HTC Desire Z partners with Vodafone

Vodafone is managing to tie-up impressive looking phones.

After already snagging the 4.3in big screen HTC Desire HD and the yet to arrive Google Nexus S which comes with Android 2.3, Vodafone now has the Desire Z to add to its box of tricks.

Arriving mid-March, the Desire Z provides an alternative to the crop of me-too phones on the way this year, with more powerful CPUs and large touchscreens.

The biggest difference is the Desire Z's keyboard, which fits snugly underneath the screen when closed, though contributes to the fatter size (14.16mm compared with 9.3mm for the iPhone). In our first look we noted that the keyboard mechanism which felt a bit flimsy.

At 3.7in the 480 by 800 Desire Z screen is relatively smaller than flagship phones like the Desire HD (4.3in) and the 4in Google Nexus S, though slightly larger than the iPhone 4 (3.5in).

The HTC Desire Z has a 800MHz Qualcomm processor, compared with 1GHz for the Google Nexus S and dual core configurations for upcoming hero phones like the Motorola Atrix and LG Optimus 2X.

Other features include 720p video recording, a 5MP camera and access to HTCSense.com, where you can lock or remotely wipe it if it's lost. The HTC web site says the Desire Z will run Android 2.2, so it looks like the Nexus S will retain the honour of being the first phone to run 2.3.

As we've pointed out when discussing the Google Nexus S, sheer features alone isn't enough to make a good experience. If you're after a keyboard phone and like HTC phones, then this could be one for your shortlist. The price is yet to be announced.