HTC One V Review

Introduction:

You didn't think that after reviewing the HTC One X and HTC One S, we will disregard their little brother – the HTC One V, did you? Well, here it is, folks! We have taken this little munchkin for a spin and we cannot wait to share our experience with you.

But before we begin, a little background: the HTC One V comes with a 3.7-inch display, single-core processor clocked at 1GHz, 5-megapixel camera, and Beats Audio enhancements, all of that locked within a metal unibody of under 10 millimeters. And that seems pretty good for a mid-range smartphone that will set you back only about $370 off-contract. Okay, enough talking. Now let us tell you how the HTC One V performs in real life.

Box contents:

• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Wired headset
• User manual on paper and CD

Design:

If the HTC One V looks familiar, that is because it sports the same curved-chin design that was present on the international version of the HTC Hero. And that does not only add a dose of uniqueness to the smartphone's looks, but it also should make it easier to hold. Sure enough, we like how the One V fits in the palm, but that is mostly due to its compact dimensions. It is nearly 9 millimeters thin and weighs only 115 grams, which is why we can barely feel it while it is resting in our pocket. Two thumbs up for that! Moreover, our thumb can effortlessly reach every corner of its screen, so if you are among the people who like using their smartphone with a single hand, the HTC One V will surely fit your preference.



You can compare the HTC One V with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.


The 2-button volume rocker and the lock key, which are located on the device's right and top sides respectively, are not too hard to feel and respond with a nice click when pressed. Underneath the smartphone's display we see a trio of Android buttons: one that takes you back a step, one that takes you to your home screen, and one that brings forth recently opened applications. Thankfully, physical capacitive buttons have been used instead of the virtual ones that Android 4.0 supports, which allows for the pretty limited display real estate to be put to greater use. We cannot complain about their responsiveness and we did not experience any accidental presses during use. Something that HTC is known for adding on its smartphones is a notification light that can glow in green or amber, and in the case with the One V, it is located on its top side. That allows it to be seen even when the handset is lying with its display down, which is a design touch that we surely won't pass on.

HTC has decided to go with anodized metal for the One V's unibody: a wise choice, we must say, for it is a feature that we don't get to see very often when mid-range devices are concerned. That is why the smartphone has a distinct, premium feel to it – a feel that most plasticky mid-range devices lack. Also, the handset's surface is extremely resistant to fingerprints, which is more than welcome.


Display:

Sadly, we cannot say the same about the touchscreen's surface. It collects finger smudge fairly easily, and overall, using it feels a lot like swiping your finger across a piece of plastic. In other words, the display's surface is not quite as smooth as the glass touchscreens on most high-end devices we are so spoiled with nowadays. Nevertheless, we have no complaints whatsoever about its sensitivity as it accurately registers every tap.

The HTC One V comes with a 3.7-inch display of the Super-LCD 2 kind. It has a resolution of 480 by 800 pixels, which gives us the respectable pixel density of 252ppi. As a result, we rarely notice any pixelation whatsoever. Graphics look nice and detailed, and small text does not require much effort to be read. Just like we expected, the Super-LCD 2 display treats us to great-looking, saturated (but not overly) colors and very impressive viewing angles. Additionally, we are quite satisfied with its outdoor visibility as it is bright enough to remain easily legible even in broad daylight. In case you are wondering, it may not be as bright as the Super-LCD 2 panel on the HTC One X, but nevertheless, the One V's display is really good considering the smartphone's price point.

Interface:

Hey, what do you know: the interface on the HTC One V looks pretty much identical to what we have on the HTC One X and HTC One S. Right out of the box we get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the latest and greatest to roll out of camp Google. The whole experience is complemented by the streamlined HTC Sense 4.0 interface, but we will not go into detail as to what improvements it brings over previous versions as we covered that already in our HTC Sense 4.0 overview.

Something that we are delighted to see is how buttery smooth the interface is. Navigation through home screens and menus is really fluid even though inside the handset ticks a fairly modest 1GHz single-core Qualcomm processor. Having a live wallpaper running does take a slight toll on the interface's responsiveness but it is still more than usable. Not that it matters that much, but we ran a Quadrant benchmark on the device and got a score of over 1900. If you are a lot into gaming, we installed several titles with 3D graphics and had them running without a hitch.


With a screen of such size, one might think that typing on the virtual on-screen keyboard would be somewhat difficult, but they would be pretty wrong. We had no troubles typing long emails swiftly and accurately regardless of the keyboard's orientation. The auto-complete bar that is present in ICS also comes in handy and the auto-correct feature underlines typos so we could easily spot them.



Software:

Just like the other members of the HTC One lineup, the One V comes with Dropbox integration. Users get to enjoy 25 gigabytes of cloud storage, which is a great deal considering that it comes for free. Something more that HTC has added is the Friend Stream app, which is meant to act as a centralized hub for social network notifications, yet for some strange reason, it supports only Facebook ans Flickr, so we don't see much use for it since you have to use a separate client for Twitter, Google+, and the rest. You also get a TuneIn Radio client, Soundhound, a client for the 7Digital music store, and Polaris Office. The Transfer app might come in handy as it allows for contacts to be transferred from your old handset straight to your HTC One V.

