Review of the HTC Desire in Dubai

On switching on the HTC Desire, I was very impressed with the clarity of the screen that came up, followed by a moment of panic- the phone had Arabic as it's default setting! The panic was soon dissipated though, as the next screen brought up a language option list, allowing me to pick whatever language I want, including, naturally, English. What I did think was very strange, was that instead of having English (UK) and an English (US) choice, I had an English (Bahrain), English (Kuwait), English (Lebanon), etc choice going on. I don't quite know what the differences are between them, but I'm guessing "yalla" and "Habibi" are definitely pre-set in the dictionary of the phone!
That's the thing with the HTC Desire- like all the other HTC phones I've ever tested out or used, it is extremely intuitive and adaptive to my needs. The last Android phone I'd used (and loved) was the Xperia X10 which was one of the first phones I'd reviewed for this blog, and in fact one of the first few posts I'd written for it. Therefore I was quite used to the Android OS and the Android Marketplace, and I found it quite easy to navigate my way through the phone.
If you haven't used an Android device before, and do most of your work on Gmail, you will be absolutely amazed by it's ease of use and how quickly you have your phone up and running with all your data. I used to use the Apple iSync software on my Mac to sync all my data, but soon found that I was changing devices a lot faster than Apple was uploading their compatible phones list, and so I moved to syncing my entire address book onto Google contacts. I swear, each time I use an Android device, I have my entire contact list running in less than 5 minutes.
Once I had my phone set the way I wanted to, it was a real joy to use. It was SO fast and responsive, and seemed to work like clockwork. The Android apps from the Marketplace gave me other options for things I was missing on my iPhone, and I found that while I missed having as extensive an App store like the one on my iPhone, most of the Apps I used most often were all available for the Android platform.
Back to the body of the phone- it is very slim and feels a light lighter and a lot more resistant to scratches than my iPhone, and felt quite good in the grip of my hand. The Desire also has a 5 megapixel camera that takes quite good photographs -although I've read other reviewers noticing a coloured tinge in their pictures. Unfortunately, the iPhone 4 camera, and the one on the Xperia phones are streets ahead of the HTC device, and they have a lot more catching up to do on that front. If you do want me to post pictures from the device, or do comparison shots with my iPhone 4, please let me know in the comments below and I will.
The touch sensor on the bottom (the round thing that you see in the pictures) also works very well- sometimes a little TOO well! I found my hand accidentally brushing against it, changing the screen when I didn't want a screen change. Having said that, at least I won't have problems with it getting stuck like I used to on the old Blackberry track-balls.
My main gripe with the phone is also unfortunately its most outstanding feature. HTC as a company seems to be focusing more on the Saudi Market and tailor making their phones accordingly, and it shows. The phone comes with a Quran, a Hijri Calender as well as a prayer software called Al-Moazin, all built in. The software works extremely efficiently, and plays the Azaan at prayer times through the day, even when the phone is on silent. After it woke me up in the middle of the night, I decided to switch the phone off, not realizing it turns on the phone automatically to play it as well. It also points the  direction of Qibla, and like I said, functions extremely well for Muslims who would want help with keeping track of prayer timings. My gripe with this is that while the phone is a no-brainer for Muslims, the company should have kept in mind all the tourists and non-Muslims who want this device, and given options to download the software onto the device later, rather than making it standard without any way to uninstall it without "rooting" the device (whatever that means). Also, while I tried setting the main speaker on the Al Moazin softwre on the device as silent, the phone continued to have the prayers come on, and I needed to call someone in my showroom to figure out how to do it. For a company that makes great phones, that really is unacceptable to have a gadget nut not figure out how disable a feature of a built in software. Luckily for you, I've got the answer-
If you do have an HTC Desire and want to disable this feature, click on the Al Moazin software and ensure that the speaker shown there is on silent. Then hit settings and make sure each of the timings are unchecked!

THE VERDICT- All in all, like all HTC phones, the Desire remains a great phone to have and is a nice choice for someone looking for an Android device. Like I mentioned earlier, for Muslims looking to have a phone with software tailor made for them, the HTC phone really can't be beat! It is light, looks good, has a large, beautiful screen, has the much talked about HTC Sense software, the moving background with swirly colours that look gorgeous.... And might I add, works brilliantly as a phone- Not so obvious, after the iPhone 4! All in all, it definitely has my vote.
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