| Review of the HTC Desire |
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The HTC Desire is the sister phone of the Google Nexus One, and so I was happy that I was given a chance to review both of these phones at around the same time. Last Updated: 30-Sep-2010 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
I’d like to remind reads that the purpose of my
tests is purely directed toward the suitability of the device as a PHONE first
and foremost. While I do throw in a few comments about non-phone features (such
as the camera), I am not concerned with how good (or bad) an Android device the
Desire is compared to other Android models on the market. Because of this,
you’ll find the review rather negative, because as a phone the desire is a very
poor choice.
Also note that over-the-road performance is no longer a category in my tests.
This category was created to test a GSM phone’s handoff performance. With the
advent of 3G there has been very little to distinguish one phone from another
when it comes to performance on the move.
RF Performance
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
RF Sensitivity: For the purposes of testing RF
performance I put the Desire up against my 2-year-old Nokia N95, which has thus
far proven to be an excellent baseline for other phones. The N95, like most
Nokia models, has excellent RF sensitivity and only a very tiny number of phones
have ever bested it. The Desire doesn’t do better than the N95, but it does
match it, which gives the Desire excellent RF sensitivity too. So far so good.
Audio Performance
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
When you first power up the Desire the screen slowly handwrites the words
Quietly Brilliant. I don’t know about brilliant, but they are dead-on about the
quiet part. If incoming audio on the Desire has one clearly definitive problem
its that it isn’t loud enough. I found the quiet nature of the phone to be one
of the biggest annoyances during the tests.
Tonal Balance: The audio from the native earpiece
of the Desire is a little muddy and indistinct. This seems to be a problem
afflicting many phones on the market these days. I didn’t find it anywhere near
as huge a problem as the low earpiece volume however , and most people’s voices
sounded clear enough that many owners won’t notice. However, I know from
experience that it could have been so much better.
Sound Reproduction: The accuracy of the reproduced
audio was quite good, despite the aforementioned muddiness. However, the overall
quality was a little difficult to judge due a strange hiss-like background noise
that was ever-present during a call. I refer to it hiss-like because the make-up
of the sound is much more layered than that. No matter what you call it however,
it is annoying.
Earpiece Volume: As I alluded to in the opening
paragraph for this section of the review, the maximum volume of the earpiece was
disappointingly low. To be fair, it was no softer than the iPhone 4, but that
isn’t saying much, because I would characterize the iPhone 4 as disappointingly
quiet as well. When compared to my N95 however (which offers Nokia’s
volume-boost feature) the Desire seemed even worse. It was difficult to hear
when in the presence of loud background noises (like a crowded food court, or
out on the street). I compared its volume against a number of other Nokia
models, as well as a Blackberry Torch, and they all put the Desire to shame.
Outgoing Audio: Outgoing audio was surprisingly
good. The phone managed to suppress the background noise a bit better than any
Nokia I’ve tested and the voice quality was a bit warmer as well. Your callers
won’t have any difficulty understanding you, but when the background din gets
really loud (like at a crowded food court) the overall quality of your voice
suffers, though not as much as I noted on an iPhone 4.
Speakerphone: Sadly the Desire possesses the worst
excuse for a speakerphone that I’ve encountered in ages. The tiny little speaker
can barely produce enough volume to be comfortably audible in a quiet room and
the sound quality is shallow and tinny. I’ve heard cheap children’s toys with
better piezo speakers in them than this phone. Unfortunately the poor quality of
the speakers doesn’t just affect calls, it affects the all multimedia functions,
such as the playback of videos. It sounds tinny and crackly, forcing you to
listen to videos with headphones or earbuds on.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: Like virtually all modern phones,
the ringer is simply the playback of audio clips through the built-in speakers.
That’s fine when the phone has excellent speakers, but since the Desire suffers
greatly in that department, the ringer suffers too. The maximum volume and
overall quality of ringers is mediocre at best. If you pick standard rings 3 or
4, the volume is acceptable, but I put the phone in my pants pocket at the
Square One food court and then I called the Desire. If I hadn’t felt it vibrate
against my leg I really wouldn’t have known it was ringing.
Keypad Design: The Desire has no physical keyboard,
and so it relies solely upon a virtual keypad (just like the iPhone 4). However,
the accuracy of the keypad is much lower than the one on the iPhone. I
frequently had to back up and repeat characters. I ended up having to carefully
watch what I typed as I entered passwords. My guess is that you would become
accustomed to it over time, but compared to the iPhone it looks like it has a
steeper learning curve.
Display: According to the information I could dig
up on the Desire, it is supposed to have an AMOLED display, but a friend of mine
said that due to a shortage of AMOLED displays they use LCD on many of the
recent builds. I wasn’t sure what type of screen the test phone had, but I
noticed that it seemed decided brighter when viewed straight on. That suggested
that it was an LCD. Regardless, the display offered a resolution of 800 x 480,
which isn’t as high as the iPhone 4’s 960 x 640, but it was none-the-less a
nice-looking display with excellent color. As for brightness, it worked well
indoors, but in direct sunlight it was difficult to see (though not impossible).
Icing on the
Cake
Camera: The camera worked well enough, but it produced results that were
about what I expected from a cell phone camera. In other words, it was good, but
not great. I also tried recording a high-resolution video, but for some reason
the 1 GHz processor in the phone couldn’t seem to keep up with it and the result
was jerky. It worked much better when lower resolutions were used.
Conclusions
As a phone, I found the Desire
very undesirable. Its low earpiece volume, muddy tonal quality, and useless
speakerphone put it near the bottom of any list of phones I’d buy personally. In
addition, the poor speakers mean that as a multimedia device the Desire is also
rather limited compared to other Android models on the market. Unless you plan
to do all your multimedia usage using earbuds or headphones, the Desire may not
suit your needs either.
So how does the Desire compare to the iPhone 4 (as a phone)? Based on my tests
with the iPhone 4 I’d say that come out tied. The iPhone 4 has low earpiece
volume, a somewhat tinny (though clearly much louder) speakerphone, and
less-than-perfect tonal balance (the iPhone 4 sounds a bit peaky and hollow). I
didn’t find myself attracted to either phone based on their functionality as
phones. As for the Android vs iOS4 debate, I wasn’t really looking to compare
the two devices. I’ll leave that up to other testers.
