HTC Legend vs HTC Desire vs Google Nexus One

The Android smartphone supertest
The Android smartphone supertest

Update: read our latest mobile phone reviews and news.

The days when the T-Mobile G1 was the big cheese in the Android world are happily gone. Now, the Android OS is being used to create some truly industry leading handsets and HTC is behind some of the best.

But which is the one for you to spend your hard-earned on? The Hero-a-like Legend? The insanely powerful but stupidly monikered Desire? Or do you trust your mobile dollar in Google with the Nexus One?

The HTC Legend

Android phone superfight:

What makes a phone good? Well, the easy answer is one that packs the most into the smallest frame - but Apple came along with the iPhone and changed that perception almost overnight.

No, apparently what's best is the combination of beautiful hardware and a slick user experience - so step forward the HTC Legend.

If you imagine an HTC Hero met an Apple Macbook Air one night in a bar, got along famously and ended up getting so drunk that they woke up shame-facedly together in the morning, this would be the result.

Android phone superfight:

The HTC Legend is hewn from a single block of aluminium, giving it a polished and expensive look, in the Marmite-esque 'lip' chassis. Not only that, but the 3.2-inch screen is actually an OLED, which means colours are gloriously saturated and the blacks are wonderfully dark.

The HTC Sense UI is also in full force here, and while we could witter on about the social networking integration in the contacts menu or the improved camera UI, we just care about the fact we can pinch the home screen in to view all our open widgets in one glance (called Leap view).

Android phone superfight:

We're also digging the ability to see all our friends' feeds in one place through Friend Stream - we know that it's an option on the HTC Desire as well, but it seems to suit the Legend a little more.

It's a smooth, sleek and ultimately satisfying to hold phone - and it's packing a fair whack of grunt under the hood as well.

Android phone superfight:

Who's gonna buy the Legend? If you're the kind of person that values form as much as functionality (and for some reason don't want the iPhone) then you should definitely give the HTC Legend the once over.

Sure, it's not got the processing power of the Desire or the bells and whistles of Google's device, but it looks superb, handles better than most phones out there and what's more - it shouldn't break the bank when it appears.

Read TechRadar's in-depth HTC Legend review

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.

Latest in Phones
Samsung Galaxy S25 from the front
The Now Bar on Samsung One UI 7 is about to get a lot more useful – and could soon match Live Activities on iOS
An iPhone running iOS 18 on a purple and blue background
iOS 18.4 could launch soon with a major upgrade to your iPhone’s notifications
Google Pixel 9a being held, from the back
The Google Pixel 9a’s mysterious delay may have just been explained
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge on display the January 22, 2025 Galaxy Unpacked event.
A fresh Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge leak hints at a 2K display and a titanium frame
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 in Paris in front of the Louvre pyramid
I switched to a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 five months ago and I haven’t looked back – here are five things you need to know before buying a foldable phone
iPhone 16 Pro Desert Titanium in hand
I think the rumored iPhone 17 Pro redesign looks great – but is it Apple enough?
Latest in News
DeepSeek
Deepseek’s new AI is smarter, faster, cheaper, and a real rival to OpenAI's models
Open AI
OpenAI unveiled image generation for 4o – here's everything you need to know about the ChatGPT upgrade
Apple WWDC 2025 announced
Apple just announced WWDC 2025 starts on June 9, and we'll all be watching the opening event
Hornet swings their weapon in mid air
Hollow Knight: Silksong gets new Steam metadata changes, convincing everyone and their mother that the game is finally releasing this year
OpenAI logo
OpenAI just launched a free ChatGPT bible that will help you master the AI chatbot and Sora
An aerial view of an Instavolt Superhub for charging electric vehicles
Forget gas stations – EV charging Superhubs are using solar power to solve the most annoying thing about electric motoring