iPhone v HTC Desire

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  • x12yhp
    x12yhp Posts: 801 Forumite
    The two phones are for two different people. If you want something that just works with minimal thought then the Iphone wins. If you know about tech stuff, like to fiddle and customise, then the HTC wins.

    Most times I hear this question the answer turns out to be that the Iphone wins. If the Desire is the better phone... the potential purchaser will generally have worked it out for themselves!
    Always overestimating...
  • bubblesmoney
    bubblesmoney Posts: 2,156
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    x12yhp wrote: »
    The two phones are for two different people. If you want something that just works with minimal thought then the Iphone wins. If you know about tech stuff, like to fiddle and customise, then the HTC wins.

    Most times I hear this question the answer turns out to be that the Iphone wins. If the Desire is the better phone... the potential purchaser will generally have worked it out for themselves!

    the desire is easy to use out of the box, no need to customize at all. my wife's phone is not fiddled with, she does not like me putting a lot of stuff on it. it works fine . on mine I do what I want, the phones look and apps might be different daily as I experiment with it. it works fine that way too. you get the option to do what you like.
    bubblesmoney :hello:
  • purple12
    purple12 Posts: 304
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    the desire is easy to use out of the box, no need to customize at all. my wife's phone is not fiddled with, she does not like me putting a lot of stuff on it. it works fine . on mine I do what I want, the phones look and apps might be different daily as I experiment with it. it works fine that way too. you get the option to do what you like.

    I agree. I wanted an iPhone because I wanted something easy. In the end, I got a Desire because the price difference was too great. I am not very technical at all and have found the phone very straightforward to use.
    I think it can get complicated if you want it to be but it can also be very simple for people like me :)
  • bubblesmoney
    bubblesmoney Posts: 2,156
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    edited 28 July 2010 at 8:20PM
    purple12 wrote: »
    I agree. I wanted an iPhone because I wanted something easy. In the end, I got a Desire because the price difference was too great. I am not very technical at all and have found the phone very straightforward to use.
    I think it can get complicated if you want it to be but it can also be very simple for people like me :)
    yes, if one wants a phone that works well out of the box, wants email that works well (pushemail for instant email and better battery usage), decent camera and video camera, open and view word / pdf / excel documents, web browsing with good speeds, media player, external memory device, wifi internet access, sms, facebook, skype, windows live messenger, gps satnav device, shopping aid, voice recorder, etc etc etc it works fine out of the box with no need to fiddle. obviously not all features will be top of the range like on any device but if you are a lay user then you would be more than chuffed you bought the phone. you might need to download some free apps like yahoomail, skype etc but most other stuff is preloaded. i have about 100 apps and have tried loads and loads more in the 3m i have had the phone and didnt have to pay for a single app yet! ofcourse if i want to buy more apps to increase the functionality then i do have those options too.

    unless you need stuff like proxy access for wifi internet or other niche stuff then you wont have any issues using the desire. but there will be better android devices coming out every month just like in everything else in electronics field now a days.

    the days of being limited to a corner shop or a tesco or an iphone are long gone for most of us who live in todays non blinkered world. more the competition the better for the consumer. come upgrade time there will surely be better phones for me from many manufacturers like motorola / sony / htc / microsoft etc etc etc and i will decide which suits me best. ofcourse the iphone might very well suit many others and good for them too. if there are good competing systems then consumers benefit all around rather than there being one closed high profit system. i hope come upgrade time there are some really rugged smart phones out there which can withstand dust sand water and drops and ice like you get in the compact camera market now. that would be the ultimate phone for me and i guess for many with a young family where kids tend to drop and break stuff. that would suit well with holidays too and no need for multiple devices.
    The ROM is fine, its simply that in this location no phone can get a signal, that is no phone but the iPhone 4!

    The point I am trying to make is that, yes its fine for HTC to bring out new models, but the problem is that as soon as the new model is out, support for older models dries up to practically nothing, and this has been the same with them for as long as I have had their phones.

