HTC Wildfire review

The Wildfire is an Android-based handset from HTC, and for those who don’t have the cash to splash out on an iPhone or HTC Desire, this could be a great low-cost substitute.

Design-wise, the Wildfire is compact and curvy with dimensions measuring 12.19mm x 60.4mm x 106.75mm. It looks like a pint-sized version of the HTC Desire, which is no bad thing.

At 118g (including the battery), the Wildfire is very lightweight. Even though it is small, it does feel solid in the palm of the hand.

Upon the first boot the phone runs through set-up options, allowing you to configure network and Wi-Fi settings, sync social networking/email accounts and activate the Google location application.

This is very convenient and saves users from having to go through these individual steps after booting the phone.

The 3.2in QVGA touch-screen is fully capacitive and has a 240 x 320 resolution. While it’s not as sharp as the iPhone 4’s Retina display (960 x 640) or the Samsung Wave’s super Amoled screen (480 x 800), the colours on the Wildfire are vibrant. The touch-screen is very responsive and the pinch-to-zoom feature comes in very handy.

There are four touch-sensitive buttons below the screen – home, menu, back and search – to aid quick navigation. An optical track pad is also included for those who do not want to prod the touchscreen, but it is a bit unresponsive at times.

One of the best features of the smartphone is the Android 2.1 OS combined with HTC’s Sense UI. The interface is simple, making it a pleasure to navigate.

All the important applications are on the home screen, but it is possible to customise the phone to individual needs. Widgets can be added to the home screen and adjacent screens. We chose to set up a V3.co.uk RSS feed, which was one swipe away from the home screen.

For those who are too lazy to customise their phone, HTC provides “scenes”, which automatically changes widgets on the home screen and flanking screen. A great touch.