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Video Review: TELUS HTC Desire
Once in a while there’s a phone that actually lives up to the specs, the HTC Desire is one of those devices. This newest Android device from TELUS comes with OS 2.1 and the much talked about 3.7-inch Sony Super LCD display (resolution of 480×800). Other devices claim to have a 1GHz Snapdragon processor inside, but unfortunately underclock it. I’ve been using this for over a week and can say that the 1GHz Snapdragon processor is not underclocked and has zero lag time. Even switching between the 7 screens or running several applications at the same time there’s not a hint of the performance being stalled.
You’ll see in the video that the design is very similar to the Nexus One and I believe that this is the best Android device that TELUS currently has… and also the best HTC device that’s officially launched in Canada. The price point is right on the money with the 3-year being at $79.99 and ranges to a decent $449.99 no-contract. For the camera, it comes with a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus, flash and video. The pictures came out looking good – both inside and outside. The video was good quality but the sound quality came out as if it I was a few feet away. Generally not a big deal just something to be aware of. Speaking of sound quality, no issues with calls made or received. Using this as my primary device with constant use of e-mail, web, pictures/video, apps I found the battery life gave me 6 hours and needed to be charged on a regular basis. If you’re just going to use this occasionally you should have no problems.
Other cool features of the Desire is that it comes with HTC Sense UI built-in, Friend Strea, Live Wallpapers, access to the Android Market, WiFi and can TELUS is throwing in an 8GB microSD card (can hold up to 16GB). Still, hands down the best Android device that TELUS has in their lineup.
Check out the video after the jump.
Discussion
51 comments for “Video Review: TELUS HTC Desire”
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great stuff.
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I like the phone and all the app that go with it….however the battery does not lat the day unless everything is shut down except the phone…no wifi, no bluetooth, no email…and the biggest Con is that no apps to the SD card…weak! Windows Phone 7 to the recue…where again the possibilities are endless!
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This phone sounds great, and the price is great too.
However, the stock Android UI is better for some people and scenarios (e.g. businesses that are concerned with support). Is it possible to revert to the Android UI? Would really be great if you could choose between the two!
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Awesome phone, wish I could get it unlocked though so I can pick my carrier. I don’t want to go with Telus.
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Terry, the Desire has already been unlocked. You can get it from CellUnlock.net.
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i’ve unlocked it. I’m using it on Rogers.
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Only 6 hours? As a point of comparison, can you tell us how many hours you get with other phones?
6 hours of battery life looks very flimsy to me.
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cool. looks like they took on the mac expose feature.
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Can it hold 16 GB (as per article) or 32 GB (as per video)?
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The Desire actually holds 16GB with a microSD card, not 32 as stated in the video. Apologies… TELUS does ship this with an 8GB card
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http://www.htc.com/www/product/desire/specification.html
32GB is what is specced on HTC’s site. And there are many people online doing just that.
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I’ve been using mine for about a week as well and it is BY FAR the best phone I’ve ever had.
I’m so glad I sold my Blackberry Bold for this!
Anyways, the battery life is the only issue I’m currently having with this phone. The sound is also a little low but the amazing quality makes up for it!
Thank you Telus for selling this phone at a good price!
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Hey Karam,
Can you tell me, is there a “get mail” or refresh button or menu option in the Gmail App?
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you can use the power control widget to maintain your battery life
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Thanks for posting this. Think I might jump at the $79.
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Really Nice device. Is it locked or not?
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I like the part of the review where Justin Bieber gets knocked in the face.
Anyways, this phone looks pretty awesome, basically a slightly modified Nexus One.
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Still using Storm2. Desire on its way thru Team Store. Can’t wait. Arghhhh, the waiting……
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It is a great device. It’s a shame it took so long to come to Canada.
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Love it. But battery life is pretty bad. I have to carry a charger with me all the time.
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Re: Battery life.
Just make sure you “back out” of those apps you’re done using, or they keep running at full power in the background. The first time i used the camera I left it running accidentally in the background, and since I shut it down my battery life has doubled!
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Awesome phone…by far the best phone i have ever had.
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MobileSyrup, You guys do a nice job of looking at hardware, and announcing phone prices, but what all your viewers need help with is getting a decent cell plan for that oh so long 3years. It’d be great if you guys contacted all the major carriers, asked them for the best plans, (with Data, Caller ID, VoiceMail) that they’d like promoted on MobileSyrup, and then compare them.
The cost of phone with a 3year contract is pretty insignificant when compared to the 36 monthly payments made over that time.
Just my 2cents, thanks.
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MobileSyrup, are you able to root this phone and get Straigh Froyo on this Desire?? Any news on whether or not telus with charge for Data Tethering when the official Desire Froyo becomes available.
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I love the desire however, the battery life is quite a bit of a let down. Hopefully a bigger battery comes out in the future. For my first Android device I give it 2 thumbs up
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Awesome! I desire the desire
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There are numerous examples of people using a 32GB micro SDHC card with the desire online. The least of which being HTC from the specification list on their web site.
I wouldn’t have bought the phone had it not been able to replace my 30GB iPod.
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@Mr. Shatner: There is an open source based firmware called OpenDesire which does work on the Telus Desire. It presents a stock Froyo interface similar to the Nexus One. It also includes the Froyo Google Apps (not open source but included).
You can alternately install a pre-rooted version of HTC’s 2.2 Froyo firmware with Sense.
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I’ll admit I don’t like Android too much, but I’d still consider using it if it wasn’t for over-fragmentation. Meaning, there are way too many Android OS versions out right now and it seems like many manufacturers have a “release it and forget it” philosophy. Long story short, you have to hack your phone to upgrade it.