    Apple have made an effort to support their older models, which is very important given that contacts are now generally 18 and 24 months in duration, last thing I want, is to end up with a phone that stops being supported as soon as something newer and shiner is on the market, and that is the fate I see for the Desire once the Ace (or Desire HD) is released.

    I actually moved away from HTC with my last upgrade to Blackberry Bold 9000, but this was stolen and the Hero was my replacement, not my choice, but its OK. Personally I found it slow and buggy when it was on 1.5, and the continued broken promises of an upgrade to 2.1, have reaffirmed my faith in the decision to move away from HTC.

    I know what I am doing reasonably well with a phone, I am fully capable of rooting it and loading on a custom ROM, which is how I got 2.1, which yes it has been released by HTC and is now available on T-Mobile, but for those poor chumps on 3 and Orange are stuck with 1.5, which is why I put on a custom ROM. I don't expect all features to work, just like an update of the OS on a computer if you have an older model.

    After a week of perfect use of the iPhone 4, I know I am not going back to HTC when my upgrade date rolls along, its iPhone4 all the way.

    i have put across my views about your other points while replying to others similar views. delays with networks not releasing their version of the rom are hardly the manufacturers fault, it is your network that is at fault for having put junk on the factory rom and not upgrading it because probably they want you to buy another phone, you could always root and flash the stock rom instead. htc have repaired reflashed devices under guarantee even if the networks tell you otherwise!

    but regarding the highlighted point in your post.... i somehow find it hard to belive that a phone with an external antenna can have a better reception than phones with internal antennas. the external antenna design was abandoned more than a decade ago by all companies for the interference problem well known with that design. for a valid comparison, all the phones in question would need to have sim cards from the same network preferably one network with weak signals in the area. if different phones have different sims from different networks then the comparison wont be valid. also all the phones would have to be unbranded or bought from the same network as networks usually fiddle with the phones settings to optimise for their network and if a phone bought elsewhere is compared to a phone bought from the network then the comparison might not be valid. this applies to tests done by anybody and any phone.

    if you see standardised tests like done by consumer reports then the iphone 4 (not 3gs) was the one with the most attenuation. same has been proved by the detailed analysis of anandtech links to which i posted in other threads. without a cover the iphone4 has attenuation of about 20-25dbm but this improves with a cover on. please note that anad tech and consumer reports are independent organisations that routinely test all such devices and give reports. you can see the anandtech report and their methods of testing on their website.

    i can check out the three network simcard in a weak signal area in an iphone 4 provided some who own the iphone4 are willing to waste time and pull the simcard out and use my sim in their phone in those areas of weak signal and i can compare the reception. i doubt many people would be willing to allow me experiment with the phiones by allowing me to pull out their sims anbd use my sim to check it out. but if someone allows then i can do the tests. you could do something similar too by using the same sim on all phones concerned (with the proviso that the phones havent been fiddled with by network branding and fiddling of radio bands / firmware etc by the networks) and check out the situation yourself.
    bubblesmoney :hello:
  • Oscartheposcar
    Oscartheposcar Posts: 48 Forumite
    edited 28 July 2010 at 9:12PM
    i somehow find it hard to belive that a phone with an external antenna can have a better reception than phones with internal antennas. the external antenna design was abandoned more than a decade ago by all companies for the interference problem well known with that design.
    Well not really - it was because people didn't want antennas sticking out of the top of their phones. Logically an out-in-the-open antenna is going to pick up more signal than an internal one. Atennuation of that signal is a different thing of course...
    if you see standardised tests like done by consumer reports then the iphone 4 (not 3gs) was the one with the most attenuation. same has been proved by the detailed analysis of anandtech links to which i posted in other threads. without a cover the iphone4 has attenuation of about 20-25dbm but this improves with a cover on. please note that anad tech and consumer reports are independent organisations that routinely test all such devices and give reports. you can see the anandtech report and their methods of testing on their website.

