Oh, that’s a shame. The oddly amazing £17 per month HTC Desire deal that Three UK’s had running for the last couple of weeks has been BINNED – leaving only a choice of two vastly more expensive contracts for potential new customers to choose from.
Where there was once a pile of tariff options for the HTC Desire via Three, it now only offers two – both tweaks of its “Internet Texter” deals that go for £30 per month and £33 per month, both on 24 month contracts.
Here’s the tragic scene a few minutes ago:
Terrible timing. We were just about to sign up to one of those £17 deals so we had something running Android 2.1 for app testing purposes. If you managed to get yourself a Desire on one of Three’s £17 contracts, you are a WINNER.
It’s smooth to use, the 1080p display is sharp, clear and bright, the device is extremely light and thin and therefore very pocketable and portable — much more so than other 5-inch phones we’ve used. And yet… we’re a bit unimpressed by the overall package…
A relatively high-spec smartphone, with a 4.5″ display running at 480 x 854 resolution and powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, plus the Ascend G510 arrives running Android 4.1.1 — albeit potentially hindered by Huawei only sticking 512MB of RAM inside it..
The Panasonic Eluga marks the company’s return to the European mobile phone scene years after several years of absence, and it’s come back to us with a moderately high-spec Android model that features a rather stylish, slim case.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
Jim
/ May 14, 2010I checked with customer support tonight and they say its due to huge demand. They are cashing in on limited supply!!
Gary C
/ May 14, 2010It’s crazy. People who don’t bother shopping around are getting signed up to some awful deals.
Mind you, people who don’t shop around get what they deserve. I can’t buy a thing without at least four weeks of price-monitoring and comparisons beforehand.
Ken @ Ken's Tech Tips
/ May 15, 2010According to 3’s bestseller page, the HTC Desire had been topping Three’s bestselling phone list every day since the 4th… today it’s not even registering at all. Interestingly the bestselling tariffs have totally changed too (before today it was dominated by 100 and 300 minute deals). I suspect the cheap HTC deals were selling much, much faster than all of their other handsets, and figured out that cheap contracts weren’t the best way to make the most of their Desires.
James Foster
/ May 16, 2010I ordered the HTC Desire on the internet talker 300 tariff. That was the 300 minutes and/or texts for £20/month with the 500MB data allowance. It is due on Friday 21st May. The £17/month deal included only 100 minutes and/or texts. And the cherry is three has the strongest 3G coverage according to OFCOM. I am a bit worried though at the pace of change. With a 2 year contract I am worried that this Phone will be an antique in 18 months time.
Gary C
/ May 16, 2010Hope it arrives, James! You are one of the lucky ones.
James Foster
/ May 16, 2010It looks like a very good deal. My iPhone 3G contract expires in a three weeks. I’m just desparate to get away from O2 who have the worst 3G coverage in the UK. And not least of all Apple. They rip their customers off, and have a “it’s our way or the highway” attitude. And it’s not even cool when you’re paying alot of money and every other person has an iPhone. And iTunes is a horrible slow piece of crap on a PC
Well Gary I’m not smug about the Desire. I really like WebOS (more than Android but not the 2009 Palm hardware). WP7 looks incredible, better than the iPhone. And of course there are things like dual core 1.3Ghz and 1.5Ghz Qualcomm processors about to be released. New OMAP chips, the Tegra 2 and so on.
So like I said it won’t be that long before my new Desire becomes the next HTC Dream, HTC Hero. But all you can do is make the best choice at the time. Otherwise we would always just look at the swimming pool and maybe test the water but never take the plunge.
Fraz
/ May 18, 2010I’m one of the lucky ones who got the £17 deal but since I received the confirmation email things have gone very quiet.
The phone is not due until May 28th but the silence is very disconcerting. I hope Three honour the applications they already have and don’t mess us about.
daniel
/ May 20, 2010Not to worry about THREE’s commitment. Once you signed for a deal, you will get it. My old contract does not expire until in a week from now, but when the 17£ contract came, I snapped it up right away (and got my Desire when they still had it in stock). After all, we have seen the same happening twice on T-mobile within two weeks. Back in the days, I figured it’s much smarter to put money in HTC stocks rather than their mobiles, cause they sell like hot buns…But then I could not resist. And although dual core would be fun, honestly I think for 95% of all users the Desire offers more than one can ask for. And the other 5% have probably forgotten that they have a real life. Well said that – I see room for improvement of the battery and the camera – my Desire lasts for just over a day now once I tweaked everything to minimize battery usage. And once we get to 10 or 12 Megapixel, a mobile should be able to replace a good digital camera of today.
?
/ May 23, 2010well guys if u r really looking for cheap desire deals call the customer service center they would work out a deal, not neccesary that u ve 2 pay 30 quids