back to article An HTC named Desire. OK, two HTCs...

The Android phones are tumbling out thick and fast from HTC. The Taiwanese handset powerhouse is launching two phones today, the multimedia-tastic HTC Desire HD and a phone for Suits, the HTC Desire Z. Also it is touting software enhancements, branded under HTC Sense, which will help people monkey around with the pics and vids …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    I love HTC

    Damn these phones look good - I was set on the Desire HD, but the Z looks sweet too with the proper keyboard.

    I've been using the Hero since it was launched and while the keyboard is OK it can be really annoying - probably in part because of the small(ish) screen size.

    Roll on October, death the the iPhone.

  2. Rob
    Unhappy

    Damn my contract...

    ... gotta wait till January to upgrade to the Desire Z :(

  3. Mr Brush
    Thumb Up

    Very Nice

    I had hoped that HTC might jump to the dual core 1.5 Ghz Snapdragon, but I guess they're saving that for next year.

    It may just be the photo, but does the HD lack a trackpad?

    1. David Gosnell

      No trackpad

      Looks that way. CNET's Crave column has a detailed photo.

      http://www.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/mobiles/htcdesirehdnew.jpg

    2. Jim 15

      Trackpad

      Didn't I see it rumoured somewhere that the trackpad is optical, rather than a button?

  4. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Friend of the Commies?

    HTC are Taiwanese, not Chinese. There is a slight difference.

    As for the phones. I drew a mock up of what a device with a 4.3" screen would look like in terms of footprint and it was huge.

    There's plenty of people who think an iPhone is too big. A HTC Desire HD will be un-pocketable for some,

    Also, I feel sorry for all the Desire owners. As is typical for HTC your phone is now obsolete and won't get any big updates.

    1. Neoc
      Stop

      Not true

      I have a HTC Touch HD with a 10cm screen and it fits neatly in my pockets with room to spare. I don't think an extra 0.5cm on the diagonal is going to make much difference.

  5. KidCosmique
    Thumb Up

    HTC = WIN

    I so cannot wait for the Desire HD.

    The Z is pretty neat too, my friend is a fan on QWERTY keyboard so he's getting this one instead.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Chinese, not Chinese

    While you are technically correct in referring to HTC as a Chinese company, they are based in the Republic of China which is nowadays commonly refered to as Taiwan. With all the knockoffs coming from the People's Republic of China (that's the big country to the north west of the Island of Taiwan) I'm sure HTC would want you to make that distinction.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Chinese, not Chinese

      Point taken. Story updated.

    2. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

      Chinese, not Chinese

      @AC

      I can't say this about HTC for sure, as I've not looked at the company or the phones in detail but the fact is, quite a few Taiwanese hi-tech companies have factories on Mainland China.

      I know for a fact that my Asuses (Asii?) are ALL made in China. If I were a betting man, I would say fair chance of the same with HTC. Check that out and correct me if I am wrong.

      I do believe that though there has not been a formal 'end' to the war, there is very little animosity left really between the 2 countries except perhaps at the level of politicians.

      So... what is the real difference then?

      1. DrunkenMessiah

        Regardless

        Regardless of whether the factory is in China, Thailand or Bermuda HTC is still a Taiwanese company.

        The difference? It's a different country. Not sure what you mean by that tbh.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I hope they've improved the battery life on them!

    I hope they've improved the battery life on them!

  8. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

    DESIRE

    I am a quite happy owner of the original HTC Desire. These look like worthy sucessors. Continue kicking ass, HTC.

  9. Andrew Garrard
    Unhappy

    Getting me all excited

    A bit of googling suggests that the display will be an AMOLED rather than an LCD, which suggests the PenTile sub-pixel arrangement that I'd rather avoid (as seen on the original Desire). If it *is* an LCD, with a conventional triple-stripe layout, I might be tempted. If anyone has confirmation I'd like to hear it.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      @Andrew Garrard

      The "original HTC Desire" came in two flavours: LCD for Canada and AMOLED for the rest of the world. This was because Canada got them later, and byt hat time Samsung was having trouble producing the screens. The LCD screens SUCK at low-light (flickering) and aren't as bright as the AMOLEDs. On the other hand, the LCDs get better battery life.

      Personally, I'm liking my LCD Desire.

  10. mr vit
    IT Angle

    cheaper deals?

    will this push down the Desire HTC (non-HD) prices?

  11. Patrick O'Reilly

    Desire an update?

    The Desire (v1.0 for want of a better word) should still get updates relatively frequently, or at least custom roms should be easy to backport. The reason... the chip architecture hasn't changed much, the reason us Hero users got left behind was because HTC's flagship models moved from ARM6 to ARM7. The Wildfire and Legend still use ARM6 so should keep Hero hopes alive for a while but for the Desire ARM7 should be around for a year or two.

  12. John 118
    FAIL

    Consistancy again lacking

    When are HTC going to realize that releasing so, so many handsets in such a short amount of time will be their downfall. How on earth do app developers maintain a standard when their are so many screen resolutions and other hardware performance factors to cater for. Everybody (non-iPhone owners I'd add) complain about being locked into the iPhone walled garden, but you know what? It's a flipping HUGE garden to play in. No I am not being a fan boy, but iPhone are winning the hearts of the application devs because they know they can write code for a particular hardware and it will work, and work beautifully. NOT so with Andriod (I won't even visit MS in this discussion) - because Andriod devs, don;t know what they are writing for from one month to the next. HTC - STOP flooding the market with new models every 3 weeks. Fail in the long run.

