The first Android phone had a QWERTY keypad and was manufactured by HTC. After that there haven t been a lot of droids with QWERTY keypads and HTC in particular never visited that territory. Not until now, that is. The successor to the original droid, the T-Mobile G1 was followed by the G2, which is several leagues ahead of its predecessor. Of course, that phone is restricted to T-Mobile so HTC came up with the Desire Z - the phone that we are reviewing today - where they loaded it with their own Sense UI and are selling it unlocked in other markets. The phone has been selling in the Indian market for some time now but it took HTC a while to send us a review sample. Nevertheless, we have the phone with us now and we have been spending some quality time with it. So read on if you want the full review.
Design and Build
The Desire Z has a slightly subdued design compared to the Desire. You can tell it is designed to suit a businessman more than, say, a college goer. Nevertheless, it is still a handsome phone. The silver brushed aluminum finish goes well with the grey rubberized plastic. Metal is used sparingly on the Desire Z, possibly to keep the weight less; the sliding mechanism already adds a lot to that.
On the front you have the large earpiece on the top with the ambient light sensor and the proximity sense hidden towards its left. Below is the 3.7-inch display covered with a Gorilla Glass. Below the display is a thin row of touch sensitive keys along with an optical trackpad. We preferred the physical controls below the Desire's display; it is much more difficult to press unintentionally. The trackpad has a ring that glows when you have a notification.
On the left side are the volume control buttons and the micro USB port. On the right is the camera shutter button, and the button for releasing the battery cover.
On the top is the 3.5mm headphone jack and a power button.
