Mobile phone HTC Desire 601: specifications and reviews

With an all-metal construction and a Full HD screen, HTC One smartphones are stunning devices for any user, whether it is an advanced specialist in modern technologies or an accidental phone buyer, not constrained by the means. If your budget is more limited, you can purchase HTC Desire 601, which has similar characteristics, but has a much lower price.

This gadget has a 4.5-inch display, a rather powerful dual-core processor, 4G LTE connections and a decent 5 megapixel camera, and it's packed into the design that is present at the more expensive devices of this manufacturer. In addition, Boomsound front speakers are also borrowed from premium smartphones.

HTC Desire 601, whose price is less than 11 000 rubles, immediately after the release received a lot of positive feedback. Such a set of functions for this cost is not offered by any model of modern smartphones.

How is it different?

Since the phone is equipped with two front speakers, immediately striking a huge similarity with the lineup HTC One. Plus, the sensor control buttons - Home, Back - are right under the screen, which adds an even greater chance of confusing 601 with more expensive "colleagues."

Appearance

If you look carefully at the gadget body from all sides, you can see that most of all it resembles the HTC One X previously released. Instead of a metal, the HTC Desire 601 has a plastic case with a black rubber coating. The back panel is divided into the HTC logo, a large camera block with metal inserts and a red Beats Audio logo at the bottom. Perhaps, the device has not so luxurious appearance of metal cases in the line One, but still looks pretty attractive and durable. The plastic used for its production is distinguished by its high strength, so the falls and blows to the gadget are not terrible.

Two speakers are located on the front of the phone, which means the sound of music towards you, and not vice versa. Therefore, the outgoing sound does not get muffled if you, for example, put the HTC Desire 601 flat on the table. Music sounds very loud, but also qualitatively and without interference. As you might expect, the sound still lacks bass, but it's light enough and loud enough to listen to your favorite songs in the kitchen while preparing dinner, for example.

The HTC Desire 601 screen has only 4.5 inches, which is slightly smaller than the 4.7-inch One. However, this slight difference makes it a bit easier to hold the device in one hand. However, its dimensions are 66 mm wide and 134 mm in length do not allow to call it too compact device. If you need a really small device, you will be more comfortable with the 4.3-inch HTC One Mini.

On the sides are the volume control HTC Desire 601, power button, MicroUSB-port and 3.5-mm headphone jack. The plastic back cover is removable and provides access to the microSD card slot, and also allows you to change the battery. You get 8 GB of storage space as a standard, which is quite a bit, but you can at least install compatible applications on a memory card.

HTC Desire 601: the characteristics of the display

The 4.5-inch display has a resolution of 960x540 pixels, which is a bit low, especially considering that some gadgets have a display of 1,280x720 pixels and at the same time cost two times cheaper.

Although the text and icons do not look as sharp as in the high-end Full-HD HTC One, they are easily readable and well suited for everyday tasks. For example, for posting in "Twitter" or sending pictures and photos: permission is not so important. On the other hand, the screen is bright enough to withstand the reflection from the desk lamp and has a sufficient set of colors to allow the user to enjoy viewing the video without a distorted picture.

Software and Performance

HTC Desire 601 dual SIM runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, which is a fairly old version of the mobile operating system from Google. Of course, for a low-cost phone this is not bad, and it works well, but many users would like to see the pre-installed version 4.3. Developers HTC added the Sense 5 interface over the mobile platform, so it's not immediately noticeable that you are on the old version of Android. This becomes obvious only if you go to the settings. Despite the fact that the HTC Desire 601 firmware is factory and very good, you can change it by adding a different interface and other functions to your device.

This interface is used in most gadgets and does not carry any surprises. On the screen there are minimalistic menu icons. Also you will find the function of scrolling the news aggregator BlinkFeed to the left of the home screen. If you do not use services such as Flipboard, then the permanent presence of BlinkFeed can become annoying, especially because you can not get rid of it: you can not disable it. However, this is an interesting way to track your news on social networks.

