have to say I am close to parting with this phone - not sure why but since 6.5 it does seem a tad more sluggish. I have a few more apps running which is one reason but overall its lost its charm. The keyboard is still awesome but I dont use it as much as I thought.
Could wait for WM7 or perhaps jump to Android as I use google a lot...
Are you running the manila interface or the titanium interface?
I've found that manila, although great eye candy, can be a little sluggish.
I use my phone mostly for business, so I need it to be as fast as possible, so I've been using the titanium interface (says windows default in the options).
I'm not a programmer, but it just seems like if you throw a different UI on top on the windows phone OS, it tends to slow things down, plus, the $(*#*[email protected] video driver for the 7201 chips isn't a hardware driver (I think). I remember back with the fuze, there were people trying to improve the video driver to make the UI a little more responsive. Maybe the same thing needs to be done
for this phone, since it uses a similar graphics chip?
Try the titanium interface, it might speed things up for you.
trying now yes bit quicker thanks
whats the going second hand price for these in the UK - 350quid seem like a good offer?
jklondon said:
trying now yes bit quicker thanks
whats the going second hand price for these in the UK - 350quid seem like a good offer?
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Click to collapse
Check e-bay to see what people are bidding/winning them in auction to get a good idea of what the "going rate" is.
350quid ~ 650 US dollars, which I would jump on if someone has already offered that...but if you're looking to list it for that much, it might be a bit high compared to what I've seen on there.
Here's my story: I am currently the proud owner of the HTC HD2 and love it, I flash custom roms on a weekly basis and just love the fact that windows mobile is endlessly customisable . I recently got playing with a friends htc magic and just fell in love with the android OS, how smooth and fast it was and the android market.
After this I am really thinking of switching to the Desire. My question is that is android customisable like windows mobile? I'm not talking about homescreen widgets. What I mean is that with windows mobile you have a Registry which you can edit. With android do you have this ability and can you install custom themes and change the task bars? Things like that.
I am new to android so please be nice
Any input would be much appreciated
I used to do the same on my Touch HD and HD2 before i sold them with the Max Manilla program, co0kiemonster's apps, and the Theme Creator mod. I would suggest you look around the Desire Themes and Apps section of the forum to see what is available. AFAIK, there are not many mods available for the Desire (yet), but there are a few (for example, see this link):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=673856
You can download apps like Helixlauncher/Helixlauncher2/Launcher2/FreedHome which allow you to customise the home screens.
Also, any modifications you want to make that requires system access will ofcourse require you to root the Desire.
Hope that helps you out a little.
Mastoid said:
I used to do the same on my Touch HD and HD2 before i sold them with the Max Manilla program, co0kiemonster's apps, and the Theme Creator mod. I would suggest you look around the Desire Themes and Apps section of the forum to see what is available. AFAIK, there are not many mods available for the Desire (yet), but there are a few (for example, see this link):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=673856
You can download apps like Helixlauncher/Helixlauncher2/Launcher2/FreedHome which allow you to customise the home screens.
Also, any modifications you want to make that requires system access will ofcourse require you to root the Desire.
Hope that helps you out a little.
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Click to collapse
Thanks mastoid, that really has helped. I have been looking around in the forums a bit more, especially the N1 forums and I have found the ability to highly customise.
I would love to move to android soon, but do you think I should upgrade to desire or wait for a android version of the HD2. I mean the desire look amazing but i love having a screen this big and would probably miss it.
I have had winmo devices since the beginning and my job involves me securing all the major mobile devices.
my personal device was an hd2 and I have swapped to the Desire
Screensize should not be an issue as they are very similar. You will be.so impressed by the resolution.
Not having a stylus has been an issue for me ad no keyboard has been quite big enough for my fingers.
Customization skills will take some time but iv you program should be reasonable.
security is still an issue mind...
All the best Sam
dhiral.v said:
Thanks mastoid, that really has helped. I have been looking around in the forums a bit more, especially the N1 forums and I have found the ability to highly customise.
