Just got my first cell phone :-) with pic. Blog.anandtech.com

[Locut0s]

Actually that's a lie I've had another cell phone in the past but it was one my parents bought me when I went to university the first time. At the time I didn't want a cell phone so I don't really consider that one mine. For the longest time I've felt like not owning one as I actually have very few people I would want to stay in contact with, a handful of friends (1 or 2) and some family but that's it. Though I want this to change in time. But I've been using my fathers iPhone so much in the past few years that I've come to "desire" one 😉 Well it arrived in the mail today and I'm just in the process of setting it up. Going to have fun with this little baby. :awe:

It's an HTC Desire.

 

[speg]

That's a picture of a cord. Unless, you took it with your phone? I iced to be one of those non-cellphone people too, then the iPhone came and everything changed.

 

[Crono]

Nice. Just bought a new phone myself.

I actually just gave up on app-centric smartphones and bought a Kin One. AnandTech's article on it's discontinuation (lol, less than 10,000 phones sold) actually piqued my interest. I have a Zune Pass subscription, so it made sense.

Anyway, I've been using the phone over the past couple days and I must say I like it a lot. Bettery life is sweet, and overall it's less buggy than my previous phone (Blackberry Storm, which literally became a Crackberry after I dropped it a couple months ago). Zune implementation is pretty good, though obviously not as svelte as the Zune HD.

I was surprised by the price on ebay: only $150 new without contract. Requires a data plan from Verizon, though, which I had anyway.

 

[Chaotic42]

Congrats. I still don't have a cell phone.

 

[Jules]

How you like it so far? Us Cellular is coming out with it on the 25th and not sure if i should get it

 

[rockyct]

Nice. Just bought a new phone myself.

I actually just gave up on app-centric smartphones and bought a Kin One. AnandTech's article on it's discontinuation (lol, less than 10,000 phones sold) actually piqued my interest. I have a Zune Pass subscription, so it made sense.

Anyway, I've been using the phone over the past couple days and I must say I like it a lot. Bettery life is sweet, and overall it's less buggy than my previous phone (Blackberry Storm, which literally became a Crackberry after I dropped it a couple months ago). Zune implementation is pretty good, though obviously not as svelte as the Zune HD.

I was surprised by the price on ebay: only $150 new without contract. Requires a data plan from Verizon, though, which I had anyway.

I really want to get a WinPhone 7 when they come out on Verizon. It sounds like Microsoft took the Apple way and made a 90% polished phone with 70% of the features. A lot of people have written off Microsoft but they've got a great phone OS on their hands. Let's see if they can market it.

However, Zune Pass is the best deal for music lovers out there, but no one knows about it. Unlimited access to the Zune music catalog (steaming or downloaded) on your Zune, Xbox, WinPhone 7; and two more computers and another zune (3 computers or xboxes and 3 devices is the limit). Plus, for that $15 a month, you get to own 10 DRM-free songs.

 

[amdhunter]

I really want to get a WinPhone 7 when they come out on Verizon. It sounds like Microsoft took the Apple way and made a 90% polished phone with 70% of the features. A lot of people have written off Microsoft but they've got a great phone OS on their hands. Let's see if they can market it.

However, Zune Pass is the best deal for music lovers out there, but no one knows about it. Unlimited access to the Zune music catalog (steaming or downloaded) on your Zune, Xbox, WinPhone 7; and two more computers and another zune (3 computers or xboxes and 3 devices is the limit). Plus, for that $15 a month, you get to own 10 DRM-free songs.

<-- another person holding out to see how Win7 phones turn out.

 

[lxskllr]

Very nice. I don't have a smart phone yet, not sure if I'll ever get one, but they're pretty cool(as long as the aren't Apple :^P :^D)

 

[Crono]

I really want to get a WinPhone 7 when they come out on Verizon. It sounds like Microsoft took the Apple way and made a 90% polished phone with 70% of the features. A lot of people have written off Microsoft but they've got a great phone OS on their hands. Let's see if they can market it.

From what I've seen, Microsoft pretty much just tested the waters with the Kin and received mixed feedback with "Project Pink" (the Kin One and Two). I doubt the first generation of Win 7 phones will be without issues, but the second gen might have the polish of the iPhone OS or Android.

In other words, I think Microsoft will be competitive in the phone game.
I've liked Windows Mobile since 3 and their partnership with HTC, Samsung, et al produced some decent phones. Windows Phone 7 should bring about more "elegant" design and UI elements. I may just switch over next year to a smartphone when Blackberry, Microsoft, Apple, and Google are all competing for my dollars, lol.

However, Zune Pass is the best deal for music lovers out there, but no one knows about it. Unlimited access to the Zune music catalog (steaming or downloaded) on your Zune, Xbox, WinPhone 7; and two more computers and another zune (3 computers or xboxes and 3 devices is the limit). Plus, for that $15 a month, you get to own 10 DRM-free songs.

Agreed. Their catalog isn't quite as large compared to Apple Store or Amazon, but it is the best subscription (+ 10 free songs) model I've seen yet. There are plenty of songs and artists to choose from with Zune, though, it's just every so often I do a search and come across the "not available" symbol.

