HTC One V Review

At a glance

+Solid Exterior
+Decent Camera
+Beats Audio
+Excellent battery life
-A faint yellow tint on the display
-No front facing camera

In the Box:

-Transceiver
-Headset
-Charger
-USB Cable

12 April 2012 – The HTC One V is the third member of the One family, which was announced at MWC 2012. However, HTC Malaysia only brought in the One X and the One V into the market. The One V positions itself as a mid-range Android smartphone and we are here to discover more about the phone.

Exterior, Screen and Controls

At a quick glance, the HTC One V shares a close resemblance with its older cousins, the HTC Legend and Hero. All three phones have a unique curve at the bottom of the phone. Despite being a mid-range phone, we are impressed on the amount of effort that HTC spent on the Design of the One V. The Taiwanese company uses a tough and light aluminum unibody design instead of plastic for the exterior of the phone. As a result, the entire phone feels sturdy and solid.

On top of the phone you will find the power button on your right and a 3.5mm audio jack on your left. Right beside the audio jack you will see a LED notification slit across the exterior. It would blink in amber when the battery is running low and in a solid green when the battery is fully charged.

Next, you will see the volume rocker located on the right side of the phone and the microUSB port on the left side of the phone.  There is a camera and LED flash situated at the back of the phone, as well as the speaker grill situated at the bottom. The speaker grill is strategically located at the curve, so the sound is not muffled if you place it on a soft surface like on a bed or a cushion. There is a rubber back cover on the curve which can be easily removed to insert your SIM card or microSD card.

The One V has an impressive 3.7-inch LCD display with 480 x 800 resolution pixels. The screen is bright enough for outdoor legibility and great viewing angles. The only drawback we noticed is that it has a faint yellow tint on the edges of the screen. It is visible when you view a white background on the display. We are not sure whether it is a manufacturing defect or if the issue only happens to our review unit. There are three capacitive buttons (Back, Home and Recent apps) located below the display. At the edge of the device, there is a pinhole for the microphone.

Software

It is running on Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS) with HTC Sense 4.0A, the lite variant of HTC skinning. We certainly favor the Sense 4.0 user interface over the version 3.x that is found in the EVO 3D and Sensation models. That is because HTC has reduced the amount of bloat ware and the new user interface somehow blends well with the Ice Cream Sandwich user interface. Our minor irk is that you have to long press on the recent app capacitive buttons to view the menu on certain apps.

The HTC’s dialer would be the best I ever seen among all other Android’s iterations. On the dial pad itself you can either type the number you wish to call or simply search the contact you want to call. For example, you can call “Tony” by typing “8669”. Plus, HTC also include a series of power widget toggles that allows you to turn on or off WiFi, WiFi Hotspot, mobile Internet, Bluetooth, GPS and Airplane mode on your home screen.

The device is powered by a 1GHz processor bundled with 512MB of RAM. We do not notice any notable lag while using the One V.

In addition, it has an excellent battery life. In this battery test, we have turned on WiFi, mobile Internet and GPS. We have made approximately 60 minutes of calls, running common apps like the web browser, music and YouTube. Occasionally, we have switched on WiFi Hotspot and snap a couple of photos and videos. The phone lasts about 17 hours, which is quite impressive for its class.

Camera, Video and Audio

The One V is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera and a LED flash. However, the photos took by the One V are little overexposed to my likings. The camera is excellent on taking far distance objects but it is a hit and miss when comes to macro shots. We appreciate that HTC has bundled a variety of camera filters and effects, which is quite fun to experiment around with your photos. The device does not come with a front-facing camera, but it is not a big deal unless you perform serious video chats frequently.

As advertised during the launch, the One V has a dedicated imaging chip, which allows you to record 720p HD video and take photos simultaneously by tapping on the shutter button while you are recording. Continuous shots are also possible with this device, and HTC claimed that it is able to handle two frames per second.

Of course, the One V is integrated with Beats Audio that is able to enhance your listening experience. We notice that the bass is a little stronger and solid with Beats Audio switched on. However, the software enhancer only works on some of the apps, and the apps that works are the stock music app, gallery app, YouTube and TuneIn Radio. Unfortunately, the handset does not come with a pair of Beats earphones.

Connectivity and Storage

It is a quad-band device, and supports WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. Overall, we noticed that the call quality over the phone is crisp and clear. It has 4GB Internal storage and accepts microSD cards up to 32GB. HTC is also providing free 25GB cloud storage from Dropbox for two years. After two years, you can still access your contents stored in the cloud, but you may not upload any additional content.

Verdict

The One V may look small in size, but it has everything you will need in an Android smartphone – an impressive display, a decent camera, a good music player and ICS. For RM 999, we think it would be the most affordable and feature packed ICS smartphone in the market for now.

Conclusion: A rugged mid-range Android 4.0 smartphone for the budget conscious.