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HTC Desire HD review
Did you know that the word "jumbo" originated from the name of an African elephant famed for being the largest of his kind? HTC will be well familiar with that tag having already rattled off the HD2, EVO 4G, and HD7 in a smartphone-dwarfing 4.3-inch form factor. And while that may not be the largest screen you can have your Android confectionery on today, it's arguably the upper limit of what we might consider a pocketable device. The HTC Desire HD follows, and seeks to improve upon, its laudable predecessors with an aluminum unibody construction, WVGA (800 x 480) display, 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash plus 720p video, and a modern 1GHz CPU. That hardware is put at the service of Android's latest Froyo offering, complemented with an updated Sense that includes a web interface for controlling and discovering your phone remotely. It's a rich spec sheet, that much is unquestionable, but you're not just here for tenuous wildlife-related metaphors, you want to know if the whole is equal to, or perhaps even more than, the sum of its parts. Join us after the break for a deeper look at the Desire HD.%Gallery-105849%
TomTom maps get loaded onto HTC Locations, promise 'zero-wait navigation experience'
Look out, Google Maps Navigation -- here comes a little friendly competition from across the pond. While we'd heard the term HTC Locations bandied about a bit during the company's London launch of the Desire HD, now it looks as if both HTC and TomTom are ready to make their newfound friendship official. TomTom will be partnering with HTC in order to provide maps for phones loaded with HTC Locations, which is hailed as a new mapping system that results in a "zero-wait navigation experience." Initially, at least, it'll only be available on the new HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z smartphones in Europe and Asia, but the outfit promises to extend that to a wide variety of future phones and geographies. It should be noted, however, that while map and location content come preloaded on HTC Locations, turn-by-turn by guidance has to be purchased separately.
HTC Desire HD ROM ported to Droid Incredible, Desire (update: EVO 4G too)
You've already seen it ported to the HTC HD2, and it looks like the recently-leaked HTC Desire HD ROM has now also made its way to two more likely candidates for a port: the Droid Incredible and original Desire. As you might expect, there are a few issues that you'll likely want to consider before diving right in -- there's no camera support yet on either phone, for instance -- but it does look like it otherwise reasonably stable for a beta, and it does bring some of the boot speed improvements seen on the Desire HD itself. Head on past the break for a quick video, and hit up the source links below for all the necessary details. Update: We're getting word that even the HTC EVO 4G's in on the speedy-booting game now, with a Desire HD ROM as well as an original Desire build from MIUI. They're apparently still half-baked like the other two, missing camera support, WiFi and 4G as well, but if you've been looking for an opportunity to tweak, hit up link number three below. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
HTC Desire HD detailed in appropriately HD video
Feeling like you're insufficiently saturated with Desire HD info? HTC's got your back, as usual, with one of its expansive video overviews, setting the specs and features you already know about to a background of soothing music and cutesy visuals. Nothing wrong with that, we say, and it makes for a great sales pitch if you're trying to convince your significant other of the life-changing benefits of purchasing said handset. Skip past the break, set your eyeballs to 720p mode, and enjoy the show.
HTC Desire HD ROM spawns screenshots aplenty
We've already gotten a brief look at the recently-leaked HTC Desire HD ROM -- and the device itself, of course -- but those still looking for more may want to pay a visit to Android Spin, which has dissected the ROM and provided a fairly thorough look at what's in store for the next version of Sense. That includes some greater customization options, a new HTC Likes app that provides app recommendations, a brand new HTC eReader application and, of course, a number of new features tied to HTC's new HTCSense.com service. Hit up the source link below for the complete tour.
