HTC Desire Z review

Product HTC Desire Z
Website Vodafone
Specifications Android 2.2 with HTC Sense, 3.7-inch 480x800 WVGA display, physical Qwerty keyboard, 800MHz processor, 512MB RAM, 1.5GB internal storage, 8GB microSD card, 5MP camera with flash, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, USB tethering, DLNA connectivity, 180g
Price £400 SIM-free, or free from £35 per month at Vodafone

HTC'S DESIRE Z smartphone has better than average hardware specifications, combines a touchscreen and slide out keypad, and runs Android 2.2 'Froyo', all of which will likely make it a hit with mobile users. 

Upon first picking up the Desire Z, the first thing you notice about it is its impressive build quality. The case is made of aluminium and gun-metal grey plastic, which combine to deliver a stylish look and solid feel.

With dimensions of 119mm x 60mm x 14mm, the Desire Z is smaller than HTC's flagship HTC Desire HD, and will fit comfortably into jacket and trouser pockets. However, the Desire Z is a couple of millimetres thicker than the Desire HD and, at 180g, is 16g heavier due to the addition of a retractable Qwerty keyboard.

Interface
HTC ships the Desire Z with Android 2.2 'Froyo' along with the firm's Sense overlay that accompanies all of its Android powered smartphones.

The phone automatically switches to landscape mode when the keyboard is in use but, like a competing slide-out smartphone, the Motorola Milestone 2, it is possible to use all of the phone's functions by using just the touchscreen.

Seven customary home screens come preloaded with apps and widgets. A set of home screens known as 'scenes' is available and provides a good basis on which to customise the handset.

The HTC widgets, such as Friend Stream and Calendar, are definitely standout features. Each widget usually takes up one home screen and provides a decent chunk of information, unlike the minuscule versions found on Nokia and Motorola devices.

Applications
The Desire Z comes with an almost identical set of apps as found on other Android 2.2 handsets. Email clients, Google Talk, Navigation, Adobe PDF Reader and Quickoffice are all present, but as mentioned above the HTC widgets are superior to those of other handset manufacturers and give the device a slight edge over its rivals.

Despite being Vodafone branded, our review unit did not ship with the operator's 360 services application.

The Quickoffice mobile app lets users view and create Microsoft Word and Excel documents, and view PowerPoint presentations. The Quick Lookup and Wi-Fi Hotspot apps are also very useful, and will no doubt be used frequently for business travel. A 30-day free trial for the premium Car Panel app was also included.

Desire Z owners can also take advantage of the recently created HTCSense.com portal, which provides a number of free features, including the ability to divert phone calls, and lock, erase and locate the device. The service also backs up messages and contact details, which can save a lot of aggravation if a handset is lost or stolen.

Hardware
The Desire Z is powered by an 800MHz processor and has 512MB of RAM, so we were surprised to see a lag during testing. Slowdown is most noticeable when using resource-hungry applications such as navigation and even when browsing the web at times.

The handset has a 3.7-inch WVGA touch screen with 480x800 resolution that delivers image quality that's pretty much the same as that of the Desire HD. While the Retina display on the Iphone remains unsurpassed, the display screen on the Desire Z is an attractive feature.

HTC has been a little stingy with the onboard storage, though, providing just 1.5GB. With a free device requiring users to fork out at least £35 per month and a SIM-free device costing £400, it could put off some customers.

The inclusion of an 8GB micro-SD card goes some way towards making up for the lack of internal storage but, with the rival Motorola Milestone 2 shipping with 16GB, HTC should have done better.

A 5-megapixel camera is located on the rear and it is good to see that HTC has incorporated it into the design, unlike the eyesore on the back of the HD model. The camera comes with autofocus and flash, and is capable of HD recording.

Messaging
The four-tiered keyboard is hinged and pops out to the right-hand side. The hinges feel firm and require a reasonable push to snap open and closed. The raised keys are well spaced and feel more comfortable to use than the stiff keys on the Motorola Milestone 2, although there are a couple of issues.

First, the lack of arrows is a noticeable omission and, while this can easily be substituted by using the touch screen for activities such as web browsing, the pinpoint accuracy of keys is missed when carrying out tasks such as editing documents. The trackpad can be used, but we found it an inadequate substitute.

The location of some of the symbols on the keyboard can also take a bit of getting used to. The '@' is located in the top left hand corner, and the function keys are located where most people would expect 'shift' to be, but these are minor quibbles.

HTC has also found it necessary to include two shortcut keys, which can be assigned to open applications. However, we hardly ever used them as the keyboard was mainly used to type, not navigate through the interface.

As the on-screen input is well above average, many people are likely to use it often to fire off a quick text. The large letters are easy to hit and the text prediction and word completion is one of the most accurate we have tested. These predictive features can also be turned on when using the physical keypad.

Internet
Android's Webkit browser provides one of the best Internet experiences on mobile devices. While the performance of the Desire Z in this area is not quite as good as other high-end devices with 4-inch screens and 1GHz processors, it is still above average.

The 3.7-inch screen provides more than enough real estate to display web pages comfortably, and support for Adobe Flash 10.1 means that users will not have to compromise when watching video on the move.

Sites load reasonably quickly over 3G and WiFi using a Vodafone SIM. However, the handset does feel like it's struggling at times and can take a few seconds to load the desired page. Lag is most noticeable when watching video.

Navigating between pages is easy in portrait and landscape modes, although the latter is the prefered method. The pinch-to-zoom is a good feature that reformats text quickly without having to mess about with context sensitive features.

Users can also change the default text size of web pages, as well as access downloads, history and advanced settings with just a couple of clicks.

Battery life
This area is a problem for the latest HTC handsets and, although battery life is better than with the Desire HD, it is likely that the Desire Z is going to need charging at the end of each day.

Aside from the screen draining the majority of battery power, using navigation for a prolonged period depletes the battery to dangerously low levels too quickly. An in-car charger or dock is recommended when using this feature on the road.

It is possible to get more than one day's use out of the battery, but background data synchronisation needs to be turned off, brightness of the screen set to its lowest level, and applications such as navigation and Internet used sparingly.

In Short
Despite the slightly inferior specifications and some minor quibbles, the Desire Z just about pips the Motorola Milestone 2 in terms of usability. The Android 2.2 operating system is still one of the best around and, coupled with the HTC Sense user interface, makes the Desire Z one of the better slider devices on the market. µ

The Good
Great touch screen, nice design, gets the best out of Android 2.2, decent input methods.

The Bad
Disappointing onboard storage, noticeable lag when navigating.

The Ugly
Battery life.

Bartender's Score
7/10