HTC Freestyle Review
By Ruben Corbo on November 1st, 2011
So down to the basics, the HTC Freestyle boasts a respectable 3.2 inch display that runs with a 480x320 resolution. Though the resolution isn’t the highest, it is appropriate for the phone’s hardware specs. The size of the display will certainly not be an issue, it may not be the largest but it isn’t an uncomfortably small size.
The phone comes with HTC’s Sense interface. It is, as always, visually pleasing and user-friendly. Some of its brighter qualities however get overshadowed by the at times sluggish feel of the interface. This is again an issue with the touch-screen. Though it has a responsive touch, it suffers from a slowdown issue when sliding or managing icons.
Additionally, it does not have an accelerometer. This is an issue for someone expecting the full smart phone experience, without the changing movements of the screen it lacks the immersive quality that other smart phones possess. Another key feature it lacks is Wi-Fi. This will likely be missed by the greater portion of people, especially for those who do not have the phone on a data plan.
The system specifications are generally what you’d expect for a phone of the price, with the exception of the surprisingly low internal memory. It has a relatively slow processor for a smart phone and only 256 MB of ram. This will be particularly felt with the overall operation of the phone; to a lot of people a smooth, seamless feel is integral to the experience of a smart phone. The most drastic let down, however, is the 156mb internal storage. This low amount of data harks back to phones of olden days and pretty much forces the user to buy a microSD card to make up for it. As a result, the attraction of the phone as a cheaper alternative becomes compromised somewhat by the additional cost of a SD card.
The phone features a 3 mega-pixel camera. The camera quality is suitable for most purposes – the let down, however, is that it lacks flash capability.
Whilst a lot of this might not bother a customer, the phone does have a more annoying quality to it. It is overburdened with third-party apps. A couple you might find useful, but others go on the presumption you would ever have use for them. In this way more than all others, the phone makes a desperate attempt to be a smart phone without having all the hardware capabilities and features necessary to do the job right. The forced applications are just another way for HTC to insist to the customer that this is a smart phone but at a low, affordable price.
