Introduction
The One series is the brand new range of smartphones that guided HTC get the public eye early in 2012. While the One S and One X are turning powerful at each other as a way to stay sharp for the incursion of the other aggressors with multi-core processors and high resolution screens, the One V aims at a less violent market segment - and it's priced accordingly. While we wouldn't go as far as to call it a budget phone, it's a familiarized package - and a lot user friendly - less powerful, but preferably not underpowered. Not nearly as extraordinarily geared up as its bigger brothers, the One V looks no less stylish - a good start is half the job done in the smartphone mid range.
Main Disadvantage
The quick boot is no news in an HTC smartphone but that feature wasn't perfectly blazing fast in the One X and the One S. The One V is more like it at about 8 seconds to the lock screen from a cold boot, and less than 12 for everything to fully load. There are also a sufficient amount of slick additions to the interface. ICS and the latest HTC Sense 4.0 is a powerful combo, which creates a pretty impressive user experience. Keeping in mind, of course, that you'll need to pop in a microSD card at the first available chance, as you have less than 1GB of internal storage to work with once the operating system and preloaded HTC apps have had their say.
Final Words
With the One series HTC are in their best shape in a while and we don't need to investigate who's to blame. The big bad One X and One S will proudly plead guilty as charged. But it would be unfair to deny the HTC One V its little share of credit.
The One V is built on the solid foundations of the Desire, and its DNA can be traced all the way back to the Legend and the Hero. If you ask us, the One V rings quite a few right bells. However, not having the luxury of an unlimited budget, it had to accept compromise with the level of equipment.
To some the One V may seem like the point in the One series where HTC stopped inventing and started reusing. We personally don't mind a true classic being brought back to life. Here's the catch though: the One V is interested in users who are too young to remember the HTC Hero. Young as in new to the smartphone game.
Anyone who would call the HTC Hero a classic must've developed a good enough eye to tell that the One V is a phone that would've made sense in 2010. OK, late 2010. The Desire S is almost the exact same package - and it even has more RAM.
That said, the HTC One V must realize that it's
mostly dual core smartphones it is about to compete with. And we don't
mean flagships, either. The new mid range is buzzing with activity,
especially with Sony trying to quickly make a name for itselves again.
The Xperia Sola and the Xperia U are perhaps the biggest threat. They both have FWVGA screens - 3.5" on the Xperia U, and 3.7" on the Sola. They're powered by dual-core processors and it's not unreasonable to expect better image quality. With the Floating Touch technology and NFC, the Xperia Sola could be on the expensive side but the Xperia U might as well match the One V price tag. The clear advantage of the One V is that it launches with ICS.
With a massive 4.3" screen and 1080p video
recording, the LG Optimus L7 is another style-centered droid coming with
ICS right out of the box. The Optimus L5 is worth a look too - it's
even less powerful than the One V but should also be considerably more
affordable.
Samsung's most recent addition to the midrange,
the Ace 2, is a dual-core droid with the unusual clock speed of 800 MHz.
It's launching with Gingerbread and the all-plastic build is no match
for the solid unibody of the HTC One V, but it should become the better
performer whenever its due ICS serving arrives. There's also the Galaxy S
Advance, which is slightly more expensive, but makes up for that with a
larger screen.
Windows Phone is another potential threat and the
HTC One V won't enjoy being sandwiched between the Nokia Lumia 710 and
the Lumia 800. With a 3.7" screen and 1.4 GHz Scorpion core each, the
Finnish couple offers a choice between LCD and AMOLED, and 5MP to 8MP
still cameras. The superior ecosystem of the Google OS is what should
give the One V confidence in this battle, though.
The One series is the brand new range of smartphones that guided HTC get the public eye early in 2012. While the One S and One X are turning powerful at each other as a way to stay sharp for the incursion of the other aggressors with multi-core processors and high resolution screens, the One V aims at a less violent market segment - and it's priced accordingly. While we wouldn't go as far as to call it a budget phone, it's a familiarized package - and a lot user friendly - less powerful, but preferably not underpowered. Not nearly as extraordinarily geared up as its bigger brothers, the One V looks no less stylish - a good start is half the job done in the smartphone mid range.
