We review Australia’s first 4G phone: HTC Velocity

Australia’s first LTE phone has landed, but just how well does HTC’s Velocity take advantage of the Telstra’s new super-fast mobile phone network?

Features

The HTC Velocity is the first smartphone to take advantage of the fourth-generation LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile broadband network, launched by Telstra in late 2011.

Known in Australia as 4G, LTE currently offers upload and download speeds greater than the highest speeds ADSL2+ can manage, effectively offering a faster connection than is currently capable at home. Telstra days that downlink speeds can range from 20 to 40 Mbps depending on proximity to coverage areas, while upload speeds can reach beyond 10Mbps. In comparison, an ADSL2+ connection can reach a maximum of  24Mbps down and 1Mbps up, with the download speed affected by your proximity to the exchange.

Inside the Velocity is a modem capable of jumping onto 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, achieving download speeds ranging from 1Mbps all the way up to 40. Upload speeds, too, are faster than smartphones have achieved before.

Where 4G isn’t available, the Velocity takes advantage of dual-channel HSPA+, offering between 1.1 and 20Mbps, making it the fastest 3G available.

There’s more to like about the Velocity than just a fast modem, though, with the handset offering a 4.5 inch qHD screen (540 x 960), dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, and 16GB of storage, expandable with a microSD slot.

Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread is the OS of choice on the Velocity, so it lags the Samsung Galaxy Nexus that debuted in December 2011 with Ice Cream Sandwich. The Nexus, however, has no LTE, so the Velocity will outrank it when the promised Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade becomes available in coming months.

HTC’s overlay to Android – Sense – is the same as was in the Sensation XL, with Sense 3.5 used in the Velocity. This overlay brings in custom weather widgets, vintage effects for the camera, and a few lockscreen modes. By default, the application menu is divided into three sections – All, Frequently Used, and Downloaded – but you can change it to a list mode which offers different ways of sorting your apps.

Unlike many of the HTC handsets we’ve reviewed in the past 12 months, the Velocity is mostly black plastic, with the aluminium favouried in other HTC handsets regrettably absent.

Multimedia is taken care of by a rear 8 megapixel camera that provides 1080p Full HD video capture and dual-LED flash. The front camera can snap 1.3 megapixel images and record 720p HD video.

Connectivity options are pretty standard for an Android smartphone, with wireless offered over 802.11 b/g/n, plus DLNA, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, and GPS.

A microUSB port is used for charging the smartphone and transferring data, and with an optional cable, can also be used for TV-out.

A 3.5mm headphone port sits on the top of the handset, to the left of the thin silver power button. The silver volume button is on the right of the device and the microUSB port is located on left edge near the bottom.

Performance

The plastic handset is a little slippery, but otherwise a good fit for most hands. The edges on the back are more obvious than those we normally see, with an angled back compared to the soft curved style that graces smartphones and aims to make them smaller.

The 4.5 inch screen dominates the front of the device, with four light-up soft buttons – Home, Menu, Back, Search – located below the display. With such a large screen, it’s nice to see HTC use a high-grade panel with strong colour and sharpness.

Powering up, it’s disappointing to see an older version of Android. Samsung managed to get Ice Cream Sandwich into the Galaxy Nexus launched in December 2011, so we’d have liked the same from this HTC, which arrives more than a month later. HTC says an update will be available “soon”.

HTC’s Sense overlay offers seven homescreens to do with as you please, providing room for widgets that offer live data and updates for your social life. There’s lots of interactivity here, as the widget screens exist on a never-ending carousel that rotates whenever you flick your finger left or right on the home screen.

Personalisation modes are offered too, with HTC’s online “Hub” presence providing downloadable colour schemes and layouts for the Sense interface.

It’s all very nice and customisable, which adds to the appeal of the hardware, but what you’re really buying in the Velocity is access to the 4G network… and the speeds to be enjoyed here are immediately noticeable.