HTC Desire C

Overview

HTC Desire C - Best in its Segment

Design

Camera

Misc

Shades

Overview of HTC Desire C

HTC Desire C is strictly a budget phone, which has features like GPS, 3G and powerful camera to please the mid-range buyer.

HTC Desire C Design and Build Quality

The phone has a very simple touch bar design. The phone is curved around the edges and gives a very smooth feeling in hand. HTC has not invested much in the build quality of the phone and rough use results in quick scratches that take away the colour. The phones dimensions are 60.6x107.2x12.3mm and it weighs only 100gm. The phone’s weight is one of the plus points of the phone. The phone comes in three colours black, red, and white. The phone’s body is plastic and does not slip from the grip even with long use. The phone has a good battery life though and it lasts for about 4 hours with data usage and calling.

User Interface and Comfort to Use HTC Desire C

The phone has a 3.5-inch TFT capacitive TFT screen with home, back, and multitasking button at the bottom of the screen. The menu is easy to navigate and display is good under room conditions. However, it will take time to get used to using it in sunlight. The phone’s display has a resolution of 320x480 pixels, which is not very crisp. The phone runs on Android Ice cream sandwich software with 512 MB of RAM and only 4 GB of internal storage. The processor is just 600MHZ that seems to be a waste on the Ice cream OS as it is slow and slugging in performance. The phone as a SD card slot which can be used for a memory card of up to 32GB. The IC OS makes it easy for you to flick through the apps. The use can re-size certain widgets and even set usage limits and warnings. However, the brilliant OS does not make up for the under power of the phone’s processor. The user should not expect very good game performance from this phone.

Telephony and Phonebook

The phone has both 2G and 3G calling capacity however, the call quality is not very satisfactory. The phone book features include voice calling, picture call, multiple entries etc. Phonebook capacity is virtually unlimited. The search feature is available on the phone and the user can link the contacts to the Facebook profile. Twitter and Google + link features are not available. The absence of the front facing camera makes video calls and video chatting impossible which we feel could have been easily added.

Messaging and Emails

MMS, SMS, Email and Push email features are available on the phone. The screen keypad is comfortable to use in both alphanumeric and QWERTY mode.

Gallery, Photo Viewer and Video Player

The phone’s gallery size depends on the capacity of the card but HTC’s inbuilt menu options make it easier to use. The photo viewer allows you to pull photos from various social media accounts and have them all in one place. Basic editing options such as crop, rotate and effects like auto enhance are available on the phone. The phone does not have a separate dedicated video app but the inbuilt video player plays videos smoothly. HD videos are wasted on the phone because you will not be able to enjoy them due to limited scree capability.

HTC Desire C Music Player and FM Radio

The phone comes with Beat audio sound enhancer that gives it an edge over other phones. You can access music files from your phone and DropBox account. MP3, eAAC+, WMA and WAV formats are supported by the application. The application is easy to use. FM on the phone requires the ear phones to be attached as the antenna. Scan and pre-set options are available on the radio. We found the using the Tune in radio app is much more comfortable with the phone.

HTC Desire C Camera and Image Quality

The phone has a back camera of 5MP with no LED flash. Daytime photos are very good but night-time photos are best avoided. Image resolution is 2592x11944px. The image resolution, exposure, contrast, sharpness and saturation settings, plus ISO and white balance settings can be adjusted from the screen. The camera takes a few seconds to load even when it is pinned on the lock screen. The user can select Greyscale, sepia, solarise, posturize, negative and aqua options for pictures. The Zoom feature is good but lack of auto-focus makes it difficult to take crisp photos.

Video Camera and Video Quality

The maximum video resolution of the phone is 640x40px and it does not support HD recording. The video quality is very basic.

HTC Desire C Connectivity Options

Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, micro SD slot, GPRS, and mini USB are connectivity options that are available on the phone. Apart from this, the phone also supports Wi-Fi tethering so that you can use the device as a Modem.

Organiser and other utility tools

Organizer, document viewer and editor, drop box, voice memo and dial, predictive text input, alarm, calendar, clock, to-do, calculator, are some of the tools that are available on the phone. You can download more tools from the Google play store.

HTC Desire C Web Browser and Applications

The phone’s HTC browser is very comfortable to use but because of the slow processor, it takes its own time to load the websites. The low screen resolution does not let you zoom much in the websites as the text and image become pixelated. Gmail and Mail app can be used to add all your email accounts to the phone. Google + messenger, Facebook, and Google + come preloaded in this phone. Google play is another useful integration on the phone and you can use it download apps, books etc. A free DropBox and SkyDrive app along with other imports HTC store apps makes it easy to organise your work life. Sound hound apps make it easy to find the lyrics of your favourite songs.

Google Maps and GPS

Google maps and an inbuilt GPS make it a treat to use the phone to find addresses. The maps are easy to use but the scrolling is little patchy.

Value for Money

The phone is priced at INR 11400 (approx., may vary) in the Indian market. The price of the phone is competitive but still on a little higher side if you consider the performance and features.

Verdict

The phone earns a 3.5 star rating out of 5 from our side because of a sluggish processor and a low quality screen, which takes the fun out of using the phone features.