HTC Desire A8181 Android Smartphone with 5 MP Camera, Wi-Fi, Touchscreen and Bluetooth--International Version with No Warranty

by HTC

Product Details

• Item Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0035ER8OY
• Item model number: A8181EU
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,468 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

HTC Desire delivers intense brilliance, sharp contrast, and true colors on the expansive 3.7-inch AMOLED display. The 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor makes the phone incredibly responsive as you multitask from app to app without skipping a beat, while the instinctive HTC Sense experience lets you wield the power of the HTC Desire with the greatest of ease. With the HTC Desire, it’s all about your information, your entertainment, your multimedia, your way. A multitude of HTC Sense widgets makes it easy to transform your Home screen with rich content that personalizes your phone experience. If you’re a sports junkie or simply love to keep up to date with the latest news, the HTC Desire keeps you in the know with the News application. News makes it easier than ever to collect all your favorite articles from across the web. Choose from a selection of channels that cover top blogs, news sites or sports pages, or get news updates based on the keywords you select. The HTC Desire excels at helping you stay in touch with the different circles of friends or colleagues in your life. The new People widget lets you bring any group you create on your phone right to the surface for easy access to calling, messaging, emailing or simply checking up on social networking updates. The HTC Desire simplifies the way that you tend to all of your social networks. With Friend Stream, your interaction with friends across multiple social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr are brought into a single easy to follow stream of updates, photo posts, and shared links. Friend Stream also lets you shout out your thoughts or feelings to all your online friends with a single comment that gets broadcast to both Facebook and Twitter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love it, May 24, 2010

By 

Biz Person (USA) - See all my reviews

Why buy this top-of-the-line phone?

I wanted the latest Android phone with fast processor, robust 3G where my laptop could tether to it and support for local WiFi hotspots. The screen had to be excellent quality (this one is OLED!), fast touch interface for easy typing, 5MP+ camera (I have a SLR so this is just for back-up; I felt 5MP is fine because there is no point getting higher MP in a cellphone camera because the lenses are poor) with focus by touch and a built-in flashbulb, user-swappable batteries and memory cards. And HTC was first preference due to the HTC Simple interface which is quite a slick addition to Android including superb Facebook and Twitter integration if you like that. Oh and by the way, the whole phone should be ultra lightweight (the HD2 looked humongous to me and the Motorola Droid was both big and had a mushy keyboard) and normal use battery time at least a full day. Furthermore, it had to have quadband since I travel all over and unlocked so I could swap in local SIM cards and get realistic data and calling rates.

This was a lofty list, and the HTC Desire met everything on paper - I was excited to get it about a week ago.

In hand, the HTC Desire has lived up to *everything* and surprises with decent voice quality, much faster responsiveness than I expected, a built-in FM Radio for kicks, easy Calendar and Contact synch with Outlook, haptic touchscreen, and longer battery life then I had expected easily covering a whole day or more. Typing on this touchscreen is pretty nice. It is also super lightwight and pocketable. Wow! HTC has done a first rate job.

Flaws: the whole front is a piece of glass so recommend you buy a scratch guard. The back is simply a piece of plastic that you peel off to access the battery; do this too many times and I think a replacement back might be needed after year or so but so far no problems and it looks pretty secure. The speaker has limited volume before it starts to clip - it's OK for speakerphone but no portable boombox. The camera is OK not great image quality; you have to push in the little silver round joystick button to activate and I have had some camera shake trying to use this so it will really be last ditch... although one cool thing is really easy upload to Facebook and it has geotagging - again wow.

No iTunes of course so you will not be able to port 'Protected' files without the 30-cent upgrade; after that try iSynch and you get songs and playlists too. On the other hand, Android has tons of apps and a much more open environment for future app development.

This only has one camera, whereas the EVO has a front-facing camera phone for video calls. I guess the next-generation HTC may have that, but I needed a new 3G unlocked phone now and the laptop already has a webcam for Skype video so not really missing that feature too much.

Caveats: I have not had a chance to try the EDGE service yet; waiting for the right carrier SIM card; WiFi gives great results. Note that I could only see 802.11a networks and not b/g/n... not sure if that is a hardware, software or user issue though. I think that is the lowest common denominator standard and should work in most hotspots though.

Overall - this is every feature I wanted and more in a sweet design. Count me a satisfied - even thrilled - customer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for internet browsing, but has trouble with battery life, July 13, 2010

By 

Tolvanen Perttu - See all my reviews

I chose HTC Desire instead of iPhone4 since the open Android market seemed more interesting and active than the controlled Apple Store approach. After few weeks of usage Desire seems to be pretty even with iPhone4 in terms of usability and applications. The best feature by far is the great internet browsing experience. I am not surprised that few reviews even say that Desire is better for internet browsing than iPhone4. Desire really works for users like me who spend a lot of time reading blogs, news etc. with their phone. The screen is great, phone is fast, responsive and zooming works well. Only some really heavy sites are slow or have trouble loading.

The only downside of the phone is the horrible battery lifetime. I cant really get by even a full day without recharging. The phone really needs a second battery to go with. For me this is ok since the same problem seems to be with every smartphone right now. And with Desire I can atleast buy the second battery and a loading station (which does however add around 50 euros more price).

Besides the second battery Desire also needs an additional memory card (eg. 16GB card which can be around 50 euros as of this writing).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Amazing!!, December 31, 2010

By 

Nitin - See all my reviews

This review is from: HTC Desire A8181 Android Smartphone with 5 MP Camera, Wi-Fi, Touchscreen and Bluetooth--International Version with No Warranty (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Got this phone as a christmas present...truly a great work...fast processor, unlimited apps..everything u can ask for. The battery is a bit of showdown however in my case with a bit of manipulation with the working apps, it tends to get through the day