HTC Desire

So for the first time ever, I decided to actually get a decent mobile phone. I have always ended up with a mobile phone that after 6 months I really dislike and for once I decided that I would procure one that would be worth the exorbitant contract fees. I spent a lot of time researching on the internet and although I was kinda fancying an iPhone, I could not justify (or afford) spending £45.00 a month just to get a free phone. This seemed even more preposterous with the new iPhone just around the corner.

After much research I chose the HTC Desire and I am absolutely sure I made the right choice. There are a multitude of reasons I love this phone. 

• The brightness and clarity of the screen is amazing. True, in bright sunlight it is a struggle to see unless you tweak the settings but otherwise its awesome.
• Although there aren't as many apps available as the iPhone there are still circa 80,000 and growing daily. Of course some are duds but most I have downloaded are free and extremely useful/entertaining.
• The UI is gorgeous to behold and Sense works like a dream. Very slick and easy to use. I am still finding tricks that I didn't know before, like holding down the home key for access to the six most commonly used applications - so simple!
• Live wallpaper. Okay it probably is a battery drain but how cool is that. Vibrant colours swirling around the screen, lifelike water that ripples where you touch, swaying grass under a sky that changes in colour in line with the time of day. Very impressive.
• The virtual keyboard is the best I have used. Easy to type on in both portrait and landscape mode and intelligent enough to 'guess' what you are writing even if you can't spell or routinely stab the wrong key.
• Wi-Fi inbuilt which again is a drain on the battery and as I use the phone at home a lot I have Wi-Fi switched on all the time to connect to the internet through my router. Connection speed is excellent, browsing is simple and intuitive, pinch to zoom is flawless.
• I would have to say that I probably charge the phone daily and I know I could extend battery life by turning off Wi-Fi and Live wallpaper but I don't feel charging everyday is excessive considering what this baby packs under the hood. I have Twitter and Facebook widgets along with weather and News updating. I play some music occasionally on the phone and maybe browse You Tube for a bit and am starting to read a lot on it using the Kindle app. I think battery life is quite impressive considering all this.

There are probably many things I haven't touched on but I feel that in a number of ways the HTC Desire outstrips and iPhone 3GS. Maybe it doesn't compare so favourably against an iPhone 4 but who really wants to pay £60.00 a month and is the iPhone 4 that impressive? They keep harping on about FaceTime as a huge selling point but you can only do that with someone else who also has an iPhone 4 and can only do it over Wi-Fi. I mean the technology is definitely coming along and it is a step forward but true usuability of mobile video calling isn't quite there yet.

I am not knocking Apple and do love their products but in this case I would choose my HTC over an iPhone every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Sorry Steve.