HTC Desire C Vs Sony Xperia U

We see how the new HTC Desire C compares to a similarly low-budget Sony Xperia U.

Form
Sony Xperia U - 112x54x12mm, 110g
HTC Desire C - 107.2x60.6x12.3mm, 100g
The Sony Xperia U follows the rest of the new Xperia range with a blockier appearance than their predecessors under the Sony Ericsson brand. It’s still got a curved back to create a D-shaped cross-section, which means it sits in the hand comfortably, but now the edges of the device are broad and flat giving a solid feel.
The Xperia U is on the smaller side and is very light, overall it looks very smart but some of the design proportions could be better, in particular the 3.5-inch screen looks somewhat lost in the middle of the front panel with a large expanse of bodywork on all sides.
The build quality in terms of how the Xperia U has been put together is what we’ve come to expect from Sony, meaning it’s very good. Although the quality of the materials used doesn’t feel quite up to he same standard as the Xperia P and Xperia S models it is a significant step up from the 2011 Sony Ericsson Xperia models and better than most mid-to-low end smartphones in general.
As well as having the new Xperia range’s signature transparent bar along the bottom of the device, just below the capacitive touch controls, the Xperia U features a removable bottom cap which can be swapped with different coloured variants.
Another unique feature to the Xperia U is that the transparent bar is fitted with LED lights, which change colour depending on the ‘theme’ you select for the homescreen interface.
The Desire C is in-line with HTC’s apparent design revolution of phones with better build quality and more interesting visual design, which started back with the Sensation range and has been stepped up a notch or two on the One range.
The back panel is completely rubber coated and the front bezel around the screen is made from aluminium, both materials appear to be of decent quality.
Like its opponent it’s a smaller and more compact model, but has a bit more heft than Sony’s Xperia, it’s also a thicker device than many other models in HTC’s current line-up. That said, in terms of overall proportions things are a bit more flattering than on the Xperia U and overall we think it looks pretty good.
In terms of which is actually better looking, that’s a tough one to call as one is curvy while the other is more of a rectangular slab, both design formats have their appeal and we think in this case they’re equally well-executed.
Winner – Draw

Display
Both devices feature smaller 3.5-inch displays. The Desire C has an LCD capacitive multi-touch screen with a 480x320 pixel resolution, giving a pixel density of 165 pixels-per-inch (ppi). This isn’t too bad but, as might be expected, there is some blurriness and the contrast isn’t the best, colour depth is quite good though.
Sony has something rather special here for a lower-end model. The Xperia U features an LED-backlit LCD display with a 854x480pixel resolution and 280ppi pixel density, plus the Sony Bravia Mobile engine.
The result is some very clear and sharp visuals with great contrast and colours. It also sports four-finger multi-touch and scratch-resistant glass.
Winner – Sony Xperia U

Storage
Both devices have 4GB of onboard storage space and 512MB of RAM fitted for their respective processors to put to work. The Desire C has a slight advantage of a micro SD slot which can expand memory by up to 32GB.
Neither device offers a huge amount of storage capacity but HTC’s Desire C wins here thanks to the added flexibility of card support.
Winner – HTC Desire C

Processor
The Desire C runs on a Qualcomm single core 600MHz Snapdragon processor while Sony’s Xperia U has a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 setup on the ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 chipset clocked at 1GHz with a Mali-400MP graphics processing unit (GPU).
In fairness, the Desire C’s processor offers better performance than you might expect, punching well above its weight. Navigation through the homescreens and menus of Android Ice Cream Sandwich is surprisingly responsive, but of course, no-one should come here expecting One S or One X levels of smoothness.
On the whole things are pretty good with well-handled multi-tasking. However, the lower spec is noticeable when it comes app loading speeds. That said, we’d rather have apps which load slower and run smoother than the other way around.
The Xperia U’s processor delivers fast and smooth performance on Android Gingerbread 2.3. We’ve come to expect well-optimised hardware and software combos from Sony and it doesn’t fail to deliver here with a consistent experience of smooth navigation, fast-loading apps and effortless mulit-tasking.
Although the Desire C’s performance is impressive the Xperia U offers a more consistent and cohesive experience when using the device which makes it our preferred choice in this category.
Winner - Sony Xperia U

Operating System
HTC’s Desire C ships with the latest version of Android, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) already installed and ready to go, while the Sony Xperia U uses the previous build, Android Gingerbread 2.3, with the promise from Sony of an upgrade in the not-too-distant future.
Despite not using the latest software version, the Xperia U isn’t at much of a disadvantage here as Sony has optimised things to deliver fast, stable performance, while the Timescape UI offers plenty of extra functionality.
Some may find the Timescape interface a bit hectic and intrusive, though you can always install a launcher program to replace it.
As well as ICS, the Desire C is loaded with version 4.0 of HTC’s Sense interface, which is less intrusive than the company’s previous builds and Sony’s Timescape UI.
Ice Cream Sandwich is a very slick and stable version of Android and we’re sure it’s in no small part due to ICS’s improvements that the Desire C delivers so well on performance. ICS also has an improved menu layout and customisation interface, as well as a fast app switcher with a swipe-to-close function for more intuitive control of app multi-tasking.
Although general operation is great there is that trade-off in app loading times on the Desire C. While the Xperia U has none of the ICS upgraded features and functionality performance on the whole is better with no compromise on load speeds.
There’s a clear trade-off on whether you want the added features of ICS on the Desire C or the smoothness of Sony’s tightly optimised Gingerbread setup. However, the Xperia U will be getting ICS eventually so either way it’s a fairly safe bet.
Winner – Sony Xperia U

Camera
The camera is usually the first thing to get the chop when it comes to producing a lower-cost device and that’s certainly the case with both these handsets. Each is equipped with a 5-megapixel primary with a 2592x1944 pixel resolution with autofocus and geo-tagging.
The Xperia U distinguishes itself with some extra functionality, in the form of an LED flash, touch focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama, image stabilisation and 720p video capture with a video light. It also has a secondary VGA camera on the front.
Despite all this the picture quality on both is a bit muddy and we can’t say we liked either of them very much. We’ll give this round to the Xperia U simply for having more bells and whistles but it’s a hollow victory and if you’re looking for decent imaging hardware this is not the place.
Winner – Sony Xperia U

Final Thoughts
For the price these are both great handsets, the HTC Desire C is a low-priced way of getting onto Android Ice Cream Sandwich and has a lot of benefits from using Google’s latest platform.
However, you’d be hard pushed to find a smartphone for this price point with more high-quality features than the Sony Xperia U. The display, build quality and processor are all excellent and well above typical budget model standards.

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