HTC Desire

[admin_exported]

Dear all,

I need a new phone and can't justify the outlay for an iPhone, as cool as they are.

I would like to hear about members' experiences with the HTC desire, in particular how it stacks up in comparison with the iPhone in areas such as music playback, ease of use with Apple devices, email and calendar sync (Microsoft Exchange Server) and GPS.

How does one manage music on it? I've used iTunes for years on my Macbook and just synced to an iPod and iPad. How does it work with the Desire?

Thanks for any help!

Hedgehog

 

[professorhat]

Just so you know, you can now get the iPhone 3GS free on virtually any contract with the big suppliers. And the iPhone 4 can be got for either free or £100 now (depending on the monthly contract) now the iPhone 4S is available.

No experience of the HTC I'm afraid, but I'd also take a look at the original Samsung Galaxy S which I think can also be picked up free on most contracts.

 

[The_Lhc]

As a long term HTC user I'd say, get an iPhone, the desire's a great phone but it won't sync with itunes. Not easily anyway.

 

[John Duncan]

I had the Desire and a 3GS at the same time for about a month, and I much preferred the Apple. Too many buttons on the HTC, a less intuitive UI and a touchscreen that feels a bit odd/scratchy compared to the iPhone. Good apps are *much* less plentiful, and the Spotify app was very poor compared to the Apple version. Can't comment on calendar/mail sync as I didn't try it.

 

[hammill]

I had the Desire and a 3GS at the same time for about a month, and I much preferred the Apple. Too many buttons on the HTC, a less intuitive UI and a touchscreen that feels a bit odd/scratchy compared to the iPhone. Good apps are *much* less plentiful, and the Spotify app was very poor compared to the Apple version. Can't comment on calendar/mail sync as I didn't try it.

Other half has a Desire and while all your comparisons may be valid (I have no apple to compare with) she likes it and the mail works perfectly with outlook, which is her primary use case. I do recall the Desire being much cheaper when we took out the contract.

 

[daveh75]

You can use doubleTwist and/or AirSync to easily sync iTunes with a droid.

http://www.doubletwist.com/

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.doubleTwist.androidPlayer&feature=search_result

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for these comments, all.

I suppose one of the issues with getting an older iPhone is that they only offer the 8GB versions, but this makes them unusable as an iPod replacement. Especially with all those tasty apps taking up a lot of space, too. The other thing is that I'm looking for a contract at around £20-25 with some data, so that limits the iPhone options further, I think.

If I understand correctly, the Desire can be upgraded with a 32GB SD card.

But please let me have more impressions, if you have any!!

Thanks,

Hedgehog

 

[daveh75]

Yes, you can use 32gb cards.

Had the HTC Desire, till very recently and it's a great little phone. It's only downside being it's lack of internal memory, which you'll quickly fill up, as there is quite a few apps that can't be moved/installed to sd card and system/bundled apps that can't easily be removed unless you wan't to mess about with ADB or root and install custom roms etc. I did root and install custom roms on mine in the end.

 

[AnotherJoe]

The Desire S (update of the original Desire - faster and more memory) is available from £20

or Sony Experia Arc with a 4.2inch screen from £20

(just had a quick look on carphone warehouse).

All droids can be upgraded to 32GB with microsd, some of the brand new droids can be upgraded to 64GB or higher with micro SDXC.

With android u can just drag and drop the music you wish to copy.

Email couldnt be simpler to setup - you just enter your email address/password and it sets the rest up for you.

Google maps + GPS works well

Music will play just fine.

 

[Anonymous]

Have a Desire S. Its standard music player has DLNA and SRS wow, which helps indeed with mediocre headphones. The ones included are too big to fit in my ears, they fall out. Have not found a player yet though that has perfect gapless playback (!), so Android is disappointing as a music player to me. As a smartphone it is fine.

 

[dannycanham]

Gapless playback works with OGG files. MP3s aren't designed for gapless playback although PowerAmp, jukefox and tunewiki emulate it.

I just put my 32GB memory card in my computer and drag and drop my music folder.

Are there not newer phones you can get than the desire on similar contracts?