HTC Desire

Review of HTC A8181 Desire:

Display:

HTC A8181 Desire is equipped with a 3.7-inch AMOLED matrix with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. The picture quality of the Multitouch display is decent, the colours are bright, and the viewing angles are wide.

Desktop:

There are seven desktops in Desire. Flipping them is carried out both directly on the screen and miniature "touchpad" of the joystick. There is also a choice of custom desktops from 6 variations, as well as creating your own with the ability to save. Personalization does not differ from that in the classic shell of the operating system - both static and animated wallpapers and various widgets are available, not counting the ability to add programme shortcuts.

Contacts:

The contacts application with an unlimited number of subscribers offers to add the following entry fields:

• Name
• 8 types of phone numbers: Mobile, Home, Work, Work Fax, Home Fax, Pager, Other, Special
• 4 types of email address: home, work, other, special
• 5 groups: vip, friends, favorites, family, colleagues
• Events: birthday, anniversary, other

As well as other information - several phones, emails, chat data, postal addresses, events, and more. It is possible to install or replace the address book using the -Android Market service.

Communications:

The communicator is designed to work in networks GSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA/HSDPA 900/2100, from communications there is support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, GPRS/EDGE and MicroUSB port.

The Wi-Fi module works stably, quickly finds available networks, allows you to add them manually and remembers previously connected ones.

Bluetooth supports the A2DP protocol and keeps communication with wireless headphones stable, files are also transferred without problems.

For ease of activation of wireless modules, you can add a widget to one of the desktops, which can activate / deactivate wireless modules with one click.

GPS:

For GPS, Google map version 4.1.1 is installed in the basic configuration. The device downloads a map of the current location from the Internet. The first launch will be marked by information about innovations in the current version, after which the communicator goes online without prior request.

The settings are familiar to most users of this application:

• Layers: traffic, satellite, locator
• Calculation of the route according to the given start and end points (with indication of the vehicle).
• Search.
• Locator.
• My current location.

It is possible to install maps using the Android Market service

Camera:

HTC A8181 Desire is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera with a resolution of 2560x1920 pixels. The camera has autofocus, face recognition, built-in flash. Photos are tied to the place of shooting (geo-tagging). It is possible to disable this feature. The location of the keys transparently hints that shooting is supposed to be done in a horizontal position, which is very convenient with the current dimensions and shape of the case.

Access to the settings is opened by pressing the menu key or by pulling out an additional field on the left side of the screen. Among them:

• Mode: photo or video;
• Brightness: -3 to +3;
• Image properties: contrast, saturation, sharpness;
• Effect: None, Greyscale, Sepia, Negative, Solarium, Posterize, Cyan.
• White Balance: Auto, Incandescent, Daylight, Fluorescent, Cloudy;
• ISO: auto, 100, 200, 400, 800;
• Resolution: 2592x1552, 2048x1216, 1280x768, 640x384;
• Format: 4:3 or 5:3;
• Location of storage;
• Photo quality: maximum, good, normal;
• Self-timer: off, 2 or 10 seconds;
• Geotag;
• Metering mode: spot, central or integral;
• Review after shooting: no review, 5 or 10 seconds, unlimited;
• Flicker control: auto, 50 or 60 Hz;
• Autofocus;
• Face recognition;
• Shutter sound;
• Time stamp;
• Net;
• Factory settings;

HTC A8181 Desire can shoot 720p high-definition video.

Multimedia:

The music player is a library divided into artists, albums, playlists, songs, genres and purchased content. The application interface is in the centre of the cover of the currently playing composition, under which there is a title, a status bar with the current and remaining time until the end of the track, data from tags, as well as virtual control keys at the bottom of the display. Scrolling through songs is possible both by changing covers and by virtual keys. It is possible to install another player using the Android Market service. HTC A8181 Desire has a built-in FM radio. At the first start, it will ask you to connect a headset that acts as an antenna and scan the FM band for radio stations. Additional receiver functions are mute, mono mode, external speaker (but this does not exclude antenna headsets) and station storage. A voice recorder, similar in appearance to a radio receiver, also belongs to the multimedia functions. This time, the top illuminated part is occupied by the time counter, and the keys at the bottom of the display are responsible for recording, playback, file transfer and access to the list of records. Additionally, you can record a call.

Included applications:

• Facebook - access to a popular social network;
• Footprints - service for compiling visual notes;
• Friend Stream - access to popular social networks in one application;
• Google Talk - messenger from Google;
• PDF Viewer - viewer of corresponding files;
• Peep is a Twitter client with an intuitive interface, access to geotags and direct photo posting;
• Quickoffice - an application for working with office documents;
• Teeter is a famous NTS game that uses the accelerometer feature;
• YouTube - access to a popular video service with full functionality;
• Stocks - rates and dynamics of stocks, with the ability to display on one of the main screens;
• Market - Android Market, the main content provider for the platform with a user-friendly interface;
• News - RSS reader with the ability to display data on one of the main screens;
• Weather - weather informer;

Pros and cons of HTC Desire:

Pros:

• Excellent design and workmanship.
• Ergonomics
• The ring tone becomes quieter as soon as you pick up HTC Desire, and if you turn it upside down, the ring will stop
• AMOLED display
• Intuitive Interface
• All means of communication
• 5-megapixel camera
• Ability to install numerous programs using the Android Market service

Minuses:

• Small battery capacity (1400mAh)
• Camera without image stabilization
• Unable to install apps on SD card
• Small internal memory - 512 MB

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