HTC Legend and Desire Smartphones with Enhanced Sense

Sense is the name of the user interface that HTC introduced in mid-2009 for its Hero Android phone. The interface distinguishes itself from others in that users can thematically assemble personalized desktops and views. The new Sense enhancements extend to social networking and contacts: the new Friend Stream client application uploads new contacts from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and others to the screen. Users can group local contacts into Friends or Colleagues (see the Gallery). HTC added another news reader feature as well as a view of the seven screens that belong to the Sense concept. This view shows thumbnails of all the screens, in case the user loses the overall context.

The Snapdragon-based phones present their applications on 3.2" (Legend) and 3.7" (Desire) screens, respectively. Instead of a trackball they include a sort of finger-operated optical joystick. The Legend also has the special characteristic of aluminum uni-body construction.

North American availability was not yet announced, but Vodafone and A1should be handling the phones in Europe and Telstra in Australia. The HTC Desire will hit the market Q2 in Europe and Asia; the Legend will roll out in April. Pricing will be revealed sometime in the future.