HTC Desire V available online for Rs. 21,999, dual-SIM and Android 4.0 onboard

HTC’s first dual-SIM ICS phone, the Desire V has landed on online retail stores like Flipkart and is now up for sale at Rs.21,999. The phone comes bundled with an 8 GB microSD card. This phone is not to be confused with the HTC One V, which belongs to a completely different series. Some of the Desire V's highlights include the latest iteration of Android - Ice Cream Sandwich, a larger battery pack for better battery life, Sense v4.0, Beats Audio and 25 GB of free Dropbox storage.

A good looker

The only reason for one to buy this phone would be if they needed a mid-range, Dual-SIM Android; else it doesn’t make sense. Now I know we haven’t reviewed it yet so it’s still early to pass our judgment, however, based on the specifications alone, it already seems inferior to their existing offering – the Incredible S. This handset is also selling for the same price (slightly cheaper, in fact), and if only HTC had rolled out ICS for the Incredible S, they wouldn’t have had to launch the Desire V in the first place. Comparing the two phones, the Desire V is quite a bit lighter and has a bigger battery, so it will last longer. It also has more onboard storage for apps and better (or worse) audio. However that’s where the good points seem to trail off. The SoC does run at 1 GHz but it’s the older MSM7227A with a slower Adreno 200 GPU. The Incredible S has the faster MSM8255 SoC with a more efficient Adreno 205 GPU. The camera in the Desire V is a 5 megapixel one, whereas the Incredible S has an 8 megapixel sensor. The Desire V has no front-facing camera either. You see our point? The trouble is, we don’t know when and if HTC will ever release Android 4.0 for the Incredible S, which is quite sad since it’s more than capable of handling it.

Not a bad rear either

Here’s a quick look at the main high-lights of the Desire V:

• 4-inch capacity touchscreen display with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS and Wi-Fi capabilities for net access, Dual-SIM
• GPS with A-GPS support for Google Maps
• Bluetooth with A2DP and USB 2.0 (Micro)
• 5MP camera with LED flash
• FM radio
• 4GB internal + microSD card support for up to 32GB more memory