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First and foremost, there's too much to write about in one post, so this will be staggered over the next few days.
This is my first experience with an Android handset so please bear with my gushing... but this is amazing.
But first out, some of the aspects I had mixed feeling about.
To be honest, the screen isn't as high resolution as I'd like it to be. Coming from the HTC Touch Pro - which had a 2.8 inch (480x640) screen with pretty much "paper" resolution (some 285ppi) it's a step back despite the Desire's screen being higher resolution - but also bigger in size at 3.7 inches (480x800). Apart from that the colour and brightness are amazing. It's a beautiful screen. It makes the 3G's screen pale in comparison although the iPhone4 will have a far superior screen resolution-wise... I'll await the release to compare colour. The viewing angles on the screen, being AMOLED, are phenomenal. There is NO viewing angle problem at all. The only other downfall of the screen apart from res is the reflections outside. They're really bad. If you shade the phone from the sun you get better results than you would with an LCD because of the brightness this thing pumps out. Despite it being a bright screen, I'd say the AMOLED helps with battery life which is not amazing to be honest, but you'll get through a day easy using it fairly consistently. I was charging it twice a day when I first got it... because... well... I couldn't stop messing with it!
The touch screen is not quite as responsive as an iPhone, but it's almost there. I think it's probably something to do with the Sense UI running over the top of Android. It's doing well considering. All the multitouch gestures seem to work really well.
Well. I've pretty much pointed out the ONLY negatives I can find with this phone in the first few paragraphs. The rest is just the amazing experience that is the HTC Desire. On with the handset a bit more...
The buttons at the bottom are nicely crafted and feel really good to press. This brings be to one of my favourite features of this handset, and it's the easiest to use as well! Hold the search button (far right) for two seconds, tell the handset what you'd like to Google search and within a few seconds you get the Google search results listed. It seriously works 99% of the time. Amazing. Further to that I downloaded a keyboard mod that integrates this into the whole system. So I can dictate emails, SMSs, etc with this. It's really cool to be able to do, but I'm still not sure I'll actually use it that much (despite it's all I've used today - except for this post!). You've just got to say "period" for a full stop and "exclamation mark" for !, etc. The search feature is a keeper though for sure.
Another thing I really like is the ability to tip the phone to landscape and type. With the auto-correcting similar to the iPhone, you can seriously blaze stuff out at 35+wpm most of the time. My phone is no longer a cumbersome device to input text into. You can also set the phone to vibrate a little when you hit a character. It's good to get that tactile feedback.
Anyway. I'm all over the shop here but I'll keep going.
When you first set up the phone it asks you for all your details such as Gmail account, Facebook, Twitter and any other email logins. Everything is then integrated in the OS and ready to rock and roll. One of the best features by far of Android is the ability to link different contact numbers for the one person into one entry. Pretty standard. But it auto suggests links for you including their facebook account. Once the facebook entry is added it populates their contact details with their profile pic, status update, birthday and all the usual links to quick call, SMS, FB profile. Not only that, but this automatically syncs back to your Google account. Go to contacts.google.com and all the contacts for your phone are snyc'ed right there!
Another awesome thing about this phone is the notification bar up the top. Not only does it give you the usual icons regarding battery life, signal, music playing, etc, but it also flashes the content of incoming messages for you to glance at. Swipe down from the top of the screen and it reveals who you've got a message from. It doesn't matter what medium I'm talking through (ie. SMS, Gtalk, etc) because it's irrelevant. All your friend's different contact methods are rolled into one contact making it a seamless communication experience. It's no longer a pain in the arse to have GTalk to talk to someone, etc. It's just always there. I'm sure there is an equivalent Facebook chat app that integrates as well.
Multitasking on this handset is a great experience. It is BLAZING fast. I wait for nothing. It really is worlds away from any other phone I've had in this and many other regards. Anyway, I haven't even got into the apps yet, but will do soon!
To be continued...
Edit: Thought I'd add a tips section. Some of these maybe mentioned above.
TIPS:
To move a widget quickly across multiple screens, tap and hold the widget, then swipe your other finger over the optical directional thingy until you reach the page you want and then drop the widget in a space! Too easy!
