Hands on: HTC Desire Z review
Posted by | Posted in Smartphones News | Posted on 16-09-2010
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The world might have been going gaga for the Desire HD, but it’s easy to forget another phones was announced at the same time, and given the specs the HTC Desire Z is no little brother – it’s a decent handset in its own right.
Featuring a full aluminium shell and slide out QWERTY keyboard, the HTC Desire Z is not only nice to look at and hold but solves an issue for people with fatter thumbs: a physical keyboard along with Android 2.2 and a raft of HTC-only features.
The HTC Desire Z is smaller than the Desire HD with only a 3.7-inch screen, which is still an impressive WVGA offering with 800×480 pixel and a nice-looking contrast ratio.
What’s odd is this Super LCD screen (there’s an OLED shortage don’t forget, so HTC has gone for alternative tech rather than risk not being able to fulfil orders) is more attractive-looking than the Desire HD, which uses the same technology.
The colours look richer and the contrast ratio seems higher – we’re looking forward to having some time with both to see if there are some settings that can be tweaked to improve things.
What’s impressive is the HTC Desire Z looks and feels like a premium handset in the normal tablet mode – use it in portrait or landscape mode and it responds quickly and works well.
But there’s also the QWERTY keyboard to think about, and it opens with a really cool hinge that lifts then pops down again, which HTC says will make it easier for the fat-thumbed or longer fingernailed among us to type along the top line of text.
The keys are slightly raised and easy to press down, although are a little bit stiff. But the dimensions of 119mm x 60.4mm x 14.16mm mean the HTC Desire Z is a decent device to hold in two hands and tap out a few characters.
One nice little touch is the ability to set two keys to perform a certain function, be it call a contact, open a web page or start up an application – it’s the little touches like this that make smartphones less scary for users.
At the bottom of the phone there’s a full optical trackpad, which makes a change from the Terminator eye on the HTC Legend and Desire, and is more useful for when trying to scroll through text, and it’s flanked by the other standard Android keys for navigation.
The 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top, which will enrage or delight some users depending on how they pull the phone out of their pocket, and there’s also a dedicated camera key, which is a welcome addition indeed.
But the physical side of things is becoming less important than before, as it’s in the interface that users are looking for the greatest changes and cool features to turn their phone from a bog standard gadget into a wonder-unit.
And like the Desire HD, the HTC Desire Z manages this with aplomb with the same improved Sense UI, offering a number of upgrades.
But firstly, and most importantly, the interface responds quickly and sprightly under the touch and just works. Click and icon, perform a swipe and the HTC Desire Z will do it without lag (or it managed it on the device we saw, which always bodes well).
It’s a mixture of Android 2.2 becoming a real contender for a smartphone OS under the hood and the excellent optimisation HTC is becoming known for.
The Sense UI home screens are back in full force too, and this means an improved ‘favourite contacts’ widget, enhanced mapping and a number of new applications too.
The mapping is one of the most impressive areas, and HTC is keen for users to understand that this is a new evolution for Android phones. Instead of relying on copious amounts of data, maps for major cities can now be preloaded onto the HTC Desire Z and allow for much easier navigation.
The HTC overlay on the navigation side of things is excellent too – Google has already done a good job, but this time there’s also ‘Helicopter Mode’ which means when you’re stopped you can ask the phone to fly ahead and show you where the route is going to take you.
Not literally – we’d probably have mentioned it earlier if the HTC Desire Z could actually levitate and scout for information.
The internet was somewhat akin to that on the HTC Legend, which has an 600MHz Qualcomm processor. It works well, and there’s a lot of functionality packed in, but at times it does lag on the HTC Desire Z.
We’re talking very slight amounts: for instance when you zoom into text and it re-jigs itself to fit the width of the screen, it takes a beat to achieve it, where it’s instant with the Desire HD.
Given that the HTC Desire Z seems to be the cheaper phone, it makes sense that some compromises would have to be made – or it could just be the non-final firmware on board that caused the ever-so-slight lag.
Messaging is clearly an important area for the HTC Desire Z, and not just because it’s got a QWERTY keyboard (although that’s obviously important) but also a unified inbox, bringing it on a par with the iPhone 4.
The Desire HD has the same functionality, but for some reason it seems more at home on the Desire Z, and elements like being able to specify people you want to hear from on email make it even easier to use.
As we mentioned, tapping out messages on the keyboard is a decent experience and with a little practice we’re pretty sure we’ll get the speed up to a very reasonable standard.
Contacts are the same as before, but with a little extra functionality – you can obviously sync Facebook, Twitter and email accounts with your friends, but you can now see more information on the favourites widget.
You can also do little things like pre-tagging Facebook photos, which just makes things that much easier, and is impressive.
The media side of things is pretty good too – it’s clear that this isn’t the phone’s primary function, as there’s no Dolby Mobile or SRS surround enhancement to be messing around with (although we’re not sure they always add to the quality of the movie or music).
But the DLNA support is there, allowing you to ping new content to a larger TV or computer with ease, be it pictures, music or videos.
For the latter, there’s a 5MP camera and HD video recorder bolted on, although the flash isn’t as powerful as on the HTC Desire HD.
Music and video sounded fine to us though, and we’re glad to see that the same interface has been kept from older phones like the HTC Desire – the simplicity is something we’re fans of, but it could do with an overhaul in the next iteration of the Sense UI as others offer more.
However, a direct link to the Amazon MP3 store is a nice addition and somewhere we can see we’ll be accidentally spending a lot of money if Spotify fails us when out and about.
The speaker sounds loud and clear, although not that distinctive in the hubbub of a busy room… but then again, when are you going to use it in that environment, unless you want to be glared at on a train? That’s right, glared.
Another cool feature is the Shazam-a-like SoundHound, which promises to listen to you humming or singing (or an actual song) and tell you what the song is. We’re sorry folks, but while TechRadar does go that extra mile to get deeper into technology, we’re not going to start humming in front a room of other sweaty journalists.
Plus the only song we could think of was the PussyCat Doll’s ‘When I grow up’ and that seemed a little inappropriate.
There are loads more things on the HTC Desire Z we’re looking forward to testing – how does the screen look in bright light? What’s the call quality like? Does filling it with content cause the 800MHz processor to slow down?
More importantly – does the 1300mAh battery stand up to the task of all day use when the HTC Legend and Desire failed so miserably?
But these are all questions for the forthcoming full and in-depth HTC Desire Z review, where we can properly probe the limits of this handset.
For now, we’re quietly impressed with this QWERTY slider, as it offers a lot in a small package and doesn’t fall down in areas other smartphones inexplicably manage to time after time – so despite the hype surrounding the HTC Desire HD, the HTC Desire Z seems to be an equally impressive phone too.
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