What you should know:
There's no dodging the figures here. When 800 x 480 resolution is stretched across a 4.3-inch screen, you're going to notice the low 217-ppi screen density -- individuals pixels can often be seen at work, especially on the diagonal. That being said, pixelation on the One S is much worse despite packing more pixels (960 x 540, to be exact) into the same dimensions. Sense 4.1's clean UI is appropriately scaled to give a 4 x 4 grid of icons in the app menu, so everything looks a little bigger than on higher-res handsets, but in general the visuals remain preserved.
Keeping everything moving under the hood is a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus with Adreno 305 GPU (MSM8930) and a lone gig of RAM. Don't worry about the thrifty 8GB of storage, because a microSD slot supporting 32GB cards can be found under the back cover above the removable battery, and next to the micro-SIM cavity. For connections, it's got all the radios up to LTE, 802.11a/b/g/n -- both 2.4GHz and 5GHz -- Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.
What it offers:
The SV is a solid option for people who want an LTE device on the cheap.
The advantage:
$280
Keeping everything moving under the hood is a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus with Adreno 305 GPU (MSM8930) and a lone gig of RAM. Don't worry about the thrifty 8GB of storage, because a microSD slot supporting 32GB cards can be found under the back cover above the removable battery, and next to the micro-SIM cavity. For connections, it's got all the radios up to LTE, 802.11a/b/g/n -- both 2.4GHz and 5GHz -- Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.
What it offers:
The SV is a solid option for people who want an LTE device on the cheap.
The advantage:
- Solid performance
- Attractive design
- Inexpensive
- Low-res
- Somewhat awkward to hold
$280
