HTC Desire Z Pro Reviews

Android 2.2 Froyo is a natural fit for the Desire Z hardware and delivers excellent user experience. The Sense gets better with every new release and continues to be one of the best custom UIs to date. The Desire Z also offers a great QWERTY keyboard, HD video recording and extensive video codec support. It looks like a great package and sure acts like one most of the time.

If you’ve got roomy pockets, the HTC Desire Z is worth making room for thanks to its fine screen and extremely capable keyboard. HTC’s Sense adds value to Android and it’s packed with enough features to keep it in the running at the head of the smart phone pack.

The HTC Desire Z is only likely to appeal if you are drawn to the idea of a physical keyboard. If this is the case, we'd advise you to try before you buy, as you may find the keyboard doesn't quite live up to expectations. The rest of the smartphone's spec is high-end, and access to online features via htcsense.com is a sign that HTC continues to develop its Android offering nicely.

With great software, speed, battery life and screen, it's the best of all worlds - at a price. The Desire Z is an excellent phone. It's a touch pricier than the standard Desire, but if you'll take advantage of that keyboard it's worth shelling out.

It's not perfect, but if you’re looking for an Android handset with a proper keyboard then this is the one to buy.

The HTC Desire Z is one of the only two handsets so far with the new version of Sense UI, and deserved our attention, even just for that. HTC didn't stop here to make it stand out in the Android crowd, however, and added a physical keyboard with clever, if somewhat pointless, Z-hinge mechanism. Wrapped around in brushed aluminum, with soft-touch coating where needed, the HTC Desire Z is certainly a looker - a rather heavy one, however. The physical keyboard is not perfect, but it is better than most on this rare breed of Android handsets, which have side-sliding QWERTY keyboards.

The HTC Desire Z is lovely device. It's hardware design is classy and elegant and its fit and finish is up there with the best. Add in an exceptional quality screen and a very good keyboard and you have a device that ticks a huge number of boxes. There are a few niggles like the slightly slow processor and the somewhat pointless optical trackpad but these aren't enough to dampen our spirits. As ever there's the question of whether you really need a physical keyboard or, moreover, whether the larger slideout keyboards are as easy to type on as BlackBerry style affairs, but if you are a fan of such devices then we can think of none better on the market right now.

Whether you like the HTC Desire Z or not is will depend on your love for a physical keyboard. If you want one desperately and love Android with a fiery passion, then the Desire Z is for you. However, if you can take it or leave it, we'd suggest you look elsewhere. While the Android 2.2 OS works well and plays nicely within the phone, you're carrying round a rather substantial amount of extra heft with the Desire Z. The new HTC Sense is a step forward in terms of an impressive UI, and the addition of things like Locations can only be a boon.

The HTC Desire Z should be taken from two angles. The first is that it offers a touchscreen smartphone experience that many will love, with HTC Sense offering up its easy take on Android and packing in plenty of connected features for you to enjoy. You get all the benefits of the current version of Android too. You then move over to the keyboard and despite the impressive opening of the mechanism and the slick way the two halves of the phone sit together, it just doesn’t feel as good to type on as some other smaller handsets. If QWERTY is really your thing and you crave those buttons, then give it a try to see if it suits your hands. For some, the partnering of the physical keyboard with HTC’s usual offering will be an absolute delight, for some, like us, it won’t quite hit the mark.

The market for Android smartphones continues to get more crowded, and the bar for what makes a great handset keeps getting higher. That’s great for the consumer, but it does make the Desire Z’s job harder. Hardware keyboards are still rarer among Android devices than their all-touch counterparts, which gives the Desire Z something of a pass along the way, but we’re not 100-percent convinced by the usability of this particular HTC ‘board. It’s good, especially after some practice, but then HTC’s on-screen keyboards are good too and, thanks to the correction features, accurate as well.

Personally, I am a big fan of hardware QWERTY keyboards. This means that, on paper at least, the T-Mobile G2 is right up my alley. Big display, full keyboard, optical d-pad controller, and a 5 megapixel camera with flash. That's my kind of spec sheet, and it is packed into a really tricked out hardware design that I love. But somehow the phone fails to live up to the potential my gut tells me it should have. It is entirely adequate, but just doesn't elicit the lust response I was expecting. Sure, the 10Mbps HSPA+ data speeds are drool worthy, but the phone doesn't feel as fast as Samsung's Galaxy S devices, and the lack of HTC's better Sense user interface features is felt.

When it comes to Android phones with slide-out QWERTY keyboards, there are not many choices. The HTC Desire Z is a neat-Android smartphone with decent specs and great design.

As for the undercard, there are clear compromises to the hardware compared to the Desire HD. Most notable are the drop to a down-clocked 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM and a smaller 3.7in WVGA display while the camera falls to an arguably more phone-friendly 5MP (I could see no difference verses 8MP). Another significant consideration is the addition of a physical keyboard which brings the Desire Z's portability into question with dimensions of 119 x 60.4 x 14.2mm and weight arguably over the comfortable threshold at 180g.

The HTC Desire Z is a welcome addition that strengthens HTCs Android offering, bring the QWERTY option that is too often over-looked. It squares up nicely against the Motorola Milestone 2 which will also be hitting shelves shortly, so we'll have a real scrap on our hands, with two Android 2.2 devices pitching HTC Sense against Motoblur, although the Milestone 2 is the more powerful device.