HTC Desire

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HTC Desire
CodenameBravo
ManufacturerHTC Corporation
Compatible networksEurope/Asia Pacific: HSPA/WCDMA
900/2100 MHz [Model A8181]
850/1900 (Telus Mobility Canada) [Model A8182]
850/2100 MHz (Telstra Australia) [Model A8183]
GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
First released16 February 2010; 14 years ago (2010-02-16)
Availability by regionSouth Korea May 2010 (2010-05)
PredecessorHTC Hero
SuccessorHTC Desire S
RelatedHTC Desire Z, HTC Desire HD, HTC Incredible S
TypeSmartphone
Form factorSlate
Dimensions119 mm (4.7 in) H
60 mm (2.4 in) W
11.9 mm (0.47 in) D
Mass135 g (4.8 oz)
Operating systemLaunched with Android 2.1 "Eclair"
Upgradeable to Android 2.3 "Gingerbread"[1] (Though only 2.2 is supported by HTC)
CPU1 GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon
GPUAdreno 200
Memory576 MB RAM
Storage512 MB flash (150 MB user accessible)
Removable storagemicroSDHC supports up to 32 GB
Battery1400 mAh
Internal Rechargeable Li-ion
User replaceable
Display3.7-inch 480×800 px (0.38 Megapixels) WVGA AMOLED or Super LCD capacitive touchscreen covered by Gorilla Glass[2]
Rear camera5 Megapixel
Autofocus
LED flash
face detection, Geotagging
ConnectivityBluetooth 2.1 with EDR
Micro USB
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
Data inputsDual-Touch screen, 3-axis accelerometer, digital compass, proximity and ambient light sensors, FM Radio, compass, A-GPS
OtherHTC Sense 1.9 interface
Flash 10.1 enabled (update to Flash 11 available in Android Market)
References[3]

The HTC Desire (codenamed Bravo)[4] is the first smartphone of the Desire series developed by HTC. It was announced on 16 February 2010 and released in Europe and Australia in the second quarter of the same year. The HTC Desire was HTC's third flagship phone running Android 2.1 Eclair[5] which can be upgraded to 2.2 Froyo or 2.3 Gingerbread.[6] Internally it bears a strong resemblance to the Nexus One, but differs in some features.

Availability[edit]

In the United States, the device was available from Alltel, U.S. Cellular,[7] Cellular South,[8] Cox Wireless, nTelos Wireless, Cellcom,[9] and United Wireless in southwest Kansas. In Canada, the device was released by Telus Mobility on 6 August 2010.[10]

In Europe, the carriers were Elisa in Finland, Vodafone UK, Vodafone Ireland, Meteor Irl, BT Broadband Anywhere, T-Mobile UK, O2, Orange UK, 3, and Virgin Mobile UK. In Australia, it is exclusive to Telstra. In Japan, Softbank Mobile started sales in April.[citation needed] In Turkey, Vodafone started sales in late November 2010.

In South Korea, SK Telecom began sales in May 2010.

In Singapore, the official launch date was 14 May 2010, and the phone was subsequently for sale by all carriers.

In mainland China, HTC launched its four flagship smartphones including the Desire on 27 July 2010. Unlike in other markets, the device was shipped with Android 2.2 ("Froyo").[11]

Many of the UK mobile networks were unable to keep up with demand; Virgin Mobile UK, Vodafone UK, 3, T-Mobile UK and Orange UK experienced very high demand.[12][13][14][15] The disruption caused by the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull led to some customers waiting a month getting their HTC Desires due to much of European airspace being closed.[citation needed]

In India, HTC and TATA DOCOMO, the GSM brand of Tata Teleservices Limited, announced a partnership to launch HTC Desire in India on 16 August 2010.

