The hardware has the potential for high-definition, if available, with future updates. The Android operating system has the capability to take advantage of the video circuitry onboard the Snapdragon processor, enabling the device to capture and playback video at high-definition 720p on a WVGA screen.
Following the Legend, HTC continues its Android 2.1 lineup with the Desire -- a gorgeous cousin of the renowned Nexus One. We can trace our drool all the way back to the Desire's leak in December, but there have been some changes since then that made it slightly less desirable -- DivX support and 720p video capture never made it to the final build, but it's not like the company laid down any official promise on them, right? Anyhow, there's still plenty to be loved here, namely the speedy 1GHz Snapdragon, the large AMOLED screen, and HTC's latest revision of Sense UI that we've already seen on the Legend. Now, there are probably two questions floating in the minds of our readers: is the Desire worth the extra moola over the Legend? And is it any better than the Nexus One? Let's all find out together.
Given that all three phones have a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, we expected the same picture output from them all, but HTC's full of surprises. For starters, the Desire captures 5:3 wide still images, while the Legend does a narrower 3:2 and the Nexus One takes the good-old 4:3. Similarly, for video capture the Desire, Nexus One and Legend offer 800 x 480, 720 x 480 and 640 x 480 resolutions respectively. There's a mixture of color accuracy as well, with the Nexus One performing the best out of the three, whereas the Desire's photos tend to have a colder tint. That said, one thing that they all have in common is the weak filming performance in dark environments -- as with the Legend, you'll see reduced frame rate in videos recorded by the Desire under low light level. This could be HTC's attempt to compensate darkness by extending the exposure time, but we're pretty certain that many would prefer a smoother video.
Like the Legend, you'll also get the Flash Lite plugin on the Desire. As you might've already seen in the video earlier, Flash definitely performs better on the Desire thanks to the faster Snapdragon processor, but there's still a lot of work to be done here. Out of the several sites that we tested with, only the videos on BBC News' website had an acceptable frame rate, so using Flash on the Desire is pretty much a gambling game on the video data rate. (You can see our Flash plug-in hands-on in the first video.) On a similarly annoying level, the Desire lacks voice-to-text input as found on the Nexus One and other "Google experience" phones -- not the end of the world for us but some drivers may miss it.
HTC is excellent at keeping packaging minimal, and the Desire once again comes in a coffin-like box with the standard kit inside. This means a microUSB cable, which plugs into an adaptor to make a wall charger, and the standard headphones which double as a hands-free kit.
Specs:
GENERAL
2G Network : GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network : HSDPA 900 / 2100
Announced : 2010, February
Status : Available. Released 2010, March
SIZE
Dimensions : 119 x 60 x 11.9 mm
Weight : 135 g
DISPLAY
Type : AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size : 480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches
- Multi-touch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Optical trackball
SOUND
Alert types : Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
Speakerphone : Yes
- 3.5 mm audio jack
- Dolby Mobile sound enhancement
MEMORY
Phonebook : Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records : Practically unlimited
Internal : 576 MB RAM; 512 MB ROM
Card slot : microSD (TransFlash) up to 16GB
DATA
GPRS : Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE : Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G : HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
WLAN : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth : Yes v2.1 with A2DP
Infrared port : No
USB : Yes, microUSB v2.0
CAMERA
Primary : 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Video : Yes, D1 (720x480 pixels) @ 30fps
Secondary : No
FEATURES
OS : Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair)
CPU : Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor
Messaging : SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, IM
Browser : HTML
Radio : Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games : Yes
Colors : Black
GPS : Yes, with A-GPS support
Java : Via third party application
- Digital compass
- Dedicated search key
- MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA9 player
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV9/DivX player
- Facebook, Flickr, Twitter applications
- Voice memo
BATTERY
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1400 mAh
Stand-by : Up to 340 h (2G) / Up to 360 h (3G)
Talk time : Up to 6 h 40 min (2G) / Up to 6 h 30 min (3G)
0 comments: