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3:16 AM
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It's a battle of entry-level Android Ice Cream Sandwich handsets this time as HTC's One V takes on the Sony Xperia U.
FormSony Xperia U - 112x54x12mm, 110g
HTC One V - 120.3x59.7x9.2mm, 115g
HTC One V - 120.3x59.7x9.2mm, 115g
Sony's Xperia U is a bit of an oddball. On the one hand, it has all the usual Sony finesse we expect to see, the company is generally pretty good at designing nice-looking handsets and although the new range of Xperia phones is a little bit different you can still see plenty of that swanky Xperia styling coming through and it's all the better for it.
However, because the Xperia U is intended as the lowest-priced model in the new Xperia line-up the materials used aren't quite as nice as those found on its stable-mates.
It's still solidly put together, we wouldn't be worried about it falling apart, but you lose that ‘premium' feel you get with the Xperia S.
The Xperia S shares much of its design with the other Xperia phones and part of this includes a transparent bar at the bottom of the device which looks very interesting indeed.
However, unlike the other Xperia S and Xperia P handsets this one actually contains LED lights which can be configured to come on during certain phone functions and you can choose the colour.
Beneath this is an interchangeable ‘cap' and you can get them in black or white, which is fine as it blends in with the black or white bodywork depending on which handset colour you choose, but there are also horrendous bright yellow or pink variants which don't compliment the phone at all.
The whole thing is a bit hit or miss because, if you have a white cap on a white phone with a blue light, for example, it looks rather tasteful, but a bright pink cap with a turquoise light on a black phone is eye-scorchingly hideous and takes away any elegance the phone might otherwise have.
In short, be careful what configuration you choose, otherwise you'll have the phone equivalent of the worst kind of body-kitted and luminescent Citroen Saxo with nasty neons.
The HTC One V is perhaps the least attractive of HTC's One range, again it's the cheaper option but never let it be said cheap phones have to be ugly.
While the other HTC One models have put plenty of admirable distance between themselves and HTC's generic, repetitive phone designs the One V seems to be a step backwards and actively embraces everything we were bored with.
This means you get a distinctly rectangular shape but with heavily rounded corners and edges, giving a bubbly appearance. It's also got a feature which we were not missing from some of HTC's older models, that is the slight chin which juts out at the bottom and doesn't do anything to help the already poor aesthetic.
We might have reservations about Sony giving its customers the option to make a retina-searing nightmare, and lets face it, people who sit playing music on the back seats of buses would probably love nothing more than to assault our eyes as well as our ears with their awful, awful taste, but overall the Xperia U is a much better looking phone than the HTC One V.
Winner - Sony Xperia U
DisplayThe Xperia U is fitted with a 3.5-inch LED-backlit capacitive LCD touchscreen , complete with 4-finger multi-touch, scratch-resistant glass, a 480x854 pixel resolution and a pixel density 280 pixels-per-inch (ppi), which, for a lower-priced handset is very good indeed.
HTC's One V has a slightly larger display at 3.7-inches and an 800x480 pixel resolution giving a pixel density slightly under its opponent but still punching in the decent display category at 252ppi.
We can't really fault either display, they may not be scraping near the iPhone 4S's 330ppi like many other premium Android devices, but then, as we mentioned these are not top of the line phones and for them to be putting out this quality is impressive.
Winner - Draw
StorageThis round is short, sharp and to the point because both phones have 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM.
The main difference is that the HTC One V has a micro SD slot and can support up to 32GB of additional space on cards, where the Sony Xperia U has no such luxury.
That little bonus wins it for HTC.
Winner - HTC One V
ProcessorDespite announcing the HTC One V at Mobile World Congress alongside the One X and One S, HTC has since been keeping very quiet about the technology inside it's lower-end device.
All we know right now is that it'll feature a single core 1GHz processor, there's no clue as to what chip manufacturer has been used for the hardware though.
Regardless, odds are good that Sony's Xperia U will outperform it thanks to its dual core STE NovaThor U8500 processor also clocked at 1GHz.
This is based on ARM's snappy v7 architecture and features a competent Mali 400MP graphics processing unit (GPU).
Winner - Sony Xperia U
Operating SystemBoth phones are intended as a low-price entry level way of getting onto Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, the latest and greatest build of Google's mobile operating system.
Ice Cream Sandwich is a significant leap forward for Android phones and there's a lot to recommend. It's one of the more stable builds to date and has some very useful added functionality, as well as generally performing better and being slicker to use than its predecessors.
With both running the same platform there's nothing to compare here.
Winner - Draw
CameraBeing lower-end devices you can't expect camera miracles but in fairness both handsets are upping the ante here with a decent attempt at providing better quality setups.
Both feature 5-megapixel primaries at 2592x1944 pixels and with the usual autofocus and geo-tagging functionality, each also features 720p video capture and an LED flash.
HTC's One V uses a back-illuminated sensor (BSI) and boasts white balance, multi shot mode, a digital zoom, Macro mode, night-time mode and a self-timer. It should be noted that the One V also has a dedicated ‘Image Chip' for dealing with camera functions.
The Xperia U has touch focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panoramic capture mode, a video light, digital zoom, image stabilization and a secondary VGA camera.
This is a tricky one to call as the Xperia's additional features are arguably more useful, however, the back-illuminated sensor in the HTC One V should offer slightly better pictures. This is really a question of whether you'd rather have more assisting features such as stabilisation on the Xperia U or an overall better quality image on the One V.
We're going to give this one to HTC but at the end of the day it comes down to personal preference.
Winner - HTC One V
Final ThoughtsWe think this is quite a close one, both phones have their distinct strengths and weaknesses. The Xperia U seems like a more attractive package with a nicer design, a better processor and a more ‘well-rounded' feel overall.
However, the One V has its charms, it's got micro SD capability and might produce better pictures, both factors certainly have a pull to them.
We can't imagine owning the HTC One V though, as every time we'd look at it we can't help but think how naff it looks.
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