What happens when a Taiwan ODM (Original Device Manufacturer) starts making their own phone? Result is you get good value for money, it start selling well and as a result they also get sued!

For those who came in late, ODMs are the actual manufactures of the device sold by the likes of Apple. ODMs actually make the devices and these are branded and sold by the big MNC brands.

HTC is  an ODM for many big brands. For example they manufactured the Google Nexus One for Google which is similar to HTC Desire. They have now been releasing their own phones.

They are so successful, that Apple sued them for patent infringement cause they enabled multi-touch on their phone and actually did a better job than Apple did on its iPhone.

HTC the number 1 brand as per GSMArena,  has launched some nice  phones to give customers a choice:

  • HTC Wildfire
  • HTCL Legend
  • HTC Desire

Here is whats common between them:

  • 5 Megapixel Camera
  • LED Flash
  • 3G with HSDPA for upto 7.2Mbps download speeds (network dependent)
  • Wi-Fi
  • Stereo Bluetooth
  • GPS receiver
  • FM Radio
  • Touch screen with Multi-touch support
  • Proximity sensor
  • Accelerometer
  • Optical Trackpad
  • Flash Player
  • 3.5mm standard audio jack
  • Unlimited phonebook (limited by memory)
  • MicroUSB
  • Limitations: No front video camera for video conferencing. No Qwerty keyboard.
  • All of them Run the latest Linux based Android 2.1 and are expected to be upgradable to 2.2 this quarter.

Android 2.2 will add:

  • HTML 5
  • Flash 10.1 support
  • Faster speeds due to JIT compiler

Now here is the main difference between the three:

Features
HTC Wildfire HTC Legend HTC Desire
Display Type
TFT AMOLED AMOLED
Display Resolution 240×320 320 x 480 480 x 800
Display Size 3.2 Inches 3.2 Inches 3.7 Inches
Internal Memory 384 MB RAM 384 MB RAM 576 MB RAM
CPU 528 MHz Qualcomm 600 MHz Qualcomm 1GHz Qualcomm
Weight 118g 126g 135g
Price $379/Rs. 15,000 $495/Rs. 21,000 $659/Rs. 26,000

The main difference between these phones are processor speeds, display quality and the price. The Legend and the Desire sports an AMOLED display which is the latest LED display, which is razor sharp.  The Desire also sports a slight larger display of 3.7 inches with the highest resolution. It also bundles a 4 GB MicroSD Memory Card. The processor speed is not so important if the OS works well and you don’t need to run too many apps simultaneously.

Here is my suggestion:

If you want an Android phone but not willing to shell out a bomb, the Wildfire is your best bet. Since the Wildfire is the latest amongst these, it also has some newer features.

If you don’t have budget constrains and wants to show off to your iPhone friends, then go in for the Desire. Its will also do justice in video playback capabilities. The Legend is ofcourse for people who want the best of both worlds: Lower cost than desire but with better display than the Wildfire.