Design
With its 4.3' capacitive touchscreen running at a resolution of 480×800, the Desire HD feels in the hand like a mobile phone that has dreams of being a small tablet. Its display is bigger than that of the
original Desire (at 3.7') and the iPhone 4 (at 3.5'). Your writer has large hands, but it's a little difficult to hold the phone flat in one hand without stretching the tendons a bit.
As the phone faces you, above the screen is a horizontal speaker grill line, which '” like the screen '” is larger than we have seen on other phones. Undoubtedly it helps contribute to the HD's stellar audio
quality. The phone boasts Dolby Mobile and SRS virtual surround sound.
On the bottom of the screen are the usual four standard buttons which most phones based on Google's Android operating system use '” home, menu, return and search. However, unlike the physical buttons on the original Desire, the Desire HD's buttons are touch-sensitive. You don't press them in '” you just touch them. It's an effect we've grown to love while testing the handset, and we'd find it hard to go back to physical buttons now.
On the left-hand side of the phone are volume buttons, which emit cute 'pink, ponk' sounds when pressed, and on the top is the standard on/off/sleep button. There is nothing at all on the phone's right-hand side, and on the bottom the options are similarly minimised '” just a 3.5mm audio jack and a micro-USB port for charging and connecting the phone to a PC.
On the back of the phone you can find its (very large) camera and flash, as well as another audio grill. This area is also where we fell in love with the Desire HD's case. The aluminium unibody, combined with plastic inserts which allow access to the SIM card, MicroSD and battery slots, is just fantastic on the fingers and '” wonder of wonders '” doesn't hold fingerprints. It also grips fairly well, meaning that it will likely be hard to drop the device. And the actual material looks quite futuristic '” part metal, part plastic, and all class.
