HTC Wildfire vs BlackBerry, iPhone and Android

We take three different smartphone users to see how they thought the HTC Wildfire measured up against a BlackBerry 9700, HTC Hero and iPhone 3G

The HTC Wildfire is HTC's latest foray into the budget market, and it has brought with it a whole host of high-end features.

The only places where it is not so premium is the screen and processor, but how do our BlackBerry, HTC and iPhone users think it stacks up against their phones?

Clare Hopping, BlackBerry Bold 9700 user
I was taken with BlackBerry about a year ago - first opting for the BlackBerry Bold 9000 and most recently upgrading to the Bold 9700.

BlackBerry appeals to me because it works perfectly as a phone and is great for emails - displaying all conversations with perfect precision.

Then I was given the HTC Wildfire to test out.

I've never been a fan of touchscreens, hence why I chose a non-touchscreen BlackBerry over the Storm, but the HTC Wildfire's touchscreen is pretty good, albeit too small for my liking.

If I was forced to choose a touchscreen phone, it'd probably be the HTC HD2 because typing is a breeze on its massive screen.

As you can probably assume from my phone of choice, typing is important to me, hence why the Bold 9700 was a great option - the keys are textured and easy to type on.

The HTC Wildfire does address some preconceptions I had about touchscreen keyboards - there's ample feedback with each stroke and the auto correct isn't particularly over zealous.

Widgets are also really handy on touchscreen and this is no different on the Wildfire. Being able to customise a homescreen so much does have a massive advantage - mostly that you can access all of your most used applications quickly.

The Wildfire also storms ahead with its App Store. After using App World since its intoduction, I've always found it massively overpriced and not as intuitive as Android Market.

Pretty often, I download the trial versions of BlackBerry apps because they're so pricey and it's guaranteed that I'd only use an app once or twice.

The freebies on BlackBerry App World are few and far between, but Android offers most for free, although it's not as wide a selection as on the iPhone's App Store.

I've come to love the BlackBerry's camera and although it may not reproduce the best photos, at the highest resolution, I prefer its simple zoom function. I never do anything with my phone pictures except upload them to Twitter, which is simple on both devices.

Although I have nothing against the HTC Wildfire - it's a fantastic handset - it just doesn't suit my lifestyle. Add on a hardware Qwerty keyboard and I'm taken, because the Android OS is much more comfortable to use than BlackBerry.

HTC Hero | Apple iPhone 3G | BlackBerry Bold 9700