The Official HTC Desire Thread

[Whiternoise]

I'm due for an upgrade next week (Orange) and i'm looking at my options. Currently it's between a Blackberry, something Sony, Moto Milstone or an HTC Desire.

I've discounted Sony on the grounds that almost every Sony phone i've tried has been cack.

Blackberry i'm kinda tempted by because it has a proper keyboard, but it's a blackberry and i'd quite like Android.

So it comes down to Android. The Motorola Droid/Milestone is a superb phone from what i've seen and has that all important physical keyboard. But.. it's quite old now as phones go, and the Desire trumps it in pretty much all hardware categories. How have people found the virtual keypad on the Desire? I've also heard that it suffers from some weird multi-touch issues (something about multiple input on the same axis).

What do I do?!

(As a side note, my contract runs out in August but i can upgrade the phone now. Does this mean i can try and blag a better deal with it? PAC code and all that)

[Smudger]

I stayed away from touch-screen phones for ages because of issues with on-screen keyboards. When I first got the Desire, i thought maybe I was right to (big fingers, small keys), however once you get used to it, it's not too bad, plus where you press the wrong key, it suggests words that contain the letter you should have pressed. You still have to add all your swear words to the dictionary though, as per any new phone...

[AndyCr15]

I thought I would miss the physical keyboard, when I changed over a year ago to touch only I didn't really. Then a friend got a Milestone and I thought I might too, but I tried his keyboard and it's horrible. There's nothing to tell one key form the next and most of the time you end up pressing 4 keys at once... no auto correction there like onscreen keyboard.

Also, I've used things such as SlideIT, Shapewriter and now to the best one, Swype and it makes onscreen keyboards faster then ever. Watch this video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaokPG-ZfZY

That's one finger against two as well, you really can type (Swype) very quick with just your thumb.

As for your contract, if your getting the early upgrade, I would think that's more like them doing you a favour, so I doubt you have much leverage. It's not like you can say 'Well I'm going another provider then', 'Erm, sorry sir, you're still under contract with us for 6 more months. You're not going anywhere...'

Also, how much do you like to mess with gadgets? If you like to a lot, take a look at the Nexus One. It's more open than the Desire.

[format]

I thought I would miss the physical keyboard, when I changed over a year ago to touch only I didn't really. Then a friend got a Milestone and I thought I might too, but I tried his keyboard and it's horrible. There's nothing to tell one key form the next and most of the time you end up pressing 4 keys at once... no auto correction there like onscreen keyboard.

Also, I've used things such as SlideIT, Shapewriter and now to the best one, Swype and it makes onscreen keyboards faster then ever. Watch this video -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaokPG-ZfZY

That's one finger against two as well, you really can type (Swype) very quick with just your thumb.

As for your contract, if your getting the early upgrade, I would think that's more like them doing you a favour, so I doubt you have much leverage. It's not like you can say 'Well I'm going another provider then', 'Erm, sorry sir, you're still under contract with us for 6 more months. You're not going anywhere...'

Also, how much do you like to mess with gadgets? If you like to a lot, take a look at the Nexus One. It's more open than the Desire.

Ahem, I mentioned Swype a few pages back

Anyway, Orange offer new phones 3 months before your contract is up so if you're willing to wait I suppose you could try and twist their arm.

[Whiternoise]

I figured what i could do is call them up and see if i can haggle the contract down a bit. I'm on Dolphin 15 (although it's 19.47 or whatever with 400 minutes). The contract i'll probably switch to is the 100 minute + 500mb internet + unlimited text/push for £20. I assume that if they're going to try to lock me in for another two years they might be willing to bend a bit - i was going to see if i could get it for £15 or perhaps a gig of internet.

That's a point, for using maps/news sites/etc how long would half a gig last?

The other option is wait until August and see if I can really twist their arm.

[AndyCr15]

Bear in mind, at £20 a month they'll probably be asking somewhere between £100 and £200 for the HTC Desire. I don't think you'll move them down to £15...

