HTC Desire 501 Review

Introduction

HTC Desire 501 comes to take the reign from last year's Desire 500 midranger, sporting dual SIM capabilities, too, and quite the similar spec sheet. It, however, has completely revamped looks, supports 3G connectivity at the main SIM slot, has more internal memory, and a larger battery.

In the software department, though, the Desire 501 has taken a step back, shipping with an older version of Android, and even an older version of the HTC Sense interface than its predecessor. Does this make it a less compelling handset? Read on to find out...

In the box

• In-ear stereo headphones
• Wall charger
• MicroUSB cable
• Warranty and information cards

Design

We dig the comfortable to operate and well-built chassis featuring premium design elements

Desire 501 sports a pretty, glossy plastic chassis, which can be had in several colors.We have the light pink variety, with checkered pattern on the back. Thankfully, it lacks the “cheapo” feel often associated with that material and market segment. The smartphone is well-built, has no squeaky parts, and fingerprints are barely noticeable on its shiny surface, though we'd imagine it will be different with the black option. We get a circular metallic plate around the camera area on the back, and metallic cutout for the front camera lens, so the overall design leaves quite a positive, premium impression. The phone sports a pretty LED light behind the front speaker grill, too.

Desire 501 fits very nicely in the palm thanks to its curvy back side, and its touchscreen can be operated single-handedly with ease. The buttons are metallic, easy to feel and press without looking, and with decent tactile feedback. The power key situated on the top is with a more shallow feedback than the volume rocker on the right, but nothing frustrating. The three capacitive keys underneath the screen are responsive and backlit for easier operation in the dark.

Desire 501 flaunts a removable back cover, with a cumbersome prying effort from the microUSB port. Lifting the lid off reveals the user-replaceable battery, the microSD card slot, and the two micro SIM card slots.

Display

The screen sports fine image quality with decent resolution for the class

The HTC Desire 501 has a 4.3-inch Super-LCD 2 screen of acceptable quality. Its resolution is 480 by 800 pixels, which is okay given the smartphone’s class, with 217 ppi count. Still, fuzzy edges in graphics are easy to spot with a naked eye, regardless of whether you’re surfing the internet, reading an article, or just looking at the icons on your home screen.

Other than that, the screen on the Desire 501 is pretty decent, with colors a tad blown up. The viewing angles are wide, and the display is sure bright enough to be usable outdoors, as long as the sun is not shining straight at it, of course.

Interface

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and HTC Sense 4.5 on the phone are two editions older than the current ones.

The Sense 4.5 user interface is loaded on the HTC Desire 501, coating the almost two-year-old Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This iteration of Sense doesn't have the HTC BlinkFeed news and status aggregator, as well as the HTC Zoe artsy collage maker that come standard with Sense 5.0 and above, for instance.

This HTC Sense version is characterized by a lot of animations and colorful 3D elements, and in terms of actual functionality, it’s a mixed bag. We don’t like that oft-used functions tend to get buried down in menus and simple actions like adding a shortcut to your homescreen or adjusting the screen brightness are unnecessarily complicated. Moreover, the heavier visuals don't run as smooth and seamless as the newer, simplified Sense editions, so prep yourself for some lag while swiping and scrolling, though it's nothing you can't live with.

HTC Sense is a pretty uniform-looking and functional interface, with a lot of helpful features, but the default on-screen keyboard here on the Desire 501 is not one of those. The keys are squished too tight to one another, with little distinction, making you tap two or three at once. The 4.3” screen size means you can do it with one hand without having to prop the phone with the other as is the case with so many big-screen handsets these days.

Dual SIM

One of the selling points for the Desire 501 is that is supports Active dual SIM functionality, meaning that you can get a call on the second card while talking on the first one, but the faster 3G download speeds (up to 14 Mbps) can be perused on only one of the SIM card slots. The other one maxes out at EDGE speeds.

There is an app called Dual network manager, which takes care of assigning your preferred SIM slot, renaming the cards, and turning the individual connections on or off.

Processor and memory

The basic NovaThor processor has some issues with the heavily-skinned interface.

The HTC Desire 501 comes with a 1.2 GHz dual-core NovaThor U8500 processor by ST-Ericsson, and Mali-400 graphics. This SoC is far from the speediest out there, so while we can confirm that the phone is responsive most of the time, we were annoyed by the sometimes laggy process of switching between apps or interface elements. When it comes to gaming, most games run fine, but some of those heavier 3D titles might run at unimpressive frame rates. HTC has put 1GB of RAM in the handset, and 8 GB of internal memory (5 GB user-available), plus a microSD slot with up to 32 GB cards support.

