T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange and Virgin HTC Desire deals compared

OK, you've read our HTC Desire review and decided that two years with this phone wouldn't be so bad - we like the way you're thinking.

But we wouldn't want you to assume that's the end of the decision making process - you've still got to choose a contract to go with that bad boy.

The Carphone Warehouse is only offering 24-month deals on Orange with unlimited internet - we expect that to change when we finally get the official tariffs through.

100-200 mins

Three networks in this one: T-Mobile, Virgin Media and Orange.

And it's T-Mobile that takes the top slot, with a great £10 a month deal. The phone does cost £164 to buy first of all, and you only get 100 mins, but for £404 over two years you're not going to get a lot better.

Virgin Media is offering the HTC Desire for £20 per month with 200 minutes, and an upfront cost of £149.99 - this equates to the much pricier £630.

And Orange comes in last, with 100 minutes on a £20 a month deal - and a whopping £240 for the phone as well.

Best deal: T-Mobile - £404

300 mins

Two options only here - T-Mobile and Orange.

The former is far and away the cheapest option again, with a cheap as chips £489 the cost over two years - at £15 per month and an early £129 upfront cost.

Orange is next up at £700 for the lifetime of the contract, at £25 per month and £100 for the phone - we can only hope that the official tariffs come in a little cheaper.

Best deal: T-Mobile - £489

HTC desire

500-600 mins

Now we're getting somewhere - four networks duking it out, and it's a lot closer this time between T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange and Virgin Media.

Well, we say a lot closer, but T-Mobile is still ahead of the pack: for £20 per month and £129 at the start you get 600 mins for an overall cost of £609.

Virgin Media is up next, with 600 mins for £25 per month and £100 up front - that equates to a £700 lump sum.

Vodafone and Orange's efforts will both set you back £720 over the two years (with a free phone) - with the latter you only get 500 mins, and with the former you can nab up to 300 bonus minutes (taking the total to 900) if you do it online.

Best deal: T-Mobile - £609

800-900 mins

All four in it to win it, with the price varying between £695 and £840 for the overall cost.

T-Mobile is (now predictably) the winner - it only costs £695 for a £25 per month deal, with the phone priced at £95.

If you only want 800 minutes but want to pay more cash, then check out Virgin Media's offering - it's £720 at £30 a month with a free phone.

And Vodafone and Orange tie again - both costing £840, but Vodafone offers 900 minutes (1,200 online) where Orange only offers 800.

Best deal: T-Mobile - £695

1,200 mins

We're into seriously chatty territory here - so chatty that Orange hasn't even got a tariff through The Carphone Warehouse.

£40 per month and a free phone (as well as 1,200 minutes, 1,500 online) will get you a Vodafone-branded HTC Desire for an overall cost of £960.

But the cheaper duo are the T-Mobile and Virgin Media offerings - the former giving 1,200 minutes, the latter 1,000 minutes for the same £840.

Best deal: T-Mobile - £840 (200 more minutes per month).

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.