Specifications

Inside, the HTC Desire 601 is equipped with a 1.4 GHz (dual-core) processor. This is a big step backward compared to the powerful quad-core processors in the gadgets of the One series, but the phone is offered at a lower price, and the reduced functionality is natural. However, as follows from user feedback, such a chip will be sufficient for most tasks. Navigation through the Sense interface is quite fast, and only a slight delay is observed when going back to the main screen after logging into the application.

Device handles perfectly with editing photos in Snapseed, and online viewing of a long movie always remains smooth and uninterrupted. In addition, testing showed good performance of the phone when running such demanding games as Asphalt 8 and Riptide GP 2. Both games functioned normally for the most part, but in more intense moments, for example during battles or high jumps, the frame rate fell noticeably. Too enthusiastic gamers should look towards more powerful flagship phones, but fans of spending time in the game will only occasionally be satisfied with this smartphone.

Camera

A 5 megapixel camera is located on the back of the phone. The smartphones of the HTC One line have a resolution of only 4 megapixels, but there is no significant difference when using the device. On HTC Desire 601 with a 5-megapixel camera you can make the most ordinary, no outstanding shots.

According to user feedback when shooting outdoors in the daytime, you get a photo of a satisfactory quality with a good overall exposure. Colors are not particularly rich, but the color balance remains at a very decent level.

Like the One devices, the HTC Desire 601 Dual SIM has a bunch of advanced camera settings, including Sweep Panorama and HDR mode. It also has a mode that allows you to take several photos at the same time to capture several variants of the image of the same object or edit the photo of a moving object in the style of a sequence of actions.

Battery

HTC Desire 601 is equipped with a battery capacity of 2,100 mAh, which, according to calculations by representatives of HTC, should provide up to 12.8 hours of talk time 3G. This is not bad, and, as the user reviews show, this calculation is correct and is confirmed in practice. With moderate use - listening to music in the mornings, running several games during the day, using the camera and regularly viewing the mail - there is still a lot of battery charge in the evening. If the HTC Desire 601 firmware is replaced from the factory to other options, it can also affect the battery life.

If you are more demanding - keep the brightness of the screen at maximum, watch streaming video all day and constantly try to break records on Real Racing 3, then you can expect that the battery will be discharged fairly quickly. You can be sure that you will have enough of it for the day, but by the evening the phone will probably be completely discharged. Even with moderate use it is recommended to charge the gadget every night for its more correct operation.

Positive features

HTC Desire 601 has many similarities with attractive designer flagship smartphones of the HTC One line. Frontal speakers offer a very large bonus when listening to music, and the possibility of connecting 4G LTE only adds pluses. It is worth remembering that all of the above qualities will not cost you a lot, since the HTC Desire 601 price is much lower than similar devices.

disadvantages

The device runs on the old Android software. Its screen resolution is not impressive, and the dual-core processor does not really give much power.

The final verdict

Of course, HTC Desire 601, whose specifications do not include the latest version of "Android", can not be called a super-advanced device. However, it is a phone with powerful speakers and 4G LTE for fast data download, and at a favorable price.

According to its design, taken from its more luxurious "colleagues", taking into account the availability of powerful speakers, a 4G connection, a decent camera and an affordable price, the HTC Desire 601 is a great all-round Android phone. Although the software preinstalled on it is obsolete, and the display resolution is relatively low, if you want to buy a handsome phone for little money, equipped with all the necessary features, this model is ideal for you.

It should be noted that many users recently prefer devices that copy externally premium devices, but offered at a lower price and equipped with much less capabilities. In fact, there is nothing reprehensible about this: the desire to have a handsome fashion phone is quite natural with any budget. If you are not an advanced user, then you will not notice the difference between the proposed features in the mobile device (unless, of course, you are an avid gamer and do not use specific applications).