    Yep - have you read the Anandtech reports?

    Here are three little quotes so that you get the full picture:
    Reception in average conditions is sometimes significantly better on the iPhone 4 than on the 3GS.
    We’ve already proven that holding the iPhone 4 attenuates its signal more than the 3GS
    The iPhone 4 is better at holding onto calls and data at very low signal levels. We’ve mentioned this one before but it’s worth reiterating. The new antenna does let me make calls and transmit data at very low signal strength. With the iOS 4.0.1 update I was able to make a call at -115dB on the 3GS, however the call did drop within a minute of starting it. By comparison I was able to have a much longer conversation without dropping the call at -120dB on the 4.
    The last one is particularly relevant for what geordieracer82 posted.

    Also, as you can see, full "bars" on an Android phone can equal 3 "bars" on an iPhone, thanks to the more realistic mapping of signal to bars that Apple is now doing. Perhaps Android will follow suit (although the manufacturers might have to improve the sensitivity of their antennas to hold onto a signal below -113dBm)
    signalbarmapping.jpg
    PS it also explains why you were a bit confused in one of the other threads when you said this:
    that bit highlighted in bold above is absolute b0ll0cks. at -113dbm you lose the signal because it equals the noise floor and signal becomes indistinguishible from the background radiation. thats true for all phones including the iphone, unless jobs found a way to beat physics ;) that would be the only way you could measure something like -120dbm even if something like that exists at all.

    Looks like 1) the iPhone 4 can measure signal strengths of -120dBm and 2) Anandtech were able to hold a call at that signal strength! The "noise floor" is lower in the iPhone4 circuitry than in other phones, as the independent testing by Anandech shows. So it can hold onto a signal at very low levels....

    ...if you don't actually hold onto the phone in such a way that it gets attenuated of course :o
  • bubblesmoney
    bubblesmoney Posts: 2,156
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    edited 29 July 2010 at 9:08AM
    Well not really - it was because people didn't want antennas sticking out of the top of their phones. Logically an out-in-the-open antenna is going to pick up more signal than an internal one. Atennuation of that signal is a different thing of course...



    Yep - have you read the Anandtech reports?

    Here are three little quotes so that you get the full picture:





    The last one is particularly relevant for what geordieracer82 posted.

    Also, as you can see, full "bars" on an Android phone can equal 3 "bars" on an iPhone, thanks to the more realistic mapping of signal to bars that Apple is now doing. Perhaps Android will follow suit (although the manufacturers might have to improve the sensitivity of their antennas to hold onto a signal below -113dBm)
    signalbarmapping.jpg

    i have read the report but have you? reading is different from seeing what one wants to see in a report! http://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix

    picking up of signals and attenuation and interference are intertwined that is why almost alll manufacturers went down the route of internal antennas decade or so ago.

    "the dynamic range is compressed so much that the 24 dB drop from cupping the phone without a case could make all the bars go away."

    please note that -113dbm (some resources say -111 instead of -113) is the noise floor where signal is indistinguishible from background radiation. look it up in science webpages if you doubt what i say. so if the iphone shows signal to be -120dbm then that is an error. just because it shows a number does not mean that the -113 noise floor value does not exist in physics! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson%E2%80%93Nyquist_noise the thermal noise floor for 2100MHz band used in the uk will be about the -113dbm. for other bands it will slightly vary. at 2MHz it will be -111dbm and at lower 1.9MHz etc it will be still lower. see gsm freq bands for the world here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_bands the freq bands (GSM AND UMTS) used in uk are between 870 to 2170MHz and for that the noise floor is between -111dbm and -113dbm and for the noise floor to be 120dbm the freq would have to be in 180kilohertz which is !!!! and bull as the freq bands used are in MHz so the anandtech numbers dont add up in the 120dbm small print, as there is no 180kilohtz band for gsm in usa or uk as far as i can tell!!!! and 180khz is the freq used for AM band radio and looks like the iphone4 is getting interference from 180khz AM band radio signals too as far i can tell from what anandtech says about 120dbm etc :eek::eek:!!! i can tell that without being an engineer but i can do basic addition and can use my common sense (i think)and do an analysis about attenuation on my htc desire etc which i did more than a month before they printed their analysis! see my post from june 6th 2010 on mse about this issue much before anandtech got their analysis or their hands on an iphone4 ! the anand tech reprot is from 15th july which is a full month and one week after i wrote about my findings on MSE http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2523297 i would be happy to be proved wrong and to learn but from what i have shown i am right! Noise floor depends on the frequency band of transmission rather than circuitry. In the UK Cellular mobile services operate within the frequency ranges 872-960 MHz, 1710-1875 MHz and 1920 - 2170 MHz so the noise floor would be between -114 to -111dbm.

