An evolution program driven by a desire to convince pre paid mobile phone users to step into the world of Smartphone’s has been launched by Telstra and HTC with the launch of a new very straightforward and no-nonsense low cost new Android 2.1 HTC Wildfire Smartphone that is rich in new software features.
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Described as the little brother to the highly popular HTC Desire, the new Wildfire is a neat looking handset that comes in two colour black and white.
While Apple struggles to deliver their white iPhone 4 HTC has managed to roll out a white phone that looks very smart especially with the matt grey aluminium casing.
Unique to the Telstra version of Wildfire are applications like the new Sync feature which allows applications and contacts to be easily moved from one phone to another.
In a demonstration at today’s launch HTC executives used a Sony Ericsson phone to demonstrate the transferrer of contacts from one phone to another. The Wildfire software allows a user to switch on the Bluetooth capability of a phone from which the contacts are to be transferred , It also identifies a list of import phones.
One the phone is identified it’s a simple process to transfer the data.
Before you do this make sure you have transferred any contacts or data you have in a SIM card especially if you are moving from one carrier to a new carrier.
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Although small in stature and lighter at 118g, than the Desire which according to Telstra is on back order , the Wildfire can be purchased from Telstra on a $49 plan and $0 dollars upfront. The device which is social network centric integrates nicely with Facebook including calendar to caller ID as well as Twitter and MySpace.
According to Telstra more than 140,000 users now take advantage of their Tribe service which allows social network users to communicate between each other.
The 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen is large considering that the phone is lighter and smaller than the Desire.
What is obvious is that this phone is a standout when compared to offerings from t6he likes of Nokia, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson who are struggling to compete in the budget end of the prepaid market.
Outright the Wildfire is $349 which is cheap when you consider the phone has similar features to an iPhone or the HTC Desire or even the new Blackberry Torch.
And talking of torches, the Wildfire comes with its own built in flashlight, which is ideal for steps or when looking for a lock slot in a door.
An optical trackpad is the front panel’s only button. This appears just below the touchscreen.
Other stand out features includes a 5.2 Megapixel camera complete with a flash function.
In your hand the HTC Wildfire feels the part, it looks smart and feels as professional as the desire. The cost cutting has been achieved by cutting back on the size of the Qualcomm processer which in the Wildfire is 528 MHz Vs 1GB Snapdragon found in the desire.
The handset has a one-button volume control on the side and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The new phone will be available in Australia from 24 August to both pre-paid and post-paid customers exclusively on Telstra’s Next G Network.
In addition, HTC Wildfire comes with a new version of HTC Sync (Sync 3.0). This feature is compatible with most popular media players available on a PC. This enables users to sync favourite tunes, playlists, pictures and other data from a PC direct to the Wildfire.
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The inclusion of HTC’s Friend Stream allows users to view friends’ Facebook updates, Tweets and Flickr photos in one organised stream, all on the same screen. According to Telstra users will also get access to MySpace users.
Another standout feature is a new version of Caller ID along with the traditional Caller ID features of caller name and number, the Wildfire now includes additional information such as friend’s birthday and Facebook status updates.
In addition, each contact viewed in HTC Wildfire’s address book includes a thread of recent communications with that person, including the last conversation, recent text messages and emails.
Telstra customers also get a range of unmetered BigPond entertainment, including news, sport, music and weather.
Telstra customers can also subscribe to exclusive content including Mobile FOXTEL from Telstra and AFL and NRL apps.
During a presentation at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, HTC executives demonstrated their Swype technology which is the first Telstra Smartphone to feature Swype text input technology.
Swype allows customers to glide their finger across a virtual keyboard to spell words, rather than tapping out each letter. This can make it even faster to compose emails, text messages and to search the web. I first tried Swype on the new Samsung S and while it looks intimidating at first this is one really cool application that makes texting extremely simple and quick.
PRO
This is yet another slick phone from HTC. More importantly it delivers a lot of capability for people who cannot afford or do not want to pay for an expensive $900 Smartphone. Compared to the new iPhone 4 there are not too many features in the $999 that are worth an additional $650.
CONS
There is nothing shabby about this phone. However there is one capability that I would like to see and that is a better capability to eliminate applications. The Samsung S from Optus choked in a lot of crap applications. As for the Wildfire there are several applications that I don’t want on my phone and what I would like to see is that as part of the initialisation process users are given a choice of which applications they want to download.
