I am always a little bit behind the 8-ball when it comes to new technology. I have never understood why people want to own the latest and greatest phone that does things beyond my imgination. All I have ever needed was something to keep me in touch with my friends and family.
Don’t get me wrong I have always drooled over peoples new iPods, speedy laptops and recently, Smartphones, but have never felt the need for something better. Even right now I am typing this out on my parent’s hand-me-down laptop which hums away so noisily I get told to leave libraries.
However, since moving to the UK and finding that their smartphones and mobile plans are so cheap I couldn’t resist. It took me a solid 2 weeks of research to decide that I didn’t want to be a Apple Autobot so settled on the HTC Desire S. To be brutally honest I don’t know how I have survived without it! Now this review is not going to delve into the nitty gritty, its purely me ranting about how much I love this phone.
So far it has been around Scotland, back home to New Zealand, suffered through my pains in Marrakech and taken stunning photos of the Eiffel Tower. It even survived our trip to Oktoberfest where I managed to drop my phone, no kidding, in a full stein of Bavaria’s best beer and it is still going strong after I soaked it for 3 days in a bowl of rice. Sure there are still beer streaks on the screen but they are hardly noticeable…
With Android’s operating system (or OS for the nerds) being controlled by the mega-giant Google it comes with all sorts of handy Apps that are perfect for travel which you can download for free if you are a stingy bugger like me. I must admit I have not forked out my hard earned pennies yet for paid Apps so not sure what I am missing out on there. If anyone does have any recommendations for must buy Apps then let me know?
The 3.7 inch touch screen is perfect for reading other travellers blogs and reviews while on the move and it is lightening fast with a 1GHz processor (don’t worry I am not getting all nerdy just throwing in some nice sounding facts and figures). It also has 1GB of built in memory with a memory card slot which currently holds another 8GB for me. Enough to easily store whole cities with the Google Maps App right down to street level so that the built in GPS quickly tells me where I am when wandering the back alleys of Paris looking for that tasty patisserie I read about.
I just wish I had the maps function with GPS when we were driving across Canada and USA then we might not have played the silent game as many times as we did when using the good old paper map system.
The camera on the front gives grainy footage but it still seems to be clear enough so that every time I Skype Mum and Dad on the other side of the world they can tell me how pale I am looking and that I need to eat more. While the camera on the back takes better pictures than my 2 year old digital compact camera.
While the battery life is not as great as I had hoped it still will last a full day with calling, web surfing, tweeting and emailing galore. And it plugs straight into any USB or the wall to charge back up while we are chilling out at airports or having a lie-down in our hotel room.
The only downside that I have found so far is that when you are out in the sunlight it is often quite hard to see the screen but with a quick setting adjustment for screen brightness and my big head to block the light this doesn’t bother me too much.
I think the thing I love the most is that for our trips now I don’t have to lug around a laptop, mobile and my iPod when I can just slip my phone into my back pocket and have it all. Brilliant.
So if you are slow to the market like I was then seriously don’t look past this as a great phone (although in my typical techno fashion I have only just got around to reviewing it about 6 months too late and there are so many other flashy phones above this one now).