Was thinking about getting a smart phone, currently using an old samsung and can get the wildfire with unlimited tinterweb for £12 a month. Had a play with one and seemed ok but mate says either keep the brick or go for £25 a month and get a desire-thoughts?

I have a wildfire from work, wanted the desire but they wouldn’t pay for it so the wildfire was the best Android I could squeeze out of them.

Overall I’d say its a good smart phone, I use all it’s functions and it’s good, loads of free apps about, I have about 50! Have a great GPS app, around me app, etc. The touch screen works well, nice slim size etc. We browsing is ok, but with the small screen you need to zoom in/out a lot, although Dolphin is a good browsing app for that.

Negatives are the battery life, but then again the desire is the same, I can just about get a weekend out of it with high burn functions inactive. The camera is ****, so don’t get on if you want to take photos, it only works if everything is perfectly still, or else it blurs. It can be a bit slow sometimes through apps etc, I put this down to a slower processor.

Overall a good Android smart phone for those not wanting to pay desire, iphone type prices. If it were my own money I would have probably bought a desire, although it is bigger in size, the wildfire fits nicely in your pocket without being a tablet. Not sure a desire is worth more than twice the monthly cost of a wildfire, depends how much you really need it 😉

Basic Android smart phone functions on a budget = wildfire
High end Android smart bling phone = desire

I don’t see any reason to buy a Wildfire these days. If you want a Wildfire, the San Franciso is better, and cheaper.

Personally, I’d go with the Desire (in fact, I did). £25 seems steep though, it’s a pretty old phone now.

I think I’d go for the Desire over the Wildfire, but only if I could find it at a better price.
£25/month sounds a bit steep.

Pretty sure a bloke at work got one on 3, through a deal website for £15/month with plenty of mins, texts & unlimites internet.

Updated Desire/Wildfire models are out now (or imminent).

allthepies – Member
Updated Desire/Wildfire models are out now (or imminent).

Bloke at work has just bought a Desire S.
It’s not much different from the Desire. Main things are more internal memory & it’s running 2.3 (Gingerbread). Buttons on the desire have also been replaced with touchscreen bits. I think it also has a faster processor (but the Desire isn’t exactly slow) and the battery life has improved due to work with the efficiency of the chips).
(If I sounds vaguely clued up, it’s because I was looking at a comparison on pocket lint yesterday).

It’s better than the Desire (more memory probably the best thing), but it’s not a massive difference. It wouldn’t stop me snapping up a good deal on the desire.

Desire S has front facing camera also.

allthepies – Member
Desire S has front facing camera also.

oh yeah….potentially good for skype stuff I guess.

Always wondered why they seemed to do away with front facing cameras considering ‘normal’ phones had them for years but video calling was expensive.
Now with unlimited internet/wi-fi & skype type stuff, you’d have thought they’d have been on smartphones for ages, but it seems to be only now they are making a come back.

Desire S is great!
but not that much different from a Desire which I’m sure there will be better deals on.

Wildfire is pretty slow, My wife’s one has long pauses and blank screen moments and the screen’s pretty poor.

Wildfire S should short all of those issues though

My order of preference would be:
1. DesireS,
2. Desire/WildfireS
(A close tie depending on deals and your preference on size)
3. Wildfire(if I really had to)

look for deals and see what you can get for your budget

fontmoss – Member
Was thinking about getting a smart phone, currently using an old samsung and can get the wildfire with unlimited tinterweb for £12 a month. Had a play with one and seemed ok but mate says either keep the brick or go for £25 a month and get a desire-thoughts?

I’ve got the Wildfire, and while the battery life is pants, I am happy with the phone and all its apps.

But where on earth did you find a deal that includes unlimited internet for £12/month?

http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/pay-monthly/htc/wildfire_grey/tmsmartplan24m12/tmsp24m12htcwildfiregrey.html?tmcampid=4&tmad=c&tmplaceref=GGL006195&gclid=CM71m8vwm6gCFUdP4QodK1f9HQ&awc=2351_1303385871_881ae679364d3863596146a4c4500a78

Instore @ Carphone Warehouse too apparently

got the wildfire last month via o2 for £15 a month. unlimited texts, 100 free mins but no internet (i only use wifi at home on it and at work so didnt bother me)

great little phone, to me its just a fancy phone and i use a few apps. the desire has a way bigger screen which although nice i thought it would just be a pain in the arse to carry about.

i dont commute etc so i can imagine the desire would be better if your stuck on a bus/train.

sounds like you get what you pay for then

cheapest i can find desire is 18.50 with 100mb of tinterweb and 25 with 500mb 🙁

looks like i can get desire s on similar contract though?!

presumably if i get the wildfire for 12 a month i can always use a dif handset if i get one?

found desire for 18 a month, poss refurbished?

http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/shop/basketDetail.aspx?&lpos=-1&added=7246548&i=7246548

Mrs R signed up with T mobile this weekend. £15 a month for 100 mins of calls and unlimited texts and data. The wildfire looks a nice phone and I am impressed that it can operate as a wifi hotspot.

Just ordered a Samsung Galaxy S PAYG unlocked for £239.

Just got a Desire S last week (£25 pm on Vodafone).

Very impressed with it so far. First Android phone for me and I’m blown away by the slickness of the whole system (after my cack-handed attempts at getting used to the new interface). Camera is pretty impressive (though only 5MP) and the 720p HD video is a real standout feature.

Not managed to get beyond Angry Birds on the apps front yet…

i think due to finances i’ll be limited to the wildfire (or blackberry) or sticking with what I have

Desire S is definitely the way I would go, but the Wildfire S available pretty soon. Good review on Techradar HERE

I am waiting for the HTC Sensation – dual core replacement for the Desire HD.

Bought my nipper an Ornage San Francisco for Xmas – very good at £99 PAYG.

As a generally very happy Desire user, I would say that modest battery life, occasionally running out of memory (because lots of apps won’t run from SD) and lack of a front-facing camera were the only gripes I had, so Desire S sounds spot on to me!

I’ve just spoken to Talkmobile, referenced above, regarding a new HTC Wildfire/Desire contract for MrsG (she keeps nicking mine!).

I was intrigued by their claim regarding ‘Unlimited mobile internet data included’. Most other suppliers make this statement but with caveats around a fair usage policy of 500MB/1GB per month. They told me that there is not such restriction with them. Also their service provider is Vodafone, so pretty decent coverage 🙂

I’ve just got a wildfire on the above talkmobile contract and am very pleased with it so far, its a nice entry level smartphone and the gps works really nicely plus HTC sense is really good. Its 200min/200texts/unlimited data per month for £12 although you can’t tether