HTC One V review

HTC was a little known company in the UK until it made a big splash with some of the early Android smartphones. The HTC Hero and HTC Legend were both trail-blazing devices, and many of us here at Expert Reviews bought one or the other. Both phones had the same distinctive shape, with a 'chin' that protrudes out at the bottom of the handset. Despite its success, HTC hasn't released a successor in the last two years, a lifetime in smartphone terms; so we were pleasantly surprised to see the HTC One V, which is obviously modelled after the classic Legend.

The chin is back, making this phone a little easier to keep hold of

The HTC One V is at the bottom of HTC's new three-handset One range, with the slender HTC One S and flagship HTC One X sitting above it. Though not as highly specified as its larger siblings, the HTC One V is just as polished. The grey metal unibody casing looks and feels fantastic, with simple lines and a matt finish. There are colour-matched rubberised areas around the camera and the rear of the chin, and the visible buttons and ports are simple and functional. This is simply one of the most desirable looking phones available at any price.

It's a great looking phone, we love the simple grey finish and neatly integrated notification light slit

The HTC One V is a little smaller than most of the phones we've got excited about recently, which means it fits easily in all but the smallest hands, with the power and volume buttons falling perfectly under your fore finger and thumb. Despite being compact, it's still noticeably bigger than the Legend, which just goes to show how much smartphones have grown over the last couple of years. The screen measures 3.7in across (up from 3.2in on the Legend) and has a 480x800 resolution (up from 320x480). Comparing it to more modern handsets, it's simply an average-sized LCD screen with an average resolution.

Sitting in between budget phones, many of which are stuck with Android 2.3.5, and more expensive models with top-end specifications, the HTC One V is one of the most modest handsets we've seen with the new Android 4.0 operating system. The single-core 1GHz processor copes well in Android 4.0 though, navigating the home screen is smooth and we had no problems with Angry Birds Space. Browsing isn't rapid, with a sluggish SunSpider JavaScript score of 3,382ms, but on a screen this size and resolution you'll probably choose to use mobile versions of sites most of the time anyway. There's only 512MB of RAM, rather than the 1GB on most, more-expensive models, so those will have manage their download habit.