HTC One SV

Introduction

The HTC One SV is a stylish new mid-range Android smartphone that's available on EE's 4G network. This makes it among the cheapest handsets you can get on a 4G contract in the UK at the moment. We've just recieved our review sample and will be writing up a full review in the next couple of days but as we've not seen this handset before we thought we'd give you our first impressions straight away.

HTC One SV - Design

We like the styling of the HTC one SV. It marries a clean, all-glass front with a gently curved matt plastic back, with a silm silver strip running round the edges. It's nothing revolutionary but it's done with a finesse that, particularly from the front, is akin to the iPhone 5's clean, sharp lines.

This is a modestly-sized phone by today's standards, with it centred around a 4.3in screen. So perhaps there's some life left in small phones after all. Combined with this modest size, the rounded corners and curved back make this a very comfortable phone to hold. At 122g, it's fairly light too.

HTC One SV - Features

Another big plus point is that the back is removeable, allowing access to the battery, microSIM and microSD slot. The phone comes with 8GB of storage built in and will support up to 32GB more with a microSD card added.

Elsewhere the One SV's feature list is fairly mundane by today's standards with a dual-core processor, 480 x 800 pixel screen, 5megapixel camera and an 1800mAh battery. The latter is par for the course for a phone of this type but those hoping that the days of slimness over battery life had gone may be disappointed - we'll find out for sure when we test it over the coming days.

HTC One SV - Screen

Despite having a modest 480 x 800 pixel resolution the HTC One SV's LCD screen is actually very good. It uses the latest laminated manufacturing process so the screen appears right on the surface of the screen rather than behind the glass, giving it punchy colours and great viewing angles.

Initial Thoughts

Overall, we're liking the look of the HTC One SV so far. It's smart, has a reasonable balance of features and a quick test of its 4G connectivity shows it's just as nippy as any other 4G handset. It's still quite pricey at £36pm for 24 months but when an iPhone 5 will cost you £56pm, it's worth considering. We'll be back with our final verdict just as soon as we can.