[G2 and Desire Z General] Igoritza:
I want to start a thread with my own review, but im placing it here cause it's more like a thread-starter than actual review.

Usage of smartphones general, and why is Desire Z still extremely useful phone:

1. Hardware keyboard: there are many YT videos showing speed typing on various devices, like iPhone, and Android tablets/phones, but nothing can compare to the actual keyboard. the main advantage, in my opinion is the fact that for a very short time, one can learn to type like using a PC keyboard - without looking. and that feature makes this phone as an actual mobile station for all sorts of stuff that emulate laptop usage. second advantage is clear screen when typing. that is pretty much the reason why I cant imagine to type on a non-hardware phone anymore.

2. material quality - hard casing, and not just compared to other companies, but also compared to the other HTC devices. This phone is like an homage to early indestructible phones that were not intended to be like that (3310, 6210, 7650) Is it weight, is it experiment from HTC (there are 20+ types of plastic for making plastic stuff like casings) or something else, but this phone is the hardest phone I had, and I had Samung Android, iPhones, SE, you name it.

And on top of that, keyboard hinge wont break. I cant find more than 5 forum posts using google where someone complains of broken Keyboard hinge.

And, on top of top of that - "Vision" are the last in HTC production line to have licenced Cornig Gorilla Glass. Sensation XL and phones after that have HTC's substitute glass. (God knows why)

3. Screen - let's start with SLCD - You will find many reviews stating that it's a bad product, cause of the viewing angles. Viewing angles being the MOST retarded property of a screen, marketing vise. WHO watches a screen from an angle, more than 3 seconds, in their life ? So, when we putt aside that property - you have screen (PVA panel) that produces colors maybe even better than IPS. People get easily tricked by Samsung marketing, when they read stuff like: "SUPER AMOLED 2" - like a trailer for Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. And it is in fact - regular OLED screen with active matrix, and digitizer stuck onto the screen itself. Oh my, what a wonder. It was, for sure, made so when you break the SGS2/Note screen, you pay arm and a leg for replacement. Buying digitizer and screen at the same time. And the worst part is that AMOLED is nowhere near that good, saturation is awful (my personal opinion), and >4.0 inch phones with AMOLED have bad colors (google "Note screen problem", "SGS2 screen problem"

Resolution of screen - How come that people get so hyped by late Steve, whenever "retina" was mentioned .. ? ~250PPI is better than "retina" (326PPI)!!!

My neighbor is a rich bastard, and he has every single product Apple made, so I had a chance to see that "retina" and it hurt my eyes. Reading non-zoomed web pages on Desire Z is barely possible, doing the same on 4s is NOT possible.

it is not the pixelation of a font that is problem, it is the possibility of reading such small font. Any other aspect for that matter, is just a marketing trick.

250PPI is perfect. I dont care what journalists say about the new iPad, I dont see anything near suggested with the "retina" hype.

4. High-end phone properties - CPU

CPU is similar to the last of the x86 Intel CeleronD single core series - insanely overclockable. and like that, VERY usable. SGS2 exynos (ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.2Ghz) on stock clock has a problem of playing "Ice breaker" game (for some reason this game draws FPS lag on many devices) and on 1.5Ghz OC-ed DesireZ it runs smooth. "Fragger" game slows down extremely on SGS2 when 3 bombs are thrown simultaneously, and that doesnt happen on 1.5Ghz DZ. Dont know about other games on other phones, or Benchmarks for that matter, but this is my personal experience with SGS2 VS DZ (my brother has Samsung). Never really believed Benchmark scores since Intel started to temper with official results back in 2008 (Benchmark software in favor of Intel, compared to AMD)

I am aware of single core/dual core differences, but that is why one can flash DZ with G-slim or G-lite and enjoy the speed.

5. High-end properties - features

apart from resolution that is constantly growing on new devices, name 1 thing that DZ doesnt have ? This is NOT a midrange phone for housewives to share instagram photos, this is a serious device

Flaws -

1. it comes with crappy headphones. I myself soldered Koss Sparkplug earbuds to HTC stock headphones so I could enjoy the sound and still have cable-control buttons.

2. It is heavy. I see how many people could have problem with that but for me it's a good thing, cause I tend to lose phones, but with this one, I know where it is (pocket, jacket, etc..) and it "feels right" when holding it.

conclusion - This phone is Awesome. If I would buy a new, more expensive phone, I would like it to be 4.0 exact design like DZ, stronger CPU and slightly greater resolution. nothing more.