HTC Desire Z review

We’ve consistently applauded HTC’s smartphone efforts in recent years: with the company producing numerous excellent handsets running Google’s Android OS. One such handset was the Desire, which lived up to its name thanks to a 1GHz processor and 3.7in AMOLED display. Keen to continue its success, HTC has now launched the Desire Z.

At first glance the Desire Z looks like a chunkier Desire. The big difference here is the addition of a fold-out QWERTY keyboard. This pivots out from below the handset on a complex trio of hinges. It’s lightly spring-loaded, and though we found it a little awkward to pop-out and fold back at first (with a couple of almost-dropped-it incidents), you soon get used to the action.

The keyboard has four lines of keys, with numbers accessed by either of the Function keys, of which there are thoughtfully two, one on each side of keyboard, for ease of access. There are two shift keys as well, and a big space bar you can reach with either thumb. A pair of small programmable shortcut keys let you launch apps at the touch of a button.

Typing with our thumbs was quick and accurate, after a little practice of course. The keys could do with a touch more feedback, but it’s certainly better than using a touchscreen. That said, onscreen keyboards, and spellchecking, have come on a lot in the last few years. We reckon you’d have to be a serious text and email user to need a proper keyboard like this. It certainly adds to the size and weight of the device; at 180g and 15mm thick, it’s noticeably chunkier in your pocket than the original Desire’s 135g and 11.9mm.

The keyboard isn’t the only difference between this and its predecessor. The original’s 1GHz processor was one of the defining specs of the Desire, so it’s surprising to find an 800MHz processor in the Desire Z. This still makes it faster than aging handsets like the Legend, but in demanding apps, such as games, and switching between apps feels a little sluggish compared to the fastest handsets we’ve seen.

On the plus side, there’s an additional 1GB of internal storage, up from 512MB to 1.5GB. This gives you plenty of space for installing apps, without having to go through the faff of moving larger apps to your SD card to free up space.

Software upgrades are also part of the package, with HTC’s Sense modification for Android continuing to produce genuinely useful tools. The most notable is the addition of Locations. Developed with satnav company TomTom, it gives you a familiar turn-by-turn satnav alternative to Google Maps. Best of all, you can save maps to your SD card, and access them even when you don’t have an internet connection. Another favourite is the inclusion of HTC’s Fast Boot – this works like resume on a desktop PC, and allows the handset to boot from being powered down in just 2-3 seconds.

As you’ll be using the screen sideways a lot, HTC have modified Android 2.2 so that the home screens work in this orientation. Widgets and icons have to be resized and repositioned to make this work, but we saw no problems with how this is dealt with. The screen itself still measures 3.7in and has the same 480×800 resolution. It looks brilliant in either orientation, with bright and vibrant colours.

The battery has reduced in size marginally, from 1400mAh to 1300mAh. However, this is balanced out by the slower processor, with a battery score in our continuous light usage test of almost 27 hours. It’s not bad, but the 1GHz Samsung Galaxy S is capable of going for almost 30 hours. While we’re making comparisons, we also think the Galaxy S produced sharper photos and videos than the Desire Z. Photos in particular looked noisy and lacked detail, with colours looking washed out and a marked lack of contrast.

The Desire Z is worthy of the name, it’s a lovely piece of portable kit and those looking for an Android handset with a proper keyboard should buy it without hesitation. However, we feel that the Samsung Galaxy S outperforms it in so many key areas – processor speed, screen brightness, picture quality and battery life – that we can’t recommend this handset to everyone – and especially not to those who like to take snaps with their phone.