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Our HTC Explorer Review

HTC Explorer, the Affordable Entry-Level Android

If you were to call any phone adorable, the HTC Explorer would qualify. It’s almost downright cute with its rubberized back and colourful 3.2 inch screen. Don’t be fooled by its cuteness though because this phone is a market leader in the smartphone market using the Android OS. People new to smartphones (including parents ready to buy their kids their first version) like the affordable price and the fact you get plenty of features at the same time. It has apps, a camera, email, messaging, internet browsing, camcorder and a lot more. It’s lightweight at 108 grams and fits just right in the hand.

Bring On the Colour!

The HTC Explorer appeals to younger people because it’s colourful. It’s been called a funky addition to the smartphone market. The screen is colourful with shades of blue, green and red. The back of the phone is exotic looking with a gold coloured brushed aluminum strip down the back that includes the camera lens. The snap-on covers are colourful too, giving the traditional black case a snazzy appearance. Beneath the screen you find the standard buttons for call, messaging, back and end call.

How Fast?

When talking speed, you can discuss several features of the HTC Explorer. The response time is good though you may detect a slight hesitation when using the touchscreen. The phone has a 600 MHz processor with an Adreno 200 GPU, 512 MB RAM, 512BM storage and a fast Bluetooth 3.0. It runs on the Sense 3.5 UI and has hot swappable expandable memory.

Instinctive User Interface

Some phones are more user friendly than others and the HTC Explorer certainly fits that description. The last feature you used will appear in the notification bar. In addition, the apps used most often appear as home screen widgets which reduce search time. There is even a People app that contains everything connected to…well…people you stay in contact with and includes emails, messaging, pictures and social media interface through Facebook.

What We Liked

The HTC Explorer handles Gingerbread 2.3.5 , the most recent Android version, quite well. The battery can handle heavy usage for up to 6 hours. With light usage, it can last through the night. We also liked the fact the phone is able to support most video formats even at its affordable price. The video player doesn’t produce high quality results, but that’s a reflection of the phone’s price. There is an FM player too.

What We Disliked

The dislikes are approached from the viewpoint that this phone is an entry level phone and should not be judged in the same category as more sophisticated smartphones. With that understanding, the screen is a bit small since it’s approximately 3 inches in width. It has been reported by some users to have a very slight lag time in response when using the touchscreen. Also, the screen visibility is noticeably degraded in bright sunlight, but anyone can work around that issue for the price. One other dislike is the GPS system which has a sub-par performance rating.

As far as the camera, it takes good photographs but not excellent ones. Also, there’s no flash.

Our Final Verdict

The final verdict is that this is a great starter phone as a minimum and offers plenty of features to make it an excellent phone choice when the iPhone, Blackberry or other high end phones are too much phone. The fact is that many people who don’t want to learn how to use a highly sophisticated phone but do want many of today’s available features will love the HTC Explorer. It’s a great value for the price, has good quality and performs well.

Compare Handsets

	Read Review
	HTC Explorer
General
Form Factor	Candybar
Dimensions	102.8 x 57.2 x 12.9 (mm)
Talk Time	460 mins
Standby Time	485 hours
Weight	108 g
Quad Band	Yes
Photo and Video
Integrated Camera	Yes
Camera	3.00 megapixels
Video Player	Yes
Phone
Vibrating Alert	Yes
Polyphonic Ringtones	Yes
Smart Phone	Yes
Internal Memory	512MB
Messaging
Instant Messaging (IM)	Yes
Screen
Colour Screen	Yes
Touch Screen	Yes
Screen Resolution	320 x 480 pixels
Connectivity
EDGE	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Email	Yes
GPRS	Yes
HSDPA	Yes
Web Browser	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
GPS	Yes
Music and Radio
FM Radio	Yes
MP3 Player	Yes
MP3 Ringtones	Yes
Additional Content
Downloadable Content	Yes
Downloadable Games	Yes
Downloadable Ringtones	Yes

HTC Explorer Full Specification

General

Photo and Video

Phone

Messaging

Screen

Connectivity

Music and Radio

Additional Content