HTC One V

The Good: At a price tag between Rs.17,000 to Rs.19,000, HTC One V is an affordable phone with the right mix of specs. The phone is compact and has an elegant look. It is among the few mid range phones that come with an Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The phone also has the latest HTC Sense 4.

The Bad: Well if only one gadget had all the best specs and an equally nice price tag, that is just a dream that we hope someone would realize in the near future. With all its positive points, One V also has some drawbacks like the fact that it functions on a slow processor.

The Bottom Line: The bottom line is that HTC One V is a phone that you can seriously consider investing in. But for people who are total gadget freaks and who expect their phones to do a lot should not waste their money on this one.

Design: When compared to its elder cousins, the HTC One S and HTC One X, One V is smaller. Though with that screen of 3.7-inch, size wise it is very close to the iPhone 4S. Below the touch screen is the touch sensitive strip which carries the three standard Android button, Home, Back and Recent apps. The Recent App button also doubles as a menu button if you press it for a longer time. The shortcut buttons have been kept to a minimum with an audio jack and the power button on top and a volume button on the right and a micro USB port on the left.
The phone is just 9.2 mm thick and weighs only 115 grams thus making it portable like the others in the One series. The smartphone One V is available in two colour variants, black and brown.

Processor and Operating System

Sadly, the One V isn’t backed by a fast processor. The phone is powered by an underpowered single-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor which is backed by 512 MB RAM. Because of its slow processor while using the phone it might feel that the apps take longer to open and even the speed of browsing online is slow and at times frustrating.
HTC One V runs on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The phone also has the latest version of HTC’s Sense interface.

Features and Performance:

Screen: The HTC One V has a 3.7-inch Capacitive touch screen. This easily pocketable smartphone has a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The smartphone even though it is on the smaller side it displays accurate colours and also provides wide viewing angels.

Camera: The camera in the HTC One V is better than other smartphones in the same range, like the Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus or the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray. The phone has a 5 mega pixel camera with comes equipped with an autofocus features and a LED Flash. The camera also has a BSI sensor which enhances low-light pictures.

The camera has a face and smile detection feature and this feature takes pictures automatically the moment it detects a smile. HTC has tried to improve its picture quality and the problem of saturation by adding a new image processing chip to the phone. The phone does miss out on a front facing camera which means that video calling is ruled out.

It also has a 720p HD video recording capability; though it might not be a full HD it doesn’t disappoint either.

Storage and Connectivity:

The One V has an internal memory of 4 GB and it has a 3GB microSD card provided with it. But you also have a choice of buying another 32 GB card and inserting it into the slot. If you aren’t happy with the existing storage capacity, the phone also comes with an additional free 25GB online storage on Dropbox for two years.

If you have a feeling that the battery in the Desire V, like other smartphones will be a letdown, think again. The Li-Ion 1500 mAh Standard battery promises a charge for a complete day even with heavy usage of the phone.

Price and Availability: The smartphone One V from HTC is priced at a mid range level. The One V is price at RS.19,000. But many online sites like Yebhi.com, Flipkart.com and Buytheprice.com are offering the phone at a price range of Rs.17,400 and Rs.18,200.

Wrap-Up: Not many mid-range smartphone operate on Android 4.0, but One V does. Along with this the phone has a beautiful case, an easy user-friendly interface, and a camera that is worth the price of the phone. Despite its flaws this phone is worth every penny spent on it. The bottom line being that this phone is priced well considering the specifications that come along with it.

By mehree jain