If you know your HTC phones, the comparison between the One V and the HTC Legend (and, in turn, the Hero) will not go unseen. The trademark "chin" makes a strong comeback. Then, as now, HTC are concentrating on an audience that look for a phone, which makes a sentence more than anything else, and with a slim 9.2mm profile and compact design, the One V does just that.
But does the HTC pack enough within its smoothly package for those of us looking for more than just a pretty face? We'll answer that question in detail in the pages to come. For starters, here are the pros and cons of the One V at-a-glance.
Key Features
- Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
- 3.7" 16M color capacitive touchscreen with WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
- Android OS v4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich HTC Sense 4.0
- 1 GHz processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
- microSD card slot
- 5 MP autofocus camera with single LED flash; face detection, geotagging, HDR mode, image auto-upload
- 720p video recording @ 30fps, slo-mo videos (2x at WVGA), simultaneous HD video and still image capture
- GPS with A-GPS
- Fast boot time
- HTC Portable Hotspot
- Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0
- Accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensor
- Smart dial, voice dialing
- HTC Locations app
- HTC Car integration
- DivX/XviD video support
- Polaris Office document editor
Main Disadvantage
- Only 1GB of the 4GB internal storage is available to the user
- No front-facing camera
- No dedicated camera key
- Some competing smartphones have dual-core CPUs
- Non-user-replaceable battery
The quick boot is no news in an HTC smartphone but that feature wasn't perfectly blazing fast in the One X and the One S. The One V is more like it at about 8 seconds to the lock screen from a cold boot, and less than 12 for everything to fully load. There are also a sufficient amount of slick additions to the interface. ICS and the latest HTC Sense 4.0 is a powerful combo, which creates a pretty impressive user experience. Keeping in mind, of course, that you'll need to pop in a microSD card at the first available chance, as you have less than 1GB of internal storage to work with once the operating system and preloaded HTC apps have had their say.
Final Words
With the One series HTC are in their best shape in a while and we don't need to investigate who's to blame. The big bad One X and One S will proudly plead guilty as charged. But it would be unfair to deny the HTC One V its little share of credit.
The One V is built on the solid foundations of the Desire, and its DNA can be traced all the way back to the Legend and the Hero. If you ask us, the One V rings quite a few right bells. However, not having the luxury of an unlimited budget, it had to accept compromise with the level of equipment.
To some the One V may seem like the point in the One series where HTC stopped inventing and started reusing. We personally don't mind a true classic being brought back to life. Here's the catch though: the One V is interested in users who are too young to remember the HTC Hero. Young as in new to the smartphone game.
Anyone who would call the HTC Hero a classic must've developed a good enough eye to tell that the One V is a phone that would've made sense in 2010. OK, late 2010. The Desire S is almost the exact same package - and it even has more RAM.
 |
| HTC Desire S |
The Xperia Sola and the Xperia U are perhaps the biggest threat. They both have FWVGA screens - 3.5" on the Xperia U, and 3.7" on the Sola. They're powered by dual-core processors and it's not unreasonable to expect better image quality. With the Floating Touch technology and NFC, the Xperia Sola could be on the expensive side but the Xperia U might as well match the One V price tag. The clear advantage of the One V is that it launches with ICS.
 |
| Sony Ericsson Xperia Sola & U |
 |
| LG Optimus L5 |
 |
| Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 |
 |
| Nokia Lumia 710 |
Now, we didn't mean to paint a gloomy picture. The
HTC One V is a handsome smartphone - there are people on our team who
think it's the best looking of the One series. And it's not really all
that underpowered. It's just that the pressure of dual-cores may be too
much to handle. But then, nothing beats a metal unibody if you want to
look cool under pressure.
Subscribe to email feed
