Overview
The HTC Desire HD is here and us Android heads are all excited, but in the HD storm let's not let the HTC Desire Z be forgotten. It's a great handset in its own right and is much more than the little brother of HD.
If the two must be compared, then the Z is a smaller than the Desire HD with only a 3.7-inch screen, which is still an impressive WVGA offering with 800×480 pixels. The main difference really is the keyboard one offers an onscreen keyboard whilst one offers a physical fold-out QWERTY.
Following on from the success of the Desire it was obvious that HTC would expand the Desire family. But each phone will have its own pros and cons it's not as simple as 'basic handset' , 'premium handset'
So what does the Z have to offer?
Review
The main talking point is the handset's hinged pop-out keyboard. More and more smartphones are heading down the full touchpad route (like the HD) and shunning the QWERTY keyboard in its physical form but a lot of us find a touchscreen keyboard a bit fiddly. There's the obvious problems of fingerprint smudging and of course the poot 'fat-fingered' people of the world have the problem of squishing more than one button at once. The Z accommodates for 'fuller digits' in two ways, the keyboard itself, and its hinge which provides a smother keyboard with less chance of fingers accidently pressing the buttons at the bottom of the touchscreen. Some argue that the physical keyboard is on its way it but handsets like this show how physical keyboards can be great asset. They do not have to take up much room (since they fold/pop away) and they can feel great especially when used to tap out a quick email.
The Z takes advantage of its hardware with user assigned keys and system-wide shortcuts that let you quickly launch your favourite apps with the keyboard.
And elsewhere on the handset is a descent but not mind blowing 5 megapixel camera with flash. HD video capability adds extra ticks in the camera box but a higher megapixel would be great. Let's not forget the camera specifications of say the N8 which is going to roll onto the scene with 8 megapixels of Carl Zeiss optics power.
Inside is a not too shabby 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7230 processor and software wise we get the classic combination of Android and HTC’s enhanced Sense UI which is one of the key ingredients in the HTC setup and is only going to get better with the HTCSense.com services set to land in major European and Asian markets in October and then in North America sometime slightly later. Some of the notable features 'Sense services' is set to offer include the ability to make your phone ring by signing into the service from a laptop or computer, even if it’s set to silent, as well as offering users the ability to self-destruct their smartphone (i.e. wipe all the data) if it gets into the wrong hands. There are of course some apps which can do this, but an official product is always good to have.
Android 2.2 needs no introduction and is a major selling point of the Z and with the ever approaching gingerbread and honeycomb OS's it's tempting to have the latest smartphone so that you can be the first to upgrade to the latest OS when it arrives and also have the hardware to handle it.
We Say
There's not much bad to say about the Z. It's not a market shaking smartphone but it's cool looking, efficient and runs on Froyo. It's not for everyone but for some especially the fat fingered lot and the QWERTY faithful, plus those who are a little intimidated by the mammoth screens of the HD etc, it will prove extremely popular. If you're about to purchase an Android phone you'd be stupid not to check this phone out.
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