HTC Desire HD ROM gets dumped, ported, chopped, and screwed... oh, and benchmarked
Lots of activity involving the just-announced HTC Desire HD in the past couple days, despite the fact that it's yet to be released anywhere -- and frankly, that's just the kind of can-do attitude from the dev community that we like to see. First off, the HD2 -- which, considering the screen size and general spec sheet similarity, makes an obvious candidate for a ROM transplant -- has indeed gotten an early port, and something tells us this hack is going to get a lot of spit and polish over the next few weeks and will end up breathing fresh life into a phone that had been crippled by its dead-man-walking operating system. There'd been a video of the port in action, but sadly, it's been pulled off YouTube for some mysterious reason, so hopefully it'll reemerge (along with instructions for HD2 owners) soon. Meanwhile, the Desire HD is apparently putting up some hardcore benchmark scores on the strength of its updated Snapdragon MSM8255 processor, posting a Quadrant score of nearly 2,000 -- about two-thirds better than a Froyo-equipped Nexus One. The dumped ROM is already online, so feel free to start digging through it... and if you somehow have a prototype Desire HD lying around, all the better. [Thanks, garsim]
HTC Desire HD hits the FCC, lacks American love
We certainly weren't expecting it, but we can now confirm that the Desire HD announced yesterday lacks any 3G for use in North America thanks to the FCC filing that just hit today. Frequently, we don't know how HTC's internal product codes map to unreleased devices, but by pure happenstance we got a shot of the Desire HD's battery slot during our hands-on where we see that "PD98100" definitely lines up. What does this all mean? Well, it means that the EVO 4G seems poised to soldier on as HTC's only 4.3-inch Android option for Americans in the near term, though there have been plenty of situations in the past where they've snuck in a second model code with 850 / 1900 on board. We'll hold out hope, we suppose.
HTC Desire Z priced at €549 by Amazon.de, £430 by Play.com
A day after becoming official, the Desire Z has received its first price: €549 if bought from Amazon.de. Alas, you still don't have the option to actually purchase or pre-order the unlocked Froyo slider, but at least we've got a relative idea of where its pricing fits within HTC's handset hierarchy. The answer is pretty highly, considering the original Desire, a flagship product in its time, debuted on the same web outlet at €519. And here we hoped the G2's decent US pricing would translate to similar affordability for its sister device. Seems like the usual rule applies: you'd better be patient, rich, or both if you want to have the latest smartphone. [Thanks, Peter] Update: Amazon's UK branch also has a teaser page for the Z, pricing it at £499 and suggesting an October 18 launch date. Thanks, David! Update 2: UK e-tailer Play.com is now one-upping Amazon by suggesting an October 11 release date and taking pre-orders for the Desire Z at £430 and the Desire HD at £470. If this keeps going, they'll be giving them away for free by the end of the day. Thanks, Greg!
HTC Desire family portrait (video)
So you own a Desire and want to know whether its new brandmates -- the Desire HD and Desire Z -- will represent an ergonomically appealing upgrade? We've got you covered with both a gallery of shots below and a neat video after the break encapsulating the size differences between the three models populating Desireland. Okay, we couldn't resist, we threw in an iPhone 4 for comparison's sake as well.
HTC Desire HD first hands-on!
Alright, Europeans, say it with us: "finally!" Yes, having played extensively with the EVO 4G over the last few months, we can definitely say that the Desire HD is an authentic recreation of the American blockbuster, though it lacks the kickstand around back -- likely in an effort to reduce thickness, we suppose. In fact, HTC has eliminated the battery cover entirely, replacing it with a Legend-style slot (side-mounted this time) -- take a look at a shot of it both open and closed after the break. The phones HTC had on display here felt extremely smooth and snappy... though, as we all know, Android tends to bog down a bit over time, so the proof will be in the pudding after these things have been in customers' hands for a month or two. %Gallery-102287%
HTC launches the Desire HD: an EVO for the rest of world
The Desire HD is official, folks, finally bringing a 4.3-inch LCD to European Android fans. The handset is made from a solid block of aluminum and comes packing a 1GHz 8255 Snapdragon processor, 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and 720p video recording, Dolby Mobile, and HSPA+ data with 802.11n WiFi when it lands in Europe and Asia sometime in October. It's also one of the first HTC devices to feature the enhanced HTC Sense experience with HTCsense.com services. %Gallery-102305%
