HTC phones

[Nuclear Chicken]

Hi All,

Not as regular a visitor as I used due to demise of LC120, but I'd value a collective opinion on HTC phones. I've become a bit of a fan and can't decide (1) Android vs Windows (some models are Windows OS) and (2) which of the Wildfire, Desire, Desire S, Desire HD etc etc to think about getting.

Has anyone some real life experience of any of these phones? I don't do the Apple hype thing so it'll not be iPhone.

 

[TonyP]

I have a HTD Desire HD, and although I do like the phone and it's features the bloody thing frustrates me daily.... It drops calls, I sometimes just get a voicemail without it ringing at all, it's reboots, it drops the wifi connection etc etc etc. Now maybe some of this is the service provider (Orange) but I am not convinced.

On the other hand my wife has the iClone 4 and loves it... never has any issues, all she did was take it out of the box, switched it on, I set up her email and wifi connection and and it just works... Much better consumer product.... sigh

I think Jon has the HTC Z (the one with the slide out keyboard) and I think he is very happy with that.

I doubt I would go to a wondowz smart phone, as I do like the Android offerings

 

[Gav Peter]

I got the HTC HD7 windows phone & am not that inspired by it...

Worst issue of all is that I can't get my computer (Windows...) to recognise it in any way shape or form...

All the usual gripes apply re battery life etc etc

 

[Nuclear Chicken]

Not a good start then.... Anyone I've talked to thinks they're great. I am currenty with 3, cancelled yesterday because of lack of network in NI, so I've till 14th July to get it sorted. Tried most of the other networks, they're all wankers with varying degrees of arrogance. Only have O2 left!

 

[Gav Peter]

TBH, the way the phone actually works is fine but the IT connect thing is a real drag... The screen is massive & works well; camera isn't as good as my old N95...

 

[JonP]

I have an HTC windows phone, connecting it to a W7 laptop not a problem, however it exhibits all the same faults as you describe with your current HTC.

I few months ago I bought my son a Motorola defy android phone, tough, not the latest tech so reasonably priced and he thinks it is excellent, best phone he has ever had, so I am thinking of getting myself one as I have had it with HTC.

Jon

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

On our recent trip to the pyrenees I did swap back to my Nokia 6303 for a bit because of 2 things that I think turned out to be one thing! I tried sending a couple of MMS messages as we lost reception for a while and as the signal came and went it obviously kept trying to send the message and Steph ended up getting it 14 times. I'm not sure wether I should blame the network or the phone os but I'm leaning towards the network failing to acknowledge reciept of the data and I bet I was charged 14 times! I didn't have the same problem with the Nokia in a similar situation because I have to manually attempt a resend and I waited till there was better coverage. The second thing was it kept dinging at us with no indication on the screen why but I think it was tied in with sending or not sending that message! It didn't help that it overlapped with a reminder I had set so there was quite a bit of dinging!

In day to day use the Desire Z has a couple of minor niggles. 1st is that for some reason I'm less likely to notice I've recieved a txt message so I run an app that makes a fuss every 30 seconds if there are unread messages. 2nd is that occasionaly when writing a txt the screen will scroll up through the conversation so I can't see what I'm typing and have to be dragged back down again. Battery usage doesn't seem unreasonable but I don't use data much and it works fine as a phone.

 

[Gav Peter]

so there was quite a bit of dinging!

My tinitus is calming down now though...

 

[Chris]

Shame you are dead set against the iphone. It's not hype - it's a good phone. I don't get any aggravation from it all all. Only down side is crap battery life. But you learn to hop from charge to charge. Never gone wrong, locked up, failed etc. The apps are great, it links seamlessly with my car, Macs, even my new DAB radio. Camera isn't brilliant, but then I have a digital SLR so who cares!

Never quite sure what the hype is. In my experience Apple products just work - for ever. Some odd quirky things sometimes, I guess like all manufactures, they keep a few goodies back to make you buy the next one - which I don't.

For work I have Blackberry product and whilst it's only half-smart ie not touch screen 3G etc, it is very robust and never seems to go wrong plus the battery is epic. I guess they do some sort of full smart phone too?

Chris

 

[Paul_Humphreys]

I was going to get a HTC, BTW you can run windows 7 and Andriod soft ware on the same phone!!!

Anyway I have decided to get a Samsung galaxy s2, as in all the reviews it beats all the other phones, even the Iphone 4. I do not want an Ip4 as they are too common

Paul

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

my only experiences of iphones have been of the type that would see it impaled on a sledge hammer if it were mine

 

[Ian Rubie]

my only experiences of iphones have been of the type that would see it impaled on a sledge hammer if it were mine

Following my thread from a few months ago I ended up with an iphone 4. Huge mistake. I hate the thing. It will be in the bin before the contract ends. Its great as a flashy thing, its utter cr*p as a phone.

Ian

 

[Chris]

Why? Mine works perfectly. I dial, it rings we talk, I hang up. People ring me, I ignore them... How is something crap as a phone? I don't get it. Mine just works seamlessly all the time. The only real drawback for me is not the phone but the lack of flaming signal in this country. And Wales - you may as well not bother taking it. You need a sat phone just to ring for a pizza. I had an early Nokia smart phone. It was soooo bad that Vodafone cancelled my contract without penalty and started me again. I got an iphone. Been simples ever since. I don't even bother taking my ipod anymore. I catch up all my telly on it, music, all my mail accounts, the forum etc.
I have a 3 not a 4. Maybe I should be waiting for 5 and skipping a gen, eh?

Chris

 

[Ian Rubie]

The only real drawback for me is not the phone but the lack of flaming signal in this country.

You have hit the nail on the head sir. I think you might find that with a different phone, signal strength is a lot better. I went from a 3 year old Sony Ericsson to the iPhone. I am on the same network as before. Where I used to quite happily make phone calls I now have no signal. I have even taken both phone out at the same time just to prove it to myself. I am aware of the known issue with iPhone 4 and have tried a case to fix the problem, no joy.

Ian

 

[Chris]

Gotcha! Right that is a pain. I shall stick with my 3rd gen

Chris

 

[Brett]

I've had 2 HTC's the P3600 & the HD (Blackstone) which at the time I thought were brilliant. I was always against the iphone as I thought they were a gimmick phone & not a proper business phone.

Now , though I have the iphone 4, had it about 10 months now & my experience with it is much the same as Chris's, it's been brilliant. I travel all over the place for work, including abroad & it always works perfectly, connectivity is excellent & most of the time now I leave the laptop at home. I'm on the 3 network with the iphone, which I've found to be fine despite serious reservations.

I also have a work issue blackberry curve, which is horrible compared to the iphone, crappy build quality, outdated but good battery life, & when I'm at home no signal (on O2).

 

[Nuclear Chicken]

An amazing range of opinions on the same stuff. Never fails to amaze me the differences in peoples' experiences of the same products in real life situations. What is clear, much of it is network dependant.

 

[Gav Peter]

Just a quick update...

Now my Windows Phone has decided to buddy up with the computer I am much more pleased with it!!! I had been trying to use the USB ports on the front of the box; when I plugged it into one on the rear of it, it hooked right up, updated itself half a dozen times & then sync'd up fine

I'm no luddite but I feckin hate computers

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Does that mean more pics Gav?

 

[Gav Peter]

Just plomped a couple on the thread