HTC Desire 510 smartphone first impressions

[embleton]

The HTC Desire 510 has 8GB of storage and 1GB of random access memory. It sports a quad-core 64-bit processor running at 1.2Ghz, 4.7-inch display and 5 megapixels back facing camera and a front facing lower resolution camera of 0.3 megapixels for hangouts (Google's video conferencing).

It runs Android OS 4.4.3 KitKat currently, which only supports the 32 bit instruction set of the processor, but will support Andriod lollipop 5.0 later in the year and that supports the 64 bit instruction set of the processor incorporated in this phone, and hopefully this will improve overall speed of the phone for the better, even though it performs quite well now.

It has 4G LTE support for the UK mobile bands for fast internet access, and a micro SIM slot. It supports the 2.4Ghz 802.11n wifi standard but not the 5Ghz band, which is a pity considering its a 4G network phone. It will take up to a 128GB micro SD card for additional storage, but this is almost useless under Android KitKat. Both the micro SIM and SD card slots are accessible by removing the back of the phone using a thumb.

A nice feature of HTC Desire 510 is that it has a facility to transfer contacts over from an iPhone and other phones through 4.0 Bluetooth. Face recognition for opening the lock screen on the phone is another facility quite unique, but this method does malfunction often, so you do end up opening the phone with its standard lock passcode instead.

The phone feels solid in the hand and well made for a relatively cheap £100 offering that operates in 4G LTE mode and bands for Internet access. The screen is a little dull and doesn't particularly work well in sunlight. The screen size of 4.7 inch does improve the usefulness of the phone because of its larger than normal size.

The audio level for the speaker when on speaker phone is too low and that does cause issues in loud noisy areas, primarily this is because the speaker is on the back of the phone. But the sound through the standard front facing at the ear speaker is rather lovely and good quality for basic phone calls if not slightly low at the maximum audio level. It has HD wideband audio for better quality voice over the appropriate networks; the phone is on and was tested on the UK 4G EE network.

The back facing camera performs adequately for a 5 megapixels and is fine for taking the odd Facebook photo, but without electronic or optical stabilisation photos can look slightly fuzzy at low light levels. The front facing 0.3 megapixels camera is acceptable for hangouts, but again performs only adequately at low light levels in artificial light, and both camera pictures look outdated, fuzzy and poor quality for a phone manufactured recently.

The touch sensitivity of the screen is slightly pathetic, easy to miss or recognise presses on the phone for a 4.7-inch size screen, so does take slightly longer to get use to during normal operation. That may be me as I'm use to an iPhone 6 Plus, but I believe the reason for the lack of sensitivity maybe because of the speed of the phone itself under Android KitKat so hopefully that'll improve with Lollipop.

Overall it's an acceptable Android first smartphone that performs adequately, but not especially well and there are other Android phones that may outperform it in the same price range with reference to cameras, screen resolution and touchscreen sensitivity. Battery life on this smartphone is excellent and will last in excess of a day during normal daily use and is one of the good points of this phone.