Internet & Connectivity

Panning and scrolling are acceptable in the browser, but it has web page rescaling issues when you zoom out.

The stock web browser on the HTC Desire 501 is okay, but we have definitely seen better. In terms of speed, it loads web pages in a timely manner, and we can't complain about lack of responsiveness while interacting with them. However, the zooming gesture behaves weirdly, causing the page to shift to the side when you zoom out. Having the text reflow feature turned off eliminates the issue. We must mention that the web browser comes with built-in Adobe Flash support, but don't expect it to work perfectly on all pages.

The phone sports European/Asian network setup, and you can enjoy 3G download speeds up to 14.4 Mbps on the primary cards, while the other slot supports 2G only. The phone also features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and DLNA connectivity, which is a pretty decent laundry list for the category.

Camera UI

Camera

The phone shoots good stills, but HD 720p video recording is garbled and unusable.

The 8 MP camera is joined by an LED flash on the back, and we also have a 2.1 MP frontal shooter. These are managed by HTC's Sense camera app, which here doesn't include extra options like HDR shots, Panorama, or color effects. Launching the app and taking the first pic from the lock screen takes about three seconds, which is bearable, but shot-to-shot times are not as instantaneous as it is customary with HTC phones lately.

The pictures exhibit accurate color representation and an amount of detail we'd expect from the 8 MP camera resolution. The scene's exposure and color measurements are correct in most situations, and somewhat underexposed in others, but overall you'd have a helpful little snapper on you with the Desire 501 most of the times you'll need a picture.




The video capture situation is less impressive than the stills, as the phone records with 720p resolution and 30fps on paper, but when we tried it outdoors, the HD footage was garbled and unusable. We had to switch to lower resolution to record one, hopefully a problem with our unit only. The phone's single mic picked quite a lot of wind noise while filming, too, drowning our narrating voice in the process.

Multimedia

No DivX support in the stock video player, a bunch of editing options in the gallery

Editing capabilities are a staple for the HTC Sense gallery, and the photos can be shared through multiple venues, including directly to your social networks.

Music playback with the stock player is aided by automatic download of album art, artist info and lyrics, where available, and you have SoundHound track recognition functionality built right into the app's interface. The built-in speaker is average – it's okay in terms of sound quality for a cell speaker, but it's strength is not enough to hear it in noisy environments.

The phone plays MPEG-4, Xvid and MKV video files up to 720p resolution with no issues, though the player isn't licensed for DivX video support, so you'd have to resort to the Play Store and install 3rd party apps for that.

Call quality

Loud and comparatively clear sound on both ends

Phone calls made with the HTC Desire 501 come out with above average quality. Voice tones sound loud and natural both through the earpiece, and on the other side of the line. There is some distortion and hissing in the earpiece, but nothing significant. Unfortunately, we don't get a secondary mike for noise cancellation, so speech might get a bit more difficult to understand in noisy environments.

Battery

Above average battery capacity for the category

We get a removable, 2100 mAh battery with the Desire 501, and the capacity is enough for at least average endurance with these specs. It should get you through your daily routine, but HTC hasn't posted official talk and standby times yet.

Conclusion

The Desire 501 is a fine upgrade from its predecessor, introducing a design that stands out in its price range, and adding extra features where it counts most. It fuses well together basic hardware, with some more upscale features, like a good 8 MP camera, and eye-catching, youthful design lines.

There are hiccups, however, like the older Android and Sense UI versions the handset ships with, or the iffy HD video recording. HTC has priced it adequately, however, in the sub-$300 segment, so a few tradeoffs can be expected.

Unfortunately in that price range you can get a much better phone now, like the dual SIM version of the Moto G. That one has a larger display with higher resolution, and a more powerful processor, not to mention it is already on Android KitKat. For less money you can get the LG Optimus L7 II, with similar specs, though a much larger battery. If you shell out only a bit more, you can get a thin and light 5-incher like the Alcatel OneTouch Idol X, with beautiful 1080p display, and a 13 MP camera, though it's Dual SIM feature isn't a dual Active one.

All in all, if the Desire 501's youthful, compact design grabs you, and you need a dual SIM handset, it is a pretty good choice, so you won't have buyer's remorse that you could have gotten a much better handset for the money.

Software version: 1.10.707.6