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Hands-on with the U.S. Cellular HTC Desire Android smartphone

It isn't always the big four carriers that get the latest devices and this time U.S. Cellular was lucky enough to score the HTC Desire. The solidly built HTC Desire has similar specs to the Google Nexus One, but is a CDMA variant with some very nice hardware buttons. U.S. Cellular has some great plan options and additional services too.
By Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer
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It isn't always the big four carriers that get the latest devices and this time U.S. Cellular was lucky enough to score the HTC Desire. The solidly built HTC Desire has similar specs to the Google Nexus One, but is a CDMA variant with some very nice hardware buttons. U.S. Cellular has some great plan options and additional services too.

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These two devices have very similar specifications and dimensions.

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The backs are covered in soft touch material and feel great in your hand.

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A 5 megapixel camera and LED flash are found on the back with the speaker adjacent to them.

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The HTC Desire is an HTC Sense phone with Google.

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Unlike the Nexus One, HTC includes physical hardware buttons on the front of the device. You will also find a touch sensitive trackball.

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The hardware buttons are small metal fixtures surrounded by soft touch material.

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A single long volume button is found on the upper left side of the HTC Desire.

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A microUSB port and microphone are found on the bottom.

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The power button and 3.5mm headset jack are found on the top of the Desire.

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This photos shows a typical home page with shortcuts and widgets.

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Like the HTC EVO 4G on Sprint you get free navigation from TeleNav on the HTC Desire.

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U.S. Cellular provides this utility to backup your contacts on their servers.

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U.S. Cellular sells ringtones and provides a page formatted for these on the device.

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A large battery and the microSD card (8GB included) are shown under the battery cover.

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