Review by Fraggle:

I had an HTC Hero (you know, the one that won all those best gadget awards) before and that was good, but this phone is fantastic. 10 reasons to buy:

1. Large, bright, high-resolution screen. Photos and text look great and really clear – which is good for looking at email attachments or facebook photos.

2. It’s thin and very comfortable to hold. It actually feels less bulky than the i-phone 3GS my girlfriend has in my opinion.

3. It’s really fast – you just click on something and it appears. No lag. Multitasking, you seem to be able to throw almost anything at it.

4. The 5mp camera and flash are surprisingly good, and you can upload photos straight onto Facebook. It is a real step up from the HTC Hero I had before.

5. Google maps is better than ever on it, and you can get instant directions.

6. MP3 player is really, really good – it seems to be much clearer than my old HTC Hero was, and sounds more vibrant, with sound quality very much on a par with the iphone. I’ve downloaded a really good Amazon MP3 app means allows you to buy from Amazon huge amounts of DRM free MP3s recorded at v high bit-rates and download them direct to your phone.

7. Everything is super-intuitive – Really good email, text message and social networking integration. The keyboard is really good, and the way they’ve done predictive text – even when you have typed some wrong letters – is really impressive.

8. Really good, solid-feeling build quality. Nothing feels cheap and plasticy about it like some old Nokia phones I had.

9. It’s much cheaper than the i-phone and the new Sony Ericcson x10. I managed to get mine on T-mobile with (per month) 300 minutes, 300 texts, unlimited internet, unlimited landline calls and free phone for £25/month as a new customer, which is absolutely cracking.

10. Web browsing brill. Flash. Multi-touch/pinch to zoom. Pinch to zoom. With Flash, with Flash 10.1 coming out soon this should get better better.

Review by C. Buck:

About the Desire

The HTC Desire is a smartphone, very similar in look and functionality to Apples iPhone. Released in April 2010, the Desire has already attracted a large fanbase at it attempts to dethrone Apple from their perch at the pinnacle of the smartphone market.

The Desire runs on the Android operating system which is owned by Google. This means that the phone contains many of Google’s ordinary desktop features such as Google Maps and Google Mail.

The Desire Interface

The Desire uses what HTC call the HTC Sense interface. This interface is very much a people orientated experience. You can now view all interactions with a friend from the one screen, meaning that you no longer need to go into Facebook or Twitter to see what people are doing. All of this information is now stored against your individual contacts which is an extremely innovative approach which has certainly paid off as the interface is a delight to use.

Much like the iPhone, the Desire uses a touch screen with gestures controlling the navigation and zoom features within applications. This works really well and is very easy to control. A gentle swipe down the page will only move you a short way down the screen but an aggressive swipe will move you all the way from the top to the bottom of a large document or web page. This is really simple to get used to and within a handful of attempts, it will become second nature to most people.

The Desire is not content with giving you just one homepage. Instead, there are seven fully configurable pages which gives this phone so much flexibility. For example, you could have a page for all of your social networking requirements, a page for news and weather, a page full of downloaded applications and widgets, and so on. The list is endless and how these pages look is entirely down to you.

Tour of the Desire

The Desire is a fairly hefty phone, weighing in at 135g which is considerably heavier than most standard phones on the market. The front of the phone is mostly taken up with the 3.7 inch touchscreen with just enough space on the top for the speaker. The bottom section of the phone consists of the home button which takes you back to the main homepage, a menu button which gives you options related to the screen you are currently on (for example, the menu button on your web browser gives you options such as add favourites and view favourites.) and an extra large button which doubles up as a back button and a search. As well as these buttons there is touch sensitive joypad which can be used for navigating menus but the touchscreen method is a lot easier to use, making this joypad almost redundant.

Widgets

You can add widgets to any of the home screens to save you from going through the menu screens each time you want to use it. Popular widgets which you might want to add to a home screen could be settings for Wi-fi , GPRS mobile internet, GPS and Bluetooth as well as more personal widgets such as picture albums and music stores. These widgets can be moved around the screen and even removed should you no longer wish to use it on a home screen. Removing a widget from this screen does not delete it from the Desire.

Applications

As well as widgets, the Desire also allows full Android applications to be placed on its home screens.

Typically, an application will take up more space on a home screen than a widget and you will, in most instances only be able to fit one application on a home screen. Examples of popular applications that you might add to your home screens will include your web browser, the news and weather and your music player. Any application that you do not add to a home screen can still be accessed from the application menu.