Hardware[edit]

Image of SLCD screen left and AMOLED screen right

The phone uses a 1 GHz ARMv7 "Snapdragon" processor, includes a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera and an optical trackpad, and was among the first consumer devices to feature a large, full-color active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display.[16]

During late Q2 2010, HTC made the decision to switch the Desire's display to a S-LCD panel, manufactured by the company S-LCD a co-operative between Sony and Samsung. Although this was brought on by a severe AMOLED panel supply shortfall,[17] the new display greatly enhances text readability because of its improved effective resolution, one of the few complaints people had with the original Desire model.[18][19] Compared to the original AMOLED display, the SLCD display has more accurate colour reproduction, far less susceptibility to burn-in, similar peak brightness and very good viewing angles, but a lower contrast ratio. The new SLCD display was claimed to have similar or better power efficiency compared with the original AMOLED display; however, this has proved to not always be the case because with AMOLED pixels' ability to completely turn off, black or dark pixels use very little power.[20] However, in situations when the screen is predominantly bright (such as when viewing many web pages), the AMOLED display uses more power.

The hardware is capable of high-definition (720p) video recording and playback; the 720p video recording feature has been added to the HTC Desire when updating to the official HTC modified Android Froyo firmware.[21]

Software[edit]

The Desire was shipped with Android 2.1. HTC made an update to Android 2.2 (codenamed "Froyo") available on the following dates:

HTC has released a software update to upgrade the Desire to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). Originally, they planned to do this in June 2011.[26][27] On 14 June 2011, HTC announced via Facebook that there would be no Gingerbread update for the HTC Desire, citing memory constraints. This is because HTC had been unable to fit both Gingerbread and HTC Sense together in the phone's 250 MB system partition.[28] However, on 15 June, they released a statement saying the Desire would receive the Gingerbread update, with the possibility of some apps being cut.[29] The update was finally released for download from HTC's developer website[30] on 1 August 2011, and is not available as an OTA (over-the-air) update.

Comparison with Nexus One[edit]

The Desire internally bears a strong resemblance to the Nexus One. The differences found in the Desire are:[31][32][33][34]

  • A different body shell
  • An optical trackpad in place of the trackball
  • Hardware function buttons instead of touch-sensitive buttons
  • FM radio activated (FM radio in Nexus One is disabled by default but can be activated through hacked firmware)
  • No second microphone for enhanced noise cancellation
  • No dock pin connectors, instead micro-USB is used
  • 576 MB DRAM instead of 512 MB DRAM
  • Dual band HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100, 850/2100 or 850/1900 MHz depending on vendor[35] instead of 850/1900/2100 tri-band
  • HTC Sense Android skin (not present in the Nexus One)
  • All support and updates directly through HTC rather than partially through Google

Because of the strong similarity to the Nexus One "developer phone", the Desire enjoys a highly active third-party developer community. The Desire subforum was one of the most active at xda-developers, and notably CyanogenMod and MIUI are available for the device.

Reception[edit]

The HTC Desire received extremely positive reviews. CNET UK reviewed awarded the phone 9.2/10.[36] TechRadar awarded the phone 5 out of 5 stars and stated, "In short, this is a phenomenal phone—one of the best we've ever had."[37]

