Makes sense. I'd be thinking the same as you, I'd rather wait an extra week for an unbranded handset than get a branded one. May not matter to everyone, but I hate branded handsets.

Anybody got one yet? or got one arriving in the coming days?

Does anyone with experience know if replacing the HTC rom with a stock Android one would take a lot of functionality away from the phone?

I only ask because I am seriously tempted by the Desire HD but I equally detest the Sense UI. I appreciate it is entirely possible to switch the UI off but that would still leave me reliant on HTC for future Android upgrades and they have a patchy history in that respect to say the least.

Certainly I would want to be running Gingerbread as soon as it is released and, for that, I would undoubtedly have to find a custom rom.

Any thoughts?

I have rooted my desire and put on a custom rom. It was an easy process, as long as you have a good set of instructions, that you follow. You do not lose any functionality if you do put on a custom rom. If you think abut it, htc sense is a custom rom on top of the android system.

I am sure after a while there will be software that will allow you to root your Desire HD. Then no doubt custom roms will also follow.

An update I got from Mobile Phones Direct

Dear Customer

Your new HTC Desire HD!

The latest information regarding your delivery has not changed - ‘we are still expecting to be able to fulfil your order by the end of October’.

This will have no impact on you being one of the first customers to receive this amazing new phone!

There is no need to call us, we promise to update you with further information next week.

Kind regards

----------------

Ties in with what they said, I ordered on the 8th, they said allow 22 days, so 30th is before the end of the month

Anybody got one yet?

As o2 are not stocking the HTC Desire HD, i have to look aroung for other deals. The one that keeps coming back is an offer from mobilephonesdirect.co.uk.

Anybody out there bought from these before and if so where they relaiable as i have always been an o2 direct customer.

Thanks

3 are getting the desire hd but just says october in the coming soon part of their website. i would expect orange and t-mobile to be getting it in too in the next few weeks.

3 told me today thats its due from them at the end of October and to give them a call on the 25th. Not too pleased as i cant wait to rid myself of my N97......i hope the deal from 3 is a little better than whats on the market elsewhere....

My brother got that email yesterday and seemed to get excited thinking his new phone was coming. I pointed out to him it was a generic email and that with Mobile Phones Direct being the first place to advertise most of these tariffs it's highly likely they'll be over pre-ordered and many orders will be waiting longer than those who go direct or to other sources.

I've not used them, but it seems that the majority of people on pre-order have pre-ordered from that site. I would suggest with that in mind that they'll be struggling to fulfil orders and it may mean a longer wait, even when released.

No, nobody has, they've still not been released for sale yet.

Where's the best place to order an unbranded phone? Can you get one on pay monthly?

I doubt you will be able to get an unbranded phone on a monthly contract. The phone initially may not have branding, due to operators eagerness to get the phones out. However there will be OTA update once the network sorts it out.

Fair enough, will probably just get it on whatever is cheapest and then root the phone and stick the original ROM on it.

Play . com is still saying Pre-order. | Due for release on 19 October 2010 sim free HTC Desire HD

Hmm I'm dubious about that, I've ordered it from Amazon and Play with a view to cancelling Amazon if Play deliver around the 19th. If they put the date back to the Amazon date then I'll cancel Play and keep my place in the Amazon queue.

It can't hurt as both of them allow you to cancel the order and have a good returns policy if it's not opened if the worst case scenario happened and they both shipped it before I could log in and cancel one.

I think you can get one at Mobile Phones Direct, they said it was unbranded and unlocked.

If T-Mob try and damage my phone with an OTA update, they will be getting hell from me, I tell you!

Depends if you want sim free on it's own or unbranded with a pay monthly sim.

Expansys, Mobile phones direct and many others sell sim free handsets along with a pay monthly sim card. They get a subsidy from the network, so you can get them free this way. The benefit of buying from these companies rather than direct from the network is that you get the same network but you get an unbranded handset.

So buy a Desire HD from Vodafone's website, it will come branded and will take longer to get updates etc. However if you buy a Desire HD from a reseller on a Vodafone contract you'll get an unbranded handset with the same contract - much better!
(occasionally you get better deals direct from the network, but not always the case)

Of course you can! It's the norm when buying from many resellers who simply sell the same handset that they'd sell without a sim, but it's subsidised because it comes with a sim card and contract.

You can even save money with pay as you go this way. I bought my Desire a few months ago from Carphonewarehouse sim free. I was about to pay a lot of money for it when I asked how much it would be if I bought it with a pay as you go sim. The shop assistant sold me an Orange pay as you go sim with it with £10 credit on it and I saved a couple of hundred pounds of the sim free price - without buying a contract and I got the very same sim free, unbranded handset. I never used the pay as you go sim, I just chucked in my TMobile sim and that extra £10 saved me a couple of hundred pounds.

Funny thing is the CPW employee didn't tell me about this until I asked him!

YOU CAN GET UNBRANDED FROM NETWORKS, just buy from a reseller.


Rubbish. Operators cannot brand handsets that were initially sold unbranded with OTA updates, it would cause one hell of a stink if they even tried!

The software ID on the handsets is different. Example (with made up codes),

HTC Desire HD unbranded - HTC123UNB
HTC Desire HD Vodafone - HTC123VOD

So when your Desire HD goes online to check for updates it sends it's code to the update server. The server checks the code and only tells it when an update is available for that product code. This way branded handsets don't get unbranded updates and unbranded handsets don't get branded updates.

If you buy unbranded you will not get branded.

You certainly can - however you need to realise that the majority of pre-orders for HD Desire HDs are currently made at MobilephonesDirect as they were one of the first to offer all networks on their site. They are going to have one hell of a backlog to shift, so I reckon you may be better to shop around.

(Expansys for example let you order the handset online and collect it if sold on contract, no waiting for post )


They won't do that, don't worry. I have my Desire running on TMobile and it was bought sim free and unbranded. No problems for me and I got my Froyo update a long time before my mates with branded handsets did, even though I was on the same network as them.

For me there's no question, it's unbranded every time. Why buy a handset that's been vandalised by a network? The original software goes through a lot more testing and is designed for that phone. Branded software has less testing and sometimes restricts some features or delays updates (it may also be the case that a network may not release an update if they loose interest in the handset, imagine everyone else moving to Android 3.0 and your network not bothering because they're selling a few other new handsets that have replaced yours at the time!)

Yeah, I didn't think they could. Many moons ago I got a Mio A701 Windows phone off of expansys and that was unbranded and unlocked.

Yep, it's safe.

I often use unbranded handsets and OTA updates do not brand or lock them.

Set back to november 15th on Amazon.

Tempted to get the one someone posted at the top of the page from mobilephonesdirect. 35pm 18month contract, 600mins, unlimited texts and 1GB internet on tmobile. Dont like tmobile but whatever, high chance i'll root my phone anyway.

The handsets from mobilephonesdirect are unbranded and unlocked. They are the same sim free handsets just sold with a sim card.

Remember that mobilephonesdirect has been advertising these deals before anyone else and is normally at the top of google searches when people look for Desire deals.

There's a good chance that you'll wait until the 15th of November with mobilephonesdirect anyway because of the people already in the queue who've ordered them from there. They've stated that demand is high and stock is low and that they'll be sent out in a first ordered first supplied basis.

I don't think that cancelling with Amazon and ordering with these will make it any quicker for you at this late stage.