Well, after much discussion (arguments) about which new phones to get, the office has been devided into the i-phone camp and the htc Desire camp – and neither are willing to give on the ‘which is best, i-phone or Desire’ argument! There were a couple of i-phoneists amongst us already, who managed to push the undecided onto the darkside of apple, but for the rest, the new htc desire seemed to be the way to go. The basics are covered fairly equally on both phones – e-mail, browsing, social networking, etc – but which is best, the HTC Desire or the i-phone.
i-phone 3GS vs HTC desire – technical specification
I’ll not bore you with the in-depth numbers for each (because they’re all over the net already), but the HTC takes it on all of the important ones – bigger (and higher resolution) screen, higher resolution camera (with flash), more system memory, faster processor, expandable storage memory (up to 32gb), ability to multitask (run more than one program at once). The physical size and weight, there’s nothing in it and the battery life seems to be much the same either way. So all in all, I’d say a win for the HTC….
i-phone 3GS vs HTC desire – operating system
The i-phone’s been around for a good while now in various versions and the OS (the bit that runs the phone and the bit you interact with to open apps) has been refined but not greatly changed over the years – and to be fair, it works very well. The whole point in an operating system is to let you get at the things you use as easily and quickly as possible, and the apple does this very well. There’s no real difference between the HTC Android (google) operating system and the apple offering, the difference is really in the HTC bit that sits in front of Android – when you use the Desire, you’re not using the Android OS directly, you’re actually using the HTC Sense software. This lets you use possibly the best thing about the Desire – Widgets. With the i-phone, you open an app through an icon on the screen, which then fills the screen – with the Desire, you get the same, but you also have these Widgets that are like little apps that stay open all the time – so your e-mails can fill one screen, your photos another, your music on another, etc, etc and then you’ve got a few screens spare for your apps (which can be neatly organised into folders if you feel the need). The big difference between the two, is the customisation available with the Desire – the i-phone is pretty much just pages of app icons, the desire is whatever you want – apps, widgets or shortcuts, in any combination you choose. All things considered, although maybe not quite as slick as the i-phone in some areas, the Desire gets the thumbs up for having by far the most flexible operating system.
i-phone 3GS vs HTC desire – design
Not really a difficult call this one. The HTC Desire is far from an ugly phone, but it’s fairly un-remarkable – it’s just a nice looking phone. The i-phone, however, ranks as one of the best pieces of design in recent times and really does look as good today as when it was launched a good few years ago. A straight win for the i-phone then.
i-phone 3GS vs HTC desire – apps
The key battle ground for smartphones and pretty much invented by Apple, there are apps for everything and at the minute the i-phone wins by some considerable margin (100,000 or so for the apple vs 30,000is for android) – but the android market is closing in and recent news that apple is no longer supporting adobe developed apps may mean that this will happen sooner rather than later. Another thing to consider, is one drawback of the apple system in that all apps have to be approved by apple themselves, with google android, anyone can put their app on the marketplace and you can even download them direct from your pc to phone – something the i-phone can’t do (officially, at least!!). The result, for the time being, the app store from apple has, by some considerable margin, the greater range of apps, but it is also more tied up than the google effort. A win for the i-phone (just).
i-phone 3GS vs HTC desire – overall
For those that haven’t realised yet, yes, I’ve got the HTC Desire. So I guess I’m coming at this from a slight bias, but having used both the i-phone and Desire, I’d keep the Desire. The customisation means it’s perfect for business use – having the things you need most often open all the time just makes it so quick and easy to use. There’s a whole heap of things that both phones do that we haven’t got time to discuss here, but for me, the only areas where the i-phone wins are on style and apps (for now, at least), everything else, I’d say the Desire is a better choice.
Let us know what you think about the great i-phone versus Desire debate and lets see if we can stop the daily office arguments!!
I did hear that the HTC Hero is a better mobile phone than the iPhone 3GS whenever it came onto the marketplace, so I personally would assume that would also go for the HTC Desire.
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The only problem with android is the fragmentation of all it’s builds. For example, the latest twitter app for android will only run on the latest build, Froyo(2.2). And user are at the mercy of their carriers for updates…and many android phones need different build of the OS creating even more problems. Having said that, google does have some cool features in the pipe for froyo.
I think you’re right Joe – if you look at the bigger ‘android vs i-phone’ battle, there are some things that go against android as an OS, but for me, the big thing is the flexibility of android – it does have limitations on some phones, but I think as it’s developed more it will improve. There will always be people who like the i-phone because it just works very well out of the box, but I think the future is very bright for android (hopefully!!)
Oh yeah, I’m definitely an Android fan..
I only see good things in the future.
Plus, half those people who like the iPhone are just Apple lovers, and will buy anything Apple puts out. As Android gets better and better, people will see it and start switching over.
I bought one of these 3 days ago and love it. I searched all the reviews and comparisons to see what the general opinion was – and then went and had a play with one. I have been reading comparison reviews since (just in case) but its a strong device and holds up well against iphone – screen is fantastic. I bothered to register on here in order to say how pleased i am with it. very intuitive, slick interface pinch and zoom, flash, integrates well with contacts. phone works well and has some neat touches. cheaper than iphone and not locked to app store – i feel its a more open platform. multi tasking works well. battery last a day at the moment but i am using it a fair amount so will see how it goes – and at least i can buy a spare battery for £15 if i want to.
Josh
Hi Josh,
Nice to have another Desire fan commenting, the i-phone mob seem to be strangely quite though……I wonder why!!
HTC Desire is a smartphone that will fulfill all the dreams of its user and I am using it.
The HTC Desire obviously stormed the market, but with the recent iPhone 4 release I can’t help wondering if HTC will be overshadowed again.
Bought a brand-new Desire about a month ago as a business cellphone but am very disappointed , firstly i would have about 900 contacts on my prior XDA and was able to view by company or individual, not so on Desire only by individual which is of no use especially with no search option either. Android 2.2 is intended to have search facility but not different view option launch date seems to differ each time . Battery pretty good approx 18 hrs medium usage. Bluetooth poor, paired with parrott car kit ok for day or so however won’t connect even by unpairing and pairing new, same problem with wireless bluetooth headset……..any ideas
Having spent an eternity reading many of the excellent blog posts about some of the HTC phones, this one included, I can’t help but consider ordering one. My main worry is that i’d miss my current iPhone and it’s design. Obviously HTC make technically superb phones but do you think I should just order a new iPhone 4? Would this be a mistake?