HTC Smart review: First grader

Being a veteran in the smartphone market is huge advantage when you decide to come up with something new. After so many Windows Mobile and Android devices, HTC surprised us with a completely different product – HTC Smart. It’s a semi-smartphone that runs on the unusual Brew Mobile platform strengthened with the fancy Sense UI.

HTC Smart official photos

Throwing another mobile OS on the market is hardly the right move since the smartphone arena is already over-crowded. But it seems HTC Smart is HTC’s way of making a feature phone. The Linux-based Brew Mobile platform used for the HTC Smart hardly makes it a proper smartphone to boot. Truth is, there are modern touch feature phones that have more “smart” in them than this one.

But enough about software, let’s see what HTC Smart has to offer in terms of hardware.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
• Brew Mobile software platform with HTC Sense UI and social networking integration
• 2.8" resistive touchscreen of QVGA resolution
• 300 MHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM
• 3.15 megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash
• Standard miniUSB port for charging and Mass Storage data transfers
• Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
• microSD card slot, up to 16GB support
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• Smart dialing
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Excellent loudspeaker performance

Main disadvantages

• No Wi-Fi connectivity
• QVGA resolution doesn’t do Sense UI graphics justice
• Screen has poor sunlight legibility
• No video-call camera
• No voice dialing
• Camera lacks auto focus, records QVGA@15fps video only
• Only few applications preinstalled and no access to app repository for native BREW apps
• Limited organizer functions – no notes/memo, no voice recorder or an office document-viewer
• No multi-tasking
• Web browser poor and rather slow

HTC Smart at ours

Exploring its features and the possible drawbacks leaves us with mixed first impressions from the HTC Smart. But we are still in the beginning of our Smart meeting and things may still change.

HTC Smart is a stylish, pocket-friendly device powered by a new OS and skinned with one of the best mobile user interfaces – the Sense UI.

Follow us on the next page to see what this Smart is made of.