HTC Desire HD rendered, looks pretty legit to us -- oh, except for that WinMo UI
The stars are really aligning for this shindig HTC has scheduled in London for next week, aren't they? All signs point to the launch of the Android-powered Desire Z and Desire HD -- international versions of the G2 and EVO, respectively -- and this render pulled off of German site BestBoyZ matches up perfectly with in-the-wild shots we've seen of the HD before. The only sticking point, really, is that there's a Windows Mobile 6.5 Sense UI shot inexplicably plastered on top, which makes about as much sense as... well, re-releasing the HD2 right now. Bottom line, we think the hardware part of this picture is real; software, not so much. Update: German carrier Base decided to jump on the leaked screenshot as a clever marketing opportunity: It says the device is real, and if you like what you see, you should preorder one immediately. [Thanks, Kamal]
British retailer outs HTC Desire Z, confirms Desire HD again
mobiles.co.uk -- which is a subsidiary of European phone giant Carphone Warehouse -- seems to be talking in some very matter-of-fact terms about a couple new Android models from HTC, presumably devices that we'll see at this upcoming September 15 event. First up is the well-leaked Desire HD, which these guys list as a Froyo device equipped with a 4.3-inch display, 1GHz core, 8 megapixel camera with 720p video capture, and 4GB of internal storage (in other words, precisely what we were expecting). More interesting to some, though, will be the Desire Z, which is described as an Android 2.1 device (yes, 2.1, not 2.2) with a full sliding keyboard -- quite likely the Vision, if we had to guess. Gonna be hard to wait for the next month to find out, isn't it? [Thanks, Richard and Pete S.]
HTC Desire HD surfaces on Amazon UK, gets pulled in record time
And this, folks, pretty much seals the deal. If HTC bothers to not ship the Desire HD, it'll come as quite the surprise. You know -- given that we've seen leaked specifications, an image from Mr. Blurrycam and even a behind-the-scenes video of it. Now, however, we've got a product listing on Amazon's UK branch to focus on, which prices the handset at £415 ($650). The only other detail gleaned from the page is the "Ace" codename, but given that the whole thing has since been yanked, it's impossible to know what else was hidden in the code. Still, we highly doubt HTC would bother passing on phone information to Amazon with no intention of ever officially introducing it, you know? Yeah, you know.
HTC's 4.3-inch Desire HD shows up on video
We saw our first images of the Desire HD over the weekend, and just as day follows night, video leaks typically follow pictorial ones. You'll already be familiar with the mooted specs -- including 720p HD video recording, WVGA screen resolution, and an 8 megapixel imager -- so what else does this handset tour reveal? Well, the family resemblance to HTC's other 4.3-inchers is inevitably apparent to see, with the Desire HD sticking its headphone port at the bottom just like the HD2, and employing a dual LED flash à la the EVO 4G. Beyond that, it looks like yet another well rounded device from the prolific Taiwanese phone maker -- hurry past the break to see it for yourself. [Thanks, Cj]
HTC Desire HD spotted in the wild with EVO-like form factor, Android 2.2 on board?
Well, would you look at that -- it's an Android 2.2 handset with a giant screen, HTC watermark and plenty of similarities to (though apparently no front-facing camera like) the EVO 4G. Could this be the 4.3-inch, 1GHz HTC Desire HD? That's what a Hong Kong forum claims, and we've no doubt we'll have pseudo-confirmation at some point soon given how quickly and thoroughly handsets are leaking out these days.
Rumored HTC Desire HD specs surface: 4.3-inch screen, 8-megapixel camera
We didn't have a ton of details on the so-called HTC Ace when it turned up in a leaked roadmap last week, but a fresh set of rumors are now suggesting that the Ace is actually the Desire HD, which will reportedly pack a number of HD-esque upgrades over the standard Desire. That includes a larger 4.3-inch WVGA screen -- no word if it's AMOLED or SLCD -- and an 8-megapixel camera with 720p video recording. Other rumored details include Android 2.2, 4GB of internal storage, the same 1GHz Snapdragon as the current Desire and, perhaps most interestingly, talk of a "unibody aluminum design." Unfortunately, the rumors still don't include any actual images of the device, but there's still plenty of time for those to leak out before the supposed October release.
