HTC One V Hands-On: A Second Encounter

HTC launched two devices for their One series of smartphones last month, namely the One X and the One V. While the high end One X boasts with more powerful specs and a higher price tag, the One V is more of a modest type. Check out our second encounter with the HTC One V below.

First thing you’ll notice about the HTC One V is its design reminiscent of the HTC Legend. It inherited the trademark “chin” that kinda reminds me of Johnny Bravo.

Three capacitive buttons are located at the bottom of the display. No front-facing camera. On the right side is the volume rocker and on the left is the microUSB port.

Turn it on its back and you’ll find the 5 megapixel camera and flash on top, down below is the speaker. The body is made of plastic but with a matte metal finish giving the One V with a professional look.

The phone runs Android Ice Cream Sandwich clothed with HTC Sense UI version 4.0. It has Dropbox and SkyDrive integration and comes with HTC’s own app store called the HTC Hub. The audio is powered by Beats technology so you can expect quality sound coming from this smartphone.

Preliminary benchmark test using Quadrant Standard shows the One V scoring (1776) better than the Nexus S but falls a few hundred points short of the Galaxy Nexus.

The hardware configuration of the One V looks pretty decent and with ICS pre-installed right out of the box, it’s an appealing set up.

HTC One V specs:
3.7” WVGA LCD Display @ 480×800 pixels, 252ppi
1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD card
HSDPA up to 14.4Mbps
Bluetooth 4.0
5MP autofocus rear camera
720p video recording
GPS w/ aGPS support
1500mAh Li-Polymer battery
Android 4.0 ICS
120.3 x 59.7 x 9.2 mm

The presence of that chin really reminds us of the HTC Hero and the HTC Legend during the first years of HTC doing Android handsets.

The One V has a suggested retail price of Php15,990USD 272INR 23,099EUR 260CNY 1,984. Watch out for our full review in a week.