When people say dual-SIM, the first things that come to most people’s minds are tacky, plastic pieces of cheap China crap. Dual-SIM phones don’t elicit the same emotional response as purpose built smartphones – they’re more of a necessary purchase more than anything else. That perception is something that HTC is trying to change with the newest member of their Desire family, the Desire V. Purpose built to be a dual-SIM Android smartphone that people will actively lust for, the Desire V is a step in the right direction as far as dual-SIM Android phones are concerned.
The overall construction of the Desire V is pretty solid, and at first glance you would never really would have guessed it was a dual-SIM device. The design is simple yet elegant, and the lines and curves that wraps around the device gives it a premium feel. Size-wise, the Desire V is a bit smaller than HTC’s recent offerings, measuring in at only 118.5 x 62.3 x 9.3 mm. The Desire V uses a 4-inch, 480 x 800 resolution display. On the bottom of the screen lies the three Android navigation buttons, while the volume rocker is located on the right side. The Desire V uses a matte, rubberized non-slip material for the back cover. The 5-megapixel camera with LED flash is located on the back.
The Desire V isn’t going to start breaking performance records soon, as evidenced by its slightly dated hardware. Powering the Desire V is a 1 GHz Cortex-A5 Qualcomm MSM7227A Snapdragon processor with 512MB of RAM. Unlike other dual-SIM Android devices in the market, the Desire V comes with Android 4.0 (ICS) right out of the box, so you won’t have to wait for updates to get your device running in the latest version of Android. As an added bonus, HTC has also lightly skinned the Desire V in its Sense UI overlay, which puts the device in line with its more recent Android offerings. The Desire V also has Beats Audio Technology.
While the Desire V is a dual-SIM device, it only requires one SIM card to facilitate data. Once you pry apart the back portion of the Desire V, you’ll see the 3G SIM slot on the left side of the device, with the second SIM card slot on the right. The Desire V is powered by a single 1650mAh battery.
Using the dual-SIM Desire V isn’t much different from HTC’s other smartphone offerings. Every SMS that you receive will have a corresponding SIM number attached to it denoting which number the message arrived in, and the notification bar gives you a quick summation of the signal strengths of both SIM cards. You’ll also have the option of choosing which number your outbound messages gets sent out to via the two SIM icons located on the right of the messages you compose.
Calls pretty much follow the same pattern – each call you get is accompanied by the SIM number where the call originated from.
There’s not a lot to say about the Desire V’s performance, partly because of the slightly dated hardware it uses. A quick run-through AnTuTu gives the Desire V a score of 2973, which AnTuTu tells us is along the same line as the Google Nexus S.
On Quadrant, the Desire V gets a score of 1864, which puts it roughly in the same league as the Desire HD.
We noticed a bit of lag when we used the Desire V, which isn’t a surprise seeing that it uses slightly dated hardware. Unlocking the device from a reboot for example was a bit of a chore, as the unlock animation would take its sweet time actually unlocking the thing for use. Don’t get discouraged though – aside from slight issues like the ones mentioned, the Desire V is a solid performer, and is capable of powering through most apps without much issue.
For dual-SIM devices, battery life is a big issue, chiefly because these smartphones use two radios at the same time which speeds up power drain. We’re happy to report that the Desire V isn’t affected too much by the use of dual-radios, as we managed to get about a day of useful battery life from it before reaching for the charger.
So, is the HTC Desire V worth it? Short answer is yes. While it’s slightly letdown by its less than stellar processor and memory, the HTC Desire V is still a fantastic dual-SIM Android smartphone that you’ll actually want to buy out of desire. We’re pretty sure that there’s a large number of people out there who are looking for a dual-SIM smartphone that actually looks good, and for that particular market, the HTC Desire V blows the competition away.
What’s Hot:
Excellent design
Android 4.0 (ICS) out of the box
Good battery life
What’s Not:
Slightly letdown by dated processor
Bottomline:
The HTC Desire V is one of the few dual-SIM Android devices that we actually want.
Buymeter: 4.5/5
Tech Specs
- Operating System: Android 4.0 (ICS)
- CPU: Qualcomm MSM7227A Snapdragon 1 GHz Cortex-A5
- LCD size: 4.0 inch, 480 x 800 pixel resolution
- Physical Dimensions: 118.5 x 62.3 x 9.3 mm
- Weight: 114g
- Band: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 1, GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 2, HSDPA 900 / 2100 – SIM 1 only
- Internal memory : 512GB RAM, 4 GB storage, expandable through microSD