    1. fandom
      Thumb Down

      Not really

      Even if HTC were to agree with you and started releasing one phone a year, other manufactures would be releasing Android phones with different specs, so HTC would be losing market share in exchange for nothing.

      And developers will cope those problems as long as the money is there, they will complain on online forums about how hard it is, but they will do it.

    2. joe K 1
      Badgers

      There's something consistent about inconsistency

      I'm from the optical telecoms field, so no expert on the specifics here, but surely at some point it does not matter what hardware configuration is present on the target device - as long as some minimum specs are met software should be able to adapt and run. I see why this was a problem with phones in the past, and possibly now, given their moderatecomputing power, but surely phones will eventually go the way PCs went - with millions of possible device configurations all running the same software successfully. And that is what consumers want - few people want to have the same handset 3 years running, or have to wait 18 months to get a newer version from their favourite manufacturer.

  13. Jon Massey
    WTF?

    @Giles Jones

    No updates? So they never pushed out a 2.1 update for my Hero from 1.5, or did I just imagine that. Or any updates to the Dream, for that matter...

  14. HFoster

    Yum

    I want the Desire HD.

    Am I correct in assuming that it's similar hardware to the HTC HD2? Sexy looking bit of kit, that.

    Nice one, HTC!

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ah well ...

    I guess my Desire is still as good as it was before I read this, but still .......

    If they're releasing a business-focused one I hope they've sorted out the glitches with the built-in mail client. Exchange activesync has always been a bit flaky on the original Desire and although it's easily fixed by installing Touchdown, arguing with the FD about why we're having to spend another $20 per handset to get a stable solution isn't the best start to rolling out new handsets across the organisation.

  16. Lloyd
    Thumb Up

    NIce

    Now to get out of my existing Voda contract via a change in their T&C's removing my Fair usage policy and to get a new contract.

  17. James Dunmore
    Go

    Keyboard = win

    Got an HTC Magic - touch screen keyboard is great, most of the time, but when you want to write a large email, or text, can't beat proper keys - in fact, most people in the office here have a blackberry and an iPhone because they can't beat using a blackberry for long emails.... will be good to see if the desire takes some of the business usage.

    The HD looks a bit too bulky for the pocket though (mind you, so does the samsung galaxy S)

  18. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Do you suppose..;..

    ....that the basic Bluetooth stuff, like handsfree profile, phonebook access profile, will actually work properly on these phones? It certainly doesn't on my Hero with Android 2.1, or the missus' Desire on Android 2.2.

    Do HTC actually bother to test it with a broad range of other Bluetooth enabled products? It doesn't look like they do to me.

    I don't mind all the super dooper new clever stuff, but please make the basic stuff work right!

  19. MattWPBS

    Check out the boot time...

    Second video on here. Nuts.

    http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/15/htc-desire-z-hands-on/

  20. uhuznaa

    Ahhhh

    I knew it. Larger screens, smaller batteries (since they really don't want to make the thing thicker)... That's the kind of "innovation" you just have to expect from those guys.

    I'm still waiting for the HTC Giga with an 14" screen, four cameras, three USB ports and a battery life of 2 hours.

  21. DEAD4EVER

    htc desire hd

    i am going to get an android phone simalarlike the hd if its around the 4inch mark or maybe 4.3 inch screen size and has big memory il get one forget apple

  22. JaitcH
    Pint

    The HD has an aluminium "unibody"

    Might just be tough enough for my use - looks like the unibody does what it's supposed to do, protect the goodies inside, as opposed to being just a piece of bling which kills the phone when gripped.

    The other good thing about HTC is the fact they bring out totally different form factors rather than tweaking the same old tired box as some competitors do.

  23. leona 2
    Thumb Up

    Desire Z

    Been seeing details about this for ages, on different sites, strangely NOT this one, hummm.

    Anyway, looks good, its about time HTC bought out another keyboard phone, its been a while since the HTC G1/Dream, what has taken them so long? Anyway I hope 'The Reg' can get their hands on one and give it a good review. I need a phone with a hardware keyboard, and there has been a real lack of these till late, now we are spoilt for choice, the Moto Milestone 2, Nokia E7 and now this, lets find out which is best :)

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Boot time

    There's been some discussion of the boot time on XDA - most people think it's using some kind of suspend to ram - i.e. it's not really booting from cold. So that MIGHT mean a quick boot, but at the cost of battery life...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re:Re: Boot time

      Only a Battery cost if you are assuming that its volatile Ram not Flash!

  25. ChrisF18

    Android 3 ready?

    If the Desire HD were touted as 'Android 3 ready' (maybe even with a promise to release the update within 6 months of Google bringing it out), that would really put my mind at rest.

  26. Adam Slim

    Meh

    Having previously had an XDA, XDA2, Xda Exec and Touch HD, I'm quite happy with my iPhone 4 thanks.

  27. Clive Galway
    Unhappy

    "Full QWERTY" Desire Z

    No it isn't.

    It's 4-row, not 5 (ie no seperate number row).

    Still waiting for a replacement for my Touch Pro in this respect :(

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