HTC Gratia Review: First Look

HTC Gratia Review: First Look
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HTC Gratia Review: First Look

When the <strong>HTC Aria</strong> was first announced, it was quite a good option for those who wanted to try out Android but didn’t want to spend a lot on a smartphone. It was positioned exactly in between the high end smartphone segment and the mid range one. Now, it is positioned squarely in the budget segment, as the average hardware specs of Android phones have improved a lot along the way.

Anyways, the HTC Aria was launched only in the US on AT&T. The new HTC Gratia, is almost the same as the HTC Aria, but will be launched in Europe first and then worldwide. It will be priced quite low compared to the other Android heavyweights.

Design

The HTC Gratia has the exact same design as the HTC Aria. It is quite compact with dimensions of 103.8 x 57.7 x 11.7 mm and weighs around 115 gms. It has a relatively small display - just 3.2 inches, which looks like a dwarf in a world where a 4 inch display is the new standard. The 3.2 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display has a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels.

Below the display are the four touch sensitive keys - Home, Menu, Back and Search. It also has an optical trackpad to navigate through the user interface.

User Interface and Hardware

The HTC Gratia sports the familiar HTC Sense UI on top of the latest Android OS release - Android 2.2 Froyo. The Sense UI is the best 3rd party UI shell on Android. Despite its relatively low hardware configuration, it runs Android 2.2 Froyo, which is surprising as the other phones in this range generally run Android 2.1, even the HTC Aria.

It is powered by a Qualcomm MSM 7227 processor clocked at 600 MHz and comes with 384 MB RAM. It has a 512 MB internal ROM and supports up to 32 GB microSD cards.

Multimedia

The HTC Gratia has a 5 MP camera with an image capture resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels and autofocus and face detection. It doesn’t have flash. It comes with a stereo FM radio with RDS.

It also supports playback of the most common mobile audio/video formats like MP3, AAC, WAV, MP4, H.264 etc. It comes with a built in YouTube client.

Connectivity

The HTC Gratia completely delivers on the connectivity front. It has every connectivity option you might have heard of. It comes with GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. It also offers microUSB 2.0 connectivity and comes with a built in GPS transceiver with A-GPS.

It is powered by a standard 1200 mAh Li-ion battery with a rated talk time of about 6 hours.

Conclusion

The HTC Gratia is a decent phone for those on a budget. However, there are many other better options now, both in the high end segment and in the budget segment, so I wouldn’t be too keen on getting the HTC Gratia.