I would love to move to android soon, but do you think I should upgrade to desire or wait for a android version of the HD2. I mean the desire look amazing but i love having a screen this big and would probably miss it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really is your choice matey, I had the HD2, but personally, it was a little too big for my liking and I am happy with the screen size (3.7 inches) and resolution (480 X 800 WVGA) of the Desire. It has the fresher OS (Android 2.1) which runs faster than WinMo 6.5. As the devices have similar hardware specs, the Desire can do everything the HD2 can do and more whilst doing it all faster.
It's a tough call, only you alone can decide
You can either wait for Android OS to be ported to the HD2 (even I don't know when that will be possible) or jump ship and go for the Desire.
In retrospect, I much prefer the Desire over the HD2, i'm impressed with the Android OS, much prefer it to WinMo 6.5. Its also important to consider that since WinMo 7 has been announced, support for 6.5 is waning with some developers already cancelling/stopping development of apps.
The desire seems like a much more sensible choice!
Does anybody know, about porting this wp7 build, for our devices, if it possible, or not, waiting for answers, thank's.It will be the better than porting Android(which is so hard to do)
Porting wp7 is way harder,you don't have source,you are out of the minimal requirements and you don't even have enough nand..
Android is much more doable..
hi.
we have new htc diamond and I want to ask if is available Android for this phone!
Thank you!
don't dream about that
It's possible but it must be not that easy than Android and it must be really so hard and it takes more a long times to development. I'm sure someday there'll be someone will do that in XDA-Dev.......
brewhoxs said:
It's possible but it must be not that easy than Android and it must be really so hard and it takes more a long times to development. I'm sure someday there'll be someone will do that in XDA-Dev.......
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Click to collapse
I don't think it'll ever come to the htc touch diamond, cause it's like putting android on a Samsung E900 or something, no-one iswaiting on that
Android might eventually be available for NAND on Diamond but my guess is WP7 will never be ported.. Android is just the better OS out of them all
Android had a slow start with coming to the world of mobile operating systems and the G1 was a superb example of what can be achieved. Since then Android has rocketed to the top of the charts and is now running on almost all new devices. Being open source there are a variety of different builds and mods, Including a vast growing number of apps coming to the market
In my opinion Apple will have to do something spectacular with its OS to become the #1 OS again
Come on, think about it, The Diamond struggles to run WM6.5, hell it struggles to run 6.1 sometimes
You really think it will run WP7 ? lol Not a chance
Exactly. And even if it does run it, the battery life is just not enough..
I have TWO 1340mAh batteries and I sometime drain them both in one day!
The 900mAh stock is not enough for half a day for me lol
Although running android 2.3 through haret, I get over a day with the 1340 battery... and its very smooth so having it on NAND it would last a lot longer and I imagine would be somewhat more smooth than what it is now
MOBILE SEVEN Reply
Why would you want to downgrade? There is no "Windows Mobile 7" port for Diamond because nobody wants useless crap on their smartphone.
- 2 Bunny
hey guys,
came across this tour of the HD2 software:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5o6tj7yFBQ&feature=relmfu
It looks soooo nice! i know winmobile is **** and nothing compared to android, but htc has done a really nice job on skinning it and the speed it just phenomenal!
was wondering if it was possible to get this rom on our phones, or is that just completely impossible?
It was also really smooth on my Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2, running WinMo 6.5.5 was as nice and smooth as Android on my DZ..
Its more than just a theme though. It was a complete OS GUI integration replacing many of the corporate boring Windows Mobile functions with pretty Sense ones. Pitty it didn't catch on, It was actually a decent effort.
I have the Desire Z with sense and TBH, it was good enough that my DZ home screens are not far off what I had on WinMo.
Craig
I have a SonyEricsson Xperia X1 which is starting to break down and I'm thinking of getting a new phone. The Desire Z is the only non-Xperia phone I found that has everything I need. How is it? Pros? Cons? Battery life? GPS?
Also, I'm new to Android because the Xperia X1 has WinMo. What are the drawbacks of Android? The pros I already know of. How's the freeware app availability and development? (I will never pay for an application.) How about the advanced user customization? (I liked that about WinMo. Registry editing and changing files.)
Thanks for any answers!
Here's my review of the Desire Z based on my review (note: this is my first mobile device with something better than WinMo 5.
