{"id":15018,"date":"2013-01-10T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=15018"},"modified":"2013-02-07T14:22:35","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T20:22:35","slug":"review-does-virgin-mobiles-htc-one-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/hardware\/review-does-virgin-mobiles-htc-one-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Virgin Mobile’s HTC One V Counts In My Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virgin Mobile has been upping the ante a bit on hardware lately. We’ve already checked out the Galaxy S II<\/a>, and now I want to take a look at another high-end handset, the HTC One V. The One line is HTC’s flagship brand, much as the Galaxy is on Samsung. However, unlike the S II, the One V is more than a simple rebranding of an existing handset, but a specific alteration to the Virgin model. This is a bit of a change for HTC, which previously repurposed handsets like the Wildfire S<\/a> and EVO 3D<\/a>. Does this uniqueness help or hurt the One V?<\/p>\n

First Impressions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back when I reviewed the Wildfire S last year, I remarked that it reminded me quite a bit of the original, European HTC Hero. All the phone lacked was the neat little “chin”. The HTC One V brings the chin back, and I have to say that I kind of love it. The tiny bend to the phone gives me a clear place to rest my hands where they’re not on the capacitive buttons.<\/p>\n

Speaking of, HTC continues to ignore Google’s desire to go button free by including a back, home, and task switching button. Personally, I’d have rather a menu button and had the task switching effect trigger via holding home, like on most handsets.<\/p>\n

The actual body of the HTC One V is fairly satisfying. HTC One V’s body appears to be carbon-fiber and feels much better than the S II’s cheap, plastic finish, and it even feels more polished than the larger screen EVO 3D. The phone’s body has a satisfying heft that doesn’t overwhelm. I’d say it’s quite a bit like holding an iPhone 4.<\/p>\n

Like the iPhone, the One V doesn’t allow access to the battery. At a mere 1500 mAh, don’t expect to be wowed by the battery life. Especially considering the kick ass screen the battery has to power, which I’ll talk more about later. There’s a removable plastic cover on the back of the chin for adding MicroSD cards, but it’s a pain in the butt to get off. If you swap memory cards again, you may want to look elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The Software<\/strong><\/p>\n

You’ll be happy to hear that the One V is running Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich). What may not please you is finding out that it will not be updating to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). I expect much hacking. While I do get that the One V is not as powerful as the latest and greatest phone from well, anywhere, there’s no reason the hardware on this shouldn’t be able to run Jelly Bean.<\/p>\n

\"No

No FAIR! No FAIR!
[Source: Thinkstock Photo via CNN]<\/p><\/div>As this is an HTC Phone, you can expect to find HTC Sense on top. Thankfully, the One V has the newest version of Sense. Sense 4 is much less intrusive than past versions and flows much better than Samsung’s TouchWiz. I prefer Motorola’s skin, if a phone must have one, but I’ll tolerate Sense.<\/p>\n

There are a surprising number of pre-loaded apps on the HTC One V:<\/p>\n