Hold the search (hardware) button for two seconds for a quick shortcut to Google voice search.
This is my first experience with an Android handset so please bear with my gushing... but this is amazing.
But first out, some of the aspects I had mixed feeling about.
To be honest, the screen isn't as high resolution as I'd like it to be. Coming from the HTC Touch Pro - which had a 2.8 inch (480x640) screen with pretty much "paper" resolution (some 285ppi) it's a step back despite the Desire's screen being higher resolution - but also bigger in size at 3.7 inches (480x800). Apart from that the colour and brightness are amazing. It's a beautiful screen. It makes the 3G's screen pale in comparison although the iPhone4 will have a far superior screen resolution-wise... I'll await the release to compare colour. The viewing angles on the screen, being AMOLED, are phenomenal. There is NO viewing angle problem at all. The only other downfall of the screen apart from res is the reflections outside. They're really bad. If you shade the phone from the sun you get better results than you would with an LCD because of the brightness this thing pumps out. Despite it being a bright screen, I'd say the AMOLED helps with battery life which is not amazing to be honest, but you'll get through a day easy using it fairly consistently. I was charging it twice a day when I first got it... because... well... I couldn't stop messing with it!
The touch screen is not quite as responsive as an iPhone, but it's almost there. I think it's probably something to do with the Sense UI running over the top of Android. It's doing well considering. All the multitouch gestures seem to work really well.
Well. I've pretty much pointed out the ONLY negatives I can find with this phone in the first few paragraphs. The rest is just the amazing experience that is the HTC Desire. On with the handset a bit more...
The buttons at the bottom are nicely crafted and feel really good to press. This brings be to one of my favourite features of this handset, and it's the easiest to use as well! Hold the search button (far right) for two seconds, tell the handset what you'd like to Google search and within a few seconds you get the Google search results listed. It seriously works 99% of the time. Amazing. Further to that I downloaded a keyboard mod that integrates this into the whole system. So I can dictate emails, SMSs, etc with this. It's really cool to be able to do, but I'm still not sure I'll actually use it that much (despite it's all I've used today - except for this post!). You've just got to say "period" for a full stop and "exclamation mark" for !, etc. The search feature is a keeper though for sure.
Another thing I really like is the ability to tip the phone to landscape and type. With the auto-correcting similar to the iPhone, you can seriously blaze stuff out at 35+wpm most of the time. My phone is no longer a cumbersome device to input text into. You can also set the phone to vibrate a little when you hit a character. It's good to get that tactile feedback.
Anyway. I'm all over the shop here but I'll keep going.
When you first set up the phone it asks you for all your details such as Gmail account, Facebook, Twitter and any other email logins. Everything is then integrated in the OS and ready to rock and roll. One of the best features by far of Android is the ability to link different contact numbers for the one person into one entry. Pretty standard. But it auto suggests links for you including their facebook account. Once the facebook entry is added it populates their contact details with their profile pic, status update, birthday and all the usual links to quick call, SMS, FB profile. Not only that, but this automatically syncs back to your Google account. Go to contacts.google.com and all the contacts for your phone are snyc'ed right there!
Another awesome thing about this phone is the notification bar up the top. Not only does it give you the usual icons regarding battery life, signal, music playing, etc, but it also flashes the content of incoming messages for you to glance at. Swipe down from the top of the screen and it reveals who you've got a message from. It doesn't matter what medium I'm talking through (ie. SMS, Gtalk, etc) because it's irrelevant. All your friend's different contact methods are rolled into one contact making it a seamless communication experience. It's no longer a pain in the arse to have GTalk to talk to someone, etc. It's just always there. I'm sure there is an equivalent Facebook chat app that integrates as well.
Multitasking on this handset is a great experience. It is BLAZING fast. I wait for nothing. It really is worlds away from any other phone I've had in this and many other regards. Anyway, I haven't even got into the apps yet, but will do soon!
To be continued...
Edit: Thought I'd add a tips section. Some of these maybe mentioned above.
TIPS:
To move a widget quickly across multiple screens, tap and hold the widget, then swipe your other finger over the optical directional thingy until you reach the page you want and then drop the widget in a space! Too easy!
Hold the search (hardware) button for two seconds for a quick shortcut to Google voice search.
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