In an interview with Reuters in early 2014, HTC announced that it had specialized in producing high-end models for a long time, and announced that it planned to release a number of more affordable models. This, perhaps, is the main reason for the appearance in May 2014 of the HTC Desire 610 smartphone, which adopted a lot from the flagship of this segment - Desire 816 - and became the predecessor of Desire 620. What is this model? What can HTC 610 boast of? The review will tell in detail about all the advantages and disadvantages of a smartphone, its characteristics and the opinions of customers.
Appearance
The design of the HTC Desire 610 is in many ways similar to its "older brother" Desire 816. But, since this model is smaller, the appearance of this has suffered somewhat. As for a phone with a 4.7-inch screen, the HTC 610 looks large and bulky. Its dimensions: 15.3 x 7 x 0.96 cm, weight 143.5 g.
The wide border around the display and the panel with the HTC BoomSound speakers only increase the impression of massiveness. The non-removable back cover is made of glossy material that successfully collects fingerprints.
But the rounded edges made of matte plastic look good, and thanks to them the smartphone fits comfortably in your hand.
The case is available in 3 colors: white, red, blue.
The power button is located on the upper end, so it is rather inconvenient to press it with one hand. There is also a standard headphone jack.
Slots for nanoSIM cards and microSD cards are located on the left under a small cover.
On the right side there are only 2 volume buttons, and a micro USB connector is made on the bottom.
"Stuffing" HTC 610
The characteristics of the smartphone are quite average, according to its class. Like many competitors, its “heart” is the quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor with a frequency of 1.2 GHz. Helps him in the work of 1 GB of RAM.
A fly in the ointment is a screen. Its resolution is only 960 x 540 pixels, the so-called. qHD format. Of course, this saves the resources of the smartphone, but reading, playing and watching movies on the display is inconvenient, it looks outdated.
The brightness level is also low, black is grayish, the contrast is low, which makes it difficult to work with HTC 610 in sunlight. The situation with viewing angles is even worse - it is worth slightly rejecting the phone, and the screen is already poorly visible.
The smartphone is equipped with 8 GB of internal memory, but more than half of the volume is occupied by system files. But since it supports microSD-cards up to 128 GB in size, then you can not worry about the free space for your data.
Other characteristics
Despite the fact that the speakers of HTC BoomSound are theoretically identical to those installed on expensive models, their sound is poor. They are very loud, but this is where their virtues end. They distort the sound at the maximum of their capabilities.
Despite this, the 2 front speakers perform well during games, giving more surround sound directed towards the user, but a dim screen still reduces the pleasure of the process.
And how does a smartphone show itself during calls? This function, judging by the reviews, is implemented perfectly. The interlocutor is well audible, the sound is loud and clear with a minimum of distortion. The microphone also works flawlessly - the person "on the other end of the wire" will perfectly understand your speech.
The battery of a smartphone with a capacity of 2040 mA, the manufacturer promises up to 16 hours of talk time. To save battery, you can use several energy-saving modes.
This model cannot be blamed for the lack of connectivity and communications. The smartphone supports LTE, NFC, 4 LE (depending on the capabilities of the operator) and standard Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Software
Here, the manufacturer tried to please the users. Oddly enough, but the HTC 610 software is almost identical to the one installed on the flagship One M8, whose price is 2 times higher.
The smartphone is initially installed Android 4.4.2 OS (better known under the “delicious” name KitKat), but with a proprietary add-on for the Sense 6 interface, which brings some small useful changes. The abundance of applications and games for this OS will help to cope with any tasks - both for work and for entertainment.
How is HTC Sense 6 different from standard Android? First of all, the standard location of applications is changing, their icons are marked in different colors depending on their purpose. Dialing also has a slightly different look, but the notification panel has not changed much.
A useful addition is parental control applications that not only provide access to content suitable for children of a certain age, but also protect contact lists and other important parental information from being accidentally deleted by the baby.
BlinkFeed is one of the main screens of the smartphone, on which you can add icons of your favorite sites and social networks and immediately see their updates.
Photo and video
Phone HTC 610 boasts a main and front camera, 8 and 1.3 megapixels, respectively. Despite the pretty good performance on paper, in fact the photo quality is depressing.
The main camera, despite the presence of a flash, does not take very clear pictures with incorrect color reproduction and slight blur at the edges. The exposure is poor, well-lit areas are often fully exposed. The same disadvantages are noted in relation to video: its quality is low, resolution - up to 1080 pixels.
Oddly enough, the weak front camera has better color rendering, as well as a timer for selfie shots. But its viewing angle is barely enough to photograph 2 people at arm's length. So it’s not worth hoping to use it for something more serious than video chat or quick photo for Instagram.
The standard application for the camera from HTC will not cause difficulties - all the necessary functions are visible and easily accessible. For example, the shutter icon is large and immediately shows which mode - photo or video - you are in right now, but you can change it by clicking on the icon just below. Settings are located in the lower left corner, above them is the flash icon, and in the upper right corner there is an icon to go to the image gallery.
Cash Issues
How much will you pay for the HTC 610? The price of a smartphone after the release of the new Desire 620 model fell slightly, and if earlier it cost about 12-14 thousand rubles, now you can find offers with a cost of 10-11 thousand rubles. But only a few stores still have this model.
What are customer reviews talking about?
The smartphone is well assembled, there are no backlashes and creaks, the cover for the SIM and SD cards is reliable and sturdy. The possibilities of increasing the amount of memory are at the level of advanced models and will satisfy the appetites of any user.
The power of the processor and the amount of RAM are enough for many standard tasks: the Internet, flipping applications, scrolling do not slow down the smartphone. Even 3D games, such as Asphalt 8, work quickly and smoothly. But when performing several tasks at the same time, turning over recently used applications or updating them there is a slight freeze.
The battery life is standard - it will provide you with a day of active use of the smartphone, and then you will have to remove the charger to restore the device’s performance.
What are buyers dissatisfied with?
Perhaps the biggest drawback of the HTC 610 is its dull low-resolution screen. If this parameter is especially important for you, then pay attention to other models. Moreover, even among such budget smartphones, you can easily find a model whose screen is characterized by a higher resolution, better brightness and viewing angles (for example, Moto G).
Another drawback is the back cover. It attracts dirt and sebum like a magnet, so wash your hands before picking up the phone, or stock up on special cleaning wipes for delicate equipment. And in no case do not put it on rough surfaces - scratches on the lid appear as quickly as fingerprints. This also includes the fact that only an experienced specialist can change the battery with the help of special tools.
Predictably, but the HTC 610 camera also had customer reviews. The quality of the shots is low, the shutter takes a long time, which means that you simply won’t have time to make successful frames of fast moving objects. The best conditions for shooting are soft diffused light. In all other cases, the result can greatly deteriorate.
For users who want to continue to use their old number, the transition to a new smartphone will be difficult. Since they will most likely have to change their old SIM card to a new, nano-SIM format.
To summarize
Despite the mediocre design, HTC 610 is a good mid-range smartphone. It is well assembled and works pretty fast. But the price of the device significantly reduces its attractiveness. There are many cheaper competitors that can boast of a better screen and external design. Nexus 5, Moto G, Moto E or (with a small surcharge) Samsung Galaxy S4 and Moto X - all of them are more profitable alternative to HTC 610.