HTC Desire on T-Mobile UK to hit Stores Monday 29 March

by Matthew Newill on March 25, 2010

Update: Check the comments out below from Paul who has spoken to T-Moble regarding potential delays and problems with upgrades and how they are handled. We'll find out Monday hopefully if the Desire gets launched and if existing customers have any issues picking one up.

T-Mobile in the UK have confirmed that the HTC Desire will be in store ready for purchase this coming Monday March 29. The new handset is already available to order online and via phone, but ordering that way has an estimated 7 day delivery time which indicates you'd be best actually waiting till Monday and going to pick up a HTC Desire from your local T-Mobile store.

A message was posted on the T-Mobile forums indicating that the reports of the phone going out of stock online were actually incorrect and that it was just a glitch in the reporting. Either way, it looks more likely that you will get the phone quicker if you pay a visit to the store.

The HTC Desire is an Android based smartphone that runs the Sense UI over the top of Android. The device has a 5 megapixel camera and a good sized 3.7 inch AMOLED screen allowing for some very clear images to be shown.

If getting the phone on a 24 month contract costing £35/month then you can pick up the HTC Desire for free. If £35/month is too much for you and you don't need that many minutes or texts then you can pay £129 for the handset along with £15/Month on a 24 month contract.

Other variations of phone prices and contract prices can be found on the T-Mobile website allowing you to pay more or less up front for the phone and balance it off with an 18 or 24 month contract to suit your needs.

 


  • http://blog.paulriley.net pauljriley

    I have just got off of the phone to T-Mobile upgrade department and have been informed that the HTC Desire FAILED a last minute ‘Quality’ check yesterday, 25th March 2010, and HTC will NOT be allowing the release of the Desire to ANY networks until the 2nd April.

    Either this is the truth, and HTC have been particularly lax in their quality control, or T-Mobile have plunged to the lowest depths in their handling of existing customers and have as suspected sold all of their first batch of phones to NEW customers only and EXISTING customers can go whistle in the wind.

    *****************Latest update*******************
    Have received an email from HTC content below:
    New Response From [ Pedro (UK - Ireland Support (Tech)) ]
    Dear Paul

    Thank you for contacting us.

    We would like to be clear over speculation and confirm that the branded HTC Legend has received quality approval and meets all the requirements for public release.

    Also our products can be re-branded to mobile networks and according with the needs they can change the original specifications.

    We won’t comment on any decisions that a network may do to and pass to their customers but T-Mobile is still selling the device and advertising the HTC Desire on their website:
    http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/htc/desire/overview/
    and the same applies to the other network who is selling our product.

    I trust that this resolves your query, please do not hesitate to contact us again if required.

    Best regards,

    Pedro S.
    HTC

    With this response, and obviously beside myself with rage, I called t-mobile to get a genuine answer (I know good luck).

    The upshot of this call is:
    1. the test failed is t-mobile’s, and not HTC’s (not how it was originally, reported to me, but we’ll skip over that).
    2. They cannot explain why the result of this internal test was only disclosed the day before the phone was due to be released.
    3. They ‘understand’ my disappointment, and I’m not the only customer out there who feels that same.
    4. Although I have been ‘pestered’ to upgrade my phone since January, my contract doesn’t actually end until 30th April 2010.
    5. Is there another handset I would like instead?
    6. Because I am obviously ‘upset’, they will call be back on Monday, and If their testing department has released them then, I might get one, and there MIGHT be a discount on the line rental (though towards the end of the call it did seem that they were playing the last part of that down).

    *******************Update on Update**********************
    Had a call as I typed this from the upgrade department, following an email complaining about the situation, result of this call is.

    1. There is nothing wrong with the Desire, and t-mobile will start shipping the phones later today.
    2. Because my contact expirers on the 30th April, I am not permitted a FULL upgrade until one month before the end of my contract. As a ‘highly valued’ customer from January I can have a ‘non-full’ upgrade, i.e. one with a selection of the phones on it. This is the first time anybody has ever mentioned this, if I call up the upgrades department just before I get through I get a recorded message saying that I am eligible for a full upgrade. I am shocked and hurt that the person I spoke to on the other end of the line felt that this was a transparent way of doing business.
    3. All of those people complaining on the various forums about the appalling way in which t-mobile has handled the launch of the HTC Desire, are the ‘trouble making’ minority (ok he didn’t say ‘trouble making’ but it felt as though he was thinking it).

    So where that leaves me, I don’t know, I might get a call on Monday, I might have to go to another network on the 5th April, who knows, I just know that at the moment it feels that you can’t trust anything anybody at t-mobile says.

  • Nukey

    I went into the T-Mobile store in Exeter yesterday and they told me it has been delayed for another week.

    There seems to be conflicting news everywhere as to it’s release, it seems.

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