HTC Desire HD review

The HTC Desire was one of the most sought after Android devices this year, so its successor, the Desire HD, was always going to have rather large shoes to fill.

With dimensions of 123 x 68 x 11.8mm, the Desire HD is nearly the same size as the HTC HD7 running Windows Phone 7. However, we found this Android handset will comfortably fit into most pockets.

The device has two removable covers, one for the battery under the volume control on the left hand side, and one on the bottom of the device allowing access to the micro SD and SIM slots. The bottom cover does feel a bit fragile and we had to be gentle to avoid any damage.

Its 4.3in 480 x 800 WVGA screen displays a crisp, clear picture and is super responsive. When using the pinch-to-zoom feature there is no visible pixilation when zooming in on words.

HTC ships the device with the Android 2.2 platform and the HTC Sense overlay. It is also the first to provide extra services through the all-new HTCSense.com portal.

Interface
Android 2.2 runs smoothly and is one of the most intuitive operating systems on the market. There are seven home screens and each page can be customised within 10 seconds with widgets and applications.

HTC provides a number of overlays, or 'scenes', which allow users to customise the device and swap between these customisations quickly. The Classic scene is the default setting, but users can alternate between Social, Work, Play and Travel. More scenes can be downloaded from the HTC Hub.

Each scene automatically loads different widgets on the seven panels. These can be customised and are remembered by the device.

The Desire HD has plenty of extra features, and HTC has tweaked the Sense interface to make it even better. As well as being able to remove widgets on the home screen, it's now possible to use the Edit feature to move them to different locations. However, this option is context sensitive, so not all widgets can be edited.

Applications
Business users will be pleased to know that the Desire HD is packed with office-related applications, with QuickOffice allowing the viewing and editing of documents on the move.

The reading and editing of Word documents rivals that of the mobile Microsoft Office application found on Windows Phone 7 handsets. Users are able to pinch and zoom into text, which is automatically reformatted to fit the screen so there is no need to scroll horizontally.

Adobe Reader is another useful business tool, allowing PDFs to be viewed. The ability to synchronise Microsoft Exchange along with POP3 and IMAP accounts is also present.

The Search app is excellent and searches the contents of the device, apps and the internet with one click. Results are displayed in an easy-to-read manner, which is particularly useful when looking for a message or contact.

Navigation has also been improved, and HTC owners can download city maps for free. Maps are cached, so there is no roaming charge when abroad and no loading times when zooming in and out of the map.