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MagyarHTC Desire 626G Dual SIM Smartphone Review
For the original German review, see here.
HTC adds another smartphone to its Desire family in the mid-range section with an RRP of 279 Euros (~$304). HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM aims to stand out with its dual-color design and dual-SIM support. The 5-inch phone with a resolution of 1280-x-720 pixels is available in "Blue Lagoon" (cyan), "White Birch" (white) and "Purple Fire" (pink) color combinations. The Desire 626G is equipped with a MediaTek's MT6592 octa-core SoC, which clocks at 1.7 GHz and is supported by 1 GB of RAM. The 8 GB internal storage can be expanded by up to 32 GB via a micro-SD card. Google's Android 4.4 KitKat mobile OS is preloaded.
Its identical looking larger sibling, HTC Desire 626 is to be launched in late August priced at 299 Euros (~$326). It is equipped with an LTE, identical 13 and 5 MP camera modules, a 64-bit capable Snapdragon quad-core SoC clocking at 1.2 GHz, as well as 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash memory. HTC also relies on Android 5.1 and HTC Sense 7 here.
In this test, direct rivals for HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM are Huawei's P8 lite, ZTE's Blade S6, Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua, and LG's G4c.
Case
The colorful casing of HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM in the stylish dual-color design is made of robust plastic. The build is good and the gaps are all even. The smartphone's rounded edges provide a nice feel and will not slip out of the hand easily. Overall, the review sample gave a pleasantly high-quality impression. There were also hardly any visible scratches on the Desire 626G Dual SIM even after several days of testing; the used polycarbonate seems quite tough. The review sample coped well with our warping attempts. Although it did not produce a cracking noise, it twisted quite noticeably when considerable force was applied. The display glass resists pressure and only displayed minor image distortions under strong, abnormal pressure.
The smartphone is pleasant to hold, having similar dimensions as the comparison devices. However, with a thickness of 8.19 mm (~0.32 in) the 626G is slightly taller than its rivals, and only LG's G4c is thicker. A total weight of 137 grams (~4.8 oz) is also on par with the competition. Unfortunately, the battery is not removable, and the user can only access the 3G capable slots for both nano SIM cards and a micro-SD slot via a flap on the casing's left.
Connectivity
HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM is powered by MediaTek's MT6592 octa-core SoC that integrates an ARM Mali 450-MP4 graphics card and clocks at 1.7 GHz. In addition to 1 GB of working memory, 8 GB of flash memory is installed. The latter is quite inadequate, particularly since only approximately 5 GB remains unused. This makes it even worse that App2SD does not function. USB-OTG is not provided either, and thus only multimedia data can be moved. At least the test sample identified our 64 GB micro-SD card, contrary to the manufacturer's specifications. The positioning of the interfaces is useful, and the charging cable will not get in the way at the lower edge when recharging the phone.
Software
HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM still relies on the somewhat outdated Android 4.4.2 KitKat in conjunction with the older HTC Sense 5.3 UI. The manufacturer has not yet announced an update to the latest versions of Android 5.1 and HTC Sense 7. The manufacturer's user interface only subtly modifies the known Android UI. In addition to the usual Google bundle, HTC has preloaded the proprietary "HTC Dot View" news aggregator and the "Polaris Office 5" suite among others. There is barely any annoying bloatware installed.
Communication & GPS
HTC uses a Wi-Fi module that supports the 802.11 b/g/n standards in its Desire 626G. High-speed ac standard or even dual-band Wi-Fi are not supported. It is incomprehension why LTE is not installed, which even the cheaper Desire 510 is provided with, and both SIM slots only utilize UMTS. Bluetooth 4.1 and DLNA take care of near field data transmission. GSM quad-band and UMTS tri-band for both SIM slots cover the most important frequencies on-the-go. HSPA+ with up to 21 MB/s download and maximum 5.76 MB/s upload is available for mobile browsing. The reception was decent and stable during the test.
The Desire 626 Dual SIM uses A-GPS for localization. Satellites were found after three to four minutes using the GPS Test app in the editorial office. However, the device was just as accurate indoors as in the outdoors. Overall, tracking is still acceptable for the price range.
Telephone & Voice Quality
The speech and hearing quality of HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM was impeccable in both landline and wireless mobile network calls. The speaker is adequate for making hands-free calls in a quiet environment, but it is not as useful outdoors or in the car.
Cameras & Multimedia
The front-facing camera of HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM has a selfie-friendly resolution of 5 megapixels. The 34 mm lens operates with a BSI sensor and an aperture of f/2.8. Videos are recorded in 1080p.
The rear-facing primary camera has a resolution of 13 MP and an auto-focus. The BSI sensor with an aperture of f/2.2 and 28 mm lens can make use of an LED flash when required. The camera records videos in Full HD at 30 fps.
