whyPhone?

[Sput]

I have heard they will be in t-mobile shops in the near future should you wish to toy with one first. I wonder if O2 will be dumb with pricing again. They don't have any sensibly priced smartphones at the moment from what I can tell.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

Yay at you. Are you enjoying the preposterous wallpaper that ripples when you tap?

Also, I note that some decent 3d games are appearing and this phone handled them well.

Weird finding: it suggests 3some rather than 3d when writing this post

I had a play with them, but settled back with the sense background! My battery is currently suffering from new phone syndrome... too many apps to play with!

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

Do you find your battery life suffers with the live wallpapers? The geek in me wants to do some testing, but that'll have to wait until a day when I'm at work so I don't play too many games.

[Sput]

Not sure, it's not dramatically shorter but my use needs to settle down! I assume that to save power it only animates when the screen is on and it's not running an application.

[scottishtv]

Just laid hands on my HTC desire. Massively better than the hero and incredibly fast. Form factor is lovely too.

I've been waiting for this phone for ages. Well, a Nexus One is what I wanted - but I then held off for this. However, moments away from pre-ordering with Vodafone, I'm now getting cold feet.

Will I be left with my iPhone friends laughing at me because they have all the best apps? or, do you think the (supposed) more widespread appeal of this Android phone will give developers a bit of a kick to get on and make more Android apps? It's so hard to know what's been developed without already having a handset to navigate the market.

I really don't want an iPhone, but I have some lingering doubts that I'm going against the grain for the sheer hell of it. (*casts mind back to buying that MiniDisc player and hi-fi in 2002*).

[Sput]

It's certainly a better phone FOR THE MONEY. App availablity is noticeably better than for my HTC hero (probably because it's android 2.1 rather than 1.5). There aren't as many as for the iPhone but I was pleasantly surprised that a couple of decent 3d games are now available for both phones.

I'm content to trade app availability for something that costs significantly less per month

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

A colleague of mine, who is an iphone fanboi, just had a look at my htc desire and he was genuinely impressed. There are elements of it that he prefered to his iphone. Another colleague who was considering going for an iphone had a look and seemed to realise that it's not a one phone race anymore.

Apps - there are plenty of them, varying in quality. I've managed to find free apps so far that suit my needs - a few games, a GPS tracker and a couple of augmented reality apps, but the desire seems to come with a range of standard apps that work pretty well. The only thing I've not got yet is a decent podcast app.
Tmobile seem to have some of the better deals at the moment too...

[scottishtv]

Thanks for the thoughts. I know T-Mobile are offering good deals but it's really difficult to get a good signal on their network at my flat. I've also been with Vodafone for years, and am fairly happy with the service - which I will try to use to my advantage in a good old-fashioned haggle over the phone. Finger's crossed.

[marksi]

Holding page has appeared on O2's website...

http://www.o2.co.uk/htcdesire

[Gavin Scott]

HTC Desire is in my Vodafone shopping cart. Just waiting for a PAC code from Orange.

I do hope you know I'm going almost exclusively on your positive comments in this thread.

Eeep.

[Sput]

I have yet to be let down by it.

Oh actually only one issue: I can't get the bastard thing to shut down

Anyway you have your distance selling regs and cooling off period don't you!

Also I had a dream last night where I swapped it for an iPhone 3GS and the iPhone was really shit in comparison and I had to beg to get the Desire back. So yes, firm bases for recommending