Today HTC did what they haven’t done so far. They showcased three smartphones -Desire 501, Desire 601 and Desire 700, in different price brackets at one time. The cheapest amongst them is the HTC Desire 501 dual SIM which is priced at Rs 16,890.
HTC Desire 501 dual SIM will be made available in the market during Christmas time and can be purchased via both online and physical retail outlets. Here is our first experience with the device.
Specification:
HTC Desire 501 is 9.8 mm thick and weighs 130 grams despite having a 2100 mAh battery. It has a 4.3 inch Super LCD 2 display and with a 480×800 pixels resolution. The Desire 501 is armed with a 1.2 GHz dual core processor which is assisted by 1 GB RAM. It has ample 8 GB internal storage along with an expandable storage slot that can support up to a 32 GB micro SD card.
Besides, the HTC Desire 501 comes with an 8 megapixel rear auto focus camera, LED flash, and a 2.1 megapixel front camera. It runs on Android 4.1operating system along with HTC Sense 4.0 UI. It supports WiFi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and micro USB for connectivity. HTC Desire 501 is a dual SIM smartphone – SIM 1 is for 3G and SIM 2 is for 2G.
Design:
HTC Desire 501 will be available in three colours – cream, blue and white. It has quite an attractive design. Its edges are rounded and one will feel comfortable holding it. In its front, apart from the 4.3 inch display, you will find a 2.1 megapixel camera on the top right corner, adjacent to the ear piece which has a crome ring surrounding it.
In the back panel, the Desire 501 houses an 8 megapixel auto focus camera, and an LED flash at the top while a speaker grill is at the bottom. Volume rockers, power on/off button, 3.5 mm jack and a mini USB port are in the side panels.
As compared to other phones available in the same price bracket from Indian and MNC players, HTC Desire 501 looks better in terms of design. Only drawback in HTC Desire 501 is that it doesn’t have any sort of space earmarked for opening the back panel. One has to try inserting finger nails in one of the side panels to pull out the back cover and by doing so one may damage the back panel.
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Display and performance:
In the brief encounter we had with the device, the display was responsive and the colour reproduction was decent. Even at minimum brightness, visibility is normal lighting condition was good.
A far as the camera is concerned, both the front and rear cameras were able to click decent snaps. Though while taking portrait shots from the rear camera we saw grains on zooming. If we compare picture quality of 501 with HTC Desire 601, I would say 501 is a value for money. I will share more inputs about camera quality and display when we do a complete review of the device.
Here I would like to mention flash of Desire 501 was quite effective in close up shots.
Performance:
At this moment of time we cannot comment much about its performance but we definitely didn’t encounter any lag while flicking through the menu or using pre installed apps.
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First take:
HTC Desire 501 seems to be a decent device with nice design. On the price front it is quite at par with other MNC players who have handsets in the price bracket of Rs 15,000 – Rs 17,000. But as compared to handsets from Indian companies it is slightly on the higher side.
Also, I was disappointed with the absence of a slot for opening back panel but liked the camera quality of the rear camera. It would have been great if the phone had HTC Zoe feature, which captures photos in form of three second clips to add life to them, as the Desire 601 and Desire 7000. I will hold my final verdict about the device till we do a complete review of the device.