Dual SIM Droid Fight: HTC Desire V versus Lenovo P700

Dual SIM phones are normally low cost budget phones, but HTC and Lenovo recently introduced two more upmarket dual SIM Android phones. These phones are so similar in terms of specifications that it really begs for a head to head.

HTC Desire V

Lenovo P700

Both the HTC Desire V and the Lenovo P700 run Android 4.0, with the HTC being skinned with the Sense UI and the Lenovo skinning its phone with its own flavor of Android.   Both phones, the HTC Desire V and the Lenovo P700 have decently large 4-inch WVGA (480 x 800) displays.  Both phones have 1 GHz processors, with the HTC running on an older generation Qualcomm S1 chipset and the Lenovo running on a MediaTek chipset. Again, both phones have 512 of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage (about 2.5 GB) user available. The internal storage of both phones is expandable via a MicroSD card.

Where the two phones differ is the price, the Lenovo P700 comes in at a amazingly low Php10,999 while the HTC Desire V command a much higher Php16,990 price. Can the HTC justify it higher sticker price?

HTC Desire C's has some bells and whistles. Both phones have 5 MP autofocus camera's but only the HTC comes with a flash. The HTC phone is also bundled with 25 GB of Dropbox cloud storage for two years. Still those two features do not seem to be enough to justify the much higher price.

Lenovo P700 has some surprised of its own. The HTC Desire V has a large 1650 mAh battery.  This really impressed us when this phone was launched. But the Lenovo P700 has an even larger 2500 mAh battery. The Lenovo P700 also packs a front camera, a feature missing on the HTC Desire V. Also if you buy the phone by August 15, 2012, you get a free 1000 mAh Belkin external battery pack.

In the end the Lenovo wins the specification wars, but the HTC Desire V is still the classier unit. Lenovo has built a very nicely spec'ed phone. But it is a bit on the chunky and heavy side, at 12.8 mm thick and weighing in at a hefty 162 grams. That is the price to be paid for the large battery. While I am glad that Lenovo dropped the physical buttons in favor of more modern capacitive buttons, the overall design is still uninspired. 

The HTC Desire V is the more stylish of the two, coming in a case just 9.3 millimeters thick. It is also a light 114 grams in weight, though the smaller battery is one reason for that. 

Still 6K is a lot of money to pay for style. I think we have to go with the Lenovo P700 on this one.