    please note that the recent software update has not changed the problem but just changed the perception. "While the software update obviously does not and cannot address the design of the antenna itself - or make the drop from holding the phone any less - it does change the way the issue is perceived among users. " so the problem is still there, it has been whitewashed over to fool the users of the iphone4. making more bars appear on the phone or making them taller does not make the signal any stronger than it was before or the death grip effect any less than before! this reminds me of the emperor is not wearning any clothes story.

    " It’s a mind trick that Apple no doubt hopes will make the signal look better. If the bars are taller, they must denote stronger signal, right?"

    "Interestingly enough, while bars 1 and 2 are the most changed, their respective cutoffs are virtually unchanged."

    " I was shocked that calls and data worked seemingly unfazed at -113 dBm. It seems as though this increased 8 dBm of range below -113 dBm was meant to show really how much more sensitive the radio stack is - it undeniably is more sensitive. Both Anand and I were able to hang onto calls all the way down at -121 dBm."

    i dont know if you have seen me writing here a while ago that my htc desire transmits data and receives data and calls around the -113dbm 0 ASU signal range too which i cant explain. more over when the signal drops it catches the 'PRL' (preffered roaming list signal) immediately too. my 'time without signal' at most places is now 0% and only in extremely poor signal area deep inside buildings do i lose signals but that is dependent on network too.

    please note my htc desire signal thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2523297 where (much before seeing the anandtech report or before it became public news) i had done similar tests on the htc desire and reported it on MSE forum and three blog. i am not a techie but had used common sense and done the exact tests what the techies at anadtech had done with their fancy gadgets. more over i had a control phone to my tests which they didnt have. i have 2 desires one of them still in factory settings and one which i have fiddled with and used them side by side for signal strength comparison tests at multiple locations while driving (my wife holding the phone and noting the signal data while i drove) / walking / stationary. you can go back and see the stuff that i reported on those threads if you wish to confiirm what i say, that was in 6 june 2010 more than a month before the iphone4 was even released and these techy guys did the tests. i had done similar tests and reported the finding here more than a months before the iphone4 was even released.

    also see http://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix/2

    "We have consistently argued that the 4’s antenna is a design choice by Apple. As we’ve seen in our testing there are situations where the iPhone 4’s antenna makes things better (e.g. holding onto calls with very low signal strength) and other situations where the design makes them worse (e.g. holding it wrong in situations with low signal strength). "

    " In situations where the 4 has the same signal as the 3GS, holding the phone is going to drop it to levels significantly worse than the 3GS. If you’re in an area with low signal strength to begin with, holding the phone is going to bring you down to dangerously low levels."

    " The new antenna does let me make calls and transmit data at very low signal strength. With the iOS 4.0.1 update I was able to make a call at -115dB on the 3GS, however the call did drop within a minute of starting it. By comparison I was able to have a much longer conversation without dropping the call at -120dB on the 4. By no means is this a scientific comparison, but anecdotally both Brian and I feel that the low signal strength performance of the iPhone 4 is better than the 3GS."

    please note that better than 3gs does not mean reception is better than other phone companies! please see the signal drop comparison to the nexus one even after the new update :p.