 

[Locut0s]

Congrats. I still don't have a cell phone.

Only been using it for about 30 mins so its kind of hard to pass judgement yet but I love it so far. I'm posting this from the phone right now. Having used my fathers iphone for so long it will take some getting used tobut already there are many aspects of it that just make sense and seem like a big improvement over iOS.

 

[Locut0s]

Only been using it for about 30 mins so its kind of hard to pass judgement yet but I love it so far. I'm posting this from the phone right now. Having used my fathers iphone for so long it will take some getting used tobut already there are many aspects of it that just make sense and seem like a big improvement over iOS.

Its lightning fast too wich is really nice 🙂

 

[rockyct]

From what I've seen, Microsoft pretty much just tested the waters with the Kin and received mixed feedback with "Project Pink" (the Kin One and Two). I doubt the first generation of Win 7 phones will be without issues, but the second gen might have the polish of the iPhone OS or Android.

In other words, I think Microsoft will be competitive in the phone game.
I've liked Windows Mobile since 3 and their partnership with HTC, Samsung, et al produced some decent phones. Windows Phone 7 should bring about more "elegant" design and UI elements. I may just switch over next year to a smartphone when Blackberry, Microsoft, Apple, and Google are all competing for my dollars, lol.



Agreed. Their catalog isn't quite as large compared to Apple Store or Amazon, but it is the best subscription (+ 10 free songs) model I've seen yet. There are plenty of songs and artists to choose from with Zune, though, it's just every so often I do a search and come across the "not available" symbol.

The weird thing with the Kin is that it really was a bastard of Windows Phone. The Kin dev team was completely removed from the Windows Phone team so while the Kin has many UI similarities, it really couldn't even be considered an early version of WinPhone 7. From what I've heard, they had been working on a social network-focused device for Verizon, but after so many delays, they said screw it and dumped out the Kin to fulfill their agreement with Verizon. There was also going to be a cheaper data plan for the Kin, but Verizon was pissed at the delays and basically decided to write it off as well.

 

[Locut0s]

I know from reviews that the battery life of the desire is not amazing but not too bad either. I've charged it 3 hours which should be good. The light went green. Battery seems to be about 1/2 used now but I've been I've been giving it a real 3g and data workout for about 3 hours so that doesn't seem to bad. I hope to get a little better from a full nights chargs.

 

[Riceninja]

the only good phone is an iphone

 

[Crono]

the only good phone is an iphone

the only good troll is an ATOT troll

 

[Locut0s]

the only good phone is an iphone

I'm not a fanboy of any one platform. I get what I like and what I know to be good. I've been using the the iOS now on both my fathers iPhone and my own iPod Touch for so long that I'm just tired of the OS. I wanted something that felt new for my own phone. There is nothing wrong with the iPhones, they are great, but I'm tired of them. The Desire is turning out to be a great phone for me! Love the speed, all the customization of Android and just the all-round user experience. There are a few down sides that I've come across, just like the iPhone has its own annoyances. For one the battery life isn't as good as the iPhone 4 or that of the 3GS for that matter. But with a bit of smart usage it should be fine. Also there is no iTunes of course but there is a freeware alternative that seems fairly good called DoubleTwist. I never liked iTunes anyway. I'm probably just going to sync my pics and music mostly by hand anyway, you can set it up so that the phone is just recognized as an external drive by your PC and just drag and drop what you want which is VERY nice! I love syncing everything with the Google cloud and how the tie in is just completely seamless. This phone will probably push me to sign up to Facebook finally, lol, as it has great social networking integration. Don't know about twitter yet but I might do that too.

Has all the latest hardware bells and whistle you would expect from a modern smart phone too of course. Wifi, Blue Tooth 2.1, 3G, GPS, Accelerometer, Digital compass, FM Tuner, 1GHz Snapdragon Processor etc etc...

 

[JimmiG]

I know from reviews that the battery life of the desire is not amazing but not too bad either. I've charged it 3 hours which should be good. The light went green. Battery seems to be about 1/2 used now but I've been I've been giving it a real 3g and data workout for about 3 hours so that doesn't seem to bad. I hope to get a little better from a full nights chargs.

That's the same phone I got a few months ago 🙂 Very happy with it, especially after the official Froyo update which made it snappier and fixed a few bugs (the most annoying being that it got stuck in some kind of loop when shutting down, making it sometimes take up to 45 minutes to shut down). Make sure you get a case or sleeve for it, there's nothing worse than a scratched display on a brand new device.

The first week, your phone won't last for a day before you need to charge it. The biggest reason is because you'll be using the phone so much because it's new and exciting. Also it seems the battery needs one or two full discharge/charge cycles before it reaches full efficiency.

Under more normal usage, battery life is fine. Mine is at about 15 - 20 percent now, after 33 hours. I've been doing some light web browsing, listened to music, snapped a few photos and messed around with a few apps, but mostly the phone has been in standby mode. Battery life is really dependent on how you use the phone, web browsing in particular will cause the phone to heat up and deplete the battery quickly. I use the excellent RSS reader for checking the news. It's quicker, saves battery and uses less data (I only have 1GB/mo).