The Android store

As well as the pre-installed widgets and applications, you can add more from the Android store. If you are familiar with the iTunes Application store then the Android store works in exactly the same way. The beauty of the Android store is that 80% of its content is completely free, meaning that if you require an application that tells you how far you have ran or you want some games to play whilst on the train, there is going to be something for you in the store for little or no extra cost. Of the applications which are not free, the most you will expect to pay will be between £2-3 per application which represents great value for money. Applications from the Android store tend to be very small in size meaning that they will not eat into your devices memory.

Wi-fi / GRPS

The Desire allows you to connect to the internet through a wireless internet connection or via your providers internet service with a GPRS connection. If you are using a wireless internet connection then you will not be charged any extra by your network provider however it is worth remembering that if you are connecting via the GPRS link then unless you have a data plan with your provider then you will be charged for this usage.

Email

Sending and receiving email from the Desire works so well. As previously mentioned, the phone comes with the Googlemail (or Gmail) application preinstalled. This not only allows you to maintain connection with your contacts via email but it also updates the Desires internal calendar system with any appointments which you may have in your Google calendar.

If you have an email account with anyone other than Google, you can set this up manually and, with the HTC sync software which needs to be installed on your PC, you can also synchronise contacts and calendars with applications such as Microsoft Outlook. The Desire doesn’t limit how many email accounts you can have meaning you could have your Googlemail, Hotmail and work email all coming through to the Desire meaning you will never be out of touch ever again.

Camera

The Desire comes with an excellent 5 Megapixel camera with flash and face recognition and autofocus. The quality of the photographs produced by the camera are second to none and are comparable to any dedicated digital camera I have used before. As well as taking standard photos, there are various themes within the camera application which you can add to enhance your photos such as black and white and negative themese.

Music

As a music player, this phone is the real deal. The sound quality is really top notch, especially through the headphones. Navigating music couldn’t be simpler, by using the drag gesture, you can change tracks so easily and by using the menu options you can select the artist, album or song you required with very little fuss.

Verdict

This is a seriously good phone. A lot of people have gone as far as saying it is better than the iPhone. I’m not going to jump on that bandwagon but it is certainly no worse. HTC are the second biggest manufacturer of smartphones in the world and the Desire will do wonders for their image as it is pretty much faultless. The only downside would probably be that the battery life between charges is slightly shorter than what it should be but that’s just being picky. The HTC Desire is a work of art and should be enjoyed by everyone. If you are in the market for a top of the range smartphone then this is the one to choose.

Review by C. Smith:

We all love to get a bargain and we all like to have the ‘warm’ gadgety feeling when we realise something is going to be just right.

If you want both feelings – and you are also the lucky owner of a Desire – buy this item!

Fits perfectly, there’s 5 in a pack and you even get a bonus large ‘universal’ protector (140mm x 90mm) – oh and a cleaning cloth and ‘anti bubble’ applicator. I was a bit disappointed there was no kitchen sink in the package but the delivery was lightning fast so that makes up for it.

You won’t be diappointed.

Review by Nick:

Didn’t include a cleaning cloth or applicator as some other reviews suggested, nor did it come with a “universal” size.

Have given up trying to fit it as there are no instructions, but the size is correct.

Review by A. Tombs:

After some concern from seeing other product reviews on Amazon, I can happily say that this screen protector is accurately cut to fit the htc Desire screen.

Application of the protector was surprising easy; I was able to put mine on completely bubble-free on the first try, even without using a credit card (as the instructions say). This was probably helped by putting the protector onto the new, clean display, but the same effect could probably be had through moderate cleaning.

The most difficult part of installation was getting rid of dust from the display; a cleaning cloth would have been helpful here, and is supplied with many similar products.

I can’t comment on the scratch-resistance of the surface (I am not about to put it to the test), but it certainly felt quite durable during application.

Negatives:

The material is not very resistant to fingerprints, but these can be cleaned off with an appropriate cloth (if you have one).

The feel of the surface is slightly more resistant to finger motion than the plain glass, but this is something you will easily get used to.

Review by always_confused:

Recevied this product today. Put the protector on my HTC Desire in just a couple of minutes with no air bubbles at all. I was surprised at how thick the plastic was – but don’t let this put you off, with its perfect fit, it is invisible once in place. After using the phone for a couple of hours, I am completely unaware of the protector’s presence. I’m glad I spent a little extra and got something that ticks all the boxes!

Review by pittance:

I bought this product (three pack) but mistakenly reviewed the single pack. My comments therestand; this is a nice product, easy to use and I got good results first time. It’s cut to shape, about 1mm smaller than the screen all around so the edge is on the black border and can’t be seen in use. Recommended.