HTC Desire V Review

Name: HTC Desire V
Brand: HTC

By Nick Todorov

Published: Aug 10, 2012, 8:34 AM

16comments

HTC Android

Introduction:

Quick, name a smartphone that can work with two SIM cards at the same time. Not too many models spring to mind, right? That's because dual-SIM smartphones are still a rare breed. There is only a handful of them currently on the market – mostly cheap, low-powered devices, popular primarily in developing markets.

But here comes the HTC Desire V – the company's first dual-SIM smartphone, which stands out with its attractive design and decent hardware. Sure, its specs sheet has “mid-range” written all over it, yet the handset is actually among the best dual-SIM smartphones you can currently find, at least on paper. Inside it ticks a 1GHz processor, a 4-inch screen glows on its front side, and the back is occupied by a 5-megapixel camera, and you get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box. Sounds pretty promising, so let's waste no more time and take an in-depth look at the HTC Desire V.

The box contains:

Wall charger
microUSB data cable
Wired stereo headset
Lots of papers

Design:

The 9.3-millimeter-thin HTC Desire V fits almost perfectly in the palm thanks to its sloped back panel, and its width allows for our thumbs to effortlessly reach each corner of its screen. Underneath the device's 4-inch display we have the trio of Android buttons, which thankfully are not prone to accidental presses. But most importantly, the smartphone is quite a looker. Its white plastic body has the same premium feel you'd get from using the polycarbonate-made HTC One X flagship, not to mention that the metallic elements on the handset's back side easily catch our eye.

You can compare the HTC Desire V with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Something that we aren't happy with, however, are the smartphone's physical keys. The lock key is positioned in the middle of the unit's top side, while the 2-button volume rocker is on the left. Sadly, their travel and feedback are not sufficient for comfortable operation.

Display:

We have to give HTC some credit for managing to put a 4-inch screen on a smartphone of this size. What the HTC Desire V sports is a very good-looking LCD display with a resolution of 480 by 800 pixels (233ppi). The screen delivers pretty colors, has decent viewing angles, and its outdoor visibility is sufficient for comfortable use. Of course, the panel isn't anything spectacular specs-wise, but for a smartphone of this class, it surely gets the job done.

HTC Desire V 360-degrees View:

Interface:

To no surprise, the HTC Desire V comes with Sense UI running on top of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. In a nutshell, the interface may deviate quite a lot from the stock ICS experience, but we are quite satisfied with the end result. For more details about the latest version of Sense UI, feel free to check out our HTC One X review.

The virtual on-screen keyboard feels well-spaced and typing on it does not require much effort. We noticed that the additional bottom row of arrows, which could be used to move the cursor around, is now gone. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, as letters are now closer to your thumbs, and therefore, easier to reach.

Processor and memory:

The HTC Desire V is powered by a 1GHz single-core processor paired with 512MB of RAM, and to our disappointment, its performance is not what we'd classify as smooth. Switching between home screens is preceded by a slight, yet noticeable lag, which is also present when launching or switching between applications. Nevertheless, the smartphone is usable on a daily basis and the average user should be satisfied. Unsurprisingly, the smartphone's benchmark scores are nothing to write home about.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
*HTC Desire V*	1807	2866	19,7
*Samsung Galaxy Ace 2*	1953	4095	32,4
*Sony Xperia U*	2266	5419	28,3

Chances are that you'll need a microSD card for your HTC Desire V. The smartphone comes with 4GB on-board, but the actual user-available storage is just a tad over 1GB. On the plus side, you get 25GB of free Dropbox storage for 2 years, courtesy of HTC.

Dual-SIM functionality:

Being able to work with 2 SIM cards (read: 2 different carriers) simultaneously is one of the HTC Desire V's main selling points. That's really great and all, but you should know how these two cellular connections are being handled. Both SIM cards can be in stand-by mode at the same time, which is expected, but once a call is established over one of the two lines, the other becomes inactive. In other words, if one of the SIM cards is in use, you won't get a notification in case someone calls your other number. That isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, but it's a detail we have to point out. Also, only the primary SIM card slot supports 3G connectivity, while the other is limited to GPRS. When sending a text message or placing a call, two separate “Send” buttons appear so you can choose which SIM card is used.

Internet Browser:

Given the smartphone's unimpressive overall performance, we expected its stock web browser to lag as well. Our expectations were met, but only when viewing heavy web pages, such as ours. Lighter web sites are relatively easy to browse and navigate, unless you have embedded video playing. Speaking of which, the browser supports Adobe Flash. We did some testing and found out that third-party browsers, such as Firefox, are more responsive, so checking them out too is advisable.

Camera:

What's really cool about the 5MP camera on the HTC Desire V is that it has the same versatile, easy-to-use interface that is present on any HTC One handset. What's far less exciting, however, is that although the camera is mostly free of shutter lag, it takes well over a second before it is ready to capture the next frame. But most importantly, the photos look quite uninspiring – slightly blueish at times, with poor dynamics range, lack of fine detail, and traces of digital noise here and there. These imperfections are noticeable both when shooting outdoors, under broad daylight, and with the incandescent lighting of an indoor setting. Videos are captured at a maximum resolution of 800 by 480 pixels and look mediocre.

HTC Desire V Sample Video:

HTC Desire V Indoor Sample Video:

Multimedia:

The music player included with HTC Sense 4.0 has all the features you might need, including a few extras like SoundHound integration and access to the 7digital online music store. Of course, a home screen widget comes standard, and you get playback controls on the lock screen.

With the stock video player you can watch videos in MP4 or DivX formats, but only of resolution up to 800 by 480 pixels. None of our 720p video samples could be played back, so don't even bother trying. The smartphone's 4-inch display is big enough for watching videos comfortably.

Call quality:

The in-call audio quality with the HTC Desire V is okay, but we've definitely heard better results. Voice tones through the earpiece are distinguishable and loud, yet slightly muffled. On the other side of the line, our voice sounds pretty much the same, accompanied by a fair amount of background noise.

Battery life:

The HTC Desire V has a 1,650mAh battery, but its manufacturer has yet to announce any official figures as to how long it should last on a single charge. During our testing, we were able to get through a day of moderate usage with Wi-Fi on and the brightness of the screen set to automatic.

Conclusion:

When it comes to dual-SIM smartphones, there aren't too many of them currently on sale, or at least not from any of the well-known manufacturers. That said, it is great to see that a respected company like HTC is entering this market niche with an offering that we find quite decent.

However, although we dare to say that the HTC Desire V is the best-looking dual-SIM smartphone in existence, it leaves quite a lot of room for improvement in the hardware department. The device simply doesn't feel as snappy as a contemporary Android smartphone should.

If you insist on having a dual-SIM smartphone, you can also check out the Samsung Galaxy Ace DUOS, or better yet, wait a bit and see how some of the upcoming offerings will compare. The Sony Xperia tipo dual, for example, is to be released later this quarter. In case you don't really need the dual-SIM functionality, perhaps the Sony Xperia sola will also suit your needs. It has a slightly smaller screen, but a speedier dual-core processor and its camera can take 720p video. The Samsung Galaxy S Advance is also a good alternative with its 4-inch Super AMOLED display and dual-core 1GHz CPU.

HTC Desire V Video Review: