HTC Desire Z - Blending A Capacitive Touchscreen With Slide-Out Qwerty Keyboard

It runs the Android OS with very quick response thanks to an 800MHz processor. There are not many Android phones that come with a physical QWERTY keyboard, but the HTC Desire Z offers an option for those who send a lot of emails or text messages. It beats many competitors like the Motorola Milestone flat out in terms of its spec list.

Build Quality
HTC phones build quality are always legendary and this one is no exception. The battery cover and the screen surround are made with brushed aluminium while the rest is soft touch grey plastic which allows for a comfortable user experience. It is thin enough for a sliding out of the QWERTY keyboard at 14.mm, while it weighs in at 180g. This gives the phone a heavy feeling in the hand which has an overall impression of solidity and reassures users that this is a quality device, unlike lesser plastic alternatives.

Display
The HTC Desire Z packs an impressive 3.8” Super LCD screen which is 480x 800 pixels in resolution. The colour is very good with improved contrast and wide viewing angles, and also at maximum brightness, it is very usable in direct sunlight, in comparison to other generation LCDs. There are only a few other high end models which rival the HTC Desire Z in this aspect.

Software
It runs on Android 2.2 and comes packed with many of the bells and whistles of the Desire HD, its sister handset which was released at the same time. This means it has got recent applications in the pull down notification bar plus Sense cloud backup and location services. Also it runs HTC’s proprietary locations applications for navigation when there is no 3G Coverage and also the fantastic Search Anywhere universal search application.

Camera
Normally for an HTC Android phone you will have a dedicated camera button, which sits on the right hand side of the phone top section. The volume control is on the left hand side which also doubles as the zoom controls for the camera. The camera is a 5 megapixel model, which is capable of capturing very good quality shots. With good light, the HTC Desire Z is very fast to focus, and offers an array of very interesting editing modes as well as the ability to shoot HD video. You can always extend the features of the camera by downloading further applications from the Android Market.

If you are looking for a cutting edge performance, plus the latest version of Android and a physical keyboard, the HTC Desire Z should be your first choice.