HTC Desire - people call it the iPhone Killer, but are they right?

There have been many mobile phone operating systems over the years, and many platforms have been used to power smartphones. One of the most powerful, and one which is currently taking the mobile world by storm, is Android. The Android OS, from Google, has created a vibrant ecosystem for itself and proved to be a serious threat to incumbent rivals such as Symbian and Windows Mobile. Around the start of 2010, the Android OS was finally used in what many have called the Google phone, as it is the first phone to be directly marketed by Google itself.

It is, of course, the Nexus One, but as many people know, the Nexus One is not built by Google themselves. Instead, it is built by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC.

As many people also now know, HTC has its own phone out, which is very much the sister phone of the Nexus One. In fact, except for a couple of changes, it is essentially the same phone. Its name is the HTC Desire, and it is getting rave reviews from pretty much everyone who uses it, with some people even calling it the first true iPhone Killer (notably, some of the people saying that are confirmed fans of Apple hardware). But is that the case? Is it really as good as people say?

The first thing mentioned in most mobile phone reviews is the hardware, and with the HTC Desire, the hardware is of a particularly high standard. Of particular note is the 3.7 inch AMOLED screen, as the AMOLED technology used allows the HTC Desire to display richer colours and true blacks on the screen. It is with the hardware that the first difference with the Nexus one can be found. With the Nexus One, the user has a small trackball below the screen, which can be used to scroll through screens and menus. On the HTC Desire, this trackball is replaced by a touchpad, improving the look of the phone without sacrificing any accuracy when controlling the cursor.

With regard to other hardware, the HTC Desire is functionally the same as the Nexus One, with a 1 GHz processor, five-megapixel camera, and integrated GPS.

In terms of software, the HTC Desire also uses the same version of Android as the Nexus One, version 2.1. However, with the HTC Desire, there is a crucial difference, in that it also uses the HTC Sense interface on top of the core Android operating system. This immediately improves the usability of the HTC Desire, because while the standard Android interface is good, the HTC Sense interface is far superior, giving the user slightly more functionality, while being better designed, better looking, and slightly easier to use.

There is, really, only one potential downside to the HTC Desire, in that, because it is so powerful, it is an expensive mobile phone. This is mitigated in the initial purchase by network subsidies, but if you ever need to replace it, it would be expensive. As such, mobile phone insurance would be a very smart purchase.

Finally, there is the question posed at the start of this article: is the HTC Desire really a true iPhone Killer? Well, it is considerably more powerful than the iPhone, and its Sense interface is at least as easy to use as the one found in the iPhone. The HTC Desire also has a better camera, and its own app store, allowing the user to add custom software. Based on that, it is hard to deny that it may well be the first genuine threat the iPhone has ever seen.

Time will tell, but the HTC Desire has every chance in the world of beating Apple.