Android Help: What Phone: HTC Desire, HTC Legend or wait? asks Iphone user
I get quite a lot of people asking for help and advice via my contact androidbloke link above. Instead of just replying by email, I am going to start trying to do a regular post of my answers so that it can help the rest of the Android Army out there. One of our readers Bobby from the “sunny” climbs of Bognor Regis wants to know which phone to go for:
am currently an iPhone 3GS user.
I’ve noticed that that two of the biggest droid phones, namely the Incredible and the EVO 4G have not got any UK release dates (if they ever will). Just wanted to know if that was because they were
specifically built for a US Market.
I have got my eye on the Desire and the Legend. Although I am not sure it is getting the Android 2.2 (Froyo) update. If I knew the Legend was going to get the update then I’d probably go for the Legend.
Although I’ve only mentioned HTC phones, if someone can recommend another Droid phone, that is better suited to what I want, then I’d be all ears.,
Thanks for such a comprehensive question, its a great one to get me going on this new help column.
First of all the easy one. The Evo and incredible are indeed both designed for USA networks, so they probably won’t be hitting the UK market at least unless there is a change in the networks infrastructure to 4G. The good news is that if you have checked out androidbloke.co.uk yesterday morning there are already rumblings of a GSM (ie UK network compatible) version of the phones making their way to our UK Shores.
Its quite understandable that consumers like you are doing their homework before they buy a phone and making sure that the latest iteration of android will becoming to it. I have great news here too. HTC, being one of Android’s main supporters, has announced that HTC Desire, HTC Legend and HTC Wildfire will be getting Android 2.2 Froyo in Q3 2010, which finishes in September. ( officially confirmed to me by HTC in a previously blog post) Obviously there is a slight chance the date may slip a bit, but its definitely on its way. I have been using Android 2.2 on my phone for a while now and its really a great set of additions to android.
Both Desire and Legend are absolutely awesome and you will no doubt have quite a struggle picking between HTC Desire’s awesome speed and large size screen, and HTC Legend’s sheer engineering elegance and zippy handling packed into a great size.
As for the rest of the market there is:
- the Google Nexus One- on which the Desire is based. If you regularly want to have the latest android version, then the nexus is probably the way to go
- The Motorola Milestone ( based on the wonderfully popular Motorola Droid )which is a great multi-touch android device and has a built in keyboard.
- Samsung Galaxy S- Samsung has also released a new Android Device which has probably one of the best screens around and great battery life.
You will find the best thing about owning an Android device is the ability to wirelessly sync with just about anything you could want to sync to, including your Mac calendar. I hope this answers your multitude of questions and feel free to get in touch if you need anything further.
Any other Mac/ former Iphone users, reading this can help Buddy further, feel free to post a comment.
Popularity: 28% [?]
Related posts:
Before you buy any of these handsets, I suggest that you try them out in a shop (although there are advantages to making the actual purchase online since you’ll benefit from the 14 day cooling period, distance selling regulation thingamajig).
I very recently moved back to my old iPhone 3G after returning an HTC Desire to O2 due to the appalling audio quality that I was receiving from the headphone jack (lots of hiss and network interference).
I’m by no means an Apple fanboy, but it has to be said that they make a ruddy good music player!
I simply could not manage without my tunes at work, so although I’m dieing to make the switch to lovely, lovely Android, I won’t be doing so until I can find the hardware that meets my needs.
In other respects the Desire was great – beautiful screen, nice dimensions, etc – and maybe not everybody gets as hung up about audio quality as I do, but I definitely think that it’s worth bearing in mind.
Great point Matt.
You should always try a phone before you get it.
Regards audio quality, I thought the majority of the issue is down to what headphones you use and the bitrate of the music?
@Matt I’ve an HTC desire myself and haven’t had any issues with audio quality or hissing, even when plugging into standalone speakers. Maybe a dodgy jack?
hi Jaymz,
I am half tempted to take the phone into a boze store and then get a head to head!
I just did that…. sorta.
I have a Bose companion 5 speaker system, and when i plug in my htc desire, the music is as clean as you can exspect from a pair of Bose speakers…
@matt.
It may have been a faulty jack on the phone, the headphones, or a bad mp3….