The resolution of both lenses is category standard in the comparison. Only LG's G4c has a lower resolution primary camera. The image quality is appealing with decent sharpness and color reproduction. Decent snapshots are possible when the object is sufficiently illuminated. Unfortunately, there is no image stabilizer present and therefore photo fans will need a steady hand. The low light performance decreases noticeably, and photos will be pixelated with muddy colors.
Accessories
HTC delivers a micro USB cable, a modular charger, a standard headset and a quick start guide with the smartphone. At the time of testing, the manufacturer offered various accessories on its website, such as external batteries and a special perforated cover that displays notifications in conjunction with the "Dot View" software even when the cover is closed.
Warranty
HTC includes a 24-month warranty on the Desire 626G Dual SIM. The accessories are covered for only 6 months.
Input Devices & Handling
The capacitive touchscreen in HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM responds quickly and accurately up into the corners. The gliding properties of the screen's surface are good. HTC's Sense upgrades the Android keyboard slightly, and offers diverse settings like word prediction and finger calibration. The latter increases inputting speed and accuracy slightly. As usual for HTC, the German QWERTZ keyboard had to be explicitly selected despite correct country settings. The physical keys did not give any reason for complaint.
Display
The 5-inch Super LCD 2 TFT screen in a 16:9 format has the category standard HD resolution of 1280x720 pixels. It renders contents with adequate sharpness. The measured average brightness is high 483.4 cd/m², and the maximum of HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM is even 505 cd/m². Only Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua can outshine the review sample with its maximum 555 cd/m². The screen's illumination of 90% is very homogeneous and on par with the competition.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 90 %
Center on Battery: 497 cd/m²
Contrast: 742:1 (Black: 0.67 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 6.88 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5.1
ΔE Greyscale 6.11 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
86.5458% sRGB (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
Gamma: 1.78
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim Mali-450 MP4, MT6592, 8 GB eMMC Flash | ZTE Blade S6 Adreno 405, 615 MSM8939, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Adreno 405, 615 MSM8939, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Huawei P8 lite Mali-450 MP4, Kirin 620, 16 GB eMMC Flash | LG G4c Adreno 306, 410 MSM8916, 8 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | -1% | 3% | 5% | 1% | |
| Brightness middle | 497 | 386 -22% | 547 10% | 365 -27% | 480 -3% |
| Brightness | 483 | 377 -22% | 535 11% | 353 -27% | 464 -4% |
| Brightness Distribution | 90 | 90 0% | 92 2% | 93 3% | 92 2% |
| Black Level * | 0.67 | 0.44 34% | 0.81 -21% | 0.42 37% | 0.49 27% |
| Contrast | 742 | 877 18% | 675 -9% | 869 17% | 980 32% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 6.88 | 7.12 -3% | 5.77 16% | 5.2 24% | 8.13 -18% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 6.11 | 6.7 -10% | 5.87 4% | 5.85 4% | 6.73 -10% |
| Gamma | 1.78 124% | 1.98 111% | 2.14 103% | 2.17 101% | 2.69 82% |
| CCT | 6820 95% | 7784 84% | 7784 84% | 7252 90% | 7727 84% |
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 86.5458 | 96.5753 12% | 91.25 5% | 70.038 -19% | |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 72.0875 | 70.86 |
* ... smaller is better
The situation is different in terms of black level and contrast with rates of 0.67 cd/m² and 742:1. Virtually all rivals outperform the Desire 626G Dual SIM here. Only Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua has poorer rates. However, subjectively, this is not noticeable in everyday use.
CalMAN and a photospectrometer show deviations from the ideal with slightly increased DeltaE rates of 6.11 in the grayscale levels and 6.88 in mixed colors. The color temperature of 6820 K is only marginally higher than the ideal rate of 6500 K. The sRGB color space is covered quite well with 86.5%, and the color reproduction is quite good subjectively. The color saturation is only slightly too high in the green-yellow range, but it is not noticeable in everyday use. Overall, the Desire 626G Dual SIM presents a very appealing show in this section.
The Desire 626G Dual SIM is quite suitable for outdoor use thanks to the high brightness. However, as with most modern smartphones, direct sunlight causes strong reflections that slightly restrict the legibility.
The viewing angles are relatively good for a TFT screen. Although the brightness is reduced when looking from the sides, colors do not invert.
