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HTC’s mid-range One SV LTE smart phone has surfaced on the UK’s only 4G network, but at a price that’s eye-wincingly high for the tech it contains.
The phone is a slightly less powerful version of the HTC One S that was released in the first half of last year, offering a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a bog-standard 4.3-inch, 480×800-pixel display.
It contains an LTE chip that means it can connect to 4G, however, which means EE is charging a premium for the honour of carrying this mid-range mobile around in your pocket. The cheapest tariff is £36 per month for 24 months, which nabs you a mere 500MB of data per lunar cycle and will ultimately set you back £864.
Beefing the data up to a more acceptable 3GB will cost £46 per month, or £1,104 over its two-year contract period. That’s a lot of cash to part with, especially considering retailers are flogging the One SV for about £350 SIM-free.
If you’re desperate to own this mobile, you can buy the phone SIM-free and then get one of EE’s SIM-only 4G plans, the cheapest of which costs £21 per month over 12 months, for a total cost of £252, or about £600 once you add on the cost of the phone itself.
But if you absolutely must possess a 4G phone, for only £50 more up front you can get your mitts on the Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE, which is still very expensive, but offers significantly more impressive hardware than the One SV.
For now, however, you may just be better off going with a 3G phone, where the same amount of money will stretch to just about any high-end mobile you care to mention.
4G is very promising — as our speed tests show — but coverage isn’t widespread yet, and prices could drop following the impending spectrum auction, which will see O2, Vodafone and Three getting their mitts on bandwidth bits, and offering rival 4G services.
Is your head turned by the One SV, or is it just too much moolah for you to consider parting with? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
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