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Video: Bell HTC Desire Z Hardware and Speed Test Review
The HTC Desire Z landed at Bell earlier this week – certainly a good addition to their Android lineup. It runs OS 2.2 and comes with the new HTC Sense 2.0 UI. Checking out the device it looks very similar to the Desire that TELUS has but with a few major changes. The first is the addition of the optical trackpad and most obvious is the “pop-out” full 4-row QWERTY keyboard.
There is no doubt that the Desire Z is a beautiful smartphone. It looks nice and feels solid in your hand. The weight might be a downer at 180 grams but all the other aspects make up for it. It comes with a 3.7-inch display (resolution of 480 x 800) and is responsive. Although the processor has been knocked down from the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that the TELUS Desire has… the Desire Z has a 800MHz Qualcomm 7230 processor and still is incredibly fast. Around the device you have your usual buttons and ports: volume rocker, microUSB port, power, one-touch to the 5 megapixel camera (has flash and can record HD videos). In addition, this comes with a 3.5mm headset jack.
If you ever have challenges taking off the back battery cover the Desire Z has a button that you can gently push down that lifts up the brushed aluminum backing and reveals that 1300mAh battery (should last up to about 7 hours of talk time). Under the cover you’ll see a spot for your SIM and a microSD card slot. Bell ships this with an 8GB card and it can hold up to 32GB.
Probably the most talked about feature of the Desire Z is the “pop hinge” that reveals the full QWERTY keyboard. In the video I go pretty hard on it to ensure that it will last over time. The actual motion of opening up the keyboard is really smooth. The hinges are connected by a cross-bar and if for some reason it ever busts on you then it might compromise the longevity of the device. I don’t think it’ll be a problem because you’re not going to be as rough on your device as I was in the video – and it’s still solid.
In addition, Bell states the Desire Z can apparently reach peak download speeds up to 14.4 Mbps. I quickly downloaded the SpeedTest.net app and performed a several tests, changed server locations and my location and here are our findings:
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43 comments for “Video: Bell HTC Desire Z Hardware and Speed Test Review”
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I guess it depends on your location. I get better speeds than that with my 7.2 Mbps phone.
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Lol, I hate when he roughs up nice phones like that.
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The back looks ugly and 1500mAH should be standard.
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I saw phones on you tube from fall 2010 to spring 2011.I saw the hero 2.
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My favorite part of phone reviews is when he gets rough with the phones! I’ve never trusted slide/flip keyboards worth anything. I always want to test them roughly like that in the store..but fear the “you break it, you buy it” policy. It’s good to see someone show you exactly how much a little phone can take.
…and, man…did he REALLY went to town on the Milestone! Hahah. That thing is solid!
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You’ll never hit anywhere near 14.4 on any network Canada. None of the carriers should even advertise this as a selling feature. They know it’s impossible on their networks.
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The real question is only if you can get higher speed with an HSPA+ device like this one over a normal HSDPA 7.2 Mbps device.
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It for wifi, I work at bell and our Desire Z hit 6.89Mb/s download and 2.86Mb/s Upload, so the 14.4Mb/s is for wifi usage mainly.
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nice. getting this
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Desire Z has a slower MHZ cpu but the update adreno 205 gpu which was always the weak point of the snapdragons.
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Agreed. Look at the results for HTC G2 here: http://smartphonebenchmarks.com
On top of that, G2 overclocks very well. I suspect Desire Z will too.
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5MB down and .5MB up is what I have for cable Internet at home, and that seems fast enough, yet you guys are complaining that isn’t fast enough on a phone? What speeds do you guys have for home Internet? You’re planning on bit torrenting on a phone, are you?
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Picked one up November 5th. Voice & SMS working great and the phone just feels great.
However, it is now late in the day on Nov 6th and Bell still can not get me data access on this phone. It shows its connected but immediately gives a “Data connectivity problem. The server failed to communicate. Try again later.”
