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Android handsets in the UK, any up coming or do I go with the Desire?

B

batfastad

Newbie
Hello everyone

I'm really in need of a new phone. My SE P1i is getting pretty old now... it's done well but time for change.

I'm on O2 in the UK and the HTC Desire looks like the best choice but I'm really disappointed it's only dual band.
I don't use my phone abroad a huge amount but it will be annoying having to take a different device when I head out to the US in a couple of months and then to Singapore/Hong Kong later in the year.

1) Is there anything on the Android horizon from HTC which is tri/quad band?
I'm prepared to wait up to 4 months for a new phone if there's something awesome round the corner.

I also have some general questions about the Android platform...

2) Are updates provided to your handset directly from the Android code repos?
Or is it the same old problem of waiting for your handset manufacturer, or even worse your network operator, to release updated soft/firmware?

3) How frequently would I get updates if I owned an HTC Desire?
If a bug was fixed in the Android bug list then how long does it take to trickle down to the end-user?

4) What does rooting the handset mean?
Do you not already have full root access to Android devices when you buy? One thing that really annoys me about phones is all the operator-specific customisation that gets shoved on there, I normally remove all that straight away.
But the other thing is that generally the manufacturer decides that I have to store documents/pictures/music in their pre-defined directories. So it's nice to have access to system files to be able to change things like that.

Cheers, B
 
1. Not that im aware, i havent seen any rumbling of anything bar the Nexus one, which is so close to the desire its not really worth waiting.

2. They do have the age old problem of waiting for handset manufacturer, in the case HTC, however since the Desire runs 2.1 it remains to be seen how long the 2.2 update takes to come.

3. Havent found any bugs to be fixed to be honest.

4. There is still some functionality locked off however it is really for maximum customization and one or 2 apps, personally i havent found myself limited and feeling like i need to root. (the main reason to root, saving apps to SD card, is coming in 2.2 so take that into the account)

I got my Desire on T mobile and appart from the colour of the plastic frame round the screen, a muted purple/grey tone (very minor), and a t-mobile splash screen on power up (even more minor). Other than that in day to day usage i wouldnt even know what network i was on. There wernt any apps/software installed that were from the network. There is obviously stuff from HTC like the Sense UI and several HTC versions of Android apps, however u still have the Android ones but in my experience the HTC ones were much nicer.

As far as im aware the desire stores everything in the same place no matter the network and an app called Astro file manager allows you to view the files on the phone as they are on the PC so its easy to find/move/customise where you files are stored.

Hope that helps =)
 
Great information. Thanks for that :D
Shame about the tri/quad band thing though. I'll probably go with the HTC Desire as it looks like a great bit of kit

1) The Nexus One is tri/quad band, correct?
But the only way to get it is direct from Google or through Vodafone (at the moment)

2) How do you find the battery life of the HTC Desire?
I've heard Android handsets are pretty power hungry.
I'm not planning on using it for music as I believe there's no FLAC support at the moment, so that should help the battery out. I'll continue to use my Meizu Miniplayer for the forseeable future.

Cheers, B
 
1. honestly dont know about the N1, i was aiming to get that over the desire but availability screwed that for me.

2. I use a bit of everything on my Desire, email, music, news widgets, twitter, calls, texts, google maps, internet and a few apps and it will last a day of normal use. Not more than that however =P but its never left me in the lurch yet. Just dont expect it to last a day if ur constantly (like proper heavy use) doing internet/gps based stuff.

im loving the phone, no problems or grips appart from the fact the track ball is pointless =P (appart from taking pics)
 
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