Wanting to upgrade my Wildfire and have seen the Desire for around £160 on ebay.

Would love an S3 but would it really be worth more than twice the money for low usage.

Wildfire just about does the job,but want more speed,better screen and the abilty to run more apps.

Use my phone mainly for surfing and texting,currently on SIM only deal so looking to buy an unlocked one,outright.

Mine has been great, I really love it. Only problem is it crashes and switches itself off when I try to connect to mobile internet. This is I have now found out a common problem as these phones get older. Sadly, HTC have ignored my emails. I would be really wary of buying one secondhand.

Got one 18months ago. Worked fine with no issues. Though mate had one that wouldn’t recognise the SD for a while. Solid and decent battery life. Easier to use screen than the wildfire

Happy with mine, tho wee memory can be a pain browsing.

I enjoyed mine when I had it (though there’s plenty better now). The lack of memory is a pain, but a custom ROM sorts that problem for good.

Mine is now two years old and will be getting replaced in a week or so.

I’ve found that it works really well and has been very stable. No slowing down, no crashes.

However, I’ve had to limit the number of apps as it runs out of internal memory and battery life – never great – has gotten worse. If I was keeping it, I’d buy a new battery. Oh – and the plastic cover over the camera is easily scratched and/or cracked. Early photos are really good, now they look like they’ve been shot in a steamy bathroom.

So – still worth buying, but be prepared to buy a battery and/or cover.

I guess mine will be up for sale at some point…….

Had one for 18 months. It occasionally requires a complete reset (once every 6 months), but is mostly problem free. The small phone memory can get a bit frustrating at times, you’ll need to be slightly selective over how many apps you install.

£160 seems on the expensive side, would see if you can get a better deal than that somewhere (especially second hand).

It is head and shoulders above a wildfire, in every way.

You could probably get an S2 for not much more money I would have thought. The Desire is a good phone. Its biggest flaw is the lack of internal storage for apps. I had to install a custom ROM on mine to make it more usable.

Ebay link to Desire

mine works fine but the complete random actions it takes, low memory and poor battery life would put me off another.

Looked at the S2 but £300 +………..

Desire looks the cheapest option unless anyone has other suggestions?

druidh, the plastic cover over the lens can be pushed out and left that way. i read in one of the forums that the pics came out clearer like that, so experimented. same pic with/without the plaggy cover, and without was far clearer, so i left mine that way with no probs.

wifes got it now as i upgraded to desireHD, but its a good little phone, and as said before, better when its rooted with custom ROM.

I am upgrading my Desire HD(to a One S) in a few days and would probably sell that for around that price.

Absolutely brilliant smartphone, except for the battery life which is renowned for being a bit on the stingy side.
Mine will easily standby for a day or two but use it for a few calls, internet and gps and it won’t see the end of the day, and sometimes not even 5 O’clock.

I have a spare battery with it, several coloured skins, a car-cradle and its been in a skin and a screen protector from day 1. Immaculate.
😀

My Mum has the Desire and loves it too.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUDnoC_e9xY&feature=fvwrel[/video]

I’d look for a Desire S over a Desire as I think they sorted the highly irritating constant ‘running out of space even though you’ve got GBs free on the SD card’ issue on that model (google “HTC desire low on space” and you’ll see what I mean), or the more recent HTC One V has a similar spec to the Desire for about 200 notes brand new

Useful info there Mr Blond.Thanks!

I have one, looking forward to being rid of it TBH, but purely because of the memory issue, great otherwise

Cougar – Member

The lack of memory is a pain, but a custom ROM sorts that problem for good.

I liked mine…worked a lot better then the Sensation which replaced it. Ran out of memory, but otherwise, it was good.

Mine died in a downpour a couple of weeks ago – I’d had it 2 years and used it constantly.

I’ve weighed up the newer ones, and although they look nicer and have quicker CPUs etc, I decided that for the difference in price I wasn’t bothered about upgrading and that the Desire was more than good enough for most things I do so have just bought a 2nd hand one from someone on here.

EDIT: I had rooted mine and stuck a custom ROM on to overcome the frustrating lack of internal space.

Other half had one (and an HTC Hero before that)….great phones, the Desire was the first phone to mount a serious challenge to the iphone….a little behind the curve now but will still perform all the functions of a smartphone (email, media, web browsing etc)….it will just be a few fractions of a second slower at everything…no big deal…my other now uses my old Nexus-S and its not far off the performance of my new dual-core HTC One-S…..likewise my dual-core isnt much off the pace of its bigger brother (the quad-core One-X)….

….basically since about 2010 all decent smartphones still hold their own, if you’re buying new then pick the one you like the look of the best and enjoy….there’s not a lot in it anymore which is why Apple is desperately suing just about everybody else that makes a smartphone in a vain effort to prevent other manufacturers using certain features and to differentiate the iphone from other products out there.

