Desire - Day Three

I am interested to see how far, in three days, my Desire has come from the stock setup. While this has been in part to minimise the impact of the bundled Telstra apps on my user experience (as discussed on Twitter and here), it is a testament to one of of the things I really like about this device – its configurability.

I love my iPhone, but I have really wanted to grapple with Android because of its integration with Google Apps, as well as its widgets and shortcuts. This is why I entered the competition to become a social reviewer.

Even though I have never used an Android phone before, I have had no problems adjusting to a different set of UI metaphors, although I find the keyboard different enough to the iPhone’s to be frustrating (muscle memory is a powerful thing).

The HTC implementation of Exchange server support is absolutely brilliant in comparison to the iPhone. So good, that it seems that Telstra has perhaps pitched this device to the wrong market – there are so many iPhone apps that offer are amazing and feature rich social experience, yet Exchange server support has felt altogether too restricted on the iPhone.

There is a glaring opportunity to emphasise the suitability of the Desire for deployment as an enterprise device. Prior to owning an iPhone I had a Windows Mobile phone, and the Desire feels like it is at least as capable of handling email, contacts and calendars as any Windows device.

My jury is still out on the quality of the Sense UI – in comparison to the understated nature of the ‘vanilla’ Android UI offered on devices like the Nexus One, the mixture of black and green throughout the Sense can feel garish after prolonged use. But being able to flick over to screens with a feature rich array of widgets, does go some of the way to compensating for any perceived aesthetic shortcomings in the UI.

These are just some more initial thoughts on a phone that I am really beginning to like. A lot.