Is this the best dual-SIM smartphone under Rs 10k?

Launched just a few days ago, the HTC Desire 210 has received good response from critics and customers thanks to its affordable price and some cool features. 

Is it the best phone in its price category? Let's take a look!

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC has always made a strong impact on Indian customers through a bouquet of offerings; HTC Desire 210 dual-SIM, their very latest budget smartphone, is another feather in their cap.

This droid is HTC's attempt to join the entry-level smartphone segment after getting a good appraisal for their high-end smartphones.

Have a look at what this small packet brings for you.

Design and display

The design and the outer appearance are very much similar to other HTC phones in terms of solidity and easy grasp on the body.

Its 4-inch touchscreen offers a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels with a density of about 233ppi (pixels per inch).

The overall screen size is just optimum to offer you a strain-free reading, watching or playing time.

HTC Blinkfeed, on the other hand, certainly will make your experience with HTC Desire 210 very interactive and happening. Just for the newcomers, Blinkfeed is a system employed by HTC where you can get all your posts, sports updates, news, social notifications etc. at one place.

Processor and OS

The company has shipped this handset with Mediatek MT6572M 1GHz dual-core processor, which simply aims to provide you a smooth and a seamless surfing experience.

Taking its price into account, getting a dual-core processor is a good deal.

The company uses Android v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) operating system with the magical HTC Sense UI on top, which is a stripped down version that makes the appearance of icons and texts sharp, undeterred by the low resolution display.

Camera

HTC Desire 210 offers a 5MP primary camera with a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels.

Which means if you are a photography bug, this budget phone is going to serve you really well.

Not only this, its camera offers almost all the basic camera functions like geo-tagging, scene modes, fixed focus, video recording, etc., which further helps in nurturing your photography skills.

A 0.3MP VGA front facing camera allows you to go for video calling and selfies, but since the resolution is a little bit low, you can experience noise or grains.

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Memory and battery

HTC Desire 210 is shipped with just 512MB RAM, which means you won't be able to go for heavy multi-tasking and high-end games.

But is it fair to ask for all these features at such a nominal price?

You can store huge files and data in the 4GB internal space and if somehow the space gets exhausted you can always bring the external memory, which can be stretched up to 32GB via a microSD card, into play.

In terms of power, HTC Desire 210 is fuelled by a Li-ion 1,300 mAh battery, which is a bit low for the Android system it runs on.

With the low resolution screen, you will be able to keep the device alive for all day with a single charge.

Additional features

Basic connectivity features like GPRS, EDGE, 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, GPS and microUSB v2.0 port are supported by the handset. In addition, you also get Google services like Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa, Hangout, etc.

One major feature of HTC Desire 210 is that it supports dual-SIM configuration, which fetches another brownie point for this phone.

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Rivals

HTC Desire 210 has been received very humbly by the market and with its low price and a whole stack of features, it sure will rival Nokia X, Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2, Nokia Lumia 525, Micromax A100, Sony Xperia E1 dual, LG L40 Dual, Motorola Moto G, etc.

What we like:

• Affordable price: Rs 8,700
• 5MP primary camera with a VGA secondary camera
• 4GB of internal space with microSD card slot that supports expansion up to 32GB
• Connectivity like 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, despite the low pricing
• Dual-SIM with dual standby
• Dual-core 1GHz Mediatek MT6572M processor

What we don't like

• No LED flash in camera
• Image stabilisation feature missing from video features
• Low resolution front facing camera
• Low RAM (512MB)

Conclusion

This handset is the best pick if you are planning to buy a sub-Rs 10k smartphone with latest Android version on-board.

HTC is best known for providing a happening and a sizzling experience to its users, where the HTC Sense UI makes it stand out in the crowd.

HTC Desire 210 will be available in the stores from May 2, 2014.