New Android user + HTC desire question

B

boogerbro

New member
Hi guys, I am new to this place.

I am an iPhone user and have been using it for more than an year.
I am kind of bored with the UI for the iPhone OS and I wish to switch to some other phone.

What is so good about Android that I should be buying it? I have seen some stuff on youtube and it really does appeal to me but I wish to come across an honest opinion from a regular user.

What is the app store like and how professional/good are the applications?

What are the exclusive features which a user won't find in an iPhone?

Talking about the phone now, which phone should I prefer?
I'm in the UK and Google Nexus One is still not available.

Is HTC desire a suitable choice?
I'll check out the other forums for other info.

Thanks guys
Regards

Kartik Thapar
 
From the UK here too. The HTC Desire is the best phone available in the UK right now. For use in the UK, the Desire is even better than the N1, and arguably is anyway (they're pretty equal). I did a comparison of the HTC Desire versus the iPhone 3GS on my blog here if you want to see how it compares to your existing phone: http://extorian.co.uk/blog/?p=101

I searched for a few threads on here that are from people like yourself, check them out as I believe they will help give you the information you're looking for...

http://rabroad.com/forums/f7/why-android-33565/

http://rabroad.com/forums/f7/why-android-the-answer-33667/

http://rabroad.com/forums/f7/iphone-user-thinking-about-going-android-33931/

http://rabroad.com/forums/f7/iphone-apps-vs-android-apps-33885/

Interestingly, the above threads are all quite recent. It seems people are moving from iPhone to the Android in droves. With that in mind, you might find the graph on another of my blog posts interesting. It shows how Android is becoming the preferred choice for people buying new phones, where most other OSes, including the iPhone, is dropping: http://extorian.co.uk/blog/?p=31
 
I was in a similar situation (except - I have not previously had an iphone). My current phone is a 10 year old Sony Ericson - no where near a smart phone and has a battery falling out of it.

I took a look at the iphone, but my principles swayed me away from it. Closed platform, closed store, and not as tweak able as android.

I like you took a look at the N1 and the Desire. I went with the Desire, few reasons:

Hardware buttons: I like hardware buttons - more responsive. My friend has a Moto Milestone (EU Droid i think) and the bottons seem slow at times.
Sense UI: I kinda like it on first impressions, not actually ran it. I read somewhere that you could disable it if you didn't want it. Which makes it a choice.
No trackball.

I think there is very little inbetween them. Also it was easier to get the Desire here in the UK that it was the N1, though I don't think its too difficult to get the N1 anyway.
 
For once I was confused what N1 really was but I'm pretty sure it has been referred to as Nexus One if I'm not wrong.
Thanks a lot. That is a load of information in your post and I'll definitely check that out.
Thanks again.



Yes, that is one of the several reasons I won't be holding myself for the Nexus One.
How do you find HTC desire?

I have used an HTC before and the device wasn't that good. So is the hardware reliable and what is the HTC sense UI that has been referred in many tutorials and reviews?

Thanks a lot.
 
Also bear in mind you can turn SenseUI off if you don't like it. So you get the choice of two UIs with the Desire.

I agree about the hardware buttons. Many people have complained about the N1's touch-screen buttons at the bottom of the screen. My G1's screen is un-sensitive around the edges too.

No trackball... so no notification light in it... but the Desire does have an optical trackball which is supposedly the way forward for trackballs.

The Desire has better band coverage for Europe, especially for 3G.

You don't get noise cancellation with the Desire, but if you've never had a phone with it before you won't miss it.

OS updates may be slower with the Desire too, as it seems to take HTC a while to upgrade SenseUI along with the OS.

Which network are you thinking of getting the Desire on? I noticed on T-Mobile you can get a Desire for free on a 2 year ?35/m contract, or ?10/m for ?160ish 2 years, or ?15/m ?160ish for 18m.
 
No worries at all.

My contract with O2 runs off on the 27th of July. I know I'm kind of hurrying it up but I may buy the phone before my contract runs off.

I'm planning to get the phone from Vodafone. I don't have a bad experience with O2 but the call drops have always been there and I don't know whether it was O2 or O2+iPhone. I think I'm gonna leave O2 and go for Vodafone.

Btw, I don't trust T-Mobile.
 
I've only ever used a T-Mobile G1, which is an HTC Dream. It's lasted very well and been very reliable. That's just me though. I know of people who have had problems, but the same applies to every model of phone by every manufacturer.

The SenseUI is.... well.... see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Htc_sense

In short, HTC looked at the way people actually use their phone, and created a user interface (UI) based on that research. The idea is it looks prettier, and you can find and select the stuff you want quicker. It adds some eye-candy, such as their own widgets that look very pretty. All of this is optional of course.

One of the main features is the "Friend Stream", which combines "updates" from a variety of sources (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr) and shows you them in a pretty stream of messages. This allows you to see all your social networking in one place. Again, all this is optional.

