Affordable, sensibly sized mid-range smartphones on Verizon Wireless are hard to come by. Some, like the Motorola Droid Mini, are getting up there in age, while others, like the LG G Vista, are hand-busting phablets. That leaves the HTC Desire 626 ($192; 16GB) as one of the few midrange options the carrier offers in the 5-inch range. Unfortunately, despite a good-looking build, the 626 suffers from poor battery life and sluggish performance. You're better off spending more money on a more capable device.
Design, Display, and Features
As far as midrange phones go, the Desire 626 is rather attractive. It's made of sturdy white polycarbonate that has a high-quality feel. Measuring 5.78 by 2.79 by 0.32 inches (HWD), the Desire is bigger than the 4.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Core Prime (5.15 by 2.67 by 0.35 inches; 4.6 ounces), but not much heavier at 4.9 ounces.
The front of the phone features the classic HTC black bezel on the bottom, below the display, and a fairly loud front-facing speaker under that. The grille above the display is the earpiece, not another speaker. The volume rocker and power button sit on the right side of the phone, while the left side gives you access to the SIM and microSD card slots, tucked underneath a plastic flap. The microSD slot read a 200GB SanDisk card ($58.00 at Amazon) without any trouble. You'll also find an off-center micro USB port on the bottom and a 3.5mm audio jack up top. The back of the device features a smooth plastic surface with prominent HTC and Verizon branding.
Similar Products
Google Nexus 5X (Unlocked)
Droid Maxx 2 by Motorola (Verizon Wireless)
Samsung Galaxy Core Prime (Verizon Wireless)
Droid Mini by Motorola (Verizon Wireless)
Droid Turbo 2 by Motorola (Verizon Wireless)
Motorola Moto E (2015, Unlocked)
Samsung Galaxy S6 (Verizon Wireless)
LG Lancet (Verizon Wireless)
The Desire's 5-inch, 1,280-by-720 Super LCD2 is certainly sharper than the Galaxy Core Prime's 800-by-480 panel, but there's some blurring with videos and text occasionally looks pixelated. On the plus side, viewing angles and outdoor visibility are good.
Network Performance and Connectivity
The Desire 626 runs on Verizon Wireless, supporting GSM (850/900/1900MHz), UMTS (850/900/1900/2100MHz), CDMA (800/1900MHz), and LTE (2/3/4/7/13) bands. Network performance was strong in midtown Manhattan, where outdoor connectivity averaged 14Mbps for downloads and 12Mbps for uploads. Indoor connectivity was decent, generally around 5Mbps down and 1Mbps up. There's no dual-band Wi-Fi or NFC, but the device supports Bluetooth 4.1.
Call quality is solid, free from skips and crackling, though voices have a robotic edge to them. Noise cancellation is good, with little to no background noise coming through.
Processor, Battery, and Camera
Hardware is where the Desire 626 really falls short. The dated Snapdragon 210 processor simply isn't up to running modern smartphone apps. Graphics performance suffers the most; the Adreno 304 GPU was unable to complete the AnTuTu benchmark