I decided to get rid of all the Orange branding from my Desire by debranding it.

I followed this guide http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/...ur-desire.html

Instead of going through the instructions to make a goldcard, i used this tool here http://android.modaco.com/content/so...-goldcardtool/ (if the link doesn't work properly then search the website it takes you to for "gold card tool".

Flashing took less than 10mins from start to finish and i now have a generic unbranded Desire which is less limited in terms of software, has no orange branding, and all the orange demos, links, apps etc are all removed completely.

Does this affect your phone's warranty at all?

Yes. the warranty is now invalid.

Seriously? Big step to take there, don't think I'd have done it.

Not only is mine debranded, it's also now rooted and fully unlocked (which cost me £9 bloody quid ... ggrrrr )

And it's running FroYo 2.2. - although not with the sexy new menu and the 3D icons on the main menu though.

But it's got 720p video recording for one thing which is cool.

Does the Desire on Orange come with a lot of crap on it?

Do you get any issues with call quality?

It's one of the things preventing me from trying a cooked 2.2 ROM.

Not a single issue at all today - for various reasons had to make loads of calls this morning and this evening and didn't have any problems with echo, white noise or anything.

There's a rom called "Open Desire" which does contain the sexy 3D menu and runs 2.2 as well, but reading the thread about it on XDA developers forum, there are still some issues to be resolved before i'll consider it.

On O2 I only seem to have their boot animation, wallapapers and homepage default. I haven't noticed any other issues like software limitation?

My Desire was provided by 3 and I couldn't tell whether it was a generic handset (I heard they were providing them in order to keep up with demand) or one that is actually 3 branded. If it is they haven't done anything to the firmware.

It also appears to be factory unlocked which is nice.