Source:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/htc-desire-820q-review-a-value-for-money-phablet/1/407030.html
HTC Desire 820Q review: A value for money phablet
Sahil Mohan Gupta | | New Delhi, December 16, 2014 | UPDATED 11:24
IST
A 5.5-inch phablet from a big-ticket manufacturer with an octa-core
processor with 64-bit support, 4G, and dual-SIM support at Rs.22,000 may
sound like a pipe dream. But HTC's Desire 820Q aims to deliver exactly that
in a package. Let us see if the phone lives up to the lofty expectations HTC
has set for it.
Design and build quality
With the Desire 820Q, HTC is introducing its new 'double shot' design. The
phone has a glossy unibody polycarbonate shell, and a dual-tone colour
scheme. We received a white and blue unit of the device, and it looks great.
Yes, the phone is a little too glossy for our tastes, and it is a
fingerprint magnet. It gets smudged very quickly. That being true, it is
well built. It feels solid. It is also one of the lightest and thinnest
phablets in the market. HTC has done a fantastic job in tempering the weight
and overall size of the product. Despite being a phablet, it weighs 155
grams and measures 7.7mm. The polycarbonate body of the phone helps in the
keeping the weight down.
The phone back is gently curved which adds to the good ergonomics of the
device and makes it easier to use. It feels relatively comfortable in the
hand, though one-handed usage is impossible. The glossy back also makes the
phone slightly slippery. We dropped it twice during our tests.
HTC has done a neat job in tucking the twin SIM card slots behind a flap on
the left side of the device. On the right, the phone has its volume rockers,
and the power key. The buttons offer solid tactile feedback and are easy to
reach. The back is also home to the 13-megapixel camera, which is
accompanied by a flash. The lens has a plastic ring around it in the
secondary colour -- blue -- that adds to the style of the phone.
Display
The display is perhaps the most important component of the phone. The Desire
820Q has a 5.5-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. It
looks nice. It is not the sharpest screen in town. If overly critical, then
we have to admit that it is possible to notice jagged edges on text.
Nevertheless, the phone displays real colours and has good viewing angles
when content is viewed off axis. Perhaps the best bit is that it is possible
to use the phone under direct sunlight, which is a surprise because the
screen is also reflective. Videos, pictures and text look good on the screen
of the phone. The large screen size makes watching videos or playing games
extremely enjoyable on this device.
Camera
The HTC Desire 820Q has a 13-megapixel camera with a f/2.2 aperture on the
back. Like the cameras on other HTC phones, this 13-megapixel shooter is
wicked fast to lock focus, but compared to some other phones in the price
bracket; the image quality is just about average. In daylight, the camera is
good for both normal shots and macro images. It falls flat in low-light
situations. The performance of the camera is poor by any metric in low
light. The LED flash helps matters, but then the extra light overexposes
images and makes them unusable. This is a typical HTC problem, though at
least this time the company has rectified the white balance issue to a
certain degree. It is still not perfect, but is much better than what you
get in phones like the HTC One M8 Eye. The Desire 820Q has a front camera
with 8-megapixel resolution, which admittedly is on the higher side. This
camera is better than a lot of front cameras that we find in phones these
days. Though don't expect miracles in low light. Compared to others, it
offers better performance but in dimly-lit scenes you will not be able to
click sharp or clear selfies. We also feel HTC could've perhaps used a
wider-angle lens on the front camera because nowadays group selfies are all
rage. The camera interface is very simple to use, though if you require you
can tweak settings like exposure and ISO for better control on the images
you are clicking. The phone can shoot 1080p video at 60 frames per second.
The quality of videos is good. Subjects in videos mostly appear in focus
though if you move the phone too fast or don't hold it steady while shooting
videos, you end with a footage where things are not in focus. Quality of
the video goes down in low-light situations by a great deal. The quality of
the audio that is recorded while shooting videos is average at best.
Software
The HTC Desire 820Q runs on Android 4.4 KitKat topped up with the Sense 6.0
UI. This means the phone does not use the 64-bit architecture provided by
the Qualcomm chipset. That said, HTC offers one of the best software
experiences found on an Android phone. Most of the core Android applications
found on the phone have been retooled as per HTC's design language. Most of
these changes are fine, though they don't really improve on Google's stock
experience. Thanks to HTC's optimisations, the music player is a beauty. It
works brilliantly, but offers little in way of EQ controls. In one area the
software is absolutely ghastly. The keyboard that HTC loads on its devices
is horrendous. Users are advised to install third party options like
SwiftKey or the Google Keyboard.
Performance
The HTC Desire 820Q is one of the fastest phones in the market. At least it
feels like one in daily use. It is powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon
615 CPU. It is an octa-core chipset, which is based on ARM's big.LITTLE
architecture. It uses four A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz in tandem with four
A53 cores clocked at 1.0GHz. The phone has 2GB RAM, and 16GB internal
storage, which can be expanded by a card up to 128GB. The Snapdragon 615 is
Qualcomm's latest mid-range chipset. It has support for 64-bit applications,
but as the Desire 820Q is currently on Android 4.4 KitKat, it does not have
64-bit support. Unless HTC comes out with required software, we can not call
the Desire 820Q a device that supports 64-bit computing the way iPhone 6
does. While using the phone, we found it to be very smooth. Animations are
fluid and we didn't notice on the phone. The entire experience is silky
smooth and it is possible to have more than 20 apps open simultaneously.
