Me and My Mac

Ok.  Somehow we’ve gotten to part 6 before talking about what the devices are actually supposed to be.  This is probably an indication of what we’ve come to expect from a ‘Phone’.

Anyway, this one is nice and easy - er, not.

You press the call button on the iPhone, and it calls the number you tapped. Sound quality is great, and it just works.  Visual voicemail, as an extension of calls, is a huge bonus for iPhone, and something I really missed even in the 10 days I did without it.

Under certain circumstances on the HTC, you get some odd results. If you just missed a call, or just made a call for example, it can take a few moments to refresh the list, meaning if you just tap the top number, sometimes you can find yourself calling a different number than what you intended.

You get USED to it, but you shouldn’t have to. Its a truly infuriating bug. Combine it with the old-skool voicemail, and you’re onto a loser already.

There is one important way in which it claws it back tho. Bluetooth handsfree works properly.

For some reason, there are issues with the iPhone bluetooth which means that it wont work with my in-car bluetooth system.  It will ‘work’ but a call lasts 30 seconds or so before the sound quality goes all squelchy.  Sure, iPhone works on bluetooth for other devices just fine, but the HTC worked with ALL the bluetooth handsfree devices I tried it on (3 in total, including my pioneer head unit in my car)

However, add the wired handsfree kit on the iPhone, combined with the voice recognition (easily triggered by holding the home button, or centre button on the wired handsfree kit), which is the best voice recognition I have ever used, and you have a case for the iPhone all anew.  

So… who wins this round?

Well if you strip away all the fancy features, they are phones, and they should just work. In this way, the iPhone scores, for the sole reason of the HTC bug.

Feature to feature – neither are perfect.  Both have issues or omissions.  If the Desire had voice commands like the iPhone, or if the iPhone bluetooth worked properly, it would be more clear cut.

Anyway, the iPhone scrapes a point here.

HTC Desire 3 – iPhone 3