Hands-on:HTC Desire V

Instead of having just One series of products, the Taiwan-based company couldn't resist introducing two new additions, this time for its Desire range of smartphones. The Desire V is a dual-sim smartphone, a first for HTC. It runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), has Beats Audio and uses a single-core 1GHz processor.

Double networks.
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET Asia)

Upside

HTC has been doing well on the design front, and while the V isn't as high-end as the One X, it features a very polished and refined build, no doubt thanks to the unibody design. We liked the solid feel in our hands.

The Desire V is also pretty on the inside.
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET Asia)

As mentioned earlier, it runs ICS and has HTC's Sense UI on top. HTC has also added some tweaks to let you use it as a dual-SIM device, including a status bar showing the two networks you're on. When you make a call, you can select the SIM card slot to call from. We understand that you can personalize the text on the buttons.

There's a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, but we note it lacks the features of the photography-orientated One series handsets (including a dedicated imaging chip). It also doesn't do HD video recording.

The pretty rear of the Desire V.
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET Asia)

The 4-inch display may have only a WVGA (800 x 480-pixels) resolution, but it looked great in the brief time that we spent with it.

Downside

With a retail price of S$498, you're basically paying for the dual-sim function. That's not too bad, but then you realize that it uses a 1GHz single-core processor. Given our experience with the HTC One V, you're likely to experience occasional sluggishness.

The handset only has 4GB of onboard storage, though you can expand it with a microSD card. You may want to do so for your music and multimedia needs--if only to take advantage of the Beats Audio integration of the handset.

Outlook

While the Desire V isn't as flashy as the One series handsets, the dual-SIM feature is something that stands out. As far as we know, it's possibly the only up-to-date Android solution in the market. If you want a dual-SIM phone, your previous options were limited to feature phones or Nokia Symbian handsets.

The Desire V will be available in Asia from June 16. Do check with your local telcos and resellers for pricing.