HTC Desire 200 Released: Next-Best Entry Level Phone?

[NduPlessis]

HTC shows off its Desire 200, an entry-level phone with some serious quality for the price.

HTC Desire 200 Released: Next-Best Entry Level Phone? : Read more

 

[halcyon]

I never feel comfortable buying or recommending the cheap when it comes to these things. If you care enough to want the Android experience might as well get a device that can allow you to enjoy it.

 

[ismaeljrp]

horrible phone even for the price, should have given it at least 1gb of RAM, and price it at no higher than $150.

 

[Matsushima]

I agree with the above (halcyon and ismaeljrp), Android is too much bloated for low-performance ARM hardware. I have experienced years of frustration with low-end Android phones and eve TV boxes running Android. Even my original Samsung Galaxy S is horrible at running Gingerbread, past and present. If you are looking for an entry-level smartphone go for Windows Phones such as the Nokia Lumia 520 or the HTC Windows Phone 8S. At least they don't lag.

 

[killerclick]

Hmm, this for $249 or Nexus 4 for $299? Hard to decide.

 

[Bloob]

Lumia 520 or 521, can be had for $130 in the states:
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_520-5322.php

And you think this is good?

 

[twelch82]

Battery life is the key as far as I'm concerned. I have a Razr Maxx and have been happy with it, because it has relatively low specs and a 3k+ mAh battery. If you can't get a phone with sufficient battery life, stay away from Android. This phone's 1250 mAh is not enough. You'd be better off with a feature phone. Most of the time when you get a call, your battery will be dead, making it useless as a phone.

 

[icemunk]

I would hope this phone is well below the $200 mark. The specs don't justify anything higher than $100 truthfully.

 

[TomsSound]

The problem is as others have said.. too little memory for Android.
1GB should be the very bottom of the line for android phones.
8GB of internal storage is really a minimum also.

This is short sighted on HTC's part. People will buy this phone because it looks an awful like the HTC One at a bargain price. Alot of parents buying phones for kids don't care to pay alot... They'll get it home and realize how terribly slow it is . Tell all their friends how bad android phones are and switch to an iphone.
They are beating themselves up, by putting out a substandard product.

 

[TomsSound]

The problem is as others have said.. too little memory for Android.
1GB should be the very bottom of the line for android phones.
8GB of internal storage is really a minimum also.

This is short sighted on HTC's part. People will buy this phone because it looks an awful like the HTC One at a bargain price. Alot of parents buying phones for kids don't care to pay alot... They'll get it home and realize how terribly slow it is . Tell all their friends how bad android phones are and switch to an iphone.
They are beating themselves up, by putting out a substandard product.

 

[warezme]

cheap is relative, with a iphone 4 trade in and company discount, I picked up an HTC One for the grand total of $17.34, great phone other than the battery being sealed.

 

[mariusmotea]

The display is the big problem of this phone. 320 x 480 pixels was 5 years ago mid-end

 

[vider]

None of the comments that have been posted here are relative to the subject. It's not about the specs, you are paying not for the phone, but for the beats branding. It's an entry level phone for teens that can't fork too much money for the higher end beats cans and the higher end HTC S. One could buy this phone and a set of Solo HD and still be accepted among the cool people (mass media brainwashed horde of sheep).
And even with these specs, if one could find a kernel with overclocking unlocked, a bare G.B. rom would allow one to enjoy the Android experience.

 

[Vlad Razvan]

Screen's too small. And before you jump all over this comment, I have rather big fingers and poor eyesight. I'd rather carry a brick in my pocket then have to squinch my eyes at a 3,5 screen, let alone try and type a SMS on it or browse the internet.

 

[deksman]

Wouldn't a cheap ZTE U950 (around $153) beat this HTC 200 entry level phone?
The U950 has a Tegra 3 quad core at its disposal, 1GB RAM (double than the above HTC), is by a whole inch larger (4.3" vs HTC 3.5"), has a resolution of 800x480 and expandable storage.

Also... I never saw the point in paying more for brand names. Its beyond idiotic.
I'd rather do my research and find smart phones of relatively high quality without paying through the nose (which is possible).
I also still use a ZTE Blade which is now 2 and a half years old.
Has latest Jelly Bean installed on it, and does what it needs to do for me (granted a more powerful phone would be beneficial for taking photos and videos properly - but those functions are rare for me) and I already dropped it on the floor several times without suffering a scratch (but the AutoZoom function seems to have been the thing to go on the first drop).

 

[Matsushima]

Anyway, I basically can't run (or with difficulty) any modern applications that keep being updated every second day to hog up more and more RAM in Android when there is only 512MB. Android is far too much bloated.