HTC Wildfire review

For a budget device, there's little missing from the connectivity field of this phone's specs. HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps is featured, as is A-GPS and Wi-Fi, albeit only 802.11 b/g.

There's no HSUPA built into the Wildfire, although this isn't an issue unless you're planning on uploading massive files to the web or sending large attachments in emails.

Battery life is ample, thanks to the 1300mAh Li-Ion that will offer almost nine hours of talk time using 3G. We found it probably was better performing that the Desire's because after a day of medium usage, there was still enough juice to last through the night, even with push email activated.

The HTC Wildfire is a good backup device if you're not prepared to splash out on the HTC Desire. It's a massive improvement on the HTC Tattoo, HTC's first budget Android device in almost every way and will make the transition to Android a seamless one.

The screen may be a little hard on the eye if you're planning at staring at text rich documents or thinking of ditching web browsing on your computer for a mobile device, but unless you want to invest in a pricier handset, you can't get much better than this.

Verdict

The HTC Wildfire brings the looks of the Desire, with a budget twist. It runs perfectly well on Android 2.1 and battery life is ample. However, the screen is the Wildfire’s biggest failure and if you do stare at text all day, you may find that you have to step up a notch to the HTC Desire or even Legend.

Connectivity: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 900/2100 Display: 240 x 320 pixels, 3.2 inches OS: Google Android Camera: 5-megapixels, auto focus, LED flash GPS: A-GPS Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7225 528 MHz processor Wi-Fi: 802.11bg Dimensions: 60.4 x 12 x 106.8mm Weight: 118g Battery: Li-Ion 1300 mAh