Handset manufacturer HTC has released the new version of its Desire phone. Called the Desire S it feels more solid than the original Desire because it’s made of a single piece of aluminium.

The feature set has been upgraded as well. This new lighter phone has a 3,7in touchscreen, a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front for video conferencing and a 5 megapixel camera on the back for high definition video as well as microphones to allow for full surround sound.

It runs Gingerbread, which is the codename for the latest version of Google’s Android operating system. This means it is designed to synchronise with a Google Apps or Google Docs (but preferably Apps) installation out of the box, immediately, with very little tweaking from the user.

This makes it simple for a manager to check that a colleague has actually sent an email, for example, and to read that email as it’ll be available to them on their handset as well as available to the original sender. Numerous businesses operate using Android and Google Apps as their core systems and keep synchronised across various physical devices without needing to think much about it.

The other thing that’s upgraded as compared to the original is battery life. In terms of voice the phone will keep going for 9 hours, and if you’re using a 3G connection instead it’ll last about 7. This is the manufacturer’s claim anyway; experience says it all depends on what you’re doing with the phone, so if you’ve decided to watch a movie on a slow-moving train then the video will chew up battery life like a mad thing.

Unlike some other fruit-based smartphone manufacturers, however, HTC does allow the option of a spare battery which you can remove and put another in. This feature alone is seen by many as a good reason to opt for the now market-leading Android phones as opposed to the more glamorous but sealed offerings from Apple.

Guy Clapperton