HTC Desire S – my verdict

A little over a week ago I bought the HTC Desire S. It’s my second non-Nokia phone, and my first non-Symbian. Running Android v2.3, it’s very different to what I’m used to.

The phone itself has everything I would expect – a nice 5mp camera, a front facing camera, 3.5mm headphone jack etc. It was the Android OS which really sold it to me, but I was also impressed to discover after purchasing it that it has a multi-touch interface, making zooming in and out a breeze – and personally I feel it’s a much nicer multi-touch interface than what’s found on Apple’s iPhones. On the HTC Desire S there is the added ability to move around (as opposed to being constrained to a fixed point) when zooming in and out, and on mapping software rotation is also attainable. Another feature which I’m very pleased about is that the HTC Desire S has Gorilla Glass – a very tough and scratch resistant glass. HTC Sense is a great feature loaded onto this device – once registered you can call your phone from your computer if you’ve lost it around the house if it’s on silent; as it calls the phone on its loud setting. HTC Sense is also a great feature in case the phone is stolen, as you can delete all data from the phone from a computer or lock the entire phone.

My one gripe with the phone (though I found a solution) was the extremely poor network signal. I later found that by default my phone was put to GSM/WCDMA auto. The 3g WCDMA must have been placed on a constant priority over the 2g GSM, because once I manually set my phone to solely GSM I have had no signal problems whatsoever; I guess 3g signal is poor in the Peterborough area.

I am finding the Android OS to be a much nicer interface than iOS – it’s nice to have a clear separation between widgets and the icon menu; it allows the most frequently used apps to be at the forefront, as opposed to being on a singular layer as in iOS. My one gripe with Android is the poor availability of settings – I still haven’t found out if I can turn off the small vibrate which comes on as I type every individual letter.

Switching to Android was definitely a good move I feel – it’s such a nicer interface than what Symbian have ever brought out. I would recommend Android 2.3 to anyone wanting a smart phone which truly is smart.

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