HTC Desire, our first impressions of HTC's Nexus One doppelganger

HTC leant its finest egg-heads to Google’s cause when it designed the Nexus One for the search giant. Now the Taiwanese Android expert is doing the dirty by launching its own version of the handset – the Desire – complete with the Sense interface seen on the HTC Hero.

The Desire is part of a triumvirate of HTC phones previewed at MWC this year that included the fellow Android-packing Legend and Windows Mobile HD Mini. It’s the Desire, though, that stands out among this threesome – in no small part down to its humongous 3.7in AMOLED screen that’s perfect for multimedia.

Sense and sensibility
Renowned for its Android prowess, HTC has equipped the Desire with the latest Éclair version of the OS and skinned it with the rather tasty Sense interface seen on the HTC Hero.

There’s a multitude of Sense widgets to customise your homescreen, including a new People widget that brings up different groups to exchange messages or check status updates, and a Friends Stream to integrate all your social networks into one feed.

The 1GHz Snapdragon processor supplies the power to handle all this widgetry and there’s an improved optical joystick, also seen on the HTC Legend, to navigate instead of a trackball. There’s also no touch-sensitive buttons – HTC instead opting for low-profile physical ones for enhanced feedback. The 5MP camera remains.

Voice cut-off
Something’s got to give for HTC to be able to promise a price-cut on the Nexus One, and that, unfortunately, is the voice control that we took a shine to so much on the Google version. But with the addition of Flash support, we can probably do without that particular gimmick for now.   

It’s a bit of a megalith, and we’re still not overly convinced by the dull chassis design, but if you were tempted by the Nexus One and would like to have a few dollars spare for the app store then you’ll certainly feel the Desire’s vibe. Stay tuned for our full review.

 

Read the original article at stuff.tv.