HTC Desire HD

Introduction

Proceed with caution, big Snapdroids ahead. We guess that sign is due wherever someone mentions Desire HD. It’s big and bad and it takes no prisoners. HTC certainly took their time with releasing a bad-ass Android handset on our side of the pond but their timing is perfect now. We’re about to enter the holiday shopping spree and HTC Desire HD is in for the kill.

HTC Desire HD official photos

Powered by the latest Android 2.2 Froyo hand in hand with the latest HTC Sense, the HTC Desire HD is what the HD2 was to HTC Windows Mobile portfolio. With an 8-megapixel camera and HD video it may as well unsettle quite a few of the top smartphones out there. The innovative fast boot, the complete connectivity set and solid multimedia capabilities round off a great package. HTC might just have a natural bestseller on their hands.

You might want to have a closer look:

Previously rumored as HTC Ace

General
2G Network
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network
HSDPA 900 / 2100

HSDPA 850 / 1900 – North America

Announced
2010, September

Status
Available. Released 2010, October

Size
Dimensions
123 x 68 x 11.8 mm

Weight
164 g

Display
Type
LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size
480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 inches

– Gorilla Glass display
– Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
– Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
– HTC Sense UI
– Multi-touch input method

Sound
Alert types
Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones

Loudspeaker
Yes

3.5mm jack
Yes, check quality

– Dolby Mobile and SRS sound enhancement

Memory
Phonebook
Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall

Call records
Practically unlimited

Internal
1.5 GB; 768 MB RAM

Card slot
microSD, up to 32GB, 8GB included, buy memory

Data
GPRS
Class 32

EDGE
Class 32

3G
HSDPA 7.2/14.4 Mbps; HSUPA 2/5.76 Mbps (carrier dependent)

WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth
Yes v2.1 with A2DP

Infrared port
No

USB
Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera
Primary
8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED flash, check quality

Features
Geo-tagging, face detection

Video
Yes, 720p

Secondary
No

Features
OS
Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo), upgradable to v2.3

CPU
1 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon

Messaging
SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM

Browser
HTML

Radio
Stereo FM radio with RDS

Games
Yes

Colors
Black, Brown

GPS
Yes, with A-GPS support

Java
Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

– Digital compass
– Dedicated search key
– Google Search, Maps, Gmail
– YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration
– MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA9 player
– DivX/Xvid/MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV9/player
– Facebook, Twitter applications
– Adobe Flash 10.1
– Voice memo
– Predictive text input

Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1230 mAh

Stand-by
Up to 490 h (2G) / Up to 420 h (3G)

Talk time
Up to 9 h 15 min (2G) / Up to 5 h 30 min (3G)

Key features:

• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 4.3″ 16M-color capacitive LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
• Android OS v2.2 Froyo with HTC Sense UI
• Unibody design
• Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8255 1 GHz processor
• 768 MB RAM and 1.5 GB ROM
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging
• 720p video recording @ 25fps
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• microSD slot up to 32GB (8GB card included)
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Smart dialing, voice dialing
• DivX/XviD video support
• Dolby Mobile and SRS sound enhancement
• HTC Locations app
• HTCSense.com integration
• Ultra-fast boot times (if you don’t remove battery)

Main disadvantages:

• LCD isn’t quite as impressive as Retina or Super AMOLED (lower contrast, more reflective)
• No dedicated camera key and no lens cover
• No front facing camera
• Quite heavy at 164 g (not that we mind)
• The two lids at the rear have questionable aesthetics and usability
• Disappointing audio reproduction quality

But there’s more to it. The HTC Desire HD is a mongrel. It doesn’t even warrant a name of its own. Desire is cheesy and HD is worn-out. And they both are OLD phones’ names. Alright, don’t take it literally. It’s not as simple as saying HTC got themselves a brand new phone out of two older ones. The HTC Desire HD goes beyond the massive screen and powerful hardware that we’ve already seen elsewhere.