HTC Desire 610 review:

 

HTC Desire 610 review:

The Good: The HTC Desire 610 has an affordable price tag, its camera isn't too bad and its navy-blue, plastic body is quite fun.

The Bad: It has a very disappointingly low resolution display that's not too bright either, its processor and Android version are the same as the considerably cheaper Motorola Moto G and its battery is only adequate.

The Bottom Line: The HTC Desire 610 may be affordable, with an iPhone 5C-style plastic body, but its mediocre specs and poor screen resolution mean it's still not a good buy. For much less money you can grab the 4G Motorola Moto G, which has the same processor, Android KitKat software and a higher resolution display.

The HTC One M8 stormed its way to a glowing review from CNET editor Brian Bennett thanks to its ultra-luxurious metal design, superb high definition screen and oodles of power. It's a formidable flagship phone, and comes with a price to match. If your budget is a little smaller, but you still want the HTC name in your jeans, cast your eyes over the Desire 610.
Like the M8, it has the dual, front-facing Boomsound speakers, 4G LTE and the same attractive, easy to use Sense 6 software. It has a plastic, rather than metal body though and has drastically cut-down specs all round in order to keep the price down.
The Desire 610 can be picked up now, SIM-free, directly from HTC's site inthe UK for £240 ($412, AU$440). It's yet to be given an official launch date in the US and Australia, but it's expected to hit the US at least in the next month.

1. Design

Those of you looking for a luxurious feeling phone with cutting-edge style should look towards the all-metal HTC One M8. The Desire 610 is constructed entirely from plastic, which makes it look and feel like a much more budget-orientated device. It's rather like the iPhone 5C was to the more premium iPhone 5S.
In fact, it's not dissimilar to the iPhone 5C. It has rounded corners, with a mostly flat back that curves around at the side, rather than arched back of the One M8. The dual Boomsound speakers above and below the screen on the front tell you immediately that it's from the HTC family. They don't provide as big a sound as the flagship M8, but their front-facing position and large chambers allow them to give more punch to movies and podcasts than many phones' speakers.

HTC Desire 610 review:

The back of the phone is a plain expanse of plastic -- in this case, a dark, navy blue colour -- broken only by the camera lens and flash at the top. It's hardly the most thrilling of designs (I imagine a hot pink or lime green version would be more eye-catching) but I've seen far worse. A thick, black bezel surrounds the display, which doesn't help at all as it makes the screen look rather squashed in and shatters any illusion there may have been that this is a more luxurious device.
The bezel also means the body is a little larger than it needs to be. It measures 71mm across, which I found just a bit too big to comfortably use with one hand. It's only 9.6mm thick though, which is easily slender enough to slide into a pocket. On the bottom of the phone is the micro-USB port, with the 3.5mm headphone jack sat on top.
The nano-SIM card and microSD card slots are hidden underneath a plastic flap on the side. I'm glad to see expandable storage here as the 610 only comes with 8GB of space as standard, which you'll quickly fill up with apps, games and music.

2. Display

The 610's 4.7-inch display offers a 960x540-pixel resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 234 pixels per inch (ppi). That's really rather disappointing, even with its affordable price. The 4G Moto G's 4.5-inch screen has a 720p display, with a pixel density of 326ppi -- and that can be picked up for only £150.
The display, unsurprisingly, isn't very crisp. Icon edges and text don't have the same clarity you'd find on the Moto G, or indeed the full-HD HTC One M8. While it's more affordable than its flagship brother, the 610 really isn't cheap enough for this low resolution display to be acceptable.

HTC Desire 610 review:

It's not a particularly bright screen either. Even under moderately bright lighting conditions I still found myself staring back at the reflection of my own face. Under vivid outdoor sunlight, it's an even bigger problem. It does at least have decent, natural colours, but if you want to experience a Netflix movie at its best, find a darkened room to enjoy it in.

3. Android software

It arrives running Android 4.4.2 KitKat, which is almost the most recent version of Google's mobile operating system. HTC has slapped the same Sense 6 interface that you'll find on the One M8 over the top of Android, so it's visually very different from the Android you may have seen on other, non-HTC handsets.
I'm quite keen on Sense 6, thanks to its minimalist appearance. It has the same basic architecture as any version of Android but the app tray uses well-spaced icons and can be easily customised, making finding your essential apps a breeze. The settings menu is much easier to understand than the Galaxy S5's never-ending lists of options and the pull-down settings bar lets you easily change critical settings.
You'll also find HTC's Blinkfeed news aggregator sat to the side of the homescreens. It pulls together your social networks and news articles from a few select sources and presents it in a constant stream. It's basically the same as Flipboard. It's on your homescreen as standard, but a recent change to Sense 6 allows you to remove it if you're not keen.

4. Camera

On the back of the phone is an 8-megapixel camera. Those are eight regular megapixels, rather than the physically larger "Ultrapixels" you'll find in the HTC One M8's camera. I took it for a spin and had mixed, but generally decent results.

HTC Desire 610 review:

I was impressed at the overall exposure on my first shot, looking towards London's Shard building. The sky is bright and under control, and there's still visible detail in the shadowy buildings on the right. The colours are a little weak however, giving it an almost vintage look, and there's image noise to be seen in the dark areas.

HTC Desire 610 review:

The same is true of this photo of a pub. In auto mode (top) the pub is slightly shadowy and although the HDR mode has helped raise the brightness, it's made the scene a little surreal.

HTC Desire 610 review:

5. Processor and battery performance

The Desire 610 is running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. It's a quad-core chip, running at 1.2GHz, which I found perfectly adequate for most tasks. Navigation around the Sense 6 interface was swift and lag-free, opening the camera was fast, shot-to-shot time in auto mode was speedy (although HDR rendering required a few seconds delay) and it was able to play Need For Speed: Most Wanted fairly smoothly.
There's a 2,040mAh battery tucked inside, which HTC reckons will provide up to 15.8 hours of talk-time over 3G. Based on my own tests, I reckon that's a little on the optimistic side. The phone managed to keep my video-looping battery-drain test for almost 10 hours, which is only average. By comparison, the Galaxy S5 achieved around 15 hours, while the LG G2 Mini achieved almost 13.
With less demanding use, you should be able to squeeze a day out of it though. Keeping the screen brightness down, turning off Wi-Fi and GPS and avoiding gaming or video streaming are all good ways to eke out the last drops of battery life.

6. Conclusion

Although the Desire 610 is affordable, its uninspiring specs -- in particular, its low resolution display -- means it's still not cheap enough. It offers very little over the Motorola Moto G, which also has Android KitKat and a quad-core processor, but has a higher resolution screen and a much cheaper price tag.
Unless you desperately want the Boomsound speakers or the slightly better camera, the Moto G is the much more sensible option.
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