[Review] HTC Desire 601: Good Looks And Neat Features At A Decent Price

It is not everyday you come across phones that have a nice price and lot of features to offer. We recently reviewed the HTC Desire 601, which grew on us as we used it. It has a good design, decent price and a lot of goodies to keep you occupied for long. Here is our take of this nifty little device from HTC.

Design
Coming from a brand that has been launching swanky devices, the Desire 601 is no different. We got our hands on the white version of the phone that has picked up it frontal looks from its elder brother (HTC ONE). However, unlike the HTC ONE, this phone has a removable rear thats allows the users to replace the battery and SIM cards. Hidden behind a silver grille on the front lie the twin speakers that are quite loud.

As far as the screen is concerned HTC has given this phone a 4.5-inch touch display. Flip the phone around and you will get a matt finished back embedded around a 5MP camera. The power button is located on top, while the volume keys on the right side. Overall the phone looks pretty neat and is not too fragile. White colour does attract smudges so be careful where you place the device.

Performance
Specs-wise this phone is not a rocket but good enough to be a sports car. One will find cheaper Indian options with the same specs but not the same quality. HTC Desire 601 has a 1.4 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB RAM and 8 GB internal storage. Space on the phone can be expanded using a microSD card up to 64GB. The touchscreen has nice colours to portray at 540 x 960 pixels resolution. At no point did we find the screen losing its quality, not even under the sun.

Besides the rear 5MP camera HTC Desire 601 has a secondary VGA camera for video chat or taking selfies. Other features include proximity sensor, accelerometer, geo tagging and two SIM slots. To give Desire 601 its life, HTC is providing a 2,100 mAh Li-Po battery in this mobile. It did give us over 24 hours of battery life in 2G, but the hours dropped down to about 14 hours when we switched to a 3G connection.

User Interface
Desire 601 runs Android 4.2.2 with HTC Sense 5 user interface. The interface is the same as the one found on the HTC ONE series of mobiles. All the features such as Blink Feed and Zoe come to this phone as well. We were able to customize home screen panels with ease. Blink Feed works well too and one can get all their social and registered feeds under this hub. We were hoping to find some good Indian apps on the 601, but sadly they were missing.

Verdict
We quite enjoyed our time with this phone, barring a few exceptions. Where we loved the modern looks, we didn’t like the fact that this phone gave moderate shots. You can call us spoilt after using the HTC ONE’s ultrapixel camera, but the 5MP camera on the Desire 601 does not give the results one desires. The battery life could have been better for 3G use as well. As for the price, one can pick the device for as low as Rs 21,000, which is not bad value for money.