So we’ve had the Desire superphone, now for the Android-powered HTC Wildfire- an affordable and diminutive interpretation of the Desire with no compromise under the hood and a big focus on social networking.

Look & Feel
The Wildfire does actually look much like a mini Desire, but for a more pronounced chin and a metallic colour. It feels just as solid in the hand, looks just as smooth as a Desire and will fit a lot better in the pocket.

Display
You’ll first notice the difference on the screen which is low-res QVGA rather than high-res AMOLED – a point at which HTC apparently cut a lot of cost when producing the Wildfire. This aside, the capacitive touchscreen is ultra-responsive and has the same seven home screens that are just a breeze to just swipe through, with the added bonus of looking sexy and slick thanks to the integrated HTC Sense.

Camera
The Wildfire’s camera is 5 megapixel with flash – standard for smartphones these days but great for the affordable price. The photographs the camera takes are definitely good enough too, bar at times being a little over-exposed and slightly out of focus. But as mentioned, great for the price.

Internet
Much like the Desire, browsing is a dream on the Wildfire, and with 7.2Mbps internet is lightning fast, or as fast as your network allows you to be. And HTC’s pinch to zoom action exists on the Wildfire and is perfect for zooming whilst browsing.

Memory & Speed
The Wildfire has a reasonable internal memory of 512Mb – again, plentiful for its place in the market. And it even expands 32GB with a MicroSD card slot. The Wildfire has got a good little 528Mhz processor and to put that in perspective, it’s the same as the HTC Hero has and slightly slower than an iPhone 3GS.

Verdict
The HTC Wildfire is an impressive phone that skimps in very few areas, surprisingly. The low-res QVGA display and processor speed is where you most notice the difference on this HTC handset, but the Wildfire is essentially everything desirable about the Desire, packed into a more compact shell.

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