Since the One series came out in the market smartphone lovers have gone crazy and for good reason. The series is brilliant whether it is about performance or looks. With HTC One V we are just about ready to welcome the new darling in town.
Pros
- Pretty strong connectivity and Wi-fi signals
- Fantastic camera and effects for stills
- Excellent UI
- Very responsive and bright screen.
Cons
- Single core
- 4 GB storage out of which only 1 GB remains with the user. (Does give you 25 GB free cloud storage and extendable upto 32 GB)
Design and Display:
The phone comes in an extremely unflattering package. Kind of like those trays they use at Hyperstar to sell off fried fish and other cooked food. Only the cling sheet was missing! However, after getting over the initial shock things get better. It packs one mobile set with the HTC ear phones, a charger and USB cable. It supports any signature beats audio head set as well.
The dimensions are 120.3 x 59.7 x 9.2 mm and weight is an appropriate 115 g. It’s slightly larger with a 3.7” screen, but thinner than its predecessor – the HTC Legend. It has a crisp display capable of showing 16 million colors. Above average sunlight legibility and viewing angles. The unibody aluminum chassis and sturdy casing, a hallmark of HTC comes as expected. It is a good looking phone if you keep in mind the price of the set which is half that of One S. The chin up at the bottom reminds you of the ultimate classic HTC Hero although the curve is slighter than that on Hero.
Calls and Messages:
The call quality is very good and there are no death grip issues unlike some other HTC phones. It also packs the standard set of accelerometer-based tricks. Finding a contact is easy even if you misspell it will find you the contact you are looking for.
Messaging is easy too; just switch to the landscape mode and the keypad would give you no trouble. There is also the option of speaking into the phone for texting but we advise you against using it especially if you want to save time. When we tried it, talk to me became tiffany, tell me became send me, stupid became cupid and you get the rest!
Operating System:
This is what sets HTC One V above its competitors. It has the latest software available from both Google and HTC,Android 4.0.3 and Sense 4.0. Stylish, suave and efficient!
It has five screens, you can pull the bottom ring to unlock or just drop a widget into the ring which takes you directly to the app represented by the widget.
The usual skin, wall papers especially live ones are all there as always with any HTC mobile. You have the settings shortcut on your notification panel so that when you want to for instance turn your wi-fi on or off all you have to do is pull your notification down and access settings from there All in all very charming and easy to use.
Applications and Multi media:
You name it! Social networking is covered by several apps and widgets, and there’s Gtalk, which can connect you to Google’s chat network and compatible networks too (like Ovi Chat). You have facebook, twitter, google + etc. It has got Polaris office to handle your PDF files, flash light and FM radio.
The music section takes the cake when it comes to apps on One V. It has four options like tune in radio and a few other apps but they only work if you have internet connectivity. The tune in radio has a list of options to choose from. It gives you news, music, talk, local radio etc. It also recommends channels and allows you to search by artist or genre and basically simplifies the whole process so that you can listen to just the kind of music you want without any hassles. Beats audio enhancements can be availed or not as required. And by the way it has excellent audio quality and keeps the standard even when you connect it to an external amplifier.
Plays videos upto 720 p very well and even supports medium heavy gaming so that games like angry birds are no more than trifle. You have GPS and with the help of HTC locations download the map of a country free for use offline. Although for some odd reason it lacks a digital compass. Browsing is excellent as well, pinch to zoom and scale to fit work like a charm. Flash comes pre installed so watching you tube videos or playing flash games is no cause for trouble at all.
Camera:
The HTC One V packs a 5MP camera that does stills of up to 2592 x 1944 pixels and records 720p video @ 30fps. There’s an LED flash / video light too.
The camera is just fantastic for stills. Group portraits are even more fun as it snaps multiple photos and for each face (and the One V can track many faces), the phone automatically picks the one where that person is smiling and hasn’t blinked. It even has HDR. Although it does lack a dedicated camera key which for some reason the makers seem to omit despite the huge demand for it! On the brighter side it does do away with the annoying clicking sound certain cameras make while snapping picture. Pressing down the shutter key for a while helps you take multiple photos, and then you can keep the best photo and delete the rest indicating how quick the camera is! Has some really cool effect too like vintage, depth, mono, sepia etc.
The One V records 720p video at 30fps and it can snap photos while doing so. 720p videos have a pretty low bitrate (about 5Mbps); some of the fine detail is sacrificed to achieve it. Colors are okay and the frame rate is smooth.
Battery:
It has a non removable battery which might irk some. However with Wi-Fi on 24/7 and FM playing for about two hours, a few calls totaling 30 minutes, an hour of angry birds and a little internet surfing will still leave you with enough battery to get through the day and you only have to charge it the next day.
Conclusion:
For all those who cannot afford to buy a smartphone that with given specifications can cost more than a laptop I cannot make a better recommendation! Buy it and you won’t regret the decision!
Pictures taken from HTC One V
Vintage Effect
