news Taiwanese giant HTC has introduced its One V handset in Australia, picking an exclusive partnership with mobile telco Optus to launch the handset, which is the baby in its popular One series already available locally.

The One V is the lowest-end model in HTC’s One series, which it has been progressively been launching in Australia over the past few months, and consequently features lesser features than the rest of the series. It uses a 3.7″ Super LCD 2 screen, a 1GHz processor, a five megapixel camera with auto-focus and smart LED flash, total storage space of 4GB and 512MB of RAM, and a battery with a capacity of 1500mAh.

Like the other models in the One series, it runs Android 4.0 (the next to latest version of Google’s Android platform, dubbed ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’), and its camera allows 720p HD video recording. The phone is light — at 115g — and it comes with the Beats Audio technology integrated that HTC has licensed for other smartphones in the One range.

Ben Hodgson, Country Manager, HTC Australia & New Zealand said in a statement issued late last week: “The HTC One V offers the complete package of features for users wanting a beautifully designed, compact and affordable smartphone. The HTC One V is another great addition to our HTC One Series, presenting our customers with a high quality device with a premium camera and audio experience.”
In its review of the HTC One V, US publication the Verge wrote that its design looks “fantastic” and feels “hard-wearing”. “If you’re looking for a phone which keeps things simple and excels at all of the essentials, then this could be it,” the publication wrote.

Engadget likewise praised the phone, but added: “Our main complaint here isn’t the camera, nor the build quality, nor the screen (aside from the discoloration); it’s the processor. A little bit more horsepower would have really helped the One V stand out as the go-to low-price Android phone.”

The HTC One V will be available exclusively with Optus for $0 upfront on a $30 Optus Plan (Minimum total cost is $720 over 24 months). On higher value plans it will also cost nothing extra in terms of handset repayment costs per month.

opinion/analysis
The design of the HTC One V reminds me sharply of the HTC Legend, which went on sale several years back, as I remember, through Vodafone. Like the One V, that model was relatively low-end compared to the rest of the HTC line-up at the time. However, it was still high-end enough to compete with the mid-range, and did most of what everyone but power users consider essential. Like the Legend, I expect the One V to do quite well in Australia. It’s cheap as chips but still packs in almost everything modern smartphone users want. If you’re on a budget but want to stay current with features and Android over the next year or so, the One V is a solid option.

Having said all this, you do have to wonder if there are better options out there. The One V will set you back $299 outright if you buy it through Mobicity. For just $190 more, you can pick up Huawei’s Ascend P1, which is a very high-end smartphone with top-level specifications which will hold their ground a lot longer than the One V. We’ve got an Ascend P1 in the Delimiter labs at the moment for testing and will post a review later this week.

As we wrote several weeks ago in our review of the similarly low to mid-range Sony Xperia Sola, the One V looks like a very solid smartphone. But when you can get much stronger models for only a little more, why would you look at the mid-range these days?

Image credit: HTC

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1. Aryan
   Posted 16/07/2012 at 2:17 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Small mistake Renai, the Legend was launched in mid 2010, and at the time, it was HTC’s mid-range device in its line up, only behind Desire. In fact with better build quality and higher quality material than the Desire, I know of many people who chose Legend over Desire purely for that reason (of course Desire went on to sell more and eventually to popularise Android in Australia).

   Anyway, nice phone the One V, hope you get your hands on one and review it soon. A bit surprised by Optus exclusivity, but I gather that Telstra wasn’t interested and HTC could probably get more dollar per device from an Optus exclusive than from selling on both Optus and Voda.

2. jason
   Posted 17/07/2012 at 10:06 am | Permalink | Reply

   The reason why people would buy a phone that is $190 cheaper outright is because nearly $200 is a lot of money to many people these days. Plus, to my knoweledge (and I might be wrong) the P1 isn’t available on a plan or prepaid from any carrier.

   Why wouldn’t you instead compare it to the LG Optimus L7 which is only $247 on prepaid from Optus:
   https://www.optus.com.au/shop/prepaidmobile

   Given that the One V isn’t available on prepaid, and you can just put your optus sim card in the L7, it makes more sense to compare to me to compare them that way. The L7 also runs ICS, has expandable memory, a 5MP camera, a 4.3 inch display and a 1Ghtz processor.

   At the end of the day, most people will go to the store with a figure in their head of what they are willing to spend per month on a 24 month contract and won’t want to go above that number.

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