HTC Desire

HTC Desire

The HTC Desire, also known as the phone that was the template for the Google Nexus One, is already one of the most successful Android smartphones ever made. It has enjoyed tremendous success, but why is that? What is it that makes the HTC Desire such a popular phone? Could it be its 3.7 inch AMOLED touchscreen display? Or its combination of Google Android and HTC Sense?
Operating System - 9/10
As is well known, the HTC Desire runs on Android; it includes Android 2.1 out of the box, but is upgradable to Android 2.2 (colloquially known as Froyo). This allows for good navigation and customised homescreens and shortcuts, as well as giving you access to Google services, such as seach and email, and the rapidly going Android Market for apps. However, the HTC Desire also uses HTC's excellent Sense interface, on top of Android, adding in new animations and features (and that famous HTC clock), making the HTC Desire simply incredible to use.
Hardware - 9/10
The HTC Desire was one of the first of the new wave of so-called 'superphones', and this really shows in the hardware. It all starts with the 1GHz Snapdragon processor, which makes the HTC Desire very fast. It also supports microSD up to 32GB, so storage will never be a problem. Although more recent phones are beginning to surpass it, the HTC Desire still has some of the best hardware on the market.
Camera and media - 9/10
The camera on the HTC Desire comes in at five-megapixels, which is average for a modern smartphone, and lower than some more recent phones, but it makes up for it with a raft of brilliant media features. Central among these is the Youtube app, which naturally comes as part of Android. Thus, the HTC Desire is something of a multimedia monster. The HTC Desire's music player is also exceptionally good.
Screen - 9/10
The HTC Desire is unusual, because older versions of the phone have an entirely different screen to the most recent version (HTC switched to S-LCD screens when AMOLED screens were in short supply). However, both versions are 3.7-inches of superbness, with the HTC Desire, in both incarnations, having one of the better screens on the market. Colour reproduction is excellent, and daylight legibility is surprisingly good; put simply, in either incarnation, the screen on the HTC Desire is excellent.
Social - 9/10
Android already has a range of social networking features, but the HTC Desire has even more, thanks to the HTC Sense interface. Most notable of these is the FriendStream widget which aggregates all of your social feeds on the front screen of the HTC Desire so you can get the latest Tweet's updates and photos instantly.
Overall - 9/10
As stated, the HTC Desire is already one of the most successful Android phones on the market, and there is a very good reason for that; it's quite simply because the HTC Desire is also one of the best Android phones on the market. It is powerful, pretty, simple to use and exciting, and thus, the HTC Desire comes very highly recommended.