IDG News Service - One of the two new smartphones with Google's Android mobile operating system that High Tech Computer (HTC) plans to start selling in March isn't officially billed as an update to Nexus One, but its design is similar and it offers improvements over the Google phone.
The similarity is no big surprise considering HTC built Nexus One for Google.
The HTC Desire, as the handset is called, carries specifications nearly identical to the Nexus One with a few key changes.
The two handsets both sport 3.7-inch AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) touchscreens, use Android version 2.1 (Eclair), are almost identical in size and depth, carry 5-megapixel cameras with flash and use 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets.
One improvement in the HTC Desire is the use of an optical joystick as an alternative to using the touchscreen. Nexus One has a trackball for the same function, and trackballs tend to get dirty over time. The optical joystick is touch free.
The HTC Desire also adds FM radio, which the Nexus One lacks.
Another difference to the two handsets is an updated version of HTC's Sense user interface (UI) on Desire. The new UI makes improvements on a number of important areas, including social networking, Internet browsing, e-mail and contact management.
The UI adds Friend Stream, a view of messages coming from various social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as a new way to use the touchscreen to see all seven main screens by pinching two fingers together on the screen.
The UI also puts a person's contacts into new groups so a single text message can be sent to a specific group of friends. It offers better e-mail management than the previous version, including an Unread E-mail Group for unread e-mail from all addresses, as well as the ability to Add Widgets such as Call Mom, which starts green and turns red over time if Mom's phone number is dialed, or a widget to split dinner bills or perform other tasks.
HTC worked hard to improve the Internet browser and the camera experience, both key functions for smartphone users, said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, in a briefing prior to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.
The other Android smartphone HTC is debuting at the Mobile World Congress is the HTC Legend, which carries some rather unique engineering due to its forged aluminum casing.
Similar to the HTC Desire, the HTC Legend smartphone has Android 2.1 installed and also sports an AMOLED touchscreen, though a bit smaller at 3.2-inches.
The two new HTC smartphones use AMOLED screens for their richer color saturation, thin design and low power usage. Chou said HTC will use AMOLED screens in more of its designs because it's a much nicer screen, but due to the "much higher" cost of the screens, the company will not use them in all new smartphones.
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