HTC Explorer

Editor's Review of the Explorer

With its straightforward specs and simple design, the HTC Explorer is aimed at first time smartphone users and those who find tech jargon hard to get their head around. Can this Explorer extend HTC's dominance of the budget Android market, or will it fail to impress even smartphone newbies?

Design & Build

The Explorer sees HTC taking a different approach to smartphone design, forgoing its usual boxy unibody style for sleek clean curves and practicality. The phone has a rugged-feeling rubberised texture on the back which means its great for clumsy-fingered kids, and it's teeny dimensions means it'll slot neatly into the skinniest-jean pocket.

With a small handset comes a small screen, and the HTC Explorer sports a 3.2-inch display, with a reasonable 320 x 480 pixel resolution. Of course, it's not the most mind-blowing display we've come across recently, but if you're after a phone for casual gaming and social networking, it certainly manages to get the job done. Our only complaint is browsing the web, which can feel pretty cramped on the pint-sized display.

OS & Interface

The Explorer, as you'd expect, runs on Google's Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) software. HTC has dressed this in the latest iteration of its Sense overlay - HTC Sense 3.5 - which has been designed specifically for lesser-specced phones to deliver a simplified user experience.

Sense 3.5 gets rid of the usual curved dock at the bottom of the screen, replacing it with two simplified icons for access to the app tray and dialer. These new shortcut keys are coupled with a single vertical row of four app shortcuts on the left, where you can allocate your most-used apps. The clock and weather widgets have moved to the bottom right corner too, making them much more less in-your-face.

HTC has also updated the People tab with more social network integration. It now comes with a threading feature that shows all e-mails, call history and Facebook updates from that particular contact, and a new feature called "Ice Breaker" brings up your friends' Facebook status when they call you.

Although extremely convenient and easy to get to grips with, the phone's measly 600MHz processor can make navigating the interface fairly slow and laggy. However, this is likely to bother first-time smartphone users, and it stood up to the job when messing with apps.

Multimedia & Storage

Don't go expecting the HTC Explorer to match up to the likes of the Sensation XE when it comes to media, because - quite simply - it doesn't. On the rear of the phone you'll find a standard 3 megapixel camera, lacking in flash and HD video. By no means if this a fantastic camera, but given the phone's target audience, snaps are reasonable enough for uploading to Facebook.

You'll also find the usual Android media player on the HTC Explorer, which HTC has equipped with a bunch of additional features such as SRS WOW enhancement and a bunch of different equaliser settings. This comes paired with an FM radio too, something that more expensive phones still lack.

Everything Else

It may be a cheap phone, but the HTC Explorer arrives equipped with HSDPA speeds of 7.2Mbps and WiFi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity, which makes browsing the web a fairly painless experience. As we mentioned earlier, however, the screen can make media-heavy websites quite awkward to navigate
and text often difficult to read.

So surfing the internet may not be great, but the phone excels when it comes to battery life. Its 1230mAh battery managed around one-and-a-half-day of fairly heavy usage, ideal for fidgety Facebook-addicted teens.

Conclusion

As a handset for people looking to "explore" the smartphone market, the HTC Explorer is an excellent choice. HTC has obviously put a lot of thought into make this phone simple - and although the handset's not heavy on features - its crafted perfectly for its main purpose. Not convinced? Check out the HTC Wildfire S.