500 meg is plenty unless you do a lot of watching YouTube and such. If it's just browsing and e-mails, you'll probably never go over 200 meg.

[Stringent]

I installed a 3G monitor app which will tell me how much I use the mobile internet. I am curious how much I use, I have no idea!

[AndyCr15]

Don't forget, if you have a task killer, set the 3g monitor to exclude or ignore. If you kill it, it can't measure of course

[Ruggerbugger]

I was all set to order a Desire until I saw that Orange were out of stock. Some browsing lead me to the HD2, and now I can't make my mind up Seems that android is the nicer OS, but the bigger screen of the HD2 is very tempting.

[666moe666]

I was all set to order a Desire until I saw that Orange were out of stock. Some browsing lead me to the HD2, and now I can't make my mind up Seems that android is the nicer OS, but the bigger screen of the HD2 is very tempting.

I have both, but I prefer the Desire. Going to sell the HD2 soon cause the Desire was expensive

[AndyCr15]

I have to think buying a WinMo phone would be a mistake. Granted, the HD2 is the only WinMo phone anyone should even consider, but Android is the way to go.

[Ruggerbugger]

Having had a fiddle with an actual desire in the tmobile shop today, I have to say I was pretty impressed. Off to find myself a deal.

[Whiternoise]

With almost impeccable timing (and a bit of movie-style finesse) i managed to break my phone yesterday. I ran round a corner, phone was in my hoody pocket and the magic of classical mechanics sent my phone flying out, over the top of a stairwell and down a couple of flights. Amazingly the phone still works, but the screen doesn't. Interestingly the backlight works, but the screen is just dead - not cracked though which impressed me!

I've managed to (blindly) set the phone up to talk to my computer again so I can send/recieve texts and recover my contacts through Samsung's PC Studio.

Just in time, but now it means i'm back to my crappy Moto SLVR until I can talk to Orange about getting my upgrade

[Ruggerbugger]

As the Orange shop is currently out of stock, I've been looking at getting this from CPW on the £30 a month Dolphin plan. However, I also want Orange Care, since I've lost a phone before, and the thought of being stuck with nothing, but still paying a 24 month contract is not appealing. Problem is, I can't find out from the Orange site if it's possible to take out Orange Care separately, the site keeps making me add a phone first.

Anyone know if it can be done?

[edit] rather typically I found the answer as soon as I posted. Customer care will sell it over the phone.

[Rob_B]

With almost impeccable timing (and a bit of movie-style finesse) i managed to break my phone yesterday. I ran round a corner, phone was in my hoody pocket and the magic of classical mechanics sent my phone flying out, over the top of a stairwell and down a couple of flights. Amazingly the phone still works, but the screen doesn't. Interestingly the backlight works, but the screen is just dead - not cracked though which impressed me!

I've managed to (blindly) set the phone up to talk to my computer again so I can send/recieve texts and recover my contacts through Samsung's PC Studio.

Just in time, but now it means i'm back to my crappy Moto SLVR until I can talk to Orange about getting my upgrade

Are you going to fix it?

[AndyCr15]

With almost impeccable timing (and a bit of movie-style finesse) i managed to break my phone yesterday. I ran round a corner, phone was in my hoody pocket and the magic of classical mechanics sent my phone flying out, over the top of a stairwell and down a couple of flights. Amazingly the phone still works, but the screen doesn't. Interestingly the backlight works, but the screen is just dead - not cracked though which impressed me!

I've managed to (blindly) set the phone up to talk to my computer again so I can send/recieve texts and recover my contacts through Samsung's PC Studio.

Just in time, but now it means i'm back to my crappy Moto SLVR until I can talk to Orange about getting my upgrade

I don't quite understand. Your contacts are stored for you in Gmail? Why would you need to get them of the physical device?

If you're not using such a facility, maybe at least you can learn from this