HTC One V

Rating- ****

Quite fairly the HTC One V didn't receive half as much fanfare as the HTC One X and HTC One S when they were first announced. It has a lowly single core processor, a modest 3.7in screen, and only a 5MP camera. But if you prefer your phones a bit more cost effective and pocket-friendly, this is the phone you should be lusting after. 

It all kicks off with a great design. Following directly on from its forbear, the HTC Legend(and prior to that the HTC Hero), the HTC One V sports an angled bottom section. This jutting jaw serves little obvious practical purpose and may not be to everyone's taste, but we rather like it as nice signature touch. 

What really sets the design off though is the all aluminium body. Finished in a fetching anodised grey, it looks and feels great. The single piece wraps round the whole body aside from the screen and two small plastic panels on the back. These plastic sections are there to let the phone signals out and are finished in a nice soft-touch grey. 

The bottom section does slide off as on the Hero and Legend but while you can access the SIM and add a microSD card, you can't remove the battery – a trend that's becoming common thoughout the smartphone world. The use of a full size (rather than micro) SIM is unlike the rest of the HTC One range, though, and may be a plus point for those looking to upgrade with the absolute minimum of effort. The microSD is also a welcome and surprising bonus. That said, it is also an essential feature as you only get 4GB of onboard storage. At least the slot will accommodate cards up to a whopping 32GB.

Getting back to the design, not only does the use of metal for the body give this phone a touch of class but so does the fit and finish. It feels solid and very well put together, and there's a real finesse to the whole thing. There are only two ever so slight things to note. 

The first is the seam where the plastic cover for the bottom section meets the metal of the chassis. There's a gap that is just a gnats whisker wider than we'd like. 

Similarly nitpicky is the screen which is actually raised about a millimetre or so above the surface of the chassis where it meets the jaw. This you notice as you slide your fingers from the jaw onto the screen. It's a very little thing but, it caught or attention. We suspect it may be a ruse to keep the perceived phone thickness lower by making the chassis slim and raising the screen out of it. 

Features wise you've got a headphone jack and power button up top, 5MP camera with LED flash on the back, volume on the right edge and the microUSB charging socket on the left. Below the screen are the three responsive and easy to use touch sensitive buttons for navigating the device. All very simple and straighforward. Unlike on many larger phones the power button on this handset is easy to reach when using the phone one handed. 

In fact one of the most loveable things about this handset is how it fits so snugly in the hand, its dimensions of 120.3 x 59.7 x 9.2 mm making one-handed use a cinch. In contrast something like the HTC One S is nearly 10mm taller and 5mm wider, and it really feels it. The only concern here is that the jutting jaw may make the bulge in your trouser pocket that bit more noticeable. 

A final nice little touch is a slim LED strip that sits between the headphone jack and power button. This glows orange when charging and green when you've a notification.

Specification

GENERAL	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100
	Announced	2012, February
	Status	Available. Released 2012, April

BODY	Dimensions	120.3 x 59.7 x 9.2 mm
	Weight	115 g
		- Touch-sensitive controls

DISPLAY	Type	Capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches (~252 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
		- HTC Sense UI v4.0

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB
	Internal	4 GB, 512 MB RAM

DATA	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, HSUPA
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA	Primary	5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection
	Video	Yes, 720p
	Secondary	No

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon
	CPU	1 GHz
	GPU	Adreno 205
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email
	Browser	HTML, Adobe Flash
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Black, Brown
		- Beats Audio - SNS integration - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk - Document viewer - Voice memo/dial - Predictive text input

Credit- trustedreviews and gsmarena.