The HTC One V is more affordable
I friend once asked me, “What is the purpose of your blog?” I was silent for a short while, trying to figure out what to answer, then I come with a simple answer – “My blog is for budget smartphone seekers.” In the beginning I was mostly writing about contemporary news about technology, specifically on the current, flashy and expensive mobile devices. But I can never afford any of these smartphones, I can only write about them, see their beautiful pictures on the internet and pretend that I can own them anytime if I want to.
When I recall the 5 or 6 years of the smartphone age, I never had a phone that cost more than RM1000 (US$323), not even close. What I did was to wait for a popular smartphone model to “fall from grace” i.e. the price fell down because it became out of favour (not obsolete) due to the arrival of newer models in the market. These phones then become affordable or “budget phones” for short because they cost only a portion of the original price, sometimes even lower. In term of technology they are still worthwhile – users of Android Gingerbread are still the biggest in the world, all the functions are still applicable and relevant. Budget smartphone users normally look at usability (functional) rather than trendy features, they want to be able to use the phone basic need such making calls, texting, perhaps some social networking, simple photography and maybe listening to some music when needed.
Enough with the rather long explanation about why I become a budget smartphone writer. So, today’s budget smartphone is the HTC One V, a mid-range smartphone introduced in the market sometime in April of last year, which is relatively a current model. It was retailed in Malaysia for RM999 (US$322) and has quickly become one of the most wanted mid-range smartphone in the market. 10 months later, due to the influx of newer models the HTC One V has a considerable price cut – some online stores are selling it for RM639 (US$206) and if you shop extensively, you may even get it cheaper.
Here are some of the Key Features of the HTC One V
- 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
- Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
- GPS with A-GPS
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensor
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0
- Smart dial, voice dialing
- Polaris Office document editor
- DivX/XviD video support
- HTC Locations app
- HTC Car integration
- HTC Portable Hotspot
- Fast boot time
Some minor downsides
- Only 1GB of the 4GB internal storage is available to the user
- No front-facing camera
- Some competing smartphones have dual-core CPUs, such as the Sony Xperia Go
- Non-user-replaceable battery
- No dedicated camera key
My Opinion
This phone is great, it has a combination of Android Ice cream Sandwich and the latest HTC Sense 4.0 that will give you plenty of impressive user experience with the phone but you might also want to add more storage through a microSD card as the 1GB internal storage will not always be available for long. At RM639, the price is still too high for most budget phone seekers, it might be advisable to wait for another couple of months and wait for the price to clearly pass below the RM500 (US$160) price tag.
If you wish you may want to read a good review of the phone here or watch the video review below courtesy of PhoneArena.
