The HTC Desire, at first glance, has a near identical design to the already popular Google Nexus One. The internal specifications are very similar too. There is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB of memory and 256MB of RAM. It also comes with the same 3.7-inch AMOLED screen, which if you've seen the Nexus One, you'll agree is no bad thing. As with the Nexus One, there's a proximity sensor, HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Then there's the 5-megapixel camera on the back (with an LED flash) that includes the capability to capture 800 x 480 video. Both handsets run the Android 2.1 OS and both feature the same handy shortcuts on the front of the phone - home, menu, back and search. Is there a difference between the two smartphones? The Google phone has better active voice cancellation meaning you may not be able to use the voice to text function on the Desire either. So no chatting with your smartphone, should you feel lonely! But that, in no way, means that the HTC Desire is a lesser product. No way.
The mechanical trackball on the front of the Nexus One as well as the touch sensitive buttons on the screen have disappeared and been replaced with hard shortcut keys and a button that offers better optical navigation. This change has been appeared across the industry, with the BlackBerry jumping on the same bandwagon. Trackballs are prone to breakage and nobody who's tied to an 18 or 24 month contract wants to be stuck with a broken trackball. The HTC handset offers the HTC Sense UI, which is also found on the HTC Hero. Obviously, since it's not an HTC product, you're not going to find this in Google's Nexus One. The Sense UI is improved and faster and has incorporated other contact features that make the Nexus One look much more boring than the Desire. A "helicopter view" is new to Sense and works much the way Expose works on a Mac. If you pinch the homescreen it will display all the pages that are running on the homescreen. All you need to do then is tap the screen to grab the one you want or pinch back out as the Desire supports multi-touch. So, which is the better buy? They're virtually the same. Really, it's mostly a matter of personal preference. If you're really stuck, consider the fact the HTC Desire is a newer release than the Google Nexus One. That fact alone might make it a better buy.
HTC Desire US Cellular
htc desire us cellular