It has a nice performance (unless you're running something like HTC Sense 3.0+ HTC Sense). The keyboard (if you use it) is very comfortable and it features a "search" and a "menu" key, plus 2 shortcuts, the only thing I would like is an extra row for numbers (but I'm already used to the soft keyboard so I rarely use it). I wish I could review the stock rom, but I removed it after 2 days (and this is my first android phone). Battery life is OK, I get 1 day of battery life with medium use (screen on for like 4 hours, nothing heavy running), however, I bought my phone used, so I think the battery should have been better if it was new. The camera is OK for taking casual photos, the flash does a very good job for taking in dark places, just don't expect "ultra sharp" quality. The speaker is very loud, however, I find myself most of the time putting my hands on the back of the phone to "bounce" back the sound to myself, as the speaker is on the back side.
As for android, there are a lot of free applications, however, the market sometimes has apps that are useless or malicious (although you'll usually only notice them after scrolling a lot down). There's also something called GetJar, where you can get apps for free every week legally (they call them "gold apps"). Most of the apps you'll need will be free (soft keyboards, launchers, email apps) and most of them will be free but will have a "pro" or "donate" version (usually the free ones will have ads, which I can easily ignore, as they're usually small.
Sorry for any typo, English isn't my main language.
Time has long since passed to ditch Winmo. The drawbacks to Android? There aren't any. Winmo is a joke for lag, memory leakage, instability, and crashing. Android is stable and fast; and enjoys huge support from manufacturers, developers, and the user community. There is no "registry" since that is a Windows invention. But there are hacks and mods for anything you would ever want to do, and much more. Trust me, make the move to Android, and you will never look back on Winmo (except to shake your head and laugh).
There are plenty of free or ad-supported apps on the Market, as far as most any utility you would need. And also good quality free games. But really, why such an adamant stance on paying for apps? What would be the big deal in PAYING for software, if its something well made, that you use frequently, and say costs $1 (less than a Euro). That amount of money is completely insignificant for me when spend on something useful like a good app. God forbid the people that develop software should be compensated for it, and motivated to create other quality software, and to continue supporting their apps with updates and bug fixes? User made freeware is fine an all, and there is certainly good stuff out there. But its not going to fill every hole or need.
The con with the DZ is that its over a year old. This is really old in smartphone terms. Good phones with hardware keyboards are indeed rare. But aside from the keyboard, the Z has really fallen far behind in terms of CPU, memory, and other specs. If you are really hung up on a hardware keyboard, and can get a good deal on a Z, then go for it. Otherwise, I'd use my money on a more current device.
Thanks for the replies, guys!
Yes, the physical keyboard is a must. It's so much easier and faster than virtual keyboards. If I have to write more than three consecutive letters, I'll flip the keyboard open instead of trying to write with the virtual one. I do a lot of writing with my phones. My work phone is a Galaxy S and I have tried pretty much every keyboard it has, but they're all equally horrible. The same with my Xperia. I blame my first ever smartphone, the Nokia Communicator 9500. It was huge and awkward, but it had the comfiest keyboard ever.
The Xperia X1 has otherwise 95% of what I need, but it's starting to physically break and it has become abominably slow and unstable. And it wasn't that great to begin with. In hindsight, I really should have bought a HTC phone (assuming there existed one with a physical keyboard at the time).
The reason I won't pay for apps is because what has happened to me quite a many times with both my phone and my computer. I buy a program or app I need, happily use it and after a month, discover that there has existed a free alternative the whole time that is actually better. Cue me being pissed off. I have learned my lesson and right now, there is no software on my phone that I paid for and the only software on my computer that actually costed money are the operating system and games. That doesn't mean I won't donate to the authors of the software afterwards.
The only experience I have with Android is via my work phone, but I don't know about how customizable it is, because the work phone has been heavily restricted.
Tych0n said:
The Xperia X1 has otherwise 95% of what I need, but it's starting to physically break and it has become abominably slow and unstable. And it wasn't that great to begin with. In hindsight, I really should have bought a HTC phone (assuming there existed one with a physical keyboard at the time).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Xperia X1 was made by HTC.
Oh, well, something other than the X1, then, preferably something that used HTC's UI.
Tych0n said:
Oh, well, something other than the X1, then, preferably something that used HTC's UI.