I’ve had mine for 19 months and love it, I’m due an upgrade in November, and will definitely be getting another HTC.
The only issues I’ve had are the small memory (although it’s never bothered me enough to do anything about it), and the power button going intermittent when it got a bit wet. I downloaded an app (‘No Lock’) that lets me unlock it using any other key, and it’s all fine again. After being charged daily for 1 1/2 years the battery still lasts a day of mixed use for me.
Oh yes, I removed the camera lens window as well, it improves picture quality.

I have a HTC Desire and love it, can’t say I’ve had the crashing problems mentioned above, only issue I’ve had is the “memory full” one. I can get an upgrade on 9th July so if you are seriously interested in a HTC Desire you could possibly buy mine (I was going to put in on ebay .. but cheaper thatn £160). It is in mint condition has in a plastic case and has a screen protector on it. If interested drop me an e-mail and I could sort out pics.

I’ve got a Desire Z ( with keyboard ) it has been faultless and it would take a very good phone indeed for me to want to give it up.

I was looking at a second hand one them got one from virgin £11 a month with phone free i am really pleased with it you cam move a lot of apps to the sd card have a look on av forums you should get a ised one for around a ton

I’ve got a Desire HD and like it a lot. Very similar spec to the desire but with more memory to help with that potential issue. Mahoosive screen is the winner.

It’s the same resolution as the classic Desire though, isn’t it? You could get the same effect by holding a regular Desire closer to your face.

I really lime my HTC Desire Mocha. Bought for £101 off EBay a few months ago, new.

It has a relatively small memory but as I am not into apps on my phone I’m not that bothered.

I have found that it is fussy about the little SD cards it has and mine kept crashing until I formatted it a few times. It’s generally been fine since that.

Love mine. Had it for almost 2 years now. I’m now, gingerly, exploring the whole mystery that is rooting and flashing new ROMs. So far, so good, and it’ll allow me to get round the limited on-board memory issue previously mentioned.

Rather than upgrade the phone, I’m going to bin off Orange (rubbish coverage in my experience) and switch to a SIM only deal with either Vodafone (via Quidco if they’ve got some deals on) or Giff Gaff. The phone will serve me for a few years yet as it does everything I want it to.

Mine was unuseable outdoors, the screen was just so reflective it was unreal. Was glad to get rid of it tbh.

Having said that I’ve not heard of anybody else having the same problem and as a smartphone it was fine so…

£160 is too much for a 2nd hand desire. My wife got £100 for hers a year ago on eBay and it was immaculate.

Agree with the memory issue, otherwise good phone

HTC Desire.
Not happy with mine.
On second handset and seems to have a mind of its own.
Newest problem is keeps going to speaker mode when answering or dialling out.
Apps and other stuff work well. Not sure if I’d get another.
Wouldn’t spend that on used handset.

Had mine going on two years and it’s been the most reliable phone I’ve had. Think I’m going to swap onto a sim only deal till it packs up, it does everything I need. Might look into putting a custom rom on though, low disk space is rather annoying!

I’d be a little worried about getting one second-hand. My wife has one and it is a great phone, lovely piece of hardware and feels better than my S2. However she’s had it a year now and the motherboard had to be replaced after 8 months due to it constantly crashing and power cycling. Did some research and it seems it’s a fairly common occurrence. BTW hers was in pristine condition so it’s not like it had taken a battering.

From what I understand a new motherboard is basically a new phone (apart from the case and screen). As such I’d be concerned about spending £160 odd quid and it going bang when it’s out of warranty.

Another option may be a PAYG handset which you should be able to get for well below £160. The orange San Francisco II has some good reviewshttp://www.trustedreviews.com/orange-san-francisco-2_Mobile-Phone_review and the original had a good community with loads of ROMs.

wildfire s is a small upgrade and better phone, not sure £150 better but can be had for that new.

I’ve got a Desire S and it’s like a magic box from the future. Been entirely reliable despite getting knocked about, and still looks good too- really impressed with the scratch resistance of the screen. Can’t really fault it- though I imagine there are better phones now.

Desire s is superb here. Very quick, no lags to speak of, happily read STW mag pdf downloads on it.

Far far far far better than the iPhone 3g before it….

Don’t get why you’d by a Desire outright for £160 + a tenner a month or so for SIM only.

Surely you can blag an S2 or HTC Incredible / Sensation now for £20 a month or so and have a phone that’s a generation or two newer?

as the discussion has expanded..

Got a Desire S after being impressed with Munqe Chick’s Desire (previous phone was an ancient non-smart Nokia). Mine crashed pretty much every day. It rebooted that quickly it wasnt as much aggro as it sounds, but loads of android forum activity suggested it was a common hardware fault. I’d planned to send it back under warranty whilst we were on a holiday I wouldnt be taking it on.

In January, just before the trip, it downloaded upgraded software to Android 2.3.5 and Sense 3, and has been completely stable since (and even nicer to use).