HTC phones

doodlebug · Apr 30, 2011

I am off to choose a HTC phone tommorow after years of being devoted to Nokia,which one should I get and why thanks 8)

Rob_F · Apr 30, 2011

I went with the HTC wildfire.

Don't like lugging around a brick so the smallness appealed to me. First time I've had a HTC phone and I must say, I'm well impressed

.

- Rob

doodlebug · Apr 30, 2011

Weird,when I press new post it says that Rob F has replied to my post yet when I goto view it there is no replies :?

Great now that I posted this Robs post appeared aswell.

Cheers Rob,I've heard good things about them 8)

Systreg · Apr 30, 2011

Rob replied directly above your reply saying he hasn't replied

Rob_F said:
I went with the HTC wildfire.

Don't like lugging around a brick so the smallness appealed to me. First time I've had a HTC phone and I must say, I'm well impressed .

- Rob

doodlebug · Apr 30, 2011

I am getting confused now,It said you replied Kev and I clicked to look but no post so I pressed reply and then could see it,how ironic I am thinking of abandoning Nokia for HTC and my Nokia plays up,maybe it can't handle rejection

Systreg · Apr 30, 2011

Sorry, this reply is not available, please reply or try again later burrrrrrrr

It's me, Doodlebug, I can't......

Sorry, the reply you are trying to reach is not available, please reply or try again later burrrrrrrr

AssetDomains · Apr 30, 2011

It's got to be the desire s or the desire HD which one you get depends on how the feel about the size. The other htc phone's although good are geting a bit dated now.
I've got the HD version its amazing couple of freinds with iphone's even rate it now they have had a go.

boxerdog · May 1, 2011

Desire HD is what I'm on right now. At first it seems quite bulky but after a couple of weeks its the perfect size. I know a few people that wish they didn't get an iPhone and got the desire HD instead. I think if you get anything else your always going to wish that you had got the HD. It's the best mobile iv ever used by a long way!

doodlebug · May 1, 2011

newpbc said:
It's got to be the desire s or the desire HD which one you get depends on how the feel about the size. The other htc phone's although good are geting a bit dated now.
I've got the HD version its amazing couple of freinds with iphone's even rate it now they have had a go.

Hi mate,I know a few people have gone from i phone to HTC and are happy with it,I think definitely the desire s

Kev you're a cheeky < missing text >

lol

With Boxerdogs comment that makes me wonder if I can have both ? lol

philipp · May 1, 2011

Rob_F said:
I went with the HTC wildfire.

Don't like lugging around a brick so the smallness appealed to me. First time I've had a HTC phone and I must say, I'm well impressed .

- Rob

What's the battery life like on a Wildfire? I've read varying reports and have been asked to find an easy-to-use smartphone. Most importantly, are they non-techie-family-member friendly?

P.

Rob_F · May 1, 2011

philipp said:
What's the battery life like on a Wildfire? I've read varying reports and have been asked to find an easy-to-use smartphone. Most importantly, are they non-techie-family-member friendly?

P.

Seems to be about 3-4 days with *moderate use and the GPS turned off unless needed.

*mainly to check email, forums, news and share prices – checking every 30-60 mins(ish) during working/evening hours. I very rarely use it to watch videos.

I had no problems working out how to use the various functions, although the touch screen keyboard took a bit of getting used to. I reckon if they are reasonably internet savvy, he/she should be able to get their head around it fairly easily.

- Rob

wb · May 1, 2011

Battery life above sounds good, I often drain my iPhone 4's battery within a day

afx · May 1, 2011

Battery life is at best ok on the Wildfire. You can improve it greatly by having a decent task killer on there (free from market place) as many apps do not have a close function and together with unneeded running processes just carry on running in the background chewing cpu / battery while you aren't even using them. But it passes the test of getting a day out of it which is the accepted minimum and all you get from an Iphone 4.

I was very pleased with my Widlfire until screen busted after four months. Just bought an Incredible S and very impressed so far.