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Click to collapse
i thought buying an HTC cellphone is reather better than other android cellphones for 2 things:
1- its tough... it doesn't break easily, even with tiny hinges holding the screen...
2- it has Sense UI...
but turns out, Sense UI really affects performance, even on stock unrooted, the phone was really slow... although HTC Sense offers great look... but no performance comparing to other UIs
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|RIROZIZO|
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May be, but it's been my favorite since I first saw it.
Riro Zizo said:
but turns out, Sense UI really affects performance, even on stock unrooted, the phone was really slow... although HTC Sense offers great look... but no performance comparing to other UIs
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Click to collapse
I've only found the launcher (home screen and app tray, for the OP) itself to really be any effect on performance, and its easy enough to use an alternate launcher. And the lag on the Sense launcher is really not as bad as some make it out to be.
Its purely a matter of personal taste, of course. But my personal opinion is that Sense is a much more aesthetic, refined, and unified Android experience than AOSP, or other manufacturer skins.
Of course, the beauty of Android is that if you don't like Sense, you can always flash a more vanilla ROM, or something else like MIUI.
---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 PM ----------
Tych0n said:
The reason I won't pay for apps is because what has happened to me quite a many times with both my phone and my computer. I buy a program or app I need, happily use it and after a month, discover that there has existed a free alternative the whole time that is actually better. Cue me being pissed off. I have learned my lesson and right now, there is no software on my phone that I paid for and the only software on my computer that actually costed money are the operating system and games. That doesn't mean I won't donate to the authors of the software afterwards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are just talking utilities and useful apps, I think you will be right at home on Android. I honestly can't think of any utilities that you HAVE to pay for. Many are either free, or have a paid premium version with extra features (or remove ads), if you like the free version and decide to pay.
Desire Z it is, then!
I can get one from two different places without a nordic keyboard for ~300€ or one with nordic keyboard for ~500€. Guess which one I'll buy...
I came to Android on the DZ from a WinMo phone. Best move I ever made, Android made my old WinMo (which I was happy with at the time) look like a laggy, clunky joke.
Welcome to Android !
Sent from my Desire Z running CM7.
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ. My preferred rom is virtuous affinity - this give a smooth and very usable sense 3.5 experience. However, I would do think this phone is at the end of its lifespan. The built in ram and the single core cpu are going to limit how much further it can be pushed and I don't think we are ever going to see usable/smooth ics or sense 4 on this handset.
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ - but I wish there was!! Come on HTC where's the quad core 4.7in HD qwerty-slider I want so badly
MaxWiz said:
If you want a qwerty-slider android phone I don't think you can do better than the DZ - but I wish there was!! Come on HTC where's the quad core 4.7in HD qwerty-slider I want so badly
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This a million times! I'm astonished that there's so few sliders with full keyboards out there. The market is dominated by those goddamn slates. I've watched my friends write with the virtual keyboards of iPhones, Galaxies and whatever, and it always looks slow, clumsy and awkward. They even have to use predictive text input to compensate for the slowness. In contrast, writing with a QWERTY thumb keyboard is a breeze. The Desire Z is apparently pretty much the newest and best Android slider there is on the market, but it still has a WVGA screen, while pretty much every new slate has some HD-super-gizmo screen. What the hell? My Xperia has a WVGA...
But anyway, seeing as I can get a DZ for LESS (~300€) than I paid for my X1 (~450€), I'm happy even though it might not be the fastest and newest there is.
I'm a big fan of hardware keyboards too. I switched from the Motorola Droid to the HTC G2. I found the keyboard on the G2 to be not so good. Not sure if it's just because I got mine used on ebay and it was worn, but it doesn't look like it's worn out. I've noticed the keyboard tends to miss/duplicate keystrokes often. So I've been tending to use the on screen keyboard, which is really good. I think the on screen keys are bigger than on the droid so it's pretty easy to type on. But I found the hardware keyboard to be much slower to type on than the Droid.
jgummeson said:
I've noticed the keyboard tends to miss/duplicate keystrokes often.
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Click to collapse
That could be from wear. The keyboard of my X1 worked flawlessly in the beginning, now it duplicates and misses keystrokes all the time. It's still better than the virtual keyboards, though...