Rik's Blog

It's been a while...
For some reason I just can't get into blog writing. Am going to push myself to come back once a week and write something even if it's just a pile of crap. That way, maybe I can force a habit to form...

Anyway, back to the main feature.

A while back I posted about my new phone - HTC Hero.
Well it was short lived... I have moved on.
I'm now a proud (definitely ) owner of a HTC Desire.

Main reasons for changing:

• Android 2.1
• AMOLED display
• Increased Resolution of the display
• 1GHz Processor
• Better Camera

I loved the Hero. The main point is connectivity and the integration of everything. I tend not to use IM too much on my work desktop anymore - it's on my phone, why open/close it depending on if I'm going to meetings, etc.. Instead it's on all the time.

So what has improved?

• The browser in the Desire has improved massively. Partly due to the increase in screen resolution, but lots of little things seem to draw better now.
• The contacts integration for facebook is much better. I did have a problem early on with the desire where the contacts manager had linked some google and facebook contacts together, but the wrong way round which meant I kept losing phone info, etc. I unliked and did it the right way round - google as primary and facebook as a link, and it's all sorted.
• The screen - oh the lovely screen. Resolution is massively up. From 320x480 to 480x800 and boy does it make a difference!
• With the 1GHz processor it's hugely more responsive coming out of idle. Still have the odd pause when installing new apps, but now the phne has the compute power to make pretty much most if not all activities integral to my daily life. In my few weeks of ownership, I don't think I've yet to be frustrated waiting on it.
• More on board memory means apps tend to stay resident for much longer, and can quickly swap
• Android 2.1 v Android 1.6. Amazingly the swap isn't as big as I'd hoped. Some tweaks here and there, but generally HTC had done a good job with their Sense UI on the Hero, that the move to Sense UI on 2.1 isn't a huge leap. That said, it is nice to be current It's still a big pity that they don't get 2.1 onto the Hero soon (now pushed to June) which would really show the differences between the two.

And the bad - none yet to mention. I do miss the chin of the Hero which is now on the HTC Legend but I really wanted the 1GHz CPU. Why do I miss it? It's hard to pinpoint but I think that it gave a good reference when putting the phone to your head on a call... I find I have to move the phone around quite a bit to get the speaker properly aligned to my ear.. Never had the issue with the hero. Am sure in a week or 2 that'll disappear.

Overall - the Desire is the Android device I hoped it would be, and that I wanted when I first bought the hero.

P.S. 5 month old HTC Hero for sale (perfect condition )