Depending on how interested you are you can do a lot more with these stock network devices or even if bought from HTC they are stock and locked down. If it floats your boat you can root the device and run your own custom ROMS which allow you to run many more apps that need root access. Over at xda developers they have a sub forum for just about every HTC device and several of the developers are releasing nightly custom ROMS - just don't forget your sandals and socks ;-)

If you're getting one make sure it's running at least Froyo (2.2 Android) as it's much slicker than 2.1 and battery lasts longer too. I had a custom Gingerbread ROM (Android 2.3) on my Wildfire but have to say I preferred 2.2 so reverted back.

Just beware if you travel a lot -- HTC has no international warranty even if you buy their high end devices.

cm1975 · May 1, 2011

Desire HD is a cracking phone and way cheaper than an iPhone. Vodafone wanted to charge my £100, but eventually paid nowt.

Two draw backs are the battery and the camera isn't always 100% perfect. I've got 3 kids and often end up with blurred pictures. Probably just some setting that I've not seen yet?

doodlebug · May 1, 2011

AFX thanks for your very informative post,it bugs the hell out of me when you end up with several apps running,even if I close some they seem to open again

As for no international warranty I guess you could take out a single trip insurance on it.

CM I also have 3 kids and always use my phone instead of an actual camera,I will see how it goes ?

Thanks people 8)

rob · May 1, 2011

Wait a week or two and get the Sensation. Next gen phones out soon eg. Galaxy 2.

Wildfire has an iffy screen quality compared to desire etc.

johnnyboy · May 1, 2011

I've got the HTC Desire as I read so many positive reviews about it and it lives up to expectation. Fast Internet browsing, very accurate touch sensitive screen, great video playback quality, not bad camera/camcorder quality etc. Everything about it is great, except for the sound quality when playing videos and battery life isn't the best but that could be said for most smartphones. You could pick one up now sim free for about £220 but if you can spend a bit more, I would go for the Desire S as I've read it's the same as the original but better.

doodlebug · May 1, 2011

Thanks Seemly,I currently have a Nokia x6 and that doesn't have a task killer.

afx · May 1, 2011

seemly said:
Although not a HTC, I recently got myself a new phone, upgrading from a nokia 6230i (old skool!).

I upgraded to a Google Nexus S. Pretty damn good phone tbh. I have been more than pleased with it since I got it.

I have heard some pretty good things about the Desire HD, but I read many reviews stating that battery life was pretty poor on it though??

With regards to saving battery life, using a manual task killer app is actually one of the worst ways to achieveing this, as most smart phones have built-in task killers, that when an app is not used for a certain period of time, the phone kills that app automagically. In fact, keeping an app "activated" means it loads quicker on next use - meaning less battery consumption.

The thing about task killers is that unless you are fully aware what the application you are shutting down is actually doing or what it is running alongside with, if manually killing an app that is required, the phone will restart the manually closed app, thus consuming more processor power to restart, hence consume more battery.

You are much better off downloading an application called Watchdog Lite (http://tinyurl.com/6dk92zm), so you can monitor misbehaving apps, allowing you to decide whether it's worth keeping the naughty, manually installed application.

Hope this helps. =)

That may be your experience with Symbian or Windows phones but 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3 versions of Android perform better (in my experience) if you tear down unused processes and apps or use an automated app as you mention that does it, some of these apps have some decent features where you can set to automatically drop mobile data or wifi depending on what's available. Also permanently kill apps you never use that will always start (gmail for example is one I never use but Android always starts it).

Example I've got 10 apps running now -- I'm using none of them; if this was my wildfire I'd kill them regularly to extend the battery life. But with the incredible the battery doesn't need any workarounds and is good for 2 days easy so I don't bother.

I really like the specs of the HD but for me it was too big of a lump to carry around. The desire is a bit old now, wildfire entry level and the incredible s pitched in between the desire and the desire HD.

Of course you could get the Samsung Galaxy S2 which blows them all out of the water spec wise. Although I'm not sure of Samsung's build quality on phones; most are made of plastic -- saying that I've never owned one.

doodlebug · May 4, 2011

Update

ok people picked my phone up today and went for the Desire S,I'm annoyed because the other day they said unlimited data allowance and today I went to get it and they said the offer ended yesterday and I only get 1gb allowance

I'm going to ring them up and demand I still get unlimited or I will cancel my direct debit !