    "I can’t stress enough that this issue impacts all users. The variability is in how strong of a signal you have to begin with. That’s the absolute only reason there’s debate in these discussions from phone to phone. At my desk I don’t get great reception on AT&T. With the iPhone 4 I’m usually at -96dBm. If I keep a tight grip on the phone or if I’m holding it to send text messages I can sometimes lose all signal entirely. This is a combination of poor reception at my house and the fact that the 4 loses more of its signal than other phones when held certain ways."

    as a final answer ... just see what anandtech said ...
    "Hold the phone as tightly as you want with a bumper and it’ll lose as much signal as a 3GS or Nexus One. Put some sort of insulating coating on the stainless steel band and you’ll significantly reduce, but not eliminate the issue."

    so to have equal signal strength as much as a nexus 1 or even an iphone 3gs it needs to have a bumper, otherwise there is no comparison!

    or if you dont want a bumper then put some industrial grade Kapton tape on! but that wont give as good effects as a case for the iphone4. pretty phone but not good for signals without a bumper in weak signal areas. please note the 3g maps for the uk that i posted in another thread started by me http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2581437 , majority of the networks dont have a proper coverage for the uk even at 110dbm for 50% of the time from 2009 data from OFCOM. so this issue of antenna will affect all iphone4 that are used in weak signal areas of which there are many in the uk as extablished from OFCOM 2009 report.

    please note that anantech actually checked the usa gsm bands and they didnt check the 2100MHz band used by 3g UMTS networks in the uk!!!!! and attenuation will be more for this band!!! :eek: that will be a smaller issue if you just want to use a 2g connection for data on a lower MHz band.

    good night oscar, all phones have problems, some more than others depending on where you use the phone. Hope you enjoy your phone like i do using mine. There is nothing better than being happy with what we have. ofcourse we could do better with our next upgrade!

    ps: i am too lazy using the shift key as i type with one or two fingers. sorry for the lower case typing.

    edit: just noted your response from a few days ago in the other thread and have responded there and 'darkconvict' who quoted about military grade equipment but that is not relavant to mobile phone frequencies http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2603871&page=5

    edit: have commented on anandtech website why they made a fundamental mistake in their analysis of the iphone antenna and said it was better than other antennas at lower signal strengths. i am awaiting their response. see page 15 for my comment on this link http://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix
    bubblesmoney :hello:
  • sodamnfunky
    sodamnfunky Posts: 12,303 Forumite
    I was in the same dilemma too. Had a Sony Ericsson C905, which is a great phone, but with my upgrade wanted a smartphone, and as I have an Ipod touch which I also love, looked at the Iphone4.

    My only reservation was the fact I already had an Ipod touch, then I saw the cost of the Iphone4, and read a few reviews of the HTC Desire, and got one(HTC) on Thursday from Orange after O2 did absolutely nothing to retain me as a customer. So far it's a great phone, even if it is a little daunting compared to my previous ones.
  • bubblesmoney
    bubblesmoney Posts: 2,156
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    edited 7 August 2010 at 4:48PM
    if you havent already then update the software on your desire to 2.2 android if yours is not a branded handset. then you will get the wifi hotspot option that will allow you to use your ipod touch via the desires wifi connection and get both the desire phones plus points and also the internet capable ipod touch plus points.

    if yours is a branded desire then you will have to wait a bit to get the froyo 2.2 update from your network.

    some websites that might interest you and help you use the desire better are https://www.htcapps.com and https://www.myhtcdesire.com for a start. and for more queries check out this link if needed http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=594 .

    the new version of htc synch launched with the wildfire can synch with itunes i am told, a similar new version for the desire is awaited for direct synching with itunes library which might interest you. in the mean time download the doubletwist app from market which will help you synch itunes with your desire phone.
    bubblesmoney :hello:
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