HTC Desire 200 Review: Cute, Budget Smartphone with Beats Audio

HTC Desire 200 is HTC budget Android smartphone in 2013. It is small, affordable and features Beats Audio. Read my HTC Desire 200 review here to learn about its performance and features.

HTC Desire 200 Specs

Let’s have a glance of HTC Desire 200 specs:

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon S1, Single-core 1GHz
• OS: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
• Storage: 4GB (support microSD card up to 32GB)
• RAM: 512MB
• Display: 3.5-inch HVGA (320 x 480 pixels)
• Connectivity: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Camera: 5MP F2.8 rear camera with fixed focus, VGA video recording. No front camera
• Battery: 1230 mAh removable & rechargeable Li-ion battery
• Size: 107.7 x 60.8 x 11.9mm
• Weight: 100g

Price: RM499 (~USD157) in Malaysia

Design

“Aiyer~ So CUTE!” was my cousin-in-law’s first impression when she saw the HTC Desire 200 review unit.

Admittedly, white HTC Desire 200 looks adorable. It looks like a soap with rounded corners and patterned back cover.

There are cosmetic only speaker holes pattern at the top of front panel. Desire 200 speaker is located at the back, next to the 5MP camera.

Under the 3.5-inch display are the 3 capacitive keys – back, home, recent apps – with no backlit.

microUSB port is at the left size, volume buttons at the right side. At the top is power button and audio jack.

The display is only 3.5-inch with 320 x 480 pixels. The glass is smudges magnet and becomes oily in a short time (no, I did not eat fries).

Desire 200’s small resolution is not enough for some apps and websites to display correctly. Virtual keyboard blocks half of your view when typing.

Photo gallery

Features

HTC Desire 200 has general specs as other budget smartphones. The unique feature make it stand out from the crowd is the Beats Audio – a audio system to enhance music output.

Beats Audio only activate on Desire 200 when you plug in headphones. You do not get Beats Audio via the phone’s small speaker that has weak and blur sound output.

A pair of in-ear headset is included in HTC Desire 200 package. In my Desire 200 test, the Beats Audio enhanced music is very good quality.

By the way, you also receive 25GB DropBox cloud storage for 2 years after activation on Desire 200.

Performance

Single-core 1GHz processor and 512MB RAM are the minimum specs for today’s smartphone. HTC Desire 200 capable to run most of your Android apps but you better do not expect too much.

In my testing, it runs most apps okay. Apps crashed sometimes, example: video does not play in Facebook app; page scrolling is sluggish.

Desire 200 has total 4GB storage, only about 2GB usable free storage – divided into 1GB internal memory (for apps) and 0.95GB phone memory (for media).

Still, many apps requires SD card to be installed, though there’s free space in Phone memory. It can’t even save screenshots on phone memory.

I ran a few benchmark tests to give you an idea about Desire 200 performance:

• Antutu: 3,846
• Quadrant: 1,971
• Vellamo HTML5: 760
• Vellamo Metal: 325

I think these are the lowest scored I ever tested. Well, at least it completed the benchmark tests. For comparison, S CSL Switch MARS Mi450 (1.2GHz dual core CPU, RM699) scored 6,615 in my review.

For battery test, I ran YouTube video for an hour and check the battery drain level. Desire 200 battery drain 20% for playing 1 hour video in full screen with auto brightness setting.

Camera test

Here are some photos taken by HTC Desire 200 5MP fixed focus camera with no edit no resize (click/tap for full size images).

You notice that the photos are blur and high noises for indoor (low light). Outdoor photo is better – correct colours and keeps details.

If you haven’t notice yet, HTC Desire 200 does not have front camera for selfie.

Conclusion

Pro:

• simple and cute design
• Beats Audio

Con:

• poor performance
• poor speaker
• small and low resolution display
• requires microSD card for apps to work

HTC Desire 200 is small and cute, plus Beats Audio, but I do not recommend it. Buy Desire 200 if you like its size and want Beats Audio smartphone at RM500. With similar price range (RM500–600), you can find better smartphone with better specs.

What do you think about HTC Desire 200? What do you like/dislike about it? Which smartphones would you recommend at the same price range?

➤ HTC

I would like to thank HTC for the opportunity to review HTC Desire 200. This is a free product review with honest write-up. Interesting to submit your products for review? Get in touch with me.

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