Unlike most of the phones powered by MediaTek chipsets; the Desire 820Q
remains cool, and does not heat up, even after 30 minutes of gaming on it.
The phone has the new Adreno 405 graphics chip. It performs well and
graphics rendered in games like Dead Trigger 2 are very good. We didnt
notice any dropped frames while playing games on this phone. The audio
performance of the device is superb. This is something common to almost all
HTC's devices, which use BoomSound speaker technology. The speaker is louder
and clearer than what you get in most phones. The only phones that perhaps
eclipse the Desire 820Q in audio performance are other high-end HTC phones.
Battery life and call quality
The Desire 820Q packs a 2,600mAh battery. This is not as large as the
batteries that you get in other phablets. But when combined with HTC's
battery saver mode, the Desire 820Q lasts more than a day on single charge.
In our tests, the phone lasted around 22-25 hours on average. Our usage
included around 2 hours of calls, 15 minutes of streaming on YouTube, 40
minutes of music streaming, clicking 15-20 photos, 30 minutes of web
browsing and 10 minutes of gaming. If you start your day at 8AM, it is
highly likely that with moderate usage the phone will have around 10-15 per
cent of battery remaining by the next morning. Even the PC Mark battery work
test proves that the phone lasts a long time. This is an impressive feat
considering the phone is powered by an octa-core chipset. The call quality
of the phone is very good. We rarely faced any dropped calls and whenever
that happened it was more due to network issues. We tested the phone on a
Vodafone SIM in Delhi NCR. The phone also supports 4G networks in India. It
is also a dual-SIM product.
Should you buy it?
At Rs.22,000, the Desire 820Q represents great value. It provides a good
big-screen experience with minimal compromises. It delivers great
performance, good battery life and a solid software experience. It even has
a decent screen, though it is not the sharpest one around. Its rear camera
is a bit of compromise, but the front camera is very good. If you are
looking for a big screen smartphone, and you don't care about the camera,
the Desire 820Q is a totally 'paisa vasool' phablet.
DESIGN7/10 DISPLAY7/10 CAMERA6/10 SOFTWARE8/10 PERFORMANCE8/10 BATTERY8/10
CALL QUALITY8/10 VALUE8/10
With best regards,
Satguru
___,__.___
"Life's battle do not always go, to the stronger or faster man. But sooner
or later the one who wins, is the one who thinks he can."
Satguru Rathi
Mobile: +91-9871489945
Email: satgurura...@yahoo.co.in
Skype: satgururathi
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/satguru.rathi.9
-----Original Message-----
From: Mohib Anwar Rafay
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 12:21 PM
To: Dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile
phonesand Tabs.
Subject: Re: [Mobile.AI] need help about google tts and eloquence tts.
If you put eloquence shortcut on your homescreen, you can directly
open the page where it will show u the available tts if you were using
any other tts than eloquence for the time being. If you are using
eloquence itself, clicking on the shortcut of eloquence will direct u
to the eloquence settings page. Thus you can use this shortcut to
change the tts if you are using anyother tts than eloquence that time.
On 12/16/14, Mohib Anwar Rafay <mohibra...@gmail.com> wrote:
you can put eloquence shortcut on your homescreen. Eloquence shortcut
is available in app drowr.
On 12/15/14, Harbhajan <harbhajan1...@gmail.com> wrote:
hello sir, there is no other gesture available in android to switch to
another tts. the only thingh you can do is to create a shortcut of text
to
speach on the home screen using the apex launcher that you have already
done.
regards
harbhajan.
On 08-Dec-2014, at 11:47 am, Dr Yusuf <dr.yusu...@gmail.com> wrote:
hello friends,
I am using latest eloquence in my xolo q700 device with jelly bean 4.2.1
as difault tts. but as we all know, latest google tts supports indian
national language, hindi. so, sometime I have to switch to this to read
hindi messages.
so friends, is there any gesture available to taugle between these 2
tts?
or, any short cut available which I keep in my home screan? I am using
apex launcher as my difault home screan. in that, yesterday I kept
accessibility setting as short cut in my home screan, by that, I can go
to
text to speech, and taugle to google tts for reading hindi whenever I
want. but, is there any other short cut available?
waiting for your soon reply.
with warm regards,
--
Dr yusuf vohra,
mobile:
+919879409087
E-mail ID:
dr.yusu...@gmail.com
facebook:
http://facebook.com/dr.yusufvohra
follow me on twittor:
@DrYusuf84
skype:
yusuf.vohra
Search for previous postings at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/mobile.accessindia@accessindia.org.in
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Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of
the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its
veracity;
2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the
mails
sent through this mailing list..
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--
Mohib Anwar Rafay
Phone: 09268444400 / 09555555765
--
Mohib Anwar Rafay
Phone: 09268444400 / 09555555765
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