The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-based HTC Desire V, the company’s first dual-SIM offering, is now available in India, priced at Rs. 21,999 at online retailer Flipkart, which says it can deliver the phone in 6-8 business days. Expect an official India retail launch from the Taiwanese mobile manufacturer in the same period.
Flipkart is bundling an 8GB microSD card with the recently introduced Desire V, making its price a little easier to swallow. Bearing a Cortex-A5 1GHz processor (albeit outdated) on the Qualcomm MSM7227A chipset, coupled with an Adreno 200 GPU and 512MB of RAM, the HTC Desire V will become the most capable dual-SIM Android phone currently available in India, if not the most expensive.
Its biggest advantages over competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos (priced at just Rs. 15,090) are that it comes with ICS out-of-the-box, and bears a full 4-inch (800×480) display, Beats Audio and a slightly faster processor and GPU combination.
Other features of the HTC Desire V include 4GB of built-in storage, 25GB of free Dropbox cloud storage (2 year subscription), a 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash, no secondary camera, and a 1,650 mAh battery. The HTC Desire V bears HTC Sense 4.0 UI on top of ICS. It weighs in at 114 grams, and is just 9.3mm thick. It offers dual-SIM capability of the GSM-GSM type.
What do you think about HTC’s pricing of the Desire V? Do the faster processor, larger battery, ICS out-of-the-box, Beats Audio, and larger display make the device stand out in front of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread-powered Ace Duos? Do let us know your opinion, in the comments section below: