Hands on: HTC Desire HD review
Posted by smartphones pda staff | Posted in Smartphones News | Posted on 16-09-2010
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HTC has announced its latest top end smartphone, the HTC Desire HD, and TechRadar ran to the demonstration stand to get our paws all over it to see if it was a decent upgrade over the much-lauded HTC Desire or just a phone with a larger screen.
We’ve all seen the HTC HD2 and the HTC Evo, both with the same-sized 4.3-inch screens, and they were both successes, so it makes sense that a UK-friendly version would go along the same lines, right?
Add to that it’s got the overhauled Sense UI, with more new features than you can shake a techno-stick at, and there’s a lot to be excited about with this new handset. If you were already a fan of the HTC’s media capabilities, and love playing cheeky bingo or watching music videos on your phone, then you’re sure to love this new, improved version of the handset.
But we’re going to start on a negative – the screen isn’t quite what we expected if we’re honest, as despite packing a pin-sharp WVGA resolution, the colours on the Desire HD’s LCD don’t pop as we’d expected them to.
It certainly lacks the wow factor of the Samsung Galaxy S’ Super AMOLED, and while it’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination we were hoping for better.
But there are those out there that think that OLED screens are over-saturated anyway, so perhaps it will appease rather than disappoint some.
We’re happy to see the Sense UI back again, as the circular base (with menu and phone functions) is back again, this time packing in a key to take you to the myriad of personalisation options.
We’re really impressed with HTC’s decision to put all the options in one place on the HTC Desire HD, as it’s these little touches that help those that are a little technophobic about smartphones feel more at ease.
The slim dimensions of the HTC Desire HD are really important, and help to make the 4.3-inch screen more palatable to those that think it’s simply too big. It doesn’t feel as skinny as the iPhone 4 or the Galaxy S (well, it isn’t at 11.8mm) but it’s perfectly pocketable.
Around the back we’re treated to an 8MP camera that also packs a dual LED flash, and also records HD footage at 720p resolution.
There’s an odd choice from HTC when it comes to the 3.5mm headphone port, as it’s on the bottom rather than the top of the phone, next to the microUSB port.
We didn’t get a chance to walk around listening to music with the phone in the pocket (the stand bunnies would have had a heart attack) it might get a little confusing to remember that the phone is upside down when you drag it out.
There’s no physical camera key on here sadly, with the sleek lines meaning it’s an onscreen option only, which always makes it impossible to take pictures of yourself without accidentally turning calling your Mum or something.
The interface on the HTC Desire is very much evolution rather than revolution – but there are some subtle tweaks we’re fans of.
For instance when you pull down the top of the screen to open the notifications bar, you can scroll through the open/most used applications to help you access the things you need the most.
The menu system is much the same as it’s always been, but importantly it’s still using the 1GHz Qualcomm processor to the best of its ability – the interface just whips by under the finger, with no hint of slowdown in our early tests.
There are a few new options – Car Dock for instance, making it easier to use the HTC Desire HD as a navigation device, as that’s clearly what HTC is after by allowing you to pre-cache maps onto the device from famous cities around the world.
You can also take a helicopter view of your forthcoming sat nav trip, showing you the directions ahead so you can plan and be ready for the next direction.
Another new feature is the media sharing option – you can chuck stuff over through DLNA to a TV or PC, meaning music, pictures and video isn’t locked to the device, although we didn’t get a chance to see how easily this happened.
But it’s not a new trick – Samsung has been making it happen easily on its Wave and Galaxy S devices for a while now, although we hope HTC can speed up the experience somewhat as it takes an age at the moment.
HTC Desire HD: Internet
But when it comes to internet browsing, it’s once again into familiar territory for the HTC Desire HD – just great. The detail looked a little lower than we’d hoped for (once again, the Galaxy S’ screen is much clearer) but the sharpness is there and more importantly the text reflow option too.
This means that no matter how much you zoom in, the words will resize to fit the screen – and on the HTC Desire HD that happens really quickly too, almost staggering at times.
The other element we’re used to is the QWERTY keyboard on the HTC range, and once again on the Desire HD it’s a great experience.
The accuracy is just scary, and no matter how fudge-fingered you are the green box of correctness will pop up and set you on the correct path – it’s iPhone-equalling and the larger screen makes it that much better in our eyes, and will certainly put touchscreen noobs at ease as well.
The new Sense UI offers multiple accounts in a unified inbox too, meaning that one gripe many users have had has been rectified – you can even dub some people as VIPs and only see the emails from them if you so wish, which we imagine will be a godsend for some people.
HTC Desire HD: Contacts
The HTC Desire HD also packs in the excellent contact integration again, meaning Facebook, Twitter and email accounts can all be plonked on one profile, making it easier to keep tabs on who’s doing what with who to who.
We didn’t get the chance to play with this area fully, but there are clearly some upgrades on offer here, and things like being able to send out mass communications to groups of friends is always handy, especially if you organise your local Bridge night or like to hang out with couples in car parks and need to let them know the next location and codes.
Media is a mixed bag on the HTC Desire HD, and we already know we’re going to be a bit harsh here – but given HTC’s ability to raise the bar time and again, this is the flak it now has to deal with.
The music player is the same one we’ve seen on other Android devices from HTC (like the HTC Legend), offering the Sense UI slider at the bottom to get to artists, albums and playlists, as well as easy song management. It’s nothing overly fancy, but it does the job and does it well.
And now you get the option of SRS surround sound enhancement (or enchancement, if you’re HTC) and Dolby Mobile, as well as an equaliser to help level out the sound.
The thing is, each of these do really different things to the quality of the song, depending on its genre. Dolby makes it a lot softer, SRS raises the high end and we only felt we got a decent balance on the equaliser, although we need to play with it a lot more to get the full effect.
The same was true of video, with Dolby Mobile and SRS both creating a much more expansive effect but both scrubbing vocals at times – we’re a little perplexed and need to get some decent cans out to see what’s really going on here.
The 4.3-inch screen seems tailor-made for movie watching, which is why we’re a little disappointed that it didn’t wow us in the same way the Samsung Galaxy S manages to – the HTC Desire HD already seems like a more complete phone than Samsung’s best, but in media we’re already thinking the Galaxy S is a little better.
We’re being harsh, but we wish HTC had licensed Samsung’s Super AMOLED tech as well – it would have been mind-blowing on this phone.
A worry also resides with the battery too, as it’s only 1230mAh, which is less than the HTC Desire, Which had a lot of battery issues with quick discharging at the beginning of its life – and it had a smaller screen.
Perhaps Android 2.2 will save the HTC Desire HD, but there’s a genuine chance you might have to keep a charger with you on particularly heavy usage days.
These small foibles should take nothing away from the HTC Desire HD – it’s a step forward for the Taiwanese firm.
But perhaps it’s because we were so taken with the high standards of the original Desire, but we wanted to see a little more from this phone in terms of impressiveness, especially with the screen.
We’re still looking forward to bringing you the HTC Desire HD review more than nearly every other phone this year, so keep an eye out for that over the next month.
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