Some of the more cynical members of the smartphone market would probably say that the release of the HTC-Desire couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time. After all the industry has managed to fill the gap in anticipation of the arrival of the Android 2.1 phone with a host of contenders, including the Nexus One from Google, and even one of HTC’s own offerings, the Legend. It would seem therefore that the release of the HTC-Desire is all just a little late and a dollar short…or is it?
As it turns out, the Desire actually has enough features and functionalities to measure up to the competition, and while the Legend draws heavily from HTC’s previous Hero model, the Desire carves out its own bold path. In fact, the HTC-Desire looks a lot more like the Nexus One than its HTC siblings, with the apparent difference being the inclusion of actual buttons at the bottom of the screen, instead of the touch-sensitive lights that come with the Nexus One. And the good news is that the HTC-Desire’s buttons work great, with a reassuring build and responsiveness that belie its relatively low cost.
Of all the many features if the HTC-Desire, it is probably its multi-touch capability that will get the most attention. This feature allows users to pinch any or all of the home screens together so that up to seven pages can be viewed at once. You could for example view the HTC clock and weather widget at the same time.
The Desire also features “Friend Stream”, which provides a single location for checking out Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates. The included HTC Peep, does allow you to check out Twitter feeds of course, but the convenience offered by Friend Stream’s centralized service definitely makes things a lot easier and more accessible.