Sony Xperia S vs HTC One V(comparisions)

We compare HTC's One V to Sony's Xperia S

Form
HTC One V - 120.3x59.7x9.2mm, 115g
Sony Xperia S - 128x64x10.6mm, 144g

The Sony Xperia S is Sony's first Xperia handset since the company absorbed its partner Ericsson and although there are many design elements which keep the device tied to that distinctive family there are a few new twists.

Most notably, it's much more robust than its predecessors with wider edges which make it sit in the hand more comfortably, while the plastic used in its construction has a higher quality feel.

Generally the shape looks very nice and the whole handset comes across as a very ‘premium' model with flattering aesthetics.

HTC's One V is a different story altogether. Although the company has demonstrated its ability to produce some fantastic new designs with the One X and One S, the One V has been left behind and adheres more closely to HTC's earlier designs, which we found dull.

Winner - Sony Xperia S

Storage
The Xperia S has a generous 32GB of internal storage along with 1GB of RAM, though sadly there is no card slot to expand capacity further.

While the One V may only have 4GB of space, it has micro SD capability for cards up to 32GB, meaning you can effectively squeeze 4GB more out of it than Sony's offering. It has half the RAM of its rival at 512MB.

On balance we have to give this round to HTC.

Winner - HTC One V

Display
The One V has a 3.7-inch TFT LCD capacitive display with an 800x480 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 252 pixels-per-inch (ppi). For a ‘budget' model the One V has an extremely impressive screen as it's very sharp and colourful.

Sony's offering, however, is easily one of the best Android displays on the market at present.

It's a 4.3-inch LED-backlit LCD display with scratch-resistant glass and features a high resolution at 1280x720 pixels. The resultant pixel density of 342ppi even beats the acclaimed iPhone Retina display, so it surely has an advantage in sharpness over the One V.

Winner - Sony Xperia S

Processor and Operating System
The One V uses a 1GHz single core Qualcomm processor on the MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset and features an Adreno 205 graphics processing unit (GPU).

Sony's Xperia S has a dual core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon with an Adreno 220 GPU.

However, while HTC ships the One V with the latest build of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) 4.0, already installed, Sony has opted for the previous version, 2.3 Gingerbread, with the promise of an update to ICS later in the year.

Not only that, but HTC has updated its Sense interface overlay to a new version, 4.0, and it's much smoother and less intrusive than previous builds. Sony uses its Timescape interface, which generally runs fine on the Xperia S thanks to its processing capability, but it's a little more intrusive.

Despite the One V's lacklustre spec on paper, it actually performs rather well. This is no doubt in part due to HTC's optimisation improvements with Sense, but also the general performance boost Google has achieved with ICS. It handles multi-tasking better than you might expect bearing in mind it is single core.

As well as a performance boost, Ice Cream Sandwich is a massive improvement over Gingerbread in terms of how well the menus are laid out and the addition of some helpful multi-tasking interface features.

The Xperia S is equally fluid and smooth, but it's likely it will be able to handle even more intensive multi-tasking and even individually intensive apps and games which may tax the One V.

We have to give the victory to the Xperia S here, but the lack of Ice Cream Sandwich for now is somewhat disappointing.

Winner - Sony Xperia S

Final Thoughts
The One V may be ugly but it is a capable device when all is said and done. A considerable chunk of that capability comes from the operating system used.

It's unfortunate that Sony's Xperia S doesn't share the same up-to-date build just yet but it does have more power in the engine bay and a sharper display.

Posted in: Comparisions,HTC,Sony