Internet and Connectivity:

We are sorry to say it, the built-in web browser on the HTC One V has a really hard time rendering heavy web pages, especially when the Adobe Flash plug-in is enabled. Fortunately, it can be easily disabled from the browser's menu. Navigating through simpler web pages works just fine. In addition to the address bar on top, there is a menu bar for your bookmarks and opened tabs. It pops-up from the bottom on the screen, but only whenever it feels like it, which can be pretty frustrating.


The HTC One V can connect to the internet either over Wi-Fi b/g/n or with its 3G radio. Other connectivity features include an FM Radio with RDS and Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX support. The smartphone's GPS radio managed to locate us after 20 seconds from a cold start, and only 2 seconds from then onwards, which is pretty fast. USB mass storage mode is supported for fast and easy file transfer between the smartphone and a computer.

Camera:

Although it is the most affordable among the HTC One bunch, the One V also comes with an HTC ImageChip, which should result in great-looking photos and short load-up times. And yes, we must agree that its 5-megapixel auto-focus camera boots pretty fast most of the time, although a slight, but passable, shutter lag is present. In burst mode, however, you can capture about four frames per second, which is pretty impressive for a device of this caliber. The camera interface comes with all the features that are present on the HTC One X and One S, such as various scenes and effects, face detection, and panorama mode.


As far as image quality goes, we took some photos on a bright, sunny day and they look really good for the most part, with plenty of detail, especially in close-ups, and low amount of digital noise. Still, on several occasions, the white balance was a bit off making photos look blueish, and HDR images looked plain terrible. Indoor shots look okay as long as the room is well illuminated, but once lights get dim, image quality deteriorates immediately.


We took several 720p video samples with the HTC One V, but we were not impressed. Details are scarce, and colors look cold and lifeless.

HTC One V Sample Video:



HTC One V Indoor Sample Video:




Multimedia:

The music player on the HTC One V is simple, elegant, and pretty straightforward to use. Naturally, it comes with a widget for your home screen, but you can control it straight from the lock screen too. With the Beats Audio enhancements enabled, songs of contemporary music genres such as pop and hip-hop are really brought to life, but with other styles we didn't notice much of a difference other than the increase in volume. Bear in mind, however, that the stock earphones do not belong to the Beats brand, so don't expect to be blown away unless you purchase a premium pair. As with all Ice Cream Sandwich devices, support for the FLAC audio format comes out of the box.


With the stock video player on the HTC One V we had no troubles playing 720p video, including our samples encoded in DivX format. Several handy features have been thrown in, including support for subtitle files, an audio enhancer, and the ability to capture frames from the video that is currently being played back. Also, the built-in speaker is loud enough for you to enjoy your video comfortably. 1080p video could not be played, but that is no big of a deal considering that the smartphone's average display size and resolution.


Although the 4GB of built-in storage might seem okay, you will definitely be buying a microSD card for your HTC One V. That is because the actual user-available storage for stuff like photos, videos, and songs is only 95 megabytes, which is pathetic in our opinion. There is a gig of storage reserved for apps, which is also anything but spacious.

Performance:

The in-call audio quality of the HTC One V is okay, but we were honestly expecting more than that. What we didn't like about it was that the sound through the earpiece is slightly muffled, and what we heard on the other side of the line was not much better. Still, the volume levels of what the earpiece emits and what the microphone captures are good enough.

With the HTC One V you get a 1,500mAh battery, but HTC is keeping mum on how many hours of talk time we might expect out of a single charge. In case you still care, we have to warn you that the battery is not removable.

Conclusion:

Getting your hands on an HTC One V is going to cost you about $370 off-contract, which is definitely a reasonable price considering what you get in exchange. The smartphone has style and character that few devices in its price category can match, and we are pretty happy with it for the most part. The only things that we were unimpressed with were the poorly executed stock web browser, mediocre 720p video, and lack of sufficient on-board storage, but other than that, we have little to complain about.

Still, there are a few smartphones that you might want to check out before getting the One V. For example, if you want a bit more display real estate, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S comes with a 4.2-inch screen, and the HTC Sensation offers a 4.3-inch display along with a dual-core processor. Both of these smartphones, however, will cost you a little bit extra. The Samsung Galaxy W is priced similarly to the One V and offers similar features and performance, but does not look like that premium of a device. Another 3.7-incher that is worth considering is the female-oriented HTC Rhyme. –Not to be forgotten is the Sony Ericsson Xperia ray, which is even more compact with its 3.3-inch screen and is just as reasonably priced.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android version: 4.0.3
software number: 1.56.401.1
Kernel version: 3.0.16-gd5b834a
Baseband version: 20.66.30.0831U_3831.15.00.19_M
Build number: 1.56.401.1 CL47452
Browser version: WebKit/534.30