HTC seems to be using all the available alphabets to go with its HTC One smartphone line. After having seen both the HTC One X and HTC One S, it is now time to look at HTC One V. HTC aims to slot this phone in the mid-range category so read on to find out if it’s worth the $370 off-contract price.
Design
If some of you started reminiscing the HTC Hero when you first picked up this phone, we won’t blame you as the curved-chin design on the HTC One V definitely did the same to us. Thanks to this interesting little chin design, the smartphone is easier to hold. This phone measures in at 4.74 x 2.35 x 0.36 inches making it slightly longer than its competition like the Samsung Galaxy W and Motorola MOTOLUXE but thinner than them both. Therefore, it’s really easy to hold in one hand and thus single handed use was also a breeze. Tipping the scales at only 115 grams means you will enjoy carrying it around.
Now to the buttons around the phone, on the right side of the phone we have the volume rocker and on the top is your lock key. We are happy that these buttons were responsive and the click you get when pressed reassures you that it has been pressed. Also on the top side of the HTC One V are the audio jack and the notification light. The notification light glows in green or amber and since it’s on the top, you will be able to see it even if the phone was rested with the screen facing downwards. Under the 3.7 inch screen on the front are physical Android buttons rather than the traditional capacitive ones. The phone is built from an anodized metal thus giving it a really expensive feel, not bad for a mid-range phone we would say.
Display
HTC has thrown in a 3.7 inch Super LCD 2 on the HTC One V that comes with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Do the math and you get a pixel density of 252ppi which means you won’t need to zoom in every time you are surfing the web. The screen was great as it gave some really saturated colors and we were treated with really good viewing angles too. Moving outdoors with this phone wasn’t a problem either as it was bright enough. One annoyance would be how the screen just gets all smudged up, way too easily if you ask us.
Performance
Under the hood, the HTC One V is powered by the single core Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor which clocks in at 1GHz. This is something that we would expect from a mid-range phone. Thanks to the 512MB of RAM onboard, it’s not too bad. You can get through all the simple tasks in a jiffy but maybe running too many apps would not be a good idea.
Features
HTC One V doesn’t skimp in terms of software as the OS running on this baby is the latest Android v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich just like its siblings the HTC One X and HTC One S. Of course, having a HTC running Android means you get the best user interface to grace the planet, the HTC Sense 4.0. We were glad to note that navigating through this interface was surprisingly more fluid than what we expected from a meager single core 1GHz processor. That goes to show how streamlined the interface is. Dropbox comes integrated with the HTC One V giving the user 25GB of cloud storage for free.
HTC does provide the Friend Stream app with this phone but it falls short of becoming the social hub you need as it only supports Facebook and Flickr. Other things found on the phone would be the TuneIn Radio client and you also get Polaris Office for all of you business people out there. We like the transfer app as it you can move contacts from your old phone to the HTC One V with this app. We usually find keyboards on a 3.7 inch screen phone to be a little tough to use due to the screen size, but with this phone we found no such issues as the keys are spaced nicely enough.
The camera found on the HTC One V is a 5MP one with auto-focus plus it comes with HTC ImageChip. What that means is better looking photos and short start up times. True enough, it takes little time to get the camera up and running. Meanwhile the photos taken outdoors were good and details were aplenty. Digital noise was also kept at bay although white balance can sometimes go wrong. As for the camera interface, it’s the same as the one found on its siblings and comes with the whole list of options for various scenes and effects. Video recording is done at 720p and the results were quite poor as details were lacking and colors were not natural.
The internet browser on the HTC One V was a downer as it struggled with heavy pages and wasn’t very good at dealing with Flash content either. However, it does deal with the much simpler web pages easily and navigating through these pages is pretty easy. Connectivity options are in the form of Wi-Fi, FM Radio and Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX support.
In terms of call quality, it was moderate to say the least. We could have used with much better from the HTC One V but all we got was muffled voices on our end. On the other end, things were not that much better either. However as we mentioned, it’s something we can manage with but could have been better. The HTC One V is another phone where the battery is not accessible and this one comes with a 1500mAh one. One charge would probably just be enough for a day, but if you are a heavy user, carry that charger with you wherever you go.
Pros and Cons
The HTC One V has been designed to be compact and really light as well. We enjoyed the crisp display and the camera wasn’t too shabby either. We don’t know what went wrong with the internet browser and video recording on the HTC One V.
Conclusion
The $370 off-contract price would be a bargain for a phone of HTC One V’s caliber. It’s got everything mid-range phone needs with a lot of style and good looks too. So don’t think too long if you are already out there for a phone in this price region.
