HTC has been able to shrug off its “near loser” tag ever since it jumped into the Android bandwagon. From the success it has seen with the launch of its Hero and Droid phones over years, HTC has been rapidly shifting its machines from Windows to Android. The Wildfire launch comes as an affordable phone on the Android platform. However the “affordable” tag doesn’t mean it is in anyway lacking on features. The phone comes with a decent 528 MHz ARM II processor with ample memory and the trademark Gorilla glass screen. Top it up with Android applications and you have a winner here with a price tag to die for.

Verdict:

If you are looking for a durable and affordable Android phone, this is the phone you should be picking up. With HTC’s quality speaking for itself, complete with a good display and powered by the Android, the Wildfire sure makes for a great Android experience.

Design and Display:

Despite being a budget version of the HTC Tattoo, the phone doesn’t skimp on any specs. The phone weighs a mere 118 Gms, is light, compact and perfectly fits the palm. The design team at HTC has deservers accolades for moving away from the traditional HTC tall boy design and coming up with a cute, squarish phone that feels more like a gamer’s tool than like a phone. Stylish, suave, cute and handy would be how you would be able to define the phone. The phone’s 3.2 inch capacitive touch screen could be a turn off for the hardcore Smartphone enthusiasts but for a budget phone, it works just fine. Below the screen are the typical Android navigational buttons in touch form, backlit in white. Below the touch buttons is HTC’s typical optical track pad. The top of the front facade holds the uniquely designed speakers, adding to the style of this fantastically crafted phone.

The top right holds the lock button whereas the left side houses the volume rocker and the microUSB port. The 3.2 inch touch screen that the phone sports does not do full justice to the powerful operating system that it supports and is subject to some glitches, some distorted edges and a few pixelated effects. However for a budget phone, considering the features it incorporates, the screen can be conveniently ignored.

HTC’s Sense UI makes the Android much more accessible and manageable, though the phone sports a cut down version of the interface. No interactive wallpapers or the trademark helicopter view for the SenseUI on this phone. All the same, works just fine considering the price tag.

Camera:

The 5 MP camera works pretty decent and the pictures come out quite satisfactory. However, the shooter does leave much to be desired considering the fact that it is supposed to support more Mega Pixels than the rest of the lot. The LED flash however works much better than the others in the category though. Add to this the built in effects and the autofocus and you have a camera that performs pretty well…. As we mentioned…decent. And the guys at HTC, we do need a camera button.

The video mode works only in the CIF resolution with the standard 15fps capture rate. Again, decent but not exactly breathtaking.

Multimedia:

We have seen better music players but the player included with the wildfire works just fine. The player comes with all the standard features like custom playlists, equalizer presets and album art support. The Sennheiser headphones provide excellent sound quality which makes up for the clunky media playing software provided.

The video playing quality is again a bit disappointing but again…guys, this is a budget phone. With that disclaimer in place, the quality seems just about right. We could have done with better speakers though.

Everything else:

The phone is stable with the connectivity options sporting the latest from 3G to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to A-GPS. The built in Webkit browser works well loading moderately loaded pages and supports Flash content.

Though the messaging is basic, a point worth mentioning is the excellent touch keypad and the predictive text which makes the texting much easier and accessible.

Full specifications:

Display: 3.2 inch TFT capacitive screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and support for 16M colours. Gorilla Glass display

Dimensions: 106.8 x 60.4 x 12 mm.

Weight: 118 Gms.

Camera: Main camera – 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels with geo tagging, autofocus and single LED flash.

Secondary camera – No

Audio: Music player with support for MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA9 player. Built in searching, sorting and equalizers.

Video: MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV9.

Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email and IM.

Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB v2.0.

Internet: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, WLAN, with built in WebKit browser.

Games: Built-in and downloadable.

Memory: 512 MB internal with support for microSD up to 32 GB.

Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1300 mAh with talk time of 8 hours and standby of 690 hours for 3G.

Extras:

* Virtual full QWERTY keypad.

* Android 2.1 Eclair upgradable to v2.2.

* 3.5 mm headphone jack.

* Accelerometer and proximity sensor.

* Gorilla Glass display.

* HTC SenseUI.

* Multi touch input

* Optical trackpad

* Quickoffice

* Stereo FM with RDS

* Digital Compass

* Support for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr.

* SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM

* Organizer

* Image/video editor

* Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration

* Adobe Flash 10.1 support

* Voice memo/dial/commands

* Predictive text input (Swype)