In this post — that will be stuck to the first page — will be my thoughts on the HTC Desire I won through the Telstra ‘Social Review’ competition. These thoughts are mine, and mine only. I’m not being paid to do this and I don’t represent Telstra in any way shape or form.

I will be doing a big wrap up review at the end of the two weeks. Until then it’s dot point feelings & observations 🙂

So hit “Read More” to read my thoughts on this wonderful looking device!

Day 1

  • Nice packaging, simple & small
  • All accessories very straight forward
  • Very sleek looking device
  • Display colours are vivid, yet a bit blurry in comparison to the Xperia X10
  • It won’t connect to 3G, at all. I have all the APNs in. I keep getting “connect failed”.
  • Live Wallpapers do indeed make the phone lag a tad, which is disappointing. With them turned off the phone is very responsive!.
  • Won’t send TXT messages either
  • Already found a bug in the pinch-2-zoom on the homescreen
  • Sense UI — Well done HTC, I love it 🙂
  • In the browser and you pull your finger off when scrolling, it will magically scroll the opposite way *annoying*!
  • Browser is very slick though, nice 🙂
  • In darkness, it is much, much brighter than the X10
  • There are 19 Telstra “Applications” which are really just links to websites. They also don’t work over WiFi. FAIL.
  • Said applications also make it near impossible to find the ones you’re looking for. I wish you could remove them!
  • Lock screen! Use it, although people can guess your unlock gesture by checking the finger prints on the screen 😉

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Day 2

  • Watching YouTube last night was very clear
  • Battery stopped charging at midnight, lets see how long it lasts
  • Battery goes quick very quickly
  • Battery is useless
  • Did I mention the battery sucks?
  • FM Radio is the greatest thing ever put into a smartphone — Triple J here I come
  • HTC Widgets are the greatest things ever invented
  • Unlike some of the other reviewers, I am yet to run into the issue of not enough memory
  • The HTC Browser is the best in the business
  • HTC Desire Screenshots

Day 3

  • Other people loved it today, main thing they liked: Live Wallpapers
  • Battery stayed up all day, maybe because I wasn’t connected to 3G
  • Android Market – Oh how I love you. over 35,000 56,000 apps and still growing!
  • Conference calling :D. Works a charm!
  • Completing the FOTA (Firmware Over The Air) Update was very easy, I managed to grab some screenshots of the process 🙂

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Day 4

  • So my first day with 3G. NextG, you’re very, very fast. Desire, you’re very, very unstable when keeping a connection
  • Review is being finished off, will post the link in a minute or two 🙂
  • Review is up — LINK
  • The Video Recording is pretty average at night (see review)

Day 5

  • Mobile Foxtel is the shiz
  • Battery once again was pretty poor today.
  • I’ve found that 3G is quite slow..
  • The weather animations when unlocking the phone are excellent
  • Some widgets (news & friendfeed) won’t update properly.
  • The Optical Trackpad is sometimes uneasy to use
  • Have I told you I hate these Telstra “Apps”. They are really irritating & useless
  • Google Maps Latitude is coming in handy at the moment, I can track where my brother is at
  • I haven’t yet felt the need to use the “Search” key

Day 6

  • A lot to look forward to in Android 2.2
  • When going into the browser from another app, then pressing back, will send you back a page in the browser, not back to the app you were previously in
  • Battery Widget is great to watch. 100-75% in 15 minutes.
  • Performing a network speedtest over Optus & Telstra with the N1, X10 & Desire
  • The browser doesn’t cache when you go back! Thanks for pointing this out Zardoz!
  • Turns out Mobile Foxtel is useless, they play the same 1 show, on each channel over & over. It’s sending me insane. Not worth the $12/mo.

Day 7

  • Removing the wallpaper speeds up the whole system dramatically!
  • I can’t even add a newer version of the HTC Keyboard. Not much customisation on that front
  • Battery is once again, hopeless
  • Removed most of the widgets from the 7 homescreens, sped things up a bit
  • Found some cool interactive games on the Android Market!

Day 8

  • Wrote up a few more Q&As (Link)
  • Use the lockscreen!
  • OSK is starting to annoy me
  • I want these Bigpond apps GONE!

Day 9

  • I do like the Music Player, but as I said in the review it needs an Album Art grabber.
  • Pinch to Zoom is coming in handy. Never thought I’d use it, I’m too used to the X10.
  • Mobile Foxtel, no matter how repetitive, does fill in spare time.
  • I’m really going to have to buy an extended battery
  • If only the Optical Track Sensor Thingy would flash with an LED

Day 10

  • The review period is heading to a close. I’ve done what I expected: Q&A, Comparison & Review
  • Battery lasts slightly longer now. It’s still pretty crud though
  • Liking AMOLED much more than I thought, but I miss the clarity of the X10
  • Can’t wait to see Froyo on this thing, as well as 720p recording

Day 11

  • The browser is really quite second rate, when going into the browser from another app, the back button should take you back to the app you were in.
  • I really need to find an extended battery for this thing!

Day 13″

  • The last day 🙂 Big thanks to Mike, Kristen & Ben for the Telstra Desire Social Review.
  • Tonight I’m going to put it through a pressure test: GPS, WiFi, Streaming Music, Downloading Stuff & Browsing the net. Let’s see how long it takes.
  • Pressure Test: Just over an hour. Fail.

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