Good deal on HTC Desire

[miffed]

Just stumbled upon this

http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/aw1/basket.aspx?sitetype=contract&item=offer&action=add&offercode=18O2DESB04

So , Free phone £20 per month x 18 = £360 , AFAIK the SIM free price is still around £420

It is on O2 , and you get 100 mins and unlimited SMS for your £20 (no data as far as I can tell ) -- but even if you threw the contract SIM away you have a Desire for £60 less than retail !

[miffed]

Just noticed they are offering the same terms on the Samsung Galaxy S too !

[Hands0n]

So, is this SIM free or is it locked to O2? And is it branded or unbranded?

It is indeed an interesting way of obtaining what is effectively very cheap credit :)

[miffed]

My guess is that it would be unlocked , but o2 Branded - can't imagine it being much more than an o2 splashscreen though TBH

HTC unlocks are quick and easy by code �10 from my local shop ! , and flashing to unbranded firmware is usually do-able , although after reading some experiences of people flashing Orange variants ,might be a little sceptical !

[Hands0n]

Yea thats true. When we de-branded my son's Orange-branded HTC Desire it SIM-locked itself to a non-Orange network - and £10 later from eBay and about twenty minutes it was unlocked again. With the Froyo 2.2 update he is now running vanilla Bravo/Desire - although HTC seem to have cocked up the latest Froyo update and broken the WiFi yet again.

[miffed]

Must admit I am very tempted by another HTC Desire TBH (Having bought one and sold it within a month to fund an iPhone ..... then changing my mind and buying a Dell Streak ..... )
I am getting that itch again where I want a new phone , the obvious one is the iPhone 4 , but I have to be honest , after flirting with Android and the iOS , and to be fair after a long period of loyalty to the iPhone - I think I am coming down on the side of Android !

I keep popping into the Apple / Mobile shops , and pick up the iPhone , hoping to have one of those "wow" moments where I decide I have to have a device , and nothing happens ! ,I just feel like I am playing with a 3GS.
It sort of reminds me of a period Nokia went through after the 6600 ,where everyone was raving about 6630 / 6680 / whatever .... but all I saw was the 6600 rehashed once again !
Much as I realise the iPhone 4 is the most complete device Apple have launched , for me the magic bit was the UI , the novelty of that magic has faded and now (in that respect) the iPhone revolution is over for me (for now)

I look at the Desire though , in the flesh ... and I see a stunning little device !

Of course , in usual "miffed" style , it is the worst time to buy ! with the Desire HD / Z / Whatever just around the corner !

[The Mullet of G]

I talked my cousin into getting a Desire HD instead of the mediocre Wildfire he was being offered. Having now used said Desire HD I found it quite disappointing, don't get me wrong its not a bad phone and has some great things going for it. Firstly the build quality is suspect, the actual phone itself is sturdy enough but there are two separate plastic panels on the back for the battery and Sim/MicroSD both of which feel like they were constructed from selection box plastic, removing the battery cover was a scary experience as it really was close to breaking.

Upon firing it up for the first time we were treated to a tedious process of filling out various pieces of info, including a phone number so it could tell all your friends about HTC Sense, after what seemed like hours it finally got going only to ask the same information all over again upon trying to use anything. The screen looks great especially for browsing the internet or viewing movies even if it did have some frame rate issues, unfortunately HTC only talked a good game when it came to sound, boasting all sorts of wonders and slagging off squeaky speakers on other phones, despite having SRS and Dolby Mobile the sound it actually produces is mediocre and the epitome of squeaky speaker, even the iPhones mono effort was able to vastly outclass it. Camera quality was also pretty unimpressive, indoors in good light pictures were pretty noisy and the camera app itself was fairly lacking in features, instead palming you off with some cheesy filters.

The HTC Desire HD could have been a great phone but I feel HTC have let themselves down here, mostly by making silly claims like "A screen and sound system that will blow you away" when its probably one of the weakest mobile speakers you'll hear this side of the year 2000. If you completely ignore any of HTC's claims and have no expectations then this phone will fare a lot better as its a pretty competent phone, but you just can't help but feel it could have been so much better.


PS. Sorry if I hijacked the thread, I was too lazy to post a new one. :)