In the end, I’d never rely on HTC, Samsung, or whhomever to release Froyo (the most important Android OS right now). I’d rather just get a phone that has it already.
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Of all the manufacturers you stated, HTC is the most solid for updates. Samsung is by far the worst. With higher end devices from HTC I wouldnt worry about fragmenation as they tend to get updated eventually. Just do some research first before you take the plunge. Its really their fault in the end, they’re responsible for all these UI’s that slow updates
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The price on the milestone needs to come down asap since the desire is much superior.
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@ Dennis:
There is indeed a refresh button but you don’t really need it for e-mail. You can get notifications on your phone whenever you get an e-mail.
It’s a great feature for business and I can no longer live without it!
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I upgraded from a two year old Diamond and I absolutely love it. Fast and beautiful screen.I am a moderate user and I easily get a ten hour day out if it..with Bluetooth always turned on.
No problems unlocking, rooting or installing Leedroid Mod 1.8c Froyo. I couldn’t wait for Telus to get around to it likely not until November.
Great phone!
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Every time I see a review of a Touch Screen only device there are so many miss-hits.
Make an Android device with a keyboard/trackpad as good as a BB or maybe better with a larger key side slider and it will open up Android to a whole new group of users.
I have no idea why this hasn’t happened yet.
The screens, hardware and OS are for the most part good now so all attention should shift to accomplishing this.
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This phone is everything I hoped it to be, easily superior to a 3GS and equal to the 4G in some respects, but not all (see below)
Battery life can indeed a problem, but compared with an iPhone 3GS, it’s about the same. With careful management of your wifi settings, background apps, and auto-syncing of Gmail, Facebook, etc, I’ve found battery life to be not a problem at all, and the Desire only requires one charge per day.
the HTC Sense UI is great for the little widgets like the clock and weather, but doesn’t add too much on top of the standard Android UI. You can turn them off, they aren’t fixed in stone. That’s the best part of this phone, you can pretty much customize anything and everything.
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Yo, I’ve got a Google HTC Nexus One. As most know, the Nexus One and Desire are essentially the same phone. Hence, if you have any troubleshooting issues, try hitting up the nexus one support forum at google:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android?utm_source=HC&utm_medium=leftnav&utm_campaign=android
Here’s a hint. With moderate usage (2hrs internet, fiddling around, 15 mins on phone), you should still be getting at least 36 hours of battery life. When I haven’t been using the phone too much, battery lasts up to 48 hrs.
From the support forums, this is what made the biggest impact on batter life. Go to your phone and dial the following: *#*#4636#*#*
This brings up a whole slew of phone information and statistics. Go to Phone Info. Set your “Preferred Network Type” to GSM auto (PRL). If you’re curious, head over to the google nexus one forums to see the theory behind this.
Good luck.
Andrew
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Default on my phone was “WCDMA Preferred”. Apparently, if you choose “GSM auto (PRL)”, your battery will last a lot longer.
Andrew
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THIS phone is great!!! HOWEVER the biggest CON is a system where you CANNOT load APPS onto your SD card..internal memory only!!!Where my HTC Touch PRO would hold all APPS ona 32GB SD card…WEAK spot needs to be fixed to make it the ULTIMATE PHONE…U-Phone instaed of iPhone!!!
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CANNOT dump apps onto SD card…very weak point…Will switch to Phone 7 soon….can do ANYTHING with windows!!!
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Not true. In the 2.2 update, apps can be moved into the SD card. The author of the app just has to enable it for 2.2.
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Was playing the phone waiting game for the last year (oooh Nexus one…ooh EVO, oooh Incredible) well you know the game. So I bit the bullet and picked up the Desire just after the Telus launch. Oh man it’s sweet. Snappy proc, gorgeous screen and I love SenseUI (even though you can drop it and revert to stock Android if you want).
Only issue as noted above was the battery life, but as also noted above, since I started to use the Back button (instead of hitting Home) to end programs, my battery life has greatly improved. I still have to charge it every night, but I think thats par for the course.
Enjoy.
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got mine today…it’s awesome. don’t know why people are crappin on the new screen, it looks great.
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I’ve had my HTC Desire for over a week. Great phone, but have been experiencing major issues with WIFI at home. I’ve tried refreshing the settings on the router. Still not working as it’s supposed to. Wondering if anyone else has the same problem??
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I bought the desire after deciding long and hard. Initially I was so happy until I wasn’t receiving any notifications that I had received a text message or when I did get a text message it was 4hrs late! Did some searching on forums and it seems to be an issue, installed handcent sms and seemed to do the trick. WI-FI works perfect so does GPS not getting my bluetooth to work though, screen is fantastics too. All in all I’m content but not overly thrilled.
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i have read that ppl in the UK and Australia are having signal strenght issues. What did you notice about this pn telus’s network?
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alberta-guy
I did receive one dropped call but after that it’s been perfect, in call volume is a bit low and the speaker phone is trash, really really low, my gf has the galaxy S Vibrant and the speaker is way better even my old phone was than this; the in call speaker is very crystal clear, I can hear everyone that is using a bluetooth or their speaker phone brilliantly, couldn’t say the same with my Moto Q.
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Awesome looking phone very good detail in the pictures. also really like the part were J.B got smacked in the face with the water bottle!!
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I am going to get the HTC Desire tomorrow it finally came into stock at my telus (and I am ridiculously excited after seeing the raving reviews about it!)
I am signing up on a 3 year planning for 79.99 but I am wondering which data plan I should sign up for? Is 500MB enough data per month or should I go with 1G or 2GB or 3GB!! Any input will help a great deal!
Thank you!
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Htc Desire
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gggg
g
g
\ggd jbeebs gotgggggg t
gg
g
g
ggggggggg ggggg
g
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HTC
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