HTC Desire, which was launched in 2010, was one of the best selling devices of the year. The phone came packed with all the features that anyone could expect in a smartphone. That’s the reason, that despite the competition from Apple iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S, the phone achieved high sales figures.
Coming to 2011, the company has launched its successor HTC Desire S in the market. Wisely, the company has not made any drastic changes in the handset. HTC Desire S looks and works a lot like the previous device. It simply strengthens all that the device already had. That is not to say, there are no changes. The device has come out after an year and the market has changed a lot. The latest phone has kept pace with all these changes and as a result we have another accomplished device from HTC.
Design:
The new device is smaller and lighter than the previous one. It has the dimensions of 115 x 59.8 x 11.6 mm and weighs 130g. Like all HTC phones the build quality is solid. The device is easy and comfortable to hold in hand. The aluminium chassis make it a robust device. The metal case give it a completely different look and make it a strong handset. The physical buttons are gone from the front and are replaced by the touch buttons.
Display:
The phone comes with the same 3.7 inch screen, but unlike the AMOLED screen that the original device had, the latest device comes with S-LCD capacitive screen. What has not changed though is the resolution. With resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, the picture quality remains superb. The screen covers the whole of the front part of the phone and provides a glittering display that is hard to match.
User Interface:
The much loved HTC Sense Interface works just as well. The phone comes with the latest version of Android OS, 2.3 (Gingerbread). The general interface is too good and gives you an excellent experience. The device allows you to have multiple home screens (seven) that you can customise and place your favourite widgets on. These multiple screens can be viewed together by selecting the leap view. Apps can be accessed easily with the short cuts available down on the home screen.
Camera:
The company has kept the camera to 5 mega pixel. It comes with autofocus and LED and the pictures that you take from it are of excellent quality. The other features of the phone include touch-focus, image stabilization and geo-tagging. The video quality has improved compared to the previous device. With this camera, high definition 720 p videos can be recorded at 30 frames per second that is quite impressive. The colourful pictures that the camera takes are of excellent quality. Moreover, different effects can be applied to the pictures to improve their quality. The phone also has a secondary camera to allow users to video-call.
Internet:
Web-browsing on the device proves out to be an excellent experience. The 3G enabled device works well when it comes to internet. Besides 3G, what really heats up things is the presence of Wi-Fi. The web pages load fast and the zooming features are good. Many pages can be opened and switched between at one time. With Flash support and fast downloading speed, watching videos online is a treat. Bookmarks can also be added to the browser.
Media:
The music player works well and listening to songs is a good experience. The music player offers several options to the users and is easy to operate. The sorting of the music is so much easy. The speakers and the headphones ensure that the users get good sound quality.
Watching videos on the device is excellent. The display quality of the screen ensures that the users enjoy videos to the fullest. Videos run smoothly on the device without any glitches.
Battery:
The Li-Ion 1450 mAh battery ensures the users do not face any problems when it comes to the battery life. It’s a device that will be used for media activities that consume high battery. But with decent talk time, not only on specs sheet but also when the device is used in real, the company has ensured that the users are not required to charge the device too frequently.
Final Words:
HTC Desire does not come with too many changes and yet ensures that it is not behind the times. The phone has made improvements on many counts. From an improved RAM to a better video recording and a larger battery, the phone has taken some significant strides forward. Combining the Sense UI and the latest Android OS, the device provides superb performance and is worth the money.