AT A GLANCE

• Android OS, v. 2.1 (Eclair)
• HTC Sense user interface
• Deep social media integration
• Accelerometer
• 5 megapixel camera

From the moment I took the Wildfire out of its little box and stroked its lovely shiny screen for the first time, I knew I was in love. You have to understand, I’ve always used my Vodacom upgrades on the cheap rubbish Nokias so that I could get the vouchers. My actual phone holds a maximum of 30 SMSs at any one time and can’t browse the web. It was a given from day one that I was going to love the Wildfire with every fibre of my little geek heart.

There are advantages and disadvantages to reviewing a phone totally ‘fresh’ with no preconceptions of what a smartphone should or shouldn’t do, apart from what I’ve read and imagined. On the plus side, I had serious ‘new smartphone user syndrome’ which meant that I never put it down and spent every waking moment exploring each and every feature that it had. On the minus side, it’s difficult for me to tell which of the phone’s advantages and disadvantages are specific to this model or are found on all phones in the category.

So, straight into it. After playing with it for 2 weeks (pretty much every waking minute) I’m happy to say that it’s a fantastic phone for the price, but that’s just it: it’s decidedly in the middle of the smartphone market and has its limitations. If you’re going to be a power user, you should pay a little extra to go for a slightly better smartphone.

The Joys and Sorrows of Smartphonehood

I want to get this out of the way first. If – like me – you’re thinking about making the Wildfire your first smartphone, there are some things I should warn you of. Although it’s magical having a thing with so much power on you at all times, there are moments when you secretly hate it and want to have your old phone back which:

1. Has buttons
2. You know how to work

I know this sounds awfully ‘ungeeky’, but I have to admit that there were things that were difficult to adjust to. Learning to type on the touchscreen made me feel like I was The Incredible Hulk with giant sausage-thumbs. A couple of times during the first few days, I gave up trying to type SMSs and ended up just phoning people (and I hate talking on the phone). It got better over time as I learnt to let go and trust the Autocorrect function, but I’ve also read too many Autocorrect horror stories to ever give into this completely.

Navigating the Android App marketplace was also not as friendly as I’d imagined; you actually do have to wade through lots of useless, spammy apps (iPhanBoys will tell you that this is just an Android problem, but anyway). I found it was better to browse for apps online and identify the good ones before going into the marketplace.

Of course, the biggest challenge with a new smartphone is learning how to put it away. I was glued to it so tightly that the boyfriend started reverting to SMSing me when he needed to talk to me – even if I was on the opposite end of the couch. The whole world melted around me and I was awash in Andoidy goodness. I changed my Facebook profile picture to an Android. I started talking about nothing but apps at parties. Once – and I’m ashamed to admit this – I even brought out Tom the Talking Cat whilst out at dinner with friends. Maybe some girl’s geek genes are just too strong for them to be able to withstand the power of smartphonedom.

Now, the HTC Wildfire...

As for the phone itself, there probably couldn’t have been a better phone to be my gateway drug to the smartphone world. The Wildfire is aimed at the youth market and first-time smartphone users, so it’s incredibly friendly for newbies. The setup wizard takes you through setting up email and social media accounts in less than 5 minutes.

The HTC Sense user interface is also very warm and easy to use. It’s intuitive and gives you plenty of ‘desktop space’ to put apps on. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to use the HTC superpowers like turning over a ringing phone to put it on silent, but once I did I felt like Jean Gray from the X-Men. 

The social media functions are very well integrated: for instance, your friends' Facebook profile pictures and latest status updates show up on the caller ID when they ring you. I did find that the contact book became incredibly messy, though, with lots of duplications from various social media networks, SIM cards and IM lists that it was just far too time-consuming (and confusing) to consolidate. 

On the less positive side, I could never quite figure out what all of the phone’s notification icons and sounds meant. This was actually very distressing: it would keep bleeping at me plaintively and I’d grab it and yell, ‘What do you want, phone! Just tell me, please! I’ll do anything, ANYTHING, but tell me what you want!’ It was a bit like looking after someone else’s baby.

The phone’s also painfully slow at times and I had it freeze on me regularly. The battery lasts about 15 seconds (that’s not really fair, it lasts about a day but I was using it constantly). You also feel the limitations when you try to install any apps that are even slightly complex, which sadly includes any games. I couldn’t get a single game app to work, which included – gasp! – Angry Birds.

Apparently, this has nothing to do with the processor and is actually about screen resolution, which you also discover is pretty sub-par as soon as you try to read anything.That said, phones like the Wildfire are the reason that Android has carved out such an impressive market share. It’s simple and you really do get serious bang for your buck. It does almost everything you want a smartphone to do (except play games) and I would definitely recommend it if – like me – you’re cash strapped but want to start on the road to true Smartphone-a-holicism.

Turn ons

• It’s a smartphone! A real smartphone!
• Unbelievable value for money
• The HTC Sense interface is lovely, usable and simple to learn

Turn offs

• Eats battery like a hungry hungry hippo
• With its paltry 528MHz processor, it’s pretty slow and freezes a lot
• Heavier apps don’t work (like Angry Birds)

Price: From R2000-R4000 (depending on where and how you buy it)