HTC Desire 628: Review

HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone maker had announced so many handsets and just a three-digit number to tell them apart. Targeting the mid-budget segment is the new HTC Desire 628 dual SIM, priced at INR 13990. We have been using the device for about 3 weeks and here’s our Review.

Design

HTC has continued the same design language as the previous Desire phones including the dual colour scheme. The device has a neat design, and the unit we received for the review had a blue strip that runs along the sides which gives the smartphone a dual-tone look. The Desire 628 is no different from previously launched Desire phones as the camera lens has been fitted at the same spot along with LED flash and noise cancellation mic. At the bottom you have a micro-USB charging port and the 3.5mm audio output port is placed at the top. The volume rockers and power button have been placed on the right side and are hard to distinguish as they lie flat with the frame on the side; and when pressed they don’t give the satisfying clicky feel of a button. While on the left is a plastic flap that houses microSD and 2 SIM slots.

What’s Inside the plastic body ?

Inside is a 1.3 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor, 3GB RAM, 32 GB storage and a 2,200mAh battery. The smartphone flaunts a 5-inch IPS LCD HD Touch Screen offering 720 x 1280 pixels resolution resulting into 294 PPI pixel density. On the camera front, the HTC Desire 628 comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture and LED flash, and a 5-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.4 aperture. Check out detailed specification list

here.

Whats Good?

• Powered by Mediatek MT6753 which is the same processor as of Coolpad Note 3 which is super smooth in performance and is our favourite smartphone powered by Mediatek MT6753. Similar to Coolpad Note 3, the HTC Desire 628 has impressed us with its super smooth performance.
• The inclusion of 3GB RAM did a good job which allowed us to multitask and keep most of the apps in memory.
• Two speaker grilles on either side of the screen give it a very symmetric, aesthetic look, which are equipped with HTC’s proprietary ‘BoomSound’ technology.
• Image quality from the rear 13MP camera is surprisingly good with minimal noise in daylight as well as indoors.
• 32GB on-board which can be expanded upto 2TB via microSD.

Camera

Image quality from the rear 13MP camera is surprisingly good. You get variety of modes to shoot including a full manual control mode. But the images shot in low light environment and during the night didn’t impress much and had lots of noise. The front 5MP front camera is a letdown; we got grainy photos with soft details. We noticed that while clicking pictures it takes about 2 seconds to lock its focus on the object which seems annoying sometimes.

Whats BAD?

• In-ear speaker volume is quite low as we had trouble hearing the person on other end while travelling on a road.
• No Fingerprint Sensor- this is now commonly available on a number of phones that costs way less than this.
• The Battery life is terrible- the 2,200mAh battery struggles to last through the day.
• The power and Volume rocker buttons lie flat with the plastic frame and are sometimes had to locate.
• We did observe some frame drops while playing some graphic intensive games like Modern Combat 5: Blackout (which we did’nt expect from a smartphone at this price).

Benchmarks

• Antutu (64 bit) – 37784
• Geekbench 3 – 616 (Single-Core) | 2493 (Multi-core)
• NenaMark 2 – 55.9fps
• Pi Calculation to 10,000,000 digits – 40.319 seconds
• Quadrant Standard – 20249

Should You Buy it? Our Verdict

The HTC Desire 628 is a typical HTC Desire series smartphone with colourful solid build. The device delivers pretty solid performance but at this price, rivals are offering Full-HD 1080p display, fingerprint sensor along with a better camera and good power backup. A price tag of INR 13990 with mediocre camera and underpowered battery does not justify the price. While the competition at under 15k price range is very tough as there are smartphones at the same price range that offer much more features. The device faces direct competition with devices like LeEco Le2, Yu Yunicorn, Redmi Note 3, Motorola Moto G4. Go for this device only if you are an HTC fan looking for a desirable device that doesn’t pinch your pocket.