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HTC Desire C Review


Introduction:

HTC is a company which is almost completely focused on producing high-tier smartphones, but from time to time, it's releasing a little something for the budget market as well. The HTC Tattoo was the first phone to bring some HTC to the low-end segment, then there were the Wildfire and Wildfire S, which managed to combine an affordable price and HTC's high quality. These were all okay phones, but they were all plagued by the same problem – they weren't powerful enough to deliver a satisfying user experience.


Now, a new model called 'Desire C' has launched to refresh HTC's budget line-up. It is the latest attempt of the manufacturer to offer something to those users, who aren't willing to spend a fortune on a phone, but would love to experience some HTC love. Let's see what the Desire C has in store for us.


Design:

There are a few things going for the HTC Desire C, and its appearance is one of them. The handset has a very sweet, rounded and compact form, which utilizes mostly plastic, as one would expect in a budget phone. We have the black version, which looks quite cool thanks to the silver frame that's surrounding the screen. However, we don't like the particular feel of the soft-touch matte back side. As we mentioned, the Desire C is quite compact, allowing you to operate it very easily and with one hand only.

The navigation keys on the front side are capacitive, but we didn't experience any problems with them. On the right is the volume rocker, which is also well-made. The same goes for the power/lock key on the top, although pressing it could feel better, because the notch for removing the back cover is situated there as well. It's not a major problem.

All in all the Desire C looks pretty good, and thanks to small details like the eye-catchy red framing around the camera lens (courtesy of the Beats Audio nature of the phone), as well as the subtle HTC logo on the back, it does manage to stand out compared to most other offerings in its class.

Display:

The HTC Desire C packs a 3.5” HVGA LCD screen of average quality. Its 165ppi pixel density isn't anything spectacular, but isn't too bad either. Colors and viewing angles are fine for the purposes of this device. Unfortunately, we found outdoor visibility to be somewhat insufficient.

Processor and Memory:

The silicon powering the HTC Desire C is a humble 600MHz single-core CPU coupled with the decent 512MB RAM. The result of this is a somewhat sluggish handset, which takes its time to execute even some not very heavy tasks like updating an app, or loading a web page. The UI itself is fluid enough, although random stutters are present every now and then.

Most simpler games like Temple Run and Angry Birds run pretty well and are perfectly playable with this hardware, but others, like Fruit Ninja, for example, couldn't even load (or took way too long).

The built-in storage of the device is 4GB, which is fine for such a low-end phone, plus it comes with a microSDHC slot, allowing you to expand your storage space with up to 32GB more.

Conclusion:

The HTC Desire C is a fine low-end smartphone. It's compact and cute, and will certainly get the job done for most standard tasks.

The price for this phone is just right. It's priced very closely to rivals such as the Sony Ericsson Xperia ray and Motorola Defy+ or Mini. You should be able to find the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 at a better price, and it will probably perform a bit better than the Desire C, but the HTC is superior in terms of design and comes with ICS, so you'll have to make a decision as to what's more important to you.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the Desire C is its 600MHz processor, which causes some noticeable slow-downs at times, but if you aren't a power user, it should do just fine. Unfortunately, the camera is also mediocre, so if you're a shutterbug, you've come to the wrong place.

Ultimately, with the Desire C, you get what you pay for – a stylish smartphone that's good for light usage, but not much else.

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