As a successor to the popular HTC Desire, the Desire HD brings with it most of the desirable features of its predecessor then wrapped it with a huge 4.3 inch screen (see our review of the HTC Desire here to get a better perspective). With such a huge screen real estate, the handset makes for a very good first impression very few smartphones ever get. The 4.3? LCD display is already bordering on the tablet category, just right under other 4 and 5-inchers like the Archos 43 and the Dell Streak.

The build and form factor is nothing new to us as we’ve already seen it over a year ago with the HTC HD2, although that one was running on WinMo 6.5 (there’s a hack to install Android on that one too) so it’s not a surprise that people are eager to see the marriage of the HD2?s hardware and Android OS.

What we missed with the Desire HD that we really liked with the older Desire is the inclusion of an AMOLED screen. While the LCD on the Desire HD still brings in that bright and clear display, the crispness and depth of contrast we get from AMOLED is very noticeable.

Because of the 4.3-inch screen, the footprint of the Desire HD is quite large at 123 x 68mm. HTC has kept it slim though, with a thickness of just 11.8mm. These dimensions are only slightly larger than the HD2′s 120.5 x 67 x 11mm. We liked the aluminum material, which has a matte finish. This is used throughout the device except for the screen and plastic cutouts on the back, which hide the battery and SIM/memory expansion card slots.

The bigger size of the Desire HD means it’s not for everyone. It will fit into most pockets, but those who are smaller in stature or like to wear tight jeans may not feel too comfortable with it, especially when trying to sit down. As with the HD2, this product is meant for those who want the latest and greatest in a smartphone, and such users generally accept the tradeoff of having a larger device.

The HTC Desire is, in effect, the second in the new Android range from HTC, with its much larger brother, the HTC Desire HD, taking most of the limelight. But it’s more than ‘spare a thought’ for the HTC Desire Z, as this phone is designed to encompass the best Android has to offer with HTC’s sublime Sense overlay – and a QWERTY keyboard to boot.

The first thing you’ll notice about the HTC Desire Z when you pick it up is the sheer heft, as we’re seeing a phone with a 3.7-inch screen coupled with a not-insubstantial QWERTY keyboard and hinge underneath.

The display half is mostly occupied by the 3.7” Super LCD screen with 480×800 pixels of resolution. It has very good color gamut, improved contrast and viewing angles, and, at maximum brightness, is very usable in direct sunlight, compared to previous generation LCDs. Only Motorola’s DROID army, and, of course, the iPhone 4, are trumping it in terms of resolution, but the technology used there is the same.

Embedded in the black frame underneath the screen are four tiny touch keys for the typical Android functions – home, menu, back and search. The other element below the screen is an optical trackpad, which allows you to swipe through the homescreens, navigate around in menus and websites, and press it to execute the desired action. It’s a good way to lessen contact, hence smudges on your touchscreen, but its functionality in the homescreens is somewhat limited to just scrolling them left and right, so you’ll have to inevitably use your fingers on the display there. When the alarm goes off, it lights up the area around the optical trackpad for some visual stimulation as well. The screen half also hosts the two-stage camera key at the right side, which needs to be held for a split second at full press to enter the camera interface.

The Samsung Galaxy S is meant to be the Korean firm’s big assault on the smartphone market – packing oodles of top end technology into a handset it thinks can take on the iPhone 4. There’s more than just top end technology in here to beat the iPhone – the chassis looks decidedly similar too, despite the much larger screen, which comes in at a whopping four inches.

Beyond their simple appeal as sexy, high-end Android phones, what makes the Captivate and Vibrant especially interesting is that they are actually their respective carriers’ only high-end Android phones at the moment. In other words: if 1GHz processors and high-res AMOLED displays are how you roll, these are basically the only game in town if you’re on AT&T or T-Mobile — particularly now that Nexus One sales are winding down.

The range of features it offers is also impressive, with streaming video being a firm favourite of ours, as it means you can simply start watching your network content with minimal fuss, whilst format support covers most bases. The camera is impressive too, competing with similar devices, although it lacks the touch focus in video that the iPhone 4 offers.

The HTC Dream is the first smartphone to run the open source Android operating system, developed by the Open Handset Alliance (a Google-led consortium of 47 companies including HTC, Intel, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Qualcomm). It’s also the first handset we’ve seen from HTC that runs something other than Windows Mobile. We’re guessing there are a bunch of engineers at HTC breathing a sigh of relief that they can finally stretch their wings and use something other than WinMo in their handsets.

The Dream is encased entirely in a matte-black finish. Unlike in the US where it is also offered in white and bronze, this is the only color available in Asia at the moment. The buttons on the front face of the Dream are all located below the screen in a section that’s slightly tilted upward. This looks a little strange at first but it does make the device distinct from the wide range of Windows Mobile devices made by HTC. Aside from the Menu, Home and Back buttons which are required to navigate the OS, there are also the Call and Hang Up keys for phone calls. A trackball is found in the center of this entire portion, which allows you to scroll and navigate pages. This is similar to what you will find on most BlackBerry devices starting from the Pearl and Curve series.

The HTC Dream has a lot of strengths – which we’ll get to in a moment – but sex appeal isn’t one of them. To look at, it bears a close resemblance to one of HTC’s older smartphones, with a touchscreen dominating the front and a QWERTY keyboard that slides out from behind the display. Bucking against the trend of small and sleek devices, the HTC Dream is a positively brick-like, weighing a portly 158g. It’s also longer and thicker than most other phones, measuring 117mm long and 17.1mm thick. By comparison, the iPhone 3G (which isn’t exactly the poster child of portability but is at least relatively thin) weighs only 133g and measures 115mm long and 12.3mm thick.

The Nexus One. In the modern climate of hyped (and over-hyped) smartphone launches, Google’s official entry into the phone-sales game has excelled in a department where many find difficulty: generating legitimate excitement. Of course, long before the name Nexus One or the recent bounty of pictures and details existed, the very concept of a “Google Phone” had been ingrained in the public conscience, predating even the Open Handset Alliance and Android itself; the company dabbled in the concept of direct sales through its offering of the Android Dev Phones 1 and 2 (alias Ion), but this time, it’s a public retail ordeal, not a couple of one-off developer specials.

The phone looks more like the iPhone than any other phone on the market. There is no physical keyboard like the Android-powered Motorola Droid, and the tradeoff is a much slimmer design. The phone is 11.5 mm deep, slightly thinner than the iPhone 3GS at 12.3 mm. It is also slightly lighter than the iPhone 130 grams v. 135 grams). The package comes with the phone, a removable battery, 4 GB Micro SD storage card (expandable to 32 GB), USB charger and microphone headset.

The Nexus one has four functional touch buttons at the bottom of the screen (back, menu, home, search) and a navigation trackball pointing device. It also has physical power and volume controls. But most of your interaction with the phone will be through the gorgeous 3.7 inch 480 x 800 OLED capacitive touchscreen. This is the best mobile phone display on the market today, blowing away the iPhone’s 480 x 320 display. The screen is bright and alive, and an absolute pleasure to use.

Unfortunately, neither Google nor Yahoo were particularly helpful when we were having problems. A Google spokeswoman said that the company is “not aware of specific problems,” and that I should contact Yahoo for more information. A Yahoo spokesman promised to look into the problem and offered this response. “It’s unfortunate that Google launched a mobile device without properly integrating e-mail from Yahoo–the number one mobile mail service in the United States. We’re working with Google to correct this in order to provide the best possible mobile mail experience for consumers.”