HTC Desire C Review

HTC seems to have veered off in a strange direction with the HTC Desire C – it’s already released three great handsets in the One series, including the budget-price One V – and here it comes with another budget phone, not much cheaper than the One V, and yet with a far more basic spec list. It looks like a smaller version of the One X, with the benefit of Beats Audio, but lacking the great snappers of the One series. 

Looking good 

 The HTC Desire C is sturdily built, with a metal chassis and a 3.5in display (that’s bigger than that on the Wildfire S). It has a soft polycarbonate case, and the five-megapixel snapper lens sits flush against the back cover. It has the same HVGA resolution, but because it supports 16 million colours, it shows up clear and bright. It’s not as sharp as the displays on the Samsung Galaxy S III (unsurprisingly) or the One X.

Under the hood sits a 600MHz chip that is capable of running Android Ice Cream Sandwich – it’s the cheapest handset to sport the latest version of Google’s OS. Because it’s an HTC phone, it also boasts the HTC Sense user interface, which has loads of handy widgets and offers some useful startup screens to help you get your accounts synched and so on. There is the handy Friend Stream, which brings together Flickr, Twitter and Facebook, as well as widgets for weather, favourite sites and contacts.

Measuring 107.2x60.6x11.95mm, it’s about the same size as the Wildfire S, HTC’s last mid-range handset that was really popular. In actual fact, this is the phone that the Desire C is replacing in the HTC lineup. Take off the back cover and it looks pretty neat – the insides and the battery are all coloured red.

Got the power?

One area where costs have been cut is with the slower processor. While the onscreen keyboard and touchscreen are responsive, there is a small lag if you’re tapping or swiping. We also noticed sluggishness when we were synching data or running background tasks – and the screen can’t keep up if you’re executing fast swipes – in a game such as Scramble with Friends for instance.

Okay, so for a budget phone this might be expected – but then why not just buy the One V? There’s only £35 difference in the price, so why would you opt for a much slower handset?

Onboard storage comes in at 4GB, but you can expand this using the microSD slot. However, included with the phone is two years of free 25GB online storage from Dropbox – and these files can be accessed anywhere you can get on the net.

So software and hardware-wise, the Desire C doesn’t seem like a cheap handset – and you’ll pay £190 for a SIM-free model. But you can grab yourself a dual-core 1GHz Sony Xperia U for the same price, or pay 35 quid more for the HTC One V, which has a 1GHz processor.

User friendly

When it comes to user interface though, the HTC Desire C does well. Ice Cream Sandwich is an intuitive operating system, plus there’s the HTC sense UI, which adds easy synching and social networking facilities.

View the call log and you’ll see all your favourite contacts, plus a frequent contacts widget will instantly fill with your favourite people. There’s a multitasking key that shows all the apps you are running, while the SMS inbox allows the user to hold down a name to pop up a selection of options – including being able to call your contact.

HTC has got synching the contacts book down to a fine art – it instantly merges profiles with the same email address or name, and then offers very accurate suggestions for any profiles that seem to have less definite connections. If you are already an HTC user, simply sign into your HTC Sense account and your settings and apps will load automatically.

Connectivity wise, there’s Wi-Fi, HSDPA and A-GPS – as well as Google Maps and a beta version of sat nav. 3D or Street View will slow down the phone though.

Sound and vision

If you like listening to tunes, there’s the bonus of Beats Audio, which helps to round out the audio sound and improve bass without over-egging it. SoundHound is included, so you can get the track name and other details of tunes you’re listening to; the volume is rather low though – the loudest volume is only about what you’d expect from a middle setting on other handsets.

We were unimpressed by the five-megapixel snapper, especially as HTC has already produced handsets with some decent cameras on board. Indoor shots proved blurred and far from sharp – and even daylight images fared little better. Colours were okay though. In lowlight, images are grainy, but colours were reproduced well. There is no flash included, instead you’ll have to choose settings such as Lowlight, Portrait, Landscape and Auto to determine how much light the lens allows in.

It is possible to set up a filter and you can see how your picture will appear before you snap it – greyscale works well, but solarise and posterise disappoint. It’s no replacement for Instagram, that’s for sure.

There is a video-shooting options – but results were blurry and unsharp and the mic fails to pick up sounds unless they’re really close.

Our conclusion

HTC has included a bizarre list of specs on its desire C – the snapper is average at best, yet the audio player competes with its high-end handsets. There’s a slow chip but it’s running the latest version of Android. If you’re not fussed about having Ice Cream Sandwich, we’d suggest you opt instead for the Sony Xperia U, which is a speedier handset with a far superior snapper. And if you really want Ice Cream sandwich, choose HTC’s One V, and get the benefit of a better snapper and the Beats Audio

GENERAL

Type of device	Smartphone
Operating System	Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Dimensions	107.2x60.6x11.95mm
Weight	98 grams
Form factor	Touchscreen
Input	Touch Screen
Processor speed	600MHz
CPU	Snapdragon S1 600MHz
Graphic chipset
Announced	May 2012
Status	Coming Soon

DISPLAY

Screen size	3.5 inches
Screen type	N/A
Resolution	320x480
Display type	HVGA

Memory

RAM	512MB
Internal storage	4GB
Memory card slot

Camera

Camera	5 megapixels
Secondary camera	N/A
Special camera features	5 megapixel camera with f2.8/34mm lens, fixed-focus

Sound

3.5mm Jack
Music player	Playback: M4a, MP3, MID, OGG, WAV
Audio recording
Radio
FM Radio description	FM radio

Video

Video recording
Video player	Playback: .3GP, 3G2, MP4, M4V • Recording: MP4, 3GP
Video calling
Video streaming

Additional Features

Browser	Android Browser
Games	Yes, downloadable from the Google Play store
Voice control
Voice dailing
Other	G-Sensor, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor

Messaging

SMS
MMS
Email
IM

Connectivity

Band	GSM /EDGE /UMTS/HSPA/ HSPA+/ DC-HSDPA
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
USB
NFC
GPS	Yes

Network

EDGE
GPRS
HSDPA
4G/LTE

Other

Colors (Standard)	Black and white
Handsfree speaker phone
Customisable ringtones
What's in the box	Charger, battery with headset
Website	http://www.htc.com/uk/

Battery

Standby	N/A
Talktime	N/A
Battery life multimedia	N/A