SpecEagle review · HTC

HTC Desire review: The 2010 Android flagship that put HTC Sense on the map.

SpecEagle Editorial·Apr 2010·$500
Overall
46/100
Class rank
#10 of 13
Tier
Flagship
Buy?
Look elsewhere
The verdict, up front

The phone that made HTC Sense famous.

HTC Desire was the company's breakout Android flagship — essentially a Nexus One with HTC Sense, the skin that made Android feel friendly and customisable. It cemented HTC as a top-tier Android maker at the dawn of the platform's rise.

01Display

62/100

62/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2010 — 7 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

TypeAMOLED (later SLCD)
Size3.7 inches
Resolution800 × 480 px (WVGA)

02Camera

50/100

50/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2010 — 13 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

Main5 MP, autofocus, LED flash
Video720×480
FrontNone

03Performance

52/100

52/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2010 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

ChipsetSnapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz
RAM576 MB
Storage512 MB · microSD

04Battery

52/100

52/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2010 — 8 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

Capacity1,400 mAh (removable)
Standby~ 340 hours

05Build

64/100

64/100 trails the 68-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2010.

06Value

58/100

58/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2010.

What works
  • HTC Sense gave Android a polished skin.
  • 1 GHz Snapdragon, AMOLED screen.
  • Optical trackpad.
  • microSD + jack.
What doesn't
  • Only 576 MB RAM filled fast.
  • WVGA resolution.
  • Sibling of the Nexus One — less "pure".
  • Average battery.

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 13-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .