HTC Desire 22 Pro

review

Did you know that it was HTC that offered the first Android smartphone? Now, after a long absence, it returns with HTC Desire 22 Pro - the question is whether it was worth it...

Let's start at the end

This time I will start the review a bit unusually, because of the price of the phone. HTC Desire 22 Pro started with a price of EUR 450, and now you can buy it for around 400. Well, I have very mixed feelings about this smartphone. You've probably already guessed that I wasn't impressed - so it's time to explain why...

The very appearance of the new HTC raises the first doubts. If I didn't know the price and model, I would say that I have some budget in my hand! At the bottom of the phone under the display is a "beard", like in cheap phones. The rest of the frame is also not the narrowest, especially at the top. It looks, to put it mildly, not very modern and not very fashionable, although the manufacturer smuggled a modern accent here in the form of a hole for the selfie camera.

The housing is made of plastic, but in a mid-range phone around PLN 2,000 with pennies, this is something to be forgiven. Especially since it's IP67 certified, so it's not afraid of getting wet, and it's quite pretty - as was usually the case with HTC. Unfortunately, the phone loses its beauty very quickly when we start using it - it burns instantly, and cleaning the back panel is not too easy. What's worse, both the back panel and the glass covering the display are very susceptible to scratches. My copy already has a few scratches on the latter, and I used it for a relatively short time - two or three weeks.

It's not completely tragic - the whole thing is rigid, it doesn't creak, everything is well assembled, and the quality of the materials used is not the worst. The back is quite pleasant to the touch. The hybrid drawer for Dual SIM or microSD card also deserves a plus - a nice detail is that it can be slid out with a fingernail, without any additional tools. Unfortunately, despite these nice details, the whole housing made me feel a bit negative.

LCD does what it can

The HTC Desire 22 Pro display did not dispel the bad thoughts. It's not about the wide bezel mentioned earlier - the main problem is that it's a classic LCD screen! At the moment, we can easily find a cheaper phone with a much better AMOLED display, with vivid colours and a sensible Always-On Display...

What's funny, Always-On Display can also be found in the new HTC smartphone, despite the screen completely unsuited to this type of function. During the day it looks so-so, at night it's just terrible, because the screen is constantly glowing with a grayish glow. It is not pleasant when we sleep in a darkened room. To make it happier, there is a notification diode above the screen, so Always On Display could be skipped.

The display itself is not bad at all. I have no major objections to its readability. Of course, you have to remember that this is an LCD, so don't count on super saturated colors and deep blacks. I wouldn't count on good readability on sunny days either. When the sun shines on the screen, it's not particularly easy or pleasant to use - whether we use the automatic brightness setting or manually set it to maximum.

As a consolation, HTC gave a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz here, but I did not find a selection option in the menu, which is probably an automatic adjustment. You can't set the refresh rate permanently to high or change it to standard to save battery. You just got 120 Hz, man, and don't ask any questions! A strange approach, but oh well - it can be done.

Interface annoyances

I've noticed an equally strange approach in the interface. I remember the HTC interface from the old days, which stood out from the competition - to be honest, I liked using it. Here we have a strange mix of the old interface with basic, almost pure Android. We will see echoes of the old style here and there, even by choosing a clock that looks like years ago on HTC phones. As a consolation, HTC does not add too many unnecessary applications here. Yes, there are a few proprietary apps, but they're pretty useful stuff - nothing you'd call total bloatware. In fact, I'd say the interface is clean, tidy and nice...

Unfortunately, at first, using this phone was not a great pleasure. Imagine that every time you unlocked your phone, it crashed! So much so that there was basically nothing you could do about it. I could only lock it and unlock it again, and after a few such cycles, the phone finally started moving. Fortunately, the update came quite quickly and efficiently, and with it the problem disappeared. Despite this, the disgust remained - this is not the HTC I remember and would like to see. From a company like HTC, with which I have many and mostly positive memories, I expect more - that the phone will just work, and that's great.

Later, there were fewer problems, and the manufacturer should be praised for the efficient handling of the defect. However, it was still not perfect - even in terms of security. Face recognition simply works, although a simple system based on a selfie camera will not ensure full security. This should be provided by a fingerprint reader. The HTC Desire 22 Pro is placed on its side, which I like, and at the ergonomically perfect height. The problem, however, lies in the scanning itself - it works a bit like in weak sub-screen readers, i.e. once the finger will recognize it, and once it will not. I tried adding the same finger several times, but unfortunately it didn't help much. The reliability of reading by this reader is very poor and you can even say that it is annoying - about 5 out of 10 attempts to unlock it came to nothing. Once again, my mouth is full of pressure - not what I expect from HTC!

There are also good sides

Fortunately, in terms of the performance of this phone, there were no controversies. Yes, we are dealing with an average shelf, so in benchmarks this phone does not particularly block, but most importantly, it works stably and does not heat up even under a stronger load. This is a very cool feature, and stress tests only confirm it - there is no throttling, it does not heat up, it works evenly. This is where HTC has done a good job.

I also don't have any serious reservations about how our Desire works as a communication tool. Everything works as it should - the phone easily maintains the range, works seamlessly with accessories. Everything is in perfect order... except maybe the sound from the speakers, which could be of better quality. Both this headset during calls and the single multimedia speaker sound very average and should not be set to full volume, because then both start to sound a bit unpleasant. However, it can be said that they work well in their basic role.

The battery is also satisfying with its operation, although it does not have an excessively large capacity - this phone is able to work two days without charging. Less pleased is that there is no fast charging here. It is 18 W, so there is no madness, in addition, there was no charger in the box. Charging the smartphone from zero to full will take a good two hours, so you need to plan ahead. As a consolation, HTC added inductive charging, which I honestly admit I stopped expecting in this phone, and it turned out that it is. This is a very nice element that justifies the high price of this device.

All that glitters is not gold

Unfortunately, when it comes to cameras, things are getting worse. It seems to look good - 64 Mpx main camera, 13 Mpx wide-angle and 5 Mpx depth meter integrated into a very aesthetic golden frame, and 32 Mpx for selfies in the corner of the screen. In practice, however, it is average.

During the day, in good light, the photos with the main camera come out well, of course - there is nothing to complain about here. At night it gets weak, and sometimes even dramatic, because in low light the phone still has a problem with focusing. Here, no night mode helps - on the contrary, taking a photo in this mode takes quite a long time and it is easy to take a blurry photo. You can't count on optical stabilization either.

To make it more fun, HTC screwed up one more thing. Imagine that we do not have access to the wide-angle lens from the main desktop! We have to select the mode menu and only there we will find the option to switch to this lens. I do not know if they hid it on purpose, because it significantly gives way to the possibilities of the main camera (which is no longer extraordinary or is it just an accident. Anyway, I don't like it, and the effects of photos taken with a wide-angle lens leave a lot to be desired. During the day you can still take pictures with it, although we will notice a completely different colour reproduction than in the main lens, but at night it is better not to even try - it will come out very poorly.

There is no macro camera, so I tried to take macro photos with both the main and wide-angle lens. It's possible, but you have to work really hard to get the focus properly and you won't always get a satisfactory effect either.

The same with portraits - the 5 Mpx additional lens should provide a nice, effective background blur in our portraits, but unfortunately - it's not that precise at all. Of course, it's worse when dealing with complex backgrounds or flowing hair, but even with my smooth skull on a relatively smooth background, this camera had problems. When it comes to selfies, forget about blurring the background at all, because it's even worse. The quality of the selfie itself, although we would expect a good one from a 32 Mpx camera, is very average, and at night it is simply poor.

When it comes to filming... another surprise. This is a EUR 400 phone that does not record in 4K resolution! The quality of the movies itself is also not particularly impressive, as is the sound, which from the front camera is a bit overdriven, while from the main camera it is a bit muted, muffled. There's nothing wrong with the video in general. The recorded videos are quite correct, especially during the day - in a budget phone such quality can be praised... nevertheless, the lack of 4K in a EUR 400 phone is a bit outdated, which, on the other hand, fits with these old-fashioned frames around the phone.

What about VR?

How to sum it all up? I'll be honest - if I knew what this phone was like, I wouldn't even download it for testing, because something broke in me. I remember HTC products from years ago well - they were great phones. They may have had their shortcomings, but they always had something to boast about. After all, we owe HTC fingerprint readers, metal casings, additional lenses - all this was done by HTC, basically as the first, which hardly anyone remembers. Not only that, it was this manufacturer that made the first commercially offered Android phone! And what happened to that poor HTC along the way? I'm sorry to say it, but unfortunately, the facts are what they are - this is not a good phone, and it is certainly not a phone worth EUR 400. If it was a smartphone from the budget segment, at a price of, say, up to EUR 300, it would be a pretty good proposition. At EUR 400, unfortunately, there are competitors who simply crush it to a pulp.

It should be mentioned that HTC Desire 22 Pro has one more ace up its sleeve - what it brags about in all promotional materials. Of course, it's about cooperation with virtual reality goggles and HTC's virtual ecosystem with a set of pre-installed apps. I'm not really attracted to it, to be honest, but I see that HTC is doing well in the field of VR and it should probably stay that way. Buyers can also stop at HTC goggles - because it so happens that Vive Flow glasses basically work with most modern smartphones! In this case, a much more logical choice is to match them with a compatible smartphone from another brand and get more at a lower price.

Unfortunately, I can't end this review on a positive note, but I simply cannot recommend this phone to you. He has too many shortcomings in relation to how much he costs for his purchase to make any sense. I must admit that with great relief I packed this phone into the box and sent it back to the manufacturer. I think I will rather keep my positive memories of HTC smartphones from years ago, and I will just try to forget about it as soon as possible. I say this with sincere regret.

Source GSMchoice.com