HTC Desire vs. iPhone 3GS (Mac user)

Andunemir

I've seen that there is a fair amount of topics in forums everywhere comparing HTC Desire and the different iPhones and I still have doubts about which one to get. I have to say that with what I've read including just the raw specs I would go for HTC Desire hands down over the 3GS. The only thing that puts me off a bit is that I've read the AMOLED screen glares like a mirror outside and the hardware is much more less solid than in the 3GS (screen scratching and other things like that that supposedly make the Desire "pocket-unsuitable").

My dilemma is, although my weapon of choice is a PC, at work I use a Mac basically because we need to use lots of Mac-exclusive apps. Thing is I want my phone to be more a work phone so an extension of what I have there, especially syncing with apps like iCal and others of the sort. Not really big things, but the kind of neat set of apps I use on a regular basis. Although for what I've heard the Desire is way better at multi-tasking and that might be handy.

So my question is: is the iPhone 3GS so much worse than the Desire to overshadow the advantage I would have in terms of syncing and so or is it actually not that bad?


P.S. Another thing is although the deals they offer me include the phone for free the contract is slightly more expensive for the iPhone and all the extras are like the double in price compared to the Desire.

lucylucky

"the hardware is much more less solid than in the 3GS "

Not sure exactly what you mean by that but I have an invisible shield cover on my phone and it lives in various pockets with keys change etc and has not a mark on it.

I know of two iphone 3G owners who have cracks running on the back of the phone from the charge/sync connector socket.


If you want the functionality that you describe for work then it would appear the iphone makes more sense.

Oscar_The_Grouch

I agree that the iPhone makes more sense, but why are you going for the 3GS rather than the 4? The 4 has a much better case, screen and glass than the 3GS, as well as the faster processor, longer battery life, larger memory (now that the 8Gb 3GS is the only one available) and is designed to handle iOS4.

The 4 is likely to cost you up front, but I really do think you'll regret going for the 3GS rather than the 4.

Andunemir

The thing of Desire vs. 3GS instead of iPhone 4 is I'm changing from pay-as-you-go to pay monthly and it's just a question of the deal Orange offers me. They're the top-range machines that I can get for free with a reasonable contract. I could go the extra mile and get the iPhone 4 with the same contract for 120 pounds but I don't know if it's worth it having the possibility of getting the Desire for free that also has way cheaper extras on top of the contract.

Besides, the two guys I know with iPhone 4 are having a lot of problems with reception and with the phone freaking out from time to time. They're not the best with technology but it doesn't give me the best feeling considering all the extra money that would mean.

And although it would be great being able to sync everything in seconds, all the stuff about the multi-tasking in the Desire with the different applications running in different screens at the same time, proper notifications and all that convinces me more. I might kill the battery in 8 hours but it would be useful.

So everything comes down basically to how much of an advantage is the performance of the Desire as pretty much a handheld computer compared to the advantage of automatic syncing (and the Apple Apps that still convince me more than HTC's) of the iPhone.

lucylucky

Andunemir wrote: »

The thing of Desire vs. 3GS instead of iPhone 4 is I'm changing from pay-as-you-go to pay monthly and it's just a question of the deal Orange offers me. They're the top-range machines that I can get for free with a reasonable contract. I could go the extra mile and get the iPhone 4 with the same contract for 120 pounds but I don't know if it's worth it having the possibility of getting the Desire for free that also has way cheaper extras on top of the contract.

Besides, the two guys I know with iPhone 4 are having a lot of problems with reception and with the phone freaking out from time to time. They're not the best with technology but it doesn't give me the best feeling considering all the extra money that would mean.

And although it would be great being able to sync everything in seconds, all the stuff about the multi-tasking in the Desire with the different applications running in different screens at the same time, proper notifications and all that convinces me more. I might kill the battery in 8 hours but it would be useful.

So everything comes down basically to how much of an advantage is the performance of the Desire as pretty much a handheld computer compared to the advantage of automatic syncing (and the Apple Apps that still convince me more than HTC's) of the iPhone.

I have the Desire, I think you would be better with the iphone.

slugger09

I've had 2 Desire's both sent back and staying with my 3G, battery life is damn awful even with all the tweaking, The iPhones isn't to hot either but the Desire is about half that, and both mine over heated when using Google maps, syncing with the Desire is also a pain, you plug it in and it comes up as a drive, you have to drag stuff over where as iTunes just sorts all for you. Android market place also isn't up to much.

The way I look at these two phones is, The iPhone is ridiculously over priced while the Desire is over hyped

Andunemir

slugger09 wrote: »

I've had 2 Desire's both sent back and staying with my 3G, battery life is damn awful even with all the tweaking, The iPhones isn't to hot either but the Desire is about half that, and both mine over heated when using Google maps, syncing with the Desire is also a pain, you plug it in and it comes up as a drive, you have to drag stuff over where as iTunes just sorts all for you. Android market place also isn't up to much.

The syncing with iTunes is actually one of the few things that I'm not so sure about. I have no idea how it works for the iPhone but I don't know if I'd be particularly happy with one single program syncing everything. If it works fine it could be great, but if it does whatever it wants it would annoy me quite a lot. How customizable is the syncing with iTunes?

Another thing is I have an iPod 80GB (with 60 GB of stuff already) so I won't use the phone at all for music and probably not much for anything multimedia either, apart from images. I'm more interested in how it deals with web browsing, office management and having running some small widgets that I could have constantly visible like calendar, notes and things like that. By the way how do the maps work on the iPhone? Does it have a special app for that or is there any way to connect it to Google Maps?

In the end it's a PC vs. Mac argument. I love my Mac but there are lots of things that would exasperate me if it wasn't because I have my PC at home. And if I had those same kind of problems with the phone (lack of customization, iOS doing whatever it wants instead of what you want, flash and scripts not working...) I could throw it out of the window.

lucylucky

The Desire is a joy to use as regards the internet.

As to the market there are no apps that are on the iphone that I feel I am missing out on.

The things I use regularly on the Desire (apart from phone and text) and which are all free apps.


Maps
Navigation
Calendar
Mail
Shazam
Yell
BBC News
Sky News
Sky+
Movie Finder
Photoshop
Soccer Scores

Fifer

Andunemir wrote: »

(screen scratching and other things like that that supposedly make the Desire "pocket-unsuitable").

I've owned my Desire since launch, I've never used a screen protector and there isn't a scratch on it. I remember seeing a user test which concluded that the Desire screen was about as scratch resistant as they come.

slugger09

For internet and that type of thing i'd go Desire, its excellent in that field, everything is ultra snappy

Andunemir

Then I think I'll go for HTC. I just found a link explaining how to use MobileMe to sync with Google. It might take a bit of time to make it work smoothly both ways but it seems perfectly doable.

Thanks a lot, guys. I'll let you know how it goes.