From TechRadar's "Top 15 best mobile phones in the world", the HTC Desire is simply the best so far: "It's like a Nexus One only better. For this reason, the HTC Desire has entered our top 10 at number 1, and the Google Nexus One has dropped out completely. It's tough at the top."[38] MobileTechWorld found the HTC Desire to be a fairly capable product that "manages to please casual users with HTC’s flashy Sense UI and geeks who love to tweak their handsets on a daily basis thanks to the Google’s Android OS".[39]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "HTCdev - HTC Kernel Source Code and Binaries". Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  2. ^ "Products with Gorilla". Featured products. Corning Incorporated. Archived from the original on 23 October 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  3. ^ Ziegler, Chris (16 February 2010). "HTC press conferens MWC 2010". engadget.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2010. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  4. ^ "HTC Bravo becomes HTC Desire". Techdigest. Archived from the original on 2 March 2010. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  5. ^ Nield, David. "Path of the One". TechRadar. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  6. ^ "HTCdev - HTC Kernel Source Code and Binaries". Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  7. ^ "Niet compatibele browser". Facebook. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  8. ^ "Twitter / Cellular South: The summer of Android cont". Twitter. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  9. ^ "Cellcom HTC Desire 6275". cellcom.com. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  10. ^ "HTC Desire on Telus Mobility". telusmobility.com. Archived from the original on 23 July 2010. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  11. ^ Savov, Vlad (29 July 2010). "HTC will ship all Android phones in China with Froyo on board, fuels fire for immediate update closer to home". Engadget. Archived from the original on 31 July 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  12. ^ Gary C (17 April 2010). "Three UK runs out of HTC Desire stock – upgrades for existing customers stopped". EuroDroid. Archived from the original on 25 June 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  13. ^ Gary C (16 April 2010). "Vodafone: HTC Desire still out of stock, online and offline". EuroDroid. Archived from the original on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  14. ^ Gary C (15 April 2010). "Orange: "High demand" for HTC Desire leading to delays". EuroDroid. Archived from the original on 26 May 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  15. ^ Gary C (9 April 2010). "T-Mobile expecting "10,000" more HTC Desire phones next week". EuroDroid. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  16. ^ "HTC Desire Specifications". GSMarena. Archived from the original on 23 September 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  17. ^ GARY CUTLACK (26 July 2010). "HTC Swapping AMOLED For Super LCD". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 28 August 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  18. ^ "AMOLED vs. S-LCD HTC Desire screens fight it out". GSMarena. 14 September 2010. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  19. ^ Richard Lai (13 September 2010). "Spot the difference: HTC Desire's SLCD versus AMOLED". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  20. ^ Lai, Richard (13 September 2010). "Spot the difference: HTC Desire's SLCD versus AMOLED". Engadget. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2010.
  21. ^ "Install Android 2.2 Froyo on HTC Desire And Enable 720p HD Video Recording". addictivetips. 8 July 2010. Archived from the original on 16 September 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  22. ^ "HTC Desire Android 2.2 update coming this weekend". techradar.com. 31 July 2010. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  23. ^ "Status of Android 2.2 Froyo update in Asia". asia.cnet.com. 17 August 2010. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  24. ^ "Android(TM) 2.2 アップデート". mb.softbank.jp. 2010. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  25. ^ "How To Upgrade HTC Desire on U.S. Cellular To Official Android 2.2 Froyo". dks ZONE. 9 February 2011. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  26. ^ "SlashGear". SlashGear. 25 February 2011. Archived from the original on 4 May 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  27. ^ "MyBroadband.co.za". MyBroadband.co.za. 9 March 2011. Archived from the original on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  28. ^ Sin, Gloria (14 June 2011). "No Android Gingerbread update for HTC Desire". ZD Net. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 18 June 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  29. ^ Merrett, Andy (15 June 2011). "HTC Desire to get Android Gingerbread after all as HTC backtracks | CNET UK". Crave.cnet.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  30. ^ "HTC developer center". HTC. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  31. ^ "HTC Desire vs. Google Nexus One". Slashgear. Archived from the original on 4 March 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  32. ^ "HTC Desire: Nexus One with Flash and Sense". Icrontic. Archived from the original on 27 June 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  33. ^ "androidguys". Archived from the original on 27 March 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
  34. ^ iHelp (11 May 2010). "iHelplounge". iHelplounge. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  35. ^ "HTC Desire Specifications – Smartphones & PDA Phones". Cnet.com.au. 6 April 2010. Archived from the original on 26 March 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  36. ^ "HTC Desire Review". Flora Graham. CNET UK. 29 March 2010. Archived from the original on 2 April 2010. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  37. ^ "HTC Desire Review". Gareth Beavis. TechRadar.com. 31 March 2010. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  38. ^ "15 best mobile phones in the world today. Android takes over, a new phone goes top". James Rivington. TechRadar.com. 26 March 2010. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
  39. ^ "HTC Desire Review". MobileTechWorld. Archived from the original on 21 May 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2010.

External links[edit]