MWC 2010: HTC overview

HTC were the last major manufacturer to announce their new handsets at this year's MWC. As it turns out, the wait was more than worth it. The Taiwanese company had three very nice devices in stock for us.

 
HTC booth at the MWC 2010

The HTC Desire, HTC Legend and HTC HD mini are all fine full-touch phones with sleek design and extensive functionality.

HTC Desire

The incredibly cheesy porn-starlet name aside, HTC Desire is a great device. Sleek looks meet great performance to create a package that is really hard to resist.

We are certainly impressed by the large AMOLED display. It sure is short of the Samsung S8500 Wave incredible blacks, but otherwise quite a match. We are not sure how it will handle exposure to direct sunlight but inside the Barcelona Fair halls it looks just great.

As was to be expected from a capacitive unit, response is excellent and there is multi-touch support too.

    
HTC Desire (codenamed Bravo)

In spite of our worries, the phone fits nicely in the hand and isn't too big to handle at all. Of course, it's no LG Mini but some good use of space makes sure the 3.7" display doesn't become a burden for the HTC Desire.

It was a short time we spent with the HTC Desire but it doesn't take long to convince anyone in the qualities of the 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU. The Desire is among the snappiest devices out there even though its display resolution nearly steps over netbook territory.

Unfortunately, the rumors about the HTC Desire (or Bravo as it was known at the time) capturing 720p video turned out wrong. It's not that D1 resolution at 30 fps is bad, but it certainly isn't top-notch.

The trackpad is a nice touch to the HTC Desire. It works fine and gives you an alternative way of browsing your homescreens for example. Unfortunately the trackpad itself is well on the small side and doesn't quite provide high precision.

And here goes a user interface demo to get you better acquainted with this new Android.

HTC have added a few new touches to their proprietary Sense UI that comes preinstalled on top of the Android OS 2.1. The Leap view is the nicest of them, allowing you to make all seven homescreens visible at once by a pinch, and decide where you want to go next.

Impressive, isn't it? Now, if only they stuck to the original Bravo name, it would've been just perfect.

HTC Legend

HTC Legend is the living proof that a handset can update its predecessor in almost all ways possible. It's lighter, slimmer and more powerful than the HTC Hero, and it looks way better.

The seamless aluminum unibody is absolutely impressive and while the Legend pays its respects to the original Android styling, the chin at the bottom is a very subtle accent rather than a prominent birthmark.

    
HTC Legend

The HTC Legend also packs an AMOLED display which, while maintaining the HVGA resolution of the Hero's TFT unit, has much deeper blacks and so much better image quality. Being so punchy and all it also contributes to the phone's general look, touching a soft spot in every geek's heart.

While our first impression might be a bit misleading, with the sample units lacking any extra software to slow them down, the HTC Legend performs above expectations. Getting the CPU from 528 to 600 MHz doesn't seem like too great of an update but the Legend definitely feels snappier than the Hero.

   
HTC Legend

The final hardware upgrade that the HTC Legend brings is the amount of RAM, which is now increased to 384 MB. We are in no position to judge the effect of that yet, but it should make some difference too.

On the software side of things, the Legend comes with Android OS v2.1 and the new version of the HTC Sense UI.