HTC Desire C Review

HTC is a company which is almost completely focused on producing high-tier smartphones, but from time to time, it's releasing a little something for the budget market as well. The HTC Tattoo was the first phone to bring some HTC to the low-end segment, then there were the Wildfire and Wildfire S, which managed to combine an affordable price and HTC's high quality. These were all okay phones, but they were all plagued by the same problem – they weren't powerful enough to deliver a satisfying user experience.

Now, a new model called 'Desire C' has launched to refresh HTC's budget line-up. It is the latest attempt of the manufacturer to offer something to those users, who aren't willing to spend a fortune on a phone, but would love to experience some HTC love. Let's see what the Desire C has in store for us.

Design:

There are a few things going for the HTC Desire C, and its appearance is one of them. The handset has a very sweet, rounded and compact form, which utilizes mostly plastic, as one would expect in a budget phone. We have the black version, which looks quite cool thanks to the silver frame that's surrounding the screen. However, we don't like the particular feel of the soft-touch matte back side. As we mentioned, the Desire C is quite compact, allowing you to operate it very easily and with one hand only.



You can compare the HTC Desire C with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The navigation keys on the front side are capacitive, but we didn't experience any problems with them. On the right is the volume rocker, which is also well-made. The same goes for the power/lock key on the top, although pressing it could feel better, because the notch for removing the back cover is situated there as well. It's not a major problem.

All in all the Desire C looks pretty good, and thanks to small details like the eye-catchy red framing around the camera lens (courtesy of the Beats Audio nature of the phone), as well as the subtle HTC logo on the back, it does manage to stand out compared to most other offerings in its class.


Display:

The HTC Desire C packs a 3.5” HVGA LCD screen of average quality. Its 165ppi pixel density isn't anything spectacular, but isn't too bad either. Colors and viewing angles are fine for the purposes of this device. Unfortunately, we found outdoor visibility to be somewhat insufficient.

Interface:

Another strong side of the HTC Desire C is the fact that it comes with Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich, in a time when a lot of Android handsets, even much more powerful than the Desire C, are still waiting for their updates. Having the latest version of the OS in this modestly-spec'd phone is even more important when you have in mind the many software optimizations done in ICS.

What the user will be interacting with, however, is a kind of a lite version of the Sense 4.0 UI. The difference with the regular Sense 4.0 (which can be seen in the One X) is that some of the fancier animations and effects are missing. Otherwise, the experience is pretty similar, at least as far as graphics go.



Processor and Memory:

The silicon powering the HTC Desire C is a humble 600MHz single-core CPU coupled with the decent 512MB RAM. The result of this is a somewhat sluggish handset, which takes its time to execute even some not very heavy tasks like updating an app, or loading a web page. The UI itself is fluid enough, although random stutters are present every now and then.

Most simpler games like Temple Run and Angry Birds run pretty well and are perfectly playable with this hardware, but others, like Fruit Ninja, for example, couldn't even load (or took way too long).

The built-in storage of the device is 4GB, which is fine for such a low-end phone, plus it comes with a microSDHC slot, allowing you to expand your storage space with up to 32GB more.

Internet and Connectivity:

Due to the slow, 600 MHz processor, web browsing is a tough endeavor on the HTC Desire C. The stock browser is pretty much unusable, so we recommend that you install a fast, third-party one like Opera Mobile. This will significantly improve the performance. Interestingly, even though it packs this aging 600MHz processor, the Desire C supports Adobe Flash Player. It kills performance even more, but can prove to be useful in some situations.


The Desire C comes with Wi-Fi and 3G support, as well as A-GPS and Bluetooth 3.0. The GPS worked pretty well – it localized us in under 2 minutes on a clear day, without being aided by wireless networks.

Camera and Multimedia:

There's a 5-megapixel camera in the Desire C that offers you to tweak pretty much the same options as found on the manufacturer's higher-end devices. There are numerous settings, so if you're into that kind of stuff, you can try and squeeze the most out of the snapper.


As you can expect from a low-end HTC model, the camera is nothing to write home about. Colors are relatively realistic, but detail levels are very low. Much lower than what you'd expect from a normal 5MP sensor.


Video is taken at a maximum resolution of 640x480 pixels, and overall, the quality is disastrous, but since it's very smooth at near 30 fps, it's still good for basic usage.

HTC Desire C Sample Video:



The HTC Desire C is a Beats Audio phone, but that's as far as the software goes, as the bundled earphones are regular HTC ones. As we've said many times, the Beats sound is far from authentic, but it can prove to be pretty good if you are listening to modern musical genres.

The speakerphone of the handset is nothing special. It's actually on the quieter side, but has a relatively clean sound that doesn't irritate your ears with crackling or overly sharp noises.

The Desire C can play videos at up to 800x480 resolution in various formats out of the box. You can try a third-party player to enable support for higher resolutions, but there's not too much use in this as the screen itself is 480x320 pixels.

Call quality and Battery:

In terms of call quality, the Desire C is an average performer. The earpiece is loud and relatively clear, while the microphone is fine, but picks up all of the ambient noise that's around you. In the end, it'll be one OK conversation that could have been much better.

The battery inside the HTC Desire C is 1230 mAh, which isn't much, but seems to be about enough to guarantee a battery life of one or even two days, depending on your usage. Unfortunately, the manufacturer hasn't disclosed the official talk-time and stand-by times.


Conclusion:

The HTC Desire C is a fine low-end smartphone. It's compact and cute, and will certainly get the job done for most standard tasks.

The price for this phone is just right. It's priced very closely to rivals such as the Sony Ericsson Xperia ray and Motorola Defy+ or Mini. You should be able to find the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 at a better price, and it will probably perform a bit better than the Desire C, but the HTC is superior in terms of design and comes with ICS, so you'll have to make a decision as to what's more important to you.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the Desire C is its 600MHz processor, which causes some noticeable slow-downs at times, but if you aren't a power user, it should do just fine. Unfortunately, the camera is also mediocre, so if you're a shutterbug, you've come to the wrong place.

Ultimately, with the Desire C, you get what you pay for – a stylish smartphone that's good for light usage, but not much else.

Software versions of the reviewed unit: Android 4.0.3, Software number: 1.45.162.2