My Object of Desire

Apart from my wonderful and beautiful girlfriend (and I'm not just saying this because I have to), my new HTC is my object of Desire. I'm not going to talk about the specs because you can read them on any website reviewing it, but I want to say a few things about it.

After spending about half an hour setting up the phone and customising it (which is a fantastic feature in itself), I was ready to explore.

The things I like enough to write about

1) Typing correction: You don't have to hit every key exactly. In fact, you can type "kcxrkkrny" and it will still come up with the word "excellent". And that word describes this function.

2) Flash Support: I don't know what big Steve over at Apple has against Adobe, and why he chooses to deprive users of his gadgets of it. The Flash support on this phone is great.

3)Android Marketplace: This is my first Android, so I didn't know what to expect when it came to apps - I was pleasantly surprised! Apps I've downloaded include a Wifi Analyser, a 3G "watchdog", barcode scanners, myPlayer for BBC iPlayer, and Office applications, to name a few. Really, really handy stuff. It may not have as many apps as the Apple App Store, but it's enough to keep most people happy.

4) Facebook Integration: Once signed into Facebook, I am able to "link" facebook accounts to the names I already have on my phonebook. It automatically puts their display pic as caller ID, and imports their info such as birthday, emails, address, etc. Fantastic. I'm also able to see phone numbers for all my friends on FB who I don't have stored on my phone!

5) Emails: I know lots of phones have email support, but I just think they do it really well on this device. I've added three so far, all of which can be separately configured. My hotmail account gets loads per day, so I can set it to delete them automatically after 3 days. My other email account gets less, and emails are more important, so they stay on the phone for 7 days. My laptop at home then gets them permanently.

6) Wifi and 3G switching: I like Wifi as default, and it's even better that it's lighter on the battery than 3G is. Unlike my old Samsung Jet, which I had to switch to 3G manually (arg!), the Desire does it by itself.

7) Office Applications: It comes with QuickOffice, which allows you to view documents, spreadsheets, slideshows, and PDFs. Really, really handy for reading attachments that come through email. There is a paid for app, called Documents to Go, which allows you to create or edit things too - I'm seriously looking into getting that soon.

8) Speed: The processor is 1Ghz, and that's fast. The browser is fast too, because it's by Google. The OS is clean, and multitasking capable. There is lots of RAM too (576MB). This all combines to make a crazy fast and responsive phone.

9) Location for weather: You can manually set this too, but I think it's amazing. It gets your location using cell triangulation, and gives you the current temperature and weather for wherever you are. It also gives you a 4 day forcast.



The Things I Don't Like

1) Battery Life: When you first get the phone, you will be disappointed. It won't seem to last you through the day. But once you stop flicking through it every 2 minutes you'll start to find it will last you a lot longer. In fact, I very recently got 2 days out of it. However, I did buy a charging dock with a spare 1600 mAh battery, which helps if I'm going to be away from electricity for a while...

2) HTC have their own GUI, called Sense UI. Because of this, Desire users have to wait about 6 months after Google release updates for the Android OS as HTC need to run tests to make sure everything is compatible. You CAN "root" the phone and install the 2.2 and future updates yourself, but meh - I can wait!

If you're on the fence about whether to get a Desire or an iPhone - just follow your heart's Desire.

Digiman out