HTC Desire 500

HTC Desire 500 is HTCs attempt to step-up in the mid-range smartphone sector. Desire 500 has got an interesting design and good hardware specifications in a solid plastic shell. It also got some negative aspects to be noted- low screen resolution, low internal memory, etc. Considering the overall of the device- though its a mid-range phone- its priced a bit too high.

BUILD / DESIGN

HTC Desire 500 comes in 3 colour variants- all black, white with red accents and white with blue accents. The glossy white variant with the red or blue added colours along with its curvy nature gives a modern sleek look to the device which may not attract all. But, it has a certain charm that matches its name.

The HTC Desire 500 is build pretty much completely out of plastic. It doesnt have the same luxurious look as the all-metal HTC One, But, HTC Desire 500 has a good build quality and it fits easily in ones hands and pockets, and is light in weight(just 123g). 

The front of the HTC Desire 500 has got the 4.3inch display, with the plastic casing wrapped around it. The space above the screen houses  the speaker for making calls(what looks like the Boomsound speaker from the HTC One, but its not). Just below the screen of the Desire 500 is two soft keys- home and back. Long pressing the home button acts as the menu key. 

The power/lock button is placed in the top left corner of the HTC Desire 500 and the volume keys are sat on the right hand side, which are difficult to locate by feel alone. The glossy back(white) is a fingerprint magnet; removing which gives access to the removable battery, a microSD card slot and two micro-SIM card slots(Dual sim devices in select areas only).

DISPLAY

The HTC Desire 500 sports a 4.3-inch TFT panel WVGA display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels and pixel density of 216ppi, which isnt amazing. Yes, the display resolution could have been better considering its price.

The HTC Desire 500 does provide a decent display performance. The low resolution problem doesnt affect one who uses the phone holding at a reasonable distance.

The HTC Desire 500 displays viewing angles are good. The screen is not very reflective and is bright enough to provide great sunlight visibility.

SOFTWARE / INTERFACE

HTC Desire 500 runs on Android 4.1.2, which is a lower version for a latest phone of its price range( Android 4.4 KitKat update is coming). But, Desire 500 is skinned with HTCs Sense 5 interface. While many prefer stock android, majority found Sense 5 as a nice touch-up.

The major highlights are the Blinkfeed, Beats Audio and an array of camera software tweaks. The HTC Desire 500 offers more or less the same software features seen on the HTC One, but lacks many.

There is only two capacitive touch buttons- Home and Back. HTC has got rid of the usual third Menu/multitasking button on the Desire 500, which can be accessed by double tapping the Home button(which is odd). The app drawer is well designed, providing a very different experience to the one found in stock Android.

The Power Saver mode toggle stays in the notifications panetray- unless force closed. It lacks quick settings and some features is hard to access like the contacts.

CAMERA

The Desire 500 keeps an 8MP standard phone rear camera; unlike the Ultrapixel camera of the HTC One. 500s camera does a satisfactory performance for a budget phone. But, compared to other phones of its range- Its not the best.

For people who stoots photos for sharing in social networks, Desire 500s camera will be perfectly acceptable. The Desire 500 takes decent quality images in daylight. The amount of detail captured by the camera is satisfactory and it gives pretty good colour reproduction. But under low light the image is filled with noise and is even grainy. LED flash doesnt add much to the quality of image.

The camera app launches quickly but theres a little shutter lag. HTCs camera app allows users to select different scene settings for still captures, switch between different video modes, alloes self timer, select the resolution, video quality, image adjustments and other settings. 

The camera can record good quality video up to 720p. The 1.6MP front camera is suitable for self clicks and video chats.

Dual SIM (in selected areas only)

The Desire 500 offers dual-SIM functionality with active standby feature, which implies that if youre on a call on SIM 1 and get another call on SIM 2, youll be notified of the call and the calling party will get a call waiting message. The SIM 1 supports both 3G (WCDMA) and 2G (GSM), but the SIM 2 supports only 2G (GSM).

BATTERY

The power house of HTC Desire 500 is a Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery, which is removable. The battery may sound small, but it does do a good job- though not a great one. Its good enough, with the low screen resolution and all; but complaints do come from heavy users. The Power sver mode does help at the last moments.

MEMORY

The internal memory of HTC Desire 500 is 4GB and only about 1GB is available as user memory. There is 1GB RAM and memory is expandable upto 64GB. But, low internal memory(very low in this case) does have its negative impacts. HTC offers the chance to log-in or sign-up to Dropbox to get 25GB of storage, as part of its deal with HTC.

PERFORMANCE

The HTC Desire 500 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor paired with 1GB RAM, and an Adreno 203 chip for graphics processing. Navigating through the interface is smooth but one experieces slight lag during multi-tasking and browsing. It provides a decent overall performance.

SPECIFICATIONS

SIZE: 131.8 x 66.9 x 9.9mm

WEIGHT: 123g

DISPLAY: 4.3 inch, WVGA

CPU
Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 200, quad-core, 1.2GHz

PLATFORM ANDROID
Android™ with HTC Sense™
HTC BlinkFeed™

SIM CARD TYPE
micro SIM

MEMORY
Total storage : 4 GB, available capacity varies
RAM : 1 GB
Expansion card slot supports microSD memory card for up to 64GB


NETWORK
2G/ 2.5G - GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 900/1800/1900 MHz
3G/ 3.5G - UMTS/ HSPA: 900/2100 MHz with HSDPA up to 7.2 Mbps

GPS
GPS/AGPS

SENSORS
Accelerometer
Proximity sensor
Ambient light sensor

CONNECTIVITY
3.5 mm stereo audio jack
Bluetooth® 4.0 with aptX™ enabled
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
DLNA® for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer

SOUND ENHANCEMENT
Studio-quality sound with Beats Audio™

CAMERA
8 MP camera with auto focus, LED flash
BSI sensor, Sensor size 1/3.2"
Dedicated HTC ImageChip
F2.0 aperture and 28 mm lens
Smart Flash: Five levels of flash automatically set by distance to subject
Front Camera: 1.6 MP with BSI sensor
720p video recording
Gallery with Video Highlights and HTC Share
Continuous shooting and VideoPic
Slow motion video recording with variable speed playback

MULTIMEDIA
Audio supported formats:
Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma
Recording: .aac
Video supported formats:
Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3)
Recording: .mp4

BATTERY
Removable rechargeable Li-polymer battery
Capacity : 1800 mAh
Talk time :Up to 12.1 hours for 3G
Standby time :Up to 435 hours for 3G