Quick Review: HTC Butterfly:
Without much fanfare, HTC quietly slips its latest flagship phone in the country, the 5.0-inch HTC Butterfly which is already available right now in HTC stores.
The HTC Butterfly is the biggest handset HTC has come up so far and the looks did not disappoint if you’re a fan of HTC and their design principles. It comes in either red or white (I guess black is so last year) and what we played with is the white one. I simply love the edge-to-edge curved Gorilla Glass covering the front of this phone. What I’m not keen of is the silver rectangular strip on top which is just a design element.
The 5.0-inch display sports a 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution for a whopping 440 ppi pixel density on a Super LCD 3 panel. Honestly, I can barely notice any difference in terms of sharpness and clarity comparing it to my iPhone 5 and its 326 ppi pixel density. Even tried watching a 1080p video on it and although it looked really good, you most likely won’t notice any difference viewing the same file on an S3 or an iPhone 5. I guess having that much resolution is just a numbers game and shouldn’t be a factor when getting this phone. It’s nice to have but not critical.
On top you’ll see the 3.5mm audio jack, the Power button and also the covered slot for the microSIM and microSD slot. Yes, finally microSD support is back on a high-end phone. This phone comes with 16GB of internal storage so that microSD card could go a long way especially if you’re storing a lot of 1080p videos.
There’s an aluminum strip on each side with a mesh pattern which I initially thought were speakers but again, they’re just design elements. At the bottom is the covered microUSB slot for charging. Am not a fan of such flaps especially for a slot that you often use as it wears out over time. I wouldn’t mind if they leave that microUSB port exposed but HTC was looking for a sleek uniform all-around look on this one.
The back is made of a polycarbonate shell with a polished sheen. It has that dull but still glossy look which makes it different from other handsets. I like how the 8.0 mp camera lens doesn’t protrude anymore unlike their HTC One X. It also uses the same fast lens with ImageSense as that of the One X and its ilk. Focusing and taking the shot is really quick, sometimes faster than the iPhone 5.
I love how the handling of this phone feels. I thought 5-inch is too big for me already but the Butterfly feels like you’re holding a 4.7-incher. The smooth curved and wide back and the thin profile makes it easy to grasp and even do some one-handed phone operations.
Powering the HTC Butterfly is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.5GHz quad-core processor which is the same as that of the Nexus 4 and the ASUS Padfone 2. It also has a 2GB RAM which is becoming the staple for quad-core phones this year. Tried Quadrant on it and the Butterfly gave an impressive score despite running only on 1.3GHz frequency at that time.
This phone is not LTE-ready so if that’s important to you, might want to look elsewhere. Battery rating on the Butterfly is at 2020mAh which is an odd decision since the HTC One X+ already has a 2100mAh battery.
According to the HTC sales personnel in HTC Mall of Asia, the HTC Butterfly goes for Php32,190 for cash payment or 3-months installment credit card. There’s also a 12-month payment option which bumps the price to Php35,000. It comes with a pair of Beats in-ear headphones.
Without much fanfare, HTC quietly slips its latest flagship phone in the country, the 5.0-inch HTC Butterfly which is already available right now in HTC stores.
The HTC Butterfly is the biggest handset HTC has come up so far and the looks did not disappoint if you’re a fan of HTC and their design principles. It comes in either red or white (I guess black is so last year) and what we played with is the white one. I simply love the edge-to-edge curved Gorilla Glass covering the front of this phone. What I’m not keen of is the silver rectangular strip on top which is just a design element.
The 5.0-inch display sports a 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution for a whopping 440 ppi pixel density on a Super LCD 3 panel. Honestly, I can barely notice any difference in terms of sharpness and clarity comparing it to my iPhone 5 and its 326 ppi pixel density. Even tried watching a 1080p video on it and although it looked really good, you most likely won’t notice any difference viewing the same file on an S3 or an iPhone 5. I guess having that much resolution is just a numbers game and shouldn’t be a factor when getting this phone. It’s nice to have but not critical.
On top you’ll see the 3.5mm audio jack, the Power button and also the covered slot for the microSIM and microSD slot. Yes, finally microSD support is back on a high-end phone. This phone comes with 16GB of internal storage so that microSD card could go a long way especially if you’re storing a lot of 1080p videos.
There’s an aluminum strip on each side with a mesh pattern which I initially thought were speakers but again, they’re just design elements. At the bottom is the covered microUSB slot for charging. Am not a fan of such flaps especially for a slot that you often use as it wears out over time. I wouldn’t mind if they leave that microUSB port exposed but HTC was looking for a sleek uniform all-around look on this one.
The back is made of a polycarbonate shell with a polished sheen. It has that dull but still glossy look which makes it different from other handsets. I like how the 8.0 mp camera lens doesn’t protrude anymore unlike their HTC One X. It also uses the same fast lens with ImageSense as that of the One X and its ilk. Focusing and taking the shot is really quick, sometimes faster than the iPhone 5.
I love how the handling of this phone feels. I thought 5-inch is too big for me already but the Butterfly feels like you’re holding a 4.7-incher. The smooth curved and wide back and the thin profile makes it easy to grasp and even do some one-handed phone operations.
Powering the HTC Butterfly is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.5GHz quad-core processor which is the same as that of the Nexus 4 and the ASUS Padfone 2. It also has a 2GB RAM which is becoming the staple for quad-core phones this year. Tried Quadrant on it and the Butterfly gave an impressive score despite running only on 1.3GHz frequency at that time.
This phone is not LTE-ready so if that’s important to you, might want to look elsewhere. Battery rating on the Butterfly is at 2020mAh which is an odd decision since the HTC One X+ already has a 2100mAh battery.
According to the HTC sales personnel in HTC Mall of Asia, the HTC Butterfly goes for Php32,190 for cash payment or 3-months installment credit card. There’s also a 12-month payment option which bumps the price to Php35,000. It comes with a pair of Beats in-ear headphones.
| HTC Butterfly Specs: |
|---|
| Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064) 1.5GHz quad-core processor |
| Adreno 320 GPU |
| Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean |
| 5.0-inch Super LCD 3 Full HD 1080p @ 1920×1080 pixels, 440ppi |
| Corning Gorilla Glass 2 |
| 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSD up to 32GB |
| HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; No LTE |
| Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP. EDR, NFC |
| Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot |
| 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, ImageSense, |
| Video recording at 1080p @ 30fps |
| 2.1 megapixel f2.0 ultra-wide angle front camera |
| 143 x 70.5 x 9.1 mm |
| 140 g |
| Li-Po 2020 mAh battery |
| SRP: Php32,190 |
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