HTC Smart Review - Design, Display and OS

HTC Smart Review - Design, Display and OS
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HTC Smart Review

The HTC Smart is one of the first new feature phones by HTC which runs the BREW OS by Qualcomm. It’s literally raining OSes these days - Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry, Web OS, Symbian S60, Symbian ^3, Meego, Bada and now Brew. However, unlike the others mentioned, BREW OS isn’t meant for smartphones but for inexpensive feature phones which form a larger portion of the world wide cellphone market.

The HTC Smart isn’t very smart. It has no awesome features but it does have all the basic features which, coupled with its low pricing, make it a decent buy. This is possibly HTC’s first attempt at a feature phone, but after HTC’s success with smartphones, HTC definitely seems able to pull it off.

HTC Smart Specifications

  • Dimensions: 104 x 55 x 12.8 mm
  • Weight: 108 g
  • Display: 2.8 inch TFT display, 240 x 320 pixels, resistive touchscreen
  • OS: BREW OS with Sense UI
  • Memory: 256 MB ROM
  • RAM: 256 MB RAM
  • Processor: 300 MHz Qualcomm processor
  • Camera: 3.15 MP, 2048 × 1536 pixels, LED flash
  • Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, MicroUSB 2.0
  • Radio: FM Radio with RDS
  • Battery: Standard Li-ion battery, 1100 mAh

Design (2 out of 5)

HTC products are renowned for design. Almost all HTC phones have superb stylish designs and the HTC Smart is no exception. It is a nice candybar design which resembles HTC’s other touchscreen devices. It has dimensions of 104 x 55 x 12.8 mm and weighs 108 gms which makes it very compact. The build quality is quite good and sturdy. The front face has the 2.8 inch display and four hardware buttons - Call, End, Menu, Option. The right side has the camera shutter key while the left side has a volume rocker. The top has the 3.5 mm audio jack and the bottom has the miniUSB port and the charger slot. The back has the 3.15 MP camera, the LED flash and the battery compartment.

It has a standard 2.8 inch TFT display with a low resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The display is a resistive touchscreen, which is not as finger friendly as capacitive touchscreens. Compared to the current breed of high res AMOLED displays, it plainly sucks. But still, it is quite decent for a cheap feature phone.

OS and Hardware (2 out of 5)

It comes with BREW OS installed with a version of the HTC Sense UI on top. The BREW OS is a decent option for cheap phones. It has homescreen and widget support and allows you to customize the phone to suit you. There are multiple homescreens like Home, People, Mail, Internet, Calendar, Music, Photos, Messaging etc. It also has a Friend Stream which offers Twitter and Facebook integration. The interface is easy to understand and use. The OS is fast and responsive even on the low end hardware, speaking of which, the HTC Smart has a 300 MHz Qualcomm processor with 256 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM.

Camera and Multimedia (2 out of 5)

The HTC Smart has decent multimedia capabilities, at least what you could expect in a feature phone. It has a simple gallery application which you can use to browse your images. You can view a slideshow of your images or view thumbnails on a grid.

It also has a nice music player which supports album art and playlists and basic play / pause / shuffle / repeat controls. The audio quality is pretty good, especially if you connect it to good headphones. It also has a basic video player which can play 3GP and MP4 files of low resolution. Besides that, it also has an FM Radio.

It has an average 3.15 MP camera which can take shots at 2048 x 1536 pixels. The image capture quality is not much to speak of, but it will do for casual shots. The camera interface offers some basic customization options. It can also record QVGA video at 15 FPS.

Connectivity (3 out of 5)

When it comes to connectivity, the HTC Smart does a decent job. It offers GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and MicroUSB 2.0 but misses out on Wi-Fi. It has a web browser built in which isn’t very good, but can handle basic browsing. Opera Mini was made for phones like this. It also doesn’t have GPS which isn’t a surprise.

The HTC Smart has nice call reception quality and nice volume levels. It comes bundled with the basics - a charger, a data cable, a headset and the user manual. It is powered by a 1100 mAh Li-ion battery which lasts for well more than a day with moderate usage.

The Verdict (2 out of 5)

The HTC Smart is a decent phone, but offers no compelling reason for you to buy it. There are many other better options at that price, you can get the Samsung Spica i5700, the HTC Tattoo, the Nokia 5800 XM which are all much better phones. I wouldn’t recommend the HTC Smart.