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HTC Wildfire |
The HTC Wildfire is a great modern handset at the price of a more budget handset.
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It’s screen is a slightly lower resolution that we are used to from HTC but at such a low price it is hardly anything to complain about. The handset has the body of a HTC desire so it is every bit as beautiful as you would want, and there is plenty more to love about this handset.
Smart phone for smart people
In appearance the Wildfire looks like a wider squashed Desire and it also offers many of the features we know and love from HTC, but at a much lower price. The Wildfire is equipped with the latest version of Android, 2.1, and supports Outlook email, which is very useful for the everyday business person. Suprisingly, for a cheaper handset, HTC have even made some improvements, like its fantastic on-screen keyboard.
There are tons of HTC’s own widgets that you can litter your, up to seven, home screens with. There are widgets made to keep up to date with all social networking sights, Friend Stream Widget, and this allows you to keep up to date without having to use any apps. The addition of widgets means that you don’t need to clog up your home screen with apps that perform the same purposes, and they are really well designed.
Another new addition is the App sharer feature which allows you to do exactly what it is called. In the past there have been difficulties with Android users being able to share their apps with their friends but with the new app sharer you can send apps via email, Facebook or Twitter.
The address book is social networking aware, automatically linking your Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and phone contacts, which allows you to see your contacts Facebook photos from your address book.
These features tend to work well, despite the Wildfire's 528MHz processor, which is about half as speedy as the Desire's. But you'll occasionally have to wait a fraction of a second for something to happen after you've tapped the capacitive screen. It's not a major annoyance, though, especially considering the Wildfire's low price, and scrolling around menus and screens is still a smooth and pleasant experience.
Screening our calls
The Wildfire's biggest drawback is its low-resolution screen, which struggles to pack in all of Android's awesomeness. At 81mm (3.2 inches), it's pleasingly large, but its 240x320-pixel, QVGA resolution means that text is huge and slightly blurry, and Web pages are unreadable until you zoom in.
Also, the keys of the on-screen keyboard often cover up a huge portion of the screen, obscuring the fields that you want to see. Then, when you're finished typing, there's no easy way to hide the keyboard away so that you can send your text message, for example. It's a common problem with phones that run Android, but, combined with the low-res screen, it can be a real pain with the Wildfire.
The use of the trackpad instead of the trackball feels a whole lot better as editing and scrolling through text feels much more natural and easy. The trackball that had been used previously on models like the HTC Hero felt clunky and often got filled with dirt and lint, thankfully the trackpad doesn’t suffer from these problems.
Web master
The Wildfire is an excelling piece of equipment for surfing the web and with its use of Flash Lite you will be seeing every page as they are supposed to be. As always HTC have produced a capacitive multi touch function screen which allows you to zoom in and out with the pinch or stretch of your fingers, which makes viewing the web great.
HTC have included Wi-Fi and HSDPA for optimal browsing over 3G when you’re on the move or sitting at home. The ever useful addition of GPS means you will never be late to a meeting, if you get lost en route one quick search on Google Maps will put you on the right path.
Media-active
The Wildfire handles all music formats from MP3 to WMA and with the option to use a microSD card you could have up to 32 GB of space for all the music and video you want.
If you are the type of person who prefers all their music on hard copy then there is a built-in FM radio that will keep you busy while riding the train or walking long distances.
Summary
The HTC Wildfire is a bargain, it offers all the pros of the top shelf designer handsets around today but for a fraction of the cost. The phone doesn’t look cheap and most definitely doesn’t appear cheap when using the device, sure the screen is a slightly lower resolution but it still looks marvellous. The compatibility with Outlook means that this is perfect for business as well as pleasure and with perks like Google Maps and FM radio this handset definitely seems to good to be true.
Features:
- Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair)
- Qualcomm MSM 7225 528 MHz processor
- SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
- HTML
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- A-GPS support
- Digital compass
- Dedicated search key
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail
- Facebook, Flickr, Twitter integration
- MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA9 player
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV9 player
- YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration
- Voice memo
- T9
Specifications:
- Width: 106.8 mm
- Depth: 60.4 mm
- Height: 12 mm
- Weight: 118 g
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