps Navigation for mobile

Winner! Just had a quick play with this and seems really good. Was going to buy CoPilot but certainly won't be bothering now Need to get a cradle for it for the car though - anyone got any suggestions?

Also would love an FM transmitter for it so if anyone seen anything they like suggestions would be welcomed. Have seen this one:
Griffin iTrip 6106-TRPUNPLS Auto Universal Plus: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Looks about right. Has USB on the top so could also plug the charger in while using it...

[Spacecadet]

I imported my outlook ccontacts via csv file into my gmail/googlemail account.

can't remember where in googlemail is it to do that.

Open Contacts (from the menu on the left) then select the export option (top right)

[administrator]

Had my Desire for two weeks now.

To be honest, I'm really struggling to get to grips with its touch screen. In portrait mode, my (not particularly sausage-like) fingers simply cannot type with any accuracy. In landscape, things are a lot better, but I get frustated by many of the major menus (apparently) not switching to a landscape mode.

This is my first touchscreen phone, and I suppose I really should stick with it as other users assure me I'll overcome my difficulties through repeated use. However, I keep finding it easier to revert to my trusty Symbian-based Nokia E51!

T-Mobile supplied the handset for a neglible fee at contract renewal time. If I had forked out for an unlocked device, I would probably have felt quite disappointed with my purchase. As things stand, I'll persist for another few weeks, but may well end up sticking it on e-bay.

Make sure you calibrate the screen - really improved the typing for me:

Settings > Language & keyboard > Touch Input > Text input > Calibration tool

[norrahe]

Had my Desire for two weeks now.

To be honest, I'm really struggling to get to grips with its touch screen. In portrait mode, my (not particularly sausage-like) fingers simply cannot type with any accuracy. In landscape, things are a lot better, but I get frustated by many of the major menus (apparently) not switching to a landscape mode.

This is my first touchscreen phone, and I suppose I really should stick with it as other users assure me I'll overcome my difficulties through repeated use. However, I keep finding it easier to revert to my trusty Symbian-based Nokia E51!

T-Mobile supplied the handset for a neglible fee at contract renewal time. If I had forked out for an unlocked device, I would probably have felt quite disappointed with my purchase. As things stand, I'll persist for another few weeks, but may well end up sticking it on e-bay.

You can buy a stylus for the desire

[Bob The Drummer]

Had my Desire for two weeks now.

To be honest, I'm really struggling to get to grips with its touch screen. In portrait mode, my (not particularly sausage-like) fingers simply cannot type with any accuracy. In landscape, things are a lot better, but I get frustated by many of the major menus (apparently) not switching to a landscape mode.

This is my first touchscreen phone, and I suppose I really should stick with it as other users assure me I'll overcome my difficulties through repeated use. However, I keep finding it easier to revert to my trusty Symbian-based Nokia E51!

T-Mobile supplied the handset for a neglible fee at contract renewal time. If I had forked out for an unlocked device, I would probably have felt quite disappointed with my purchase. As things stand, I'll persist for another few weeks, but may well end up sticking it on e-bay.

[norrahe]

I'm not using windows mobile (uninstalled it the second the desire landed on my desk).

So, er, are you saying I can sync my outlook contacts\calendar with google mail and then sync my desire with google mail? If so, I must be behind the times!

I imported my outlook ccontacts via csv file into my gmail/googlemail account.

can't remember where in googlemail is it to do that.