Camera Phones

HTC Wildfire Review

Social Networking – everyone seems to be doing it at the moment and the new mobile from HTC, the HCT Wildfire, is no exception.

Running on the Android platform, the HTC Wildfire incorporates Facebook, Twitter and Flickr into one and links them to your friends all on one screen and then uses all this information when they call you, showing everything from their latest Facebook update to their birthday.

HTC have traditionally implemented the android user interface very well and the Wildfire includes the Android™ 2.1 (Éclair) with HTC Sense™, a capacitive touch screen with pinch-to-zoom capability (240 x 320 QVGA), and a feature called Leap View, which shows all seven home screen panels at once and a single touch will take you to the one you want. Clever innovations such as polite ringer means that the ring tone on the Wildfire will quieten when you pick up the phone, and silence if you turn it over.

There is built in Microsoft Exchange support for email and calendar synchronisation, perfect for business users and a dimmable torch and FM radio and music player with 3.5 mm headphone jack.

But what of the camera? We have criticised HTC in the past for poor camera integration, but the Wildfire comes with a 5 megapixel camera, with autofocus and flash as well as geotagging using the built in GPS receiver. whilst there is only 384 MB available RAM, this can be expanded with microSD cards to 32GB. So is the Wildfire the phone that says HTC have got the camera right? unfortunately not even the 5 megapixel camera could produce better than average pictures, but given the other features packed into this phone we suspect this will not put people off.

HTC have a fairly full range of mobiles to choose from at the moment and the Wildfire is best described as a pared down version of the Desire, hence the QVGA screen. But expect a cheaper price as well and this mobile is aimed at the mass market (probably younger) user looking for great value for money, to which it delivers.

Expect to see the HTC Wildfire in shops from 14 June.

Like this? Try these similar articles...

• Motorola Defy Review
  The Motorola Defy is the latest touch screen Android mobile (Android Éclair 2.1 with enhanced MOTOBLUR) from Motorola. Not only does it look good, the Defy has a 5 megapixel camera with built-in LED flash, digital zoom, auto focus and real-time image opti...
• Motorola Droid X
  Motorola have announced the follow-up phone to the highly successful Droid, to be called the Droid X and available on Verizon in the US. Running Android 2.1 - expected to be updated to 2.2 later this year, the Droid X is a big phone,127.5 x 65.5 x 9.9 ...
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Review
  The Xperia X10 mini, due to hit shops very soon is a phone that is possibly more than the sum of its parts, which are small. 83.0 x 50.0 x 16.0 mm to be precise, compared with the 119.0 x 63.0 x 13.0 mm of its bigger brother. It also weighs a whole lot le...
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Review
  The Xperia X10 marks Sony Ericsson's forray into the Andriod market, complementing its other devices that run on the Symbian and Windows platforms. Comparisons are therefore possibly better made with other Andriod phones rather than other Sony Ericsson mo...
• HTC Desire Review
  HTC phones make a stir, and the Desire looks to be no different. With a large (3.7 inch) AMOLED display and fast 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor this phone looks good and responds well. Running on Android™ 2.1 (Éclair) with HTC Sense™, the HTC Desire ...