HTC Desire, two months on

[abortrephrase]

I've had the Desire for just on two months now, so it's a reasonable time to reflect on the choice.

I was really happy. And then a software update was silently applied -- or at least I think that's what happened -- and now FriendStream is completely broken and the ActiveSync stuff is behaving weirdly too. Nothing changed on the OMA server, and all the non-Desire clients are working just fine (a colleague with a Desire is having the same problem), so either it's the software from HTC/Google or it's something in the Telstra network.

The browser also started behaving annoyingly, with pinch-zoom broken and replaced by cut-and-paste. Power cycling the phone as per recommendations on random forum threads discussing the FriendStream thing seems to have sorted that, at least.

I am perhaps more productive with FriendStream dead, as the Facebook app uses a font too small for me to read and thus I look at that much less often.

All this aside, and assuming I can get it satisfactorily resolved...

The phone itself remains really good. I am particularly liking Swype. I got into the beta programme when they opened it up, doesn't seem to be available standalone any more.

It's a replacement input method. Presents an on-screen keyboard, which can be used in the usual way, but which has an alternate trick: put your finger on the first letter of the word you want, "swipe" it over the keyboard so you cross each of the letters in the word, and it'll figure out what word you wanted. It does reasonably well and is faster than the usual approach once you're used to it.

My biggest gripe with the phone is the input method stuff. What I want is for applications to remember which input method was last used with that application, but it seems to be a system-wide setting. This is particularly frustrating with the PIN-lock system, because what one really wants is a numeric keypad, not a QWERTY keyboard.

Would I make the same choice of phone today? Probably. The iPhone 4 doesn't seem to have worked out so well, it looks like the Desire will be getting the next stable CyanogenMod release, as well as an official Froyo build, and it's now available on a $59/month contract. I might be tempted by the Samsung Galaxy S if Samsung didn't have such a bad reputation for software updates and it wasn't going to be on a shoddy network, and if I had a lower budget I might hold out for the HTC Wildfire next month. But otherwise, pretty happy with the Android choice

Comments

[tangent_woman]

I went in to a Telstra shop I was passing today, planning to pick up a HTC Desire on the el-cheapo plan, but they were out of stock. *Poot*.

I just checked the Telstra website and cannot see that phone listed for that plan any more, so my scheme to pick one up in a nearby city "before too long" has become a little more urgent. I'll be calling around the nearer Telstra shops tomorrow, and if none are to be had within striking distance, I will go back to that shop (I have to return something in that shopping complex anyway. Damn cheap electronic junk!) and order one before the deal expires.

[ideological_cuddle]

Hm, yes, that's weird. The online store has them listed as out of stock and not available on any plan at the moment. Suggests they're about to rejigger things, I guess. Maybe the Telstra-exclusive is coming to an end?

I know they're releasing the Wildfire next month, supposedly pretty similar phone, lower-res display and slower CPU but otherwise similar.

[ideological_cuddle]

Hrm, even weirder, the basic Android bit of the Telstra site (here) talks about the Desire on a $49 plan.

I am a little amused to think that a $59/month phone plan now seems like it's cheap.

[tangent_woman]

Yes, I'm in a hurry all of a sudden because I smell an overshoot-pullback thingo going on. I see it when tech is developing, prices are dropping, vendors and falling over each other to be the first with the newest at a lower price than the competition, then, whether it is because the market has struck some balance or what, everyone stops except one or two who overshoot, offering a superior product at a better price. They usually look around in bewilderment while they fulfill as little of the deal they advertised as they think they can get away with, then re-jig, as you say, their offerings.

Now checking ebay, just out of curiousity. Say, do you know if there is a substantial difference between the 8183 (might be a8183) and the 8181?

[tangent_woman]

Oh, also my confidence in the product, already high because of your satisfaction with it, increased still further when a couple of Telstra employees were geeking out over theirs last weekend. They do get a discount, but they get a good deal on the other Teltra offerings, too, and chose the HTC Desire.

[ideological_cuddle]

I'm pretty sure the A8181 is the 900/2100 3G version, while the A8183 is the 850/2100 3G.

If you want to use it on Telstra then you want the A8183. The other will work, but only for GSM and data on 2100, and 850 is what Telstra market as "NextG" -- it has the superior coverage.

If you're looking to pay outright rather than on contract the guys I bought mine from claim to still have them in stock here.

[ideological_cuddle]

Yeah, it's a really nice phone. The Google people I've met did quite a bit of geeking-out over the N1 when that was released, and they're pretty similar devices.

[tangent_woman]

Thank you for that. I've done a bit of poking at the assorted phone offerings, but have been settled on the HTC Desire on the $49 plan since you first pointed it out to me and have just been waiting to be in handy proximity to one with my ID so I could sign up.

Some of the hesitation is no doubt due to me waiting to see whether I am comfortable with having a phone on a plan. I've not done that before and have to keep duct-taping Admiral Ackbar's mouth shut so I can contemplate the whole phone contract thing calmly. Well, that and not realising that there might be an availability issue.

I could just buy an HTC outright (they're about $600 on ebAy), but at this point I have other ways to spend that money that feel more necessary, and I'd probably end up compromising and getting a cheaper brand of phone. So I'll endeavour to get an HTC Desire on the plan Telstra are advertising and find out what it's like to have a phone on a plan. *shrug*

[ideological_cuddle]

Yeah, fair enough. Mostly it's just a case of reading the plan details really carefully. As long as you expect to be happy with the phone for the next two years you're fine, but obviously if something goes wrong you can wind up screwed, stuck with the contract and no phone.

I'm not sure what you get for that $49 cap though. Emphasis on the "reading the plan details really carefully".

I used contract phones for years. Most people seem happy with them. These days I buy outright when I want a new phone then use it on prepay.