Performance
A MediaTek's 6592 octa-core SoC clocking at 1.7 GHz powers HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM. The review sample presents mixed scores in the synthetic benchmarks. It can outrun its rivals in some tests, such as the multi-core test of Geekbench 3. Then again, both LG's G4c and Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua defeat it in the single-core benchmark. Only Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua is better in the Linpack benchmark. The review sample is midfield in GFXBench, and leaves LG's G4c and Huawei's P8 lite behind. Overall, the Desire 626G Dual SIM exhibits a decent application and gaming performance.
| Geekbench 3 | |
| 32 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| LG G4c | |
| 32 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| LG G4c | |
| Smartbench 2012 - Productivity Index (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
| Linpack Android / IOS | |
| Single Thread (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| LG G4c | |
| Multi Thread (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| LG G4c | |
| GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
| T-Rex Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
| 1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
| AnTuTu v5 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
In the browser-based benchmarks using the Android 4.4.2 browser, the Desire 626G Dual SIM only beats its rivals in the Mozilla Kraken 1.1 test. It is usually defeated in all other tests. The mixed performance increases significantly when using Google's preloaded Chrome browser. A decent performance is then achieved in browsing routine.
| Sunspider - 1.0 Total Score (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
* ... smaller is better
The storage test using the AndroBench app records good read and write rates in small data blocks from the flash memory. The competition is considerably faster with larger amounts of data, and only LG's G4c is slower here. Huawei's P8 lite fast storage always beats the review sample.
| AndroBench 3-5 | |
| Random Write 4KB (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
| Random Read 4KB (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
| Sequential Write 256KB (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
| Sequential Read 256KB (sort by value) | |
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim | |
| ZTE Blade S6 | |
| Sony Xperia M4 Aqua | |
| Huawei P8 lite | |
| LG G4c | |
Games
The ARM Mali 450-MP4 graphics card does quite a good job with graphic tasks. Up-to-date games are rendered consistently smoothly, although some with reduced details. The accurate touchscreen and good position sensors adequately support gameplay.
Emissions
Temperature
The surface temperature of approximately 35 °C (~95 °F) during full load always remained within a lukewarm range - no comparison with the hotheaded Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua. Temperature-related performance losses were not observed even after prolonged full load. Only 30.2 °C (~86 °F) were recorded on the underside and 31 °C (~88 °F) on the upper side in idle mode. The power supply also remained uncritical.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 37 °C / 99 F, compared to the average of 35 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 56 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 37.4 °C / 99 F, compared to the average of 33.8 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 31 °C / 88 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Speaker
The front-sided speaker of HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM produces a relatively acceptable sound that, however, is very tinny and treble-heavy especially in high volumes. The included headset provides a slightly better sound, but is very bass-heavy and uncomfortable in the ear. Generally, the smartphone renders an impeccable sound with agreeably low base noise via the 3.5 mm jack.
Battery Life
The battery life of HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM with the 2000 mAh, non-removable battery is very good. The competition are all equipped with stronger batteries, but only LG's G4c (2540 mAh) stands out with considerably better runtimes. Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua (2400 mAh) is roughly on par with the review sample. Huawei's P8 lite (2200 mAh) shuts down sooner in every test. ZTE Blade S6 (2400 mAh) only lasts marginally longer than the approximately 6.5 hours of HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM in the Wi-Fi browsing test with a brightness set to 150 cd/m² and enabled energy savings plan. Our review sample stopped running the Full HD video loop after 8 hours using an adapted brightness; only LG's G4c offers longer video enjoyment on-the-go. A fully charged battery should thus easily manage a typical workday of mixed applications.
| HTC Desire 626G dual sim Mali-450 MP4, MT6592, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Adreno 405, 615 MSM8939, 8 GB eMMC Flash | ZTE Blade S6 Adreno 405, 615 MSM8939, 16 GB eMMC Flash | LG G4c Adreno 306, 410 MSM8916, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Huawei P8 lite Mali-450 MP4, Kirin 620, 16 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | 4% | -8% | 24% | -16% | |
| H.264 | 495 | 518 5% | 497 0% | 709 43% | 369 -25% |
| WiFi v1.3 | 398 | 420 6% | 432 9% | 457 15% | 351 -12% |
| Load | 220 | 221 0% | 149 -32% | 252 15% | 194 -12% |
Pros
Cons
Verdict
So, what makes HTC's Desire 626G Dual SIM such a good smartphone? Well, the device has quite a lot to offer for about 280 Euros (~$305). More specifically, the bright, rich-color, 5-inch HD display, the accurate touchscreen, the long-lasting battery and decent camera modules give reason for joy. The impeccable build and smooth performance in everyday use are also convincing - the same as the dual-SIM functionality. If an update to the latest Android 5.1 were to be rolled out soon, there would not be much room for complaint. The main point of criticism is the inadequate internal storage of roughly 5 GB (net), especially since the smartphone does not support App2SD. Storage expansion via micro-SD card only helps music or video fans. The lack of LTE and NFC, and the Wi-Fi module that only transmits in the 2.4 GHz network are easier to tolerate.
HTC provides a well-configured, colorful model with a decent price-performance ratio in the 300-Euros (~$327) price range with its Desire 626G Dual SIM.
All comparison devices mentioned in the test are generally worth considering. Potential buyers should primarily take a closer look at Huawei's P8 lite before making a final decision.
HTC Desire 626G dual sim
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07/30/2015 v4(old)
Michael Moser