SenseUI is also known as HTC Sense, and can also be found on Windows Mobile phones. One minor advantage here is that if you later decide you want a WinMo phone, or want to come from a WinMo phone to Android, you will be familiar with the interface.

Some people don't like SenseUI and prefer the normal Android interface (which is also pretty good). It's possible to turn it off by killing the process and telling your phone to use the normal Android Home process instead. There's some threads on here about how to do that.

Hey - here's a question... how do you turn SenseUI back on?
 
Oh! I get it now.
Just a small query here. With optional, do you mean it's in the software or do I have to download/purchase it seperately or is it a simple tweak in the settings?
Btw it looks really cool and that is all the point I need to drop the iPhone. I don't do much with it.
It's just iCal+Mail+Contacts+Phone+Messages+Utility Apps.
Thats all
 
I've never used Vodafone. I only have experience with the other main three (O2, T-Mobile, Orange). O2 were just plain terrible. T-Mobile have never let me down once in 15 years (I was with them back when they were One2One). Orange are OK too. Of course, Orange and T-Mobile have merged now...

Vodafone... I've never used them because they always seem much more expensive than all the other three for what you actually get.

How come you don't trust T-Mobile?
 
Well, TBH, I have never used T-Mobile but some of my friends who use the service, say that it's not that good and the coverage is not up to the mark.
Also, 3G from T-mobile is not as efficient as that from O2/Vodafone.

Also, I'm getting similar deals on VF as well.
?35(excl VAT) for 750min, 250 texts, Unlim. Internet and Wifi and Unlim. Landline. (With VAT, its around ?40)

What do you say?
 
If you're talking about SenseUI, I understand the way to turn it off (this is from memory, so might be wrong) is to go into Menu -> Programs -> Manage programs -> HTC Sense -> Clear defaults (not sure if you need to do this or not), Force stop (you do need to do this) -> OK... then Android will realise your current Desktop app has died, and will bring up the option to use any of the available Home apps. In this case, it will be the default Android Home app called Launcher, or HTC Sense.
 
Hey man, i'll see if I can help out. I've been wanting to go Android from the very start but have been waiting for the hardware to get to the level where I wanted it to be before ditching my crappy old phone...around now :P

The app store is pretty good, as with any app store there's a mix of great professional apps with a load of other crap. I'll be honest, I was expecting the percentage of good apps to be a little bit higher but there's still plenty, although saying that i've only looked at the free ones so far so I expect that percentage will be a lot higher for the paid apps.

Multitasking is a real blessing which the iPhone doesn't have yet (*pending OS4 and even then it'll still be a bit gimped compared).
The widgets are good as well, offering quick access to info without having to open any apps. What I really like are the apps that put stuff in the status bar for easy access while you're in any other app so you don't have to either go to the home screen to find its widget or launch the app. I've got 1 that tracks my 3G data usage against my monthly allowance and I can see exactly how much i've used in less than a second. It shows an icon in the status bar that's colour coded to show when i'm getting close to my limit and if I drag the status bar down - doesn't even have to be all the way down, just 1cm or 2 - it shows exactly how much i've used and the percentage. Also have another that provides quick access to the most common used settings (turn on Wifi, ring volume, notification volume etc).

I like dbell went for the Desire over the N1 for the hardware buttons and Sense. Got it on Orange last Friday. They're currently the most powerful Android phones available but I guess that comes at a price, I have to charge my Desire daily which is the only bad thing i've found so far about it. Great thing about sense and its friends stream is I pretty much had to do nothing to get all my contact details (phone numbers etc), it pulled it all from the friends stream. Also comes with 18 widgets installed (3 more available to download) and expands the default number of home screens to 7 and gives a nice screen switcher through pinching on the home screen.
 
Sorry, just for clarification, have not yet actually received the phone - its in shipping at the moment. If you want I can update this thread once I have received it.
 
You said it - "the most powerful". To be fair, you're using a device that has the power of a typical laptop from just a few years ago, only it is also sat listening for phone calls and text messages 24/7. How long do laptop batteries last? An hour or two? How much bigger are laptop batteries than your phone battery?

I'm not saying battery life is a problem, but charging it once a day when you go to bed isn't a hassle, and given what it does I think it's truly amazing any smartphone or superphone battery even lasts a day.
 
Oh! I see from all the comments that this phone is awesome and so is android. There is another phone that is coming to the market, HTC incredible. I think, most of you guys have probably heard about it.
The point is that by the time my contract runs out, I'll be able to get hold of it.

As for HTC desire, if the battery is an issue, then I'll have to go over it again.

I need a phone with which I can do sms, calls, internet & email(only) throughout the day without a recharge. If that is what this phone offers, I'm all up for it. I think HTC desire+Android makes it a perfect deal.

@dbell: I would be pleased to know your comments sooner or later.
 
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