HTC Explorer review

By Sameer Mitha | Updated: 22 June 2012 12:26 IST

Highlights

Today we have HTC’s latest foray into the budget Android phone domain – the HTC Explorer. Will the phone die in the crowd or will it rise like a phoenix from the ashes?

The Rs 10,000 to Rs. 15000 price point has become a sweet spot for Android smartphones that offer a relatively good smartphone experience and don't compromise a whole lot on features. We have seen many successful smartphones in this category such as the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro, HTC Wildfire and the Samsung Galaxy Ace.

Today we have HTC's latest foray into the budget Android phone domain - the HTC Explorer. Will the phone die in the crowd or will it rise like a phoenix from the ashes?

Hardware and Styling

A first look at the device and you could mistake it for a mini clone of the HTC Sensation - more like Dr. Evil and Mini Me. It's smaller than the Sensation and has a 3.2-inch screen with the standard touch controls below the display. The rear of the device has the same rubberized finish as the Sensation with the 3MP camera on a plastic strip. The entire rubberized back is removable and it was quite a task getting the back off. We were almost afraid that we'd break the device.

Once you get the rear cover off, you realize that the device is pretty well-built. The battery of the device is standard Li-ion 1230 mAh. Below the battery lies the SIM card slot. To the left of the battery is the Micro SD card slot.

In terms of connectivity, the device has the Micro USB slot to the left. The right has the volume rocker and the top, the on/off/sleep button along with the 3.5mm headphones jack.

All-in-all, the device is cute, small and feels very sturdy.

Interface

The HTC explorer runs on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS skinned with the famous HTC Sense 3.5 UI. Power up the device and you are greeted with the 3.2-inch screen that boasts of a resolution of 320x480 pixels.

The new Sense UI has the option to quickly access any 4 functions you desire from the lock screen. It's pretty handy if you want to quickly access your contacts, messages or even the camera. The interface is simple - drag the shortcut icon from the lock screen into the circle at the bottom of the display and you are immediately redirected to the particular app. If you wish to unlock the device in the traditional way, just drag the circle up and you will be greeted to the home screen.

True to the Sense UI tradition, you have the option of 7 customizable home screens that you can load with shortcuts and widgets. The drop down notifications bar gives you quick access to recently used apps and a quick select option for network, Bluetooth, memory and more.

For the most part, the interface on the device is smooth and in an instant you will be loading the device with apps, shortcuts and widgets. The downside here is that the device isn't the smoothest at rendering animations. The pinch to view all home screens took quite a jitter and some apps took a heartbeat longer to load than we'd like.

The keyboard on the device is a different story altogether. You get the standard QWERTY keyboard on the device and it is easier to type in landscape mode than in portrait. Because the device is so small, the keyboard feels uncomfortable at first and takes a lot of getting used to. The auto correct function is a savior as it helps correct spelling errors caused mainly by mistyping words. Just be careful to read your text once before you send it. The auto correct isn't perfect.

Multimedia

Multimedia on the device is fairly decent if you stick to the basics. Browsing the Internet on the device, watching videos, etc. runs well on the device. You can even run flash heavy websites once you've downloaded flash from the Android market place. The negative here is that the web pages render slower than we'd like and the apps have crashed on more than one occasion on account of heavy multitasking.

The device supports a large array of audio and video formats but you won't find yourself watching too many videos on the small screen.

With the variety of free apps on the marketplace you are bound to download a few games. The device has an internal memory of 90MB, which isn't much, and you will have to transfer content to the memory card often - we recommend you download a free app called App 2 SD. It helps you easily transfer apps from the internal memory to the SD card with ease.

Accessing the market and other apps may take time to load on the device but it passed our angry birds test. The game ran absolutely smoothly. The combination of a 600MHz Scorpion CPU and the Adreno 200 GPU got the job done just fine. The load times were a little long though.

The rear of the device houses a 3.15MP autofocus camera without a flash. The image quality of the camera is acceptable on most occasions and even great if the lighting is good. In dark situations however, the device isn't a good shooter. The lack of a dedicated camera button too is missed. Since you use the touch screen as the shutter button, be prepared to get quite a few blurry images. The camera does have some customization options such as geo tagging, ISO, auto enhance, and a variety of shooting modes.

PC Sync & Market

There is no proprietary PC sync software here for you. The procedure is simple - just sign in with your Google Account and everything gets synced, it's as simple as that. All this happens via Google Contacts, which stores all your contacts in the cloud. But the real beauty about Android is that it gives you the option to store your contacts directly on Google Contacts rather than the device, meaning you do not need to keep your content updated.

As far as apps go, Android, at least for smartphones, is in a very strong position. There are 300,000 odd apps to choose from and most of them are free apps, even if some of their iOS counterparts are paid. That is one of the beauties of the Android Market Place.

Performance

Apart from being a budget Android smartphone, the device needs to work like a phone. And this it does pretty well. The call quality of the device is crisp and clear at both ends. There was absolutely no distortion on the devices front. If we encountered any problems, it was mostly due to the network.

The battery of the device is quite a big letdown. Push the device to its limits and it will barely last you an entire day. We wish HTC had bumped up the battery to give us better longevity.

As a smartphone, the device falls in with the rest of the crowd. It has a 600MHz Qualcomm Scorpion CPU and Adreno 200 GPU with 90 MB internal storage, 512 MB ROM and 512 MB RAM. The device has Bluetooth 3.0 and is a 3G device.

Considering the hardware, the device was a bit disappointing in the benchmarks test. It scored a mere 21232 in the browser mark test. Webpages rendered completely but the animation and smoothness was slow. In the Linpack test, the device calculated 11.538 MFLOPS in 7.27 seconds. On Quadrant, the device scored a mere 887.

Overall, the performance of the device manages to stay at par if not better than the existing competition from Samsung and Sony Ericsson. Where it holds high ground is in the build quality and the fact that the Sense UI is one of the best Android skins out there.

Verdict

It isn't the best in its class and for a mere Rs. 4000 more you can get a better Android experience but if Rs.10,000 and thereabouts is your budget, do consider this device along with the HTC Wildfire S, Samsung Galaxy Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Ace.

Price: Rs. 11,600

Pros
Fantastic build
HTC Sense UI
Cute looks
Android 3.0 Gingerbread OS

Cons
Battery Life
Apps tend to hang during multitasking
Low internal storage
Ratings

Performance: 3
Price: 3
Ease of Setup: 4
Ergonomics: 4
Wow Factor: 3
Overall: 3

Benchmark scores:
Browser Mark: 21232
Benchmark Pi: 1554ms
Linpack: Single thread: 11.538 MFLOPS in 7.27 seconds
Quadrant: 887

Comments

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