This isn’t a problem with the phone. I bought two, one for my wife. We both have the same plan. Pop her sim in my phone, it works fine. Put my sim in hers, no go. If I switch to wi-fi in my house here, everything works great.
I’m now on my 4th try through bell telephone support to find someone who can figure out why data is blocked on my account, so far I’ve had to talk support people through configuration menus that they have never seen at least 3 times.
I’ve never had a dataplan before. As a mater of fact I had an Samsung N400 once that would connect constantly in my pocket so I had all data disabled on this account at least 5 years ago. There’s probably some remnant of that in the system.
Frustrated to say the least.
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Bell is having server issues with lines transfere whether its upgrading or new activations, also some bell customers are coming in to the stores to get there sim card change to a newer version.
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Will the speeds ever get there for real?
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Very stable hinge. I don’t see any issues with quality
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I think i’ll stick with the original desire
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I will agree, the original desire is one of the most stylish responsive reliable phones out their, but if you prefer a real keyboard and a updated sense UI that just seem more user friendly and slicker, the desire z is good to go!
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Thanks for kicking the crap out of the hinge! I’ve had the phone since launch and the hinge is the only I worried about. I obsolutely love the phone.
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Comment to see comments
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Picked this up on launch and I love it so far. The only potential issue I can see is battery life, which I knew was not going to be stellar going into it.. 1300mAh battery is just not enough really if you’re like me and use your phone way too much even when you aren’t talking on it. The iPhone 4 battery goes almost twice as long in some benchmarks.. BUT one of the nice things about android phones is if battery life is really not good enough for you after tweaking settings and limiting use, you can just pop an extra battery in. Try doing that with an iPhone.
There’s a place in China listing 1500mAh batteries for this online already, price seems way too cheap to be true though ($12 USD??).
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wow that was painful to watch. Poor phone.
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Best phone in canada… PERIOD!!!!
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In terms of specs I’ll agree. But I have no use for a keyboard so I have no interest in carrying around all that extra weight. Great phone but it is a monster on the scales. I’ll go with the original desire until HTC releases something better in Canada.
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I”m getting around 3.5mbps using the speedtest app on the Desire Z, and around 5.6mbps when tethered to the phone via wi-fi. Upload speeds are fairly consistent at around 2.5mbps.
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Try the SpeedyAndroid app. It may give better results than the speedtest app
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hefted this @ Source on Spring Garden Road in Hfax today – beauty of a phone, but yep it is heftay. I compared it to my 2-3 year old work BBerry and no comparison, the Z is a porker. But, sweet build quality, very snappy, really super screen.
The guys working there (young dude w/beard and heavy glasses) were super helpful. What is it about Source that they have great folks, other places, they are douches? Saint John Brunswick Sq are great to deal with, same in Quispamsis….other retailers could take some lessons..
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Glad to hear that you enjoyed playing around with my phone today. I would definitely agree with your comments on the build quality of the Desire Z. I would also agree that The Source generally has excellent customer service and the Park Lane location is no exception.
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Speaking as a former Source employee, I can tell you that they look for people with personality, and actually TRAIN them
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First speed test the server he used didnt seem to be ideal. A latency rate of 98ms, versus his second speed test the rate was 19ms. Also i noticed that hes speed testing at 10am. I would have liked to see 8AM, 3PM, 5PM, or after 9PM. Great review none-the-less
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The 800MHz means nothing. All benchmarks have shown the handset to easily outclass the Nexus One and Original HTC Desire.
The reason it is so fast is because it’s using a new 45nm manufacturing process for the processor versus the old 65nm of the original snapdragon.
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Totally wrong. Shrinking the process from 65 nm to 45 nm doesn’t improve CPU speed at all.
This phone scores higher in benchmarks such as quadrant because the flash memory (I/O) is faster and the Adreno 205 GPU is a big improvement over the Adreno 200.
But in CPU score, this phone get about 80% of the Desire or Nexus.
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I wonder if the clock works better in the Atlantic Time Zone than the Legend’s did.
