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Desire still a good device?

S

sir_json

Lurker
US Cell has the HTC Desire for free with a new contract. I'm aware that the Desire is an older machine, but a little research and it seems like still a perfectly good & competitive device.

My needs are relatively simple and I tend to think that I'll be happy with any snappy Android device. I use my current Evo for phone, Skype, Gmail, and audiobooks mostly. A little Angry Birds here and there, but I don't care much about games.

What do you think? Take the free Desire, or shell out for something newer? Is the Desire still going to be useful 18 months from now? Or will newer Android apps, etc. not work on it anymore?
 
The only thing that's ever been a problem with the Desire is the storage space which can be gotten round (although rooting can be a big step for some).

All we've gotten in the last 18 months is bigger screens and faster CPUs. Battery life is no better and all apps run on almost all phones. The Desire can still run the latest version of Android and while not as fast as some is certainly no slouch.

So, unless you need a bigger screen or the latest gadget I see nothing wrong with getting a Desire.
 
To me, since the only problem of the Desire is the storage, the build quality of just takes the cake. Since the storage issue can be resolved by rooting. The phone to me has no failings.
 
Well, I decided to pull the trigger and picked up the Desire last night. I'm pretty happy so far. The screen is noticeably smaller than the Evo, but the phone feels significantly lighter too, so I don't mind. Performance feels pretty much the same between the two.

I've already run into the internal storage problem. After installing a few apps it was full, so I went and moved them to SD, install a few more, move to SD, rinse, repeat.

I never rooted my Evo, so I'm unfamiliar with the advantages. I was under the impression that rooting just allowed you to unlock features that the carrier was trying to charge you for, such as hotspot. How does rooting get me more storage?
 
Rooting gives you the ability to flash custom roms. Some of these allow you to create a partition on the SD card and fool the phone onto thinking it's extra internal memory. Others take up less memory and if you partition the internal memory you get more space for apps.

All of this is straightforward IF you read up on it thoroughly. Look in the signature of a member here call SURoot for links to the right pages.
 
GrenW said:
Rooting gives you the ability to flash custom roms. Some of these allow you to create a partition on the SD card and fool the phone onto thinking it's extra internal memory. Others take up less memory and if you partition the internal memory you get more space for apps.

All of this is straightforward IF you read up on it thoroughly. Look in the signature of a member here call SURoot for links to the right pages.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, you don't have to flash a custom ROM to do the partition trick; you can leave the stock ROM completely as is.

For the OP: while Android will move part of your apps to SD, it won't move it all so you'll probably run out of space again. Also, when you plug your phone into your computer as a disk drive, the moved apps stop working because the computer takes over the SD card. The solution is to create a partition on your SD card (512 MB is usually enough) that stays accessible even if the SD card is mounted to a computer. There's three steps: root, go S-OFF, then make a partition with something like G-Parted. Then install Link2SD to manage the movement to the partition. There's lots of threads around here on all of those steps. Even going slow and careful, it can easily be done in under a couple of hours.
 
sir_json said:
US Cell has the HTC Desire for free with a new contract. I'm aware that the Desire is an older machine, but a little research and it seems like still a perfectly good & competitive device.

My needs are relatively simple and I tend to think that I'll be happy with any snappy Android device. I use my current Evo for phone, Skype, Gmail, and audiobooks mostly. A little Angry Birds here and there, but I don't care much about games.

What do you think? Take the free Desire, or shell out for something newer? Is the Desire still going to be useful 18 months from now? Or will newer Android apps, etc. not work on it anymore?
Click to expand...

you won't get any new updates for your system. it will be able to do the things you want to do generally. it has the stupidest crazy tiny space available for apps. i find it ridiculous anyone made a phone with such a little amount of storage on it, particularly in the pre gingerbread era where you were even more limited on how much you could transfer your apps to your sd card.

if it's me, i wouldn't touch the desire. now, i have to go through all this rooting process just so i can store a decent quantity of apps on my phone.

mine is very customized though, that's takes some space right there. but i am at a point now where i have only the apps i need and i can't update them even.

maybe you only want to put a few apps on there and keep your os standard stock out of the box, so it might be ok for you. me, i prefer to have alot of storage so i can get any app that suits my fancy at a given moment.
 
It is a good phone but if i were to chnage tomorrow id get a different phone if it had more storage.
 
womb raider said:
Personally I'd go for something else, purely for the storage space issue.
Click to expand...

Storage space issue, what storage space issue? With my rooted desire, using the Miui XJ rom X-Part I have 1GB of internal storage which is more than enough!

It's a brilliant phone when rooted.
 
Thanks for all the tips, everyone; very helpful thread. I'll study up and try the root & partition trick. I can't wait to get rid of all the stupid crap they preinstalled and won't let me uninstall. Every time I open ATK and see that damn Facebook app running, I want to kill it with fire.
 
tuffcheez said:
Storage space issue, what storage space issue? With my rooted desire, using the Miui XJ rom X-Part I have 1GB of internal storage which is more than enough!

It's a brilliant phone when rooted.
Click to expand...

A brilliant phone shouldn't have to be rooted to be able to store as many apps as you want on it :rolleyes:
 
tuffcheez said:
Storage space issue, what storage space issue? With my rooted desire, using the Miui XJ rom X-Part I have 1GB of internal storage which is more than enough!

It's a brilliant phone when rooted.
Click to expand...

which storage space issue? well, the storage space issue that requires you to root your phone in order to be able to use any decent number of apps.
 
batmandroid said:
which storage space issue? well, the storage space issue that requires you to root your phone in order to be able to use any decent number of apps.
Click to expand...
rooting is still the best thing you could do on this phone let alone any android for that matter. so tbh yes its still a good phone as its cheep now it is dated and still can swim with the big fish when rooted
 
Great phone still yes, but the storage issue is not resolved by rooting only eased a bit. You are still heavily limited by available storage, so it really depends how much you think you'd install.
 
Patrese said:
Great phone still yes, but the storage issue is not resolved by rooting only eased a bit. You are still heavily limited by available storage, so it really depends how much you think you'd install.
Click to expand...
Are you sure you're doing it properly? After rooting you can completely eliminate the low storage issue.
 
Patrese said:
Great phone still yes, but the storage issue is not resolved by rooting only eased a bit. You are still heavily limited by available storage, so it really depends how much you think you'd install.
Click to expand...
well it is kinda eliminated tbh if you are doing it properly
all devices including the latest ones have a limitation if you are installing loads of apps you will run out of space on many devices.
 
Rastaman-FB said:
well it is kinda eliminated tbh if you are doing it properly
all devices including the latest ones have a limitation if you are installing loads of apps you will run out of space on many devices.
Click to expand...


Agreed. I have 70 user apps installed and ~70 MB free. I do not see this as an issue as I can happily cull some apps and I cannot envisage exceeding my memory any time soon. Was a big reason to root and it certainly has paid off in my eyes. In no rush to update as the "flaws" for me have been ironed out.
 
Can someone tell me how to do a good partition. My phone is rooted, with clockwork recovery and oxygen rom. I'm fed up of still having limited space on my memory (just 30mb).... That's only through maintenance.
 
joebloggscity said:
Can someone tell me how to do a good partition. My phone is rooted, with clockwork recovery and oxygen rom. I'm fed up of still having limited space on my memory (just 30mb).... That's only through maintenance.
Click to expand...
go to the root section, read the part about gparted

there are guides
 
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