It was annoying to have either right time, wrong weather, right weather, wrong time, or set things manually and text through time.
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I got the Desire Z in the first day, I’m generally very happy the quality and functionality, as well as the feeling of freedom. 800Mz cpu is fast enough as running Andriod 2.2 increases the performance comparing to 2.1. I read the web, someone can overloock the cpu to over 1.4Gz so this cpu definitely has some improvement. I’m able to unlock with some cost so I can use it in Rogers and I still get 4Mbps on 3G, honestly, no one should expect the 14.4 Mbps as advertised. This phone also supports the new htcsense.com which is very practically. Like you can ring your phone by clicking a button from the website, even you phone is in slient mode or see your phone location in the google map, etc. I like the keypad because I use the phone to manage work email as well, so far is ok. I’m typing this comment using the keypad and can use over 5 mins in one time, but will not over a long time. Battery life is not that great, my normal day starts at 8am and it will end 4-5pm. Please note it is using micro usb different than mini usb for connection, I have to purchase new car charger which is a must have accessory. On the other hand, social integration, like facebook, flickr, etc ,is great. Just key in all logins and it links to your contact list. Oh, the wifi hotspot feture is handy too with labtop, ipad, etc, but this feature is common to Andriod 2.2. I do feel the phone is bigger, partcular after adding the plastic case selling from Bestbuy. I used to have Htc magic. So, my final thought is don’t just buy this phone because of keypad, you need to compare with other phone, Andriod phone or iphone or blacckberry. And don’ t foget that Desire Z provides good quality 5M pixel picture and 720p HD video which Desire is not. Good luck.
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i can honestly say i average 13 to over 15 MBPS Speeds on Bells network Using tha Samsung Omnia2 and its listed at 7.2 Mbps HSDPA..
( people in tha states were getting 14 Mbps Speeds on T-mobiles HSPA+ Network with tha HD2 and its allso listed at 7.2 )
maybe its location? or network congestion?
im sure if theres any bell users with in my cell tower range they dont use data or abuse mobile bandwith like me and tha wife lol
i live in a small city (more likea kinda big town)
Again – Using and Omnia2 i get average 13 to OVER 15 Mbps ( Using internet Explorer INDOORS )
http://www.mobilespeedtest.com
Maybe i get different resaults using a web based test???
anyone else wanna try this one and lemme kno?
i did find i got slower resaults using that android app Running android 2.1 on my HTC diamond then i did using tha stock windowsmobile 6.1 and tha website?
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I call bullshit. 7.2 is the maximum. Since there is overhead, it’s hard to get more than ~6.5 Mbps.
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“In terms of specs I’ll agree. But I have no use for a keyboard so I have no interest in carrying around all that extra weight. Great phone but it is a monster on the scales. I’ll go with the original desire until HTC releases something better in Canada.”
I would love to buy an original Desire… but Telus has a BS policy where they won’t sell it to you without a contract because of “supply issues”… though it’s been out for 3 months now.
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I want this soo bad. I am going to try to afford one and unlock it to use on telus
I’m just tired on touch only for text input and telus has no amazing phoned with touch and qwerty.
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These speeds are simple theory. They say that you’ll get to those speeds but no one can.
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very true…. the weight is a disappoinment but the physical keyboard is an important spec. for me. i cant stand that on screen keyboard. There has been some buzz about the htc desire hd going to telus, if thats true, i would give up my desire z (with keyboard) for that beast of a phone.
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Anyone know how scratch proof the screen is?
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Anyone else having wifi to mobile issues,ie. not seemless I get network error if I go out of wifi range and it won’t switch over to data…thats one problem the other being it just doesn’t pickup wifi very far from the router I cant go out on my patio which I can with my sons ipod and my laptop no problem. This might be a deal breaker for me as my favourite place to use the net on my phone is on my patio.
I did just do a speed test as in the video from in the house and my signals good I got 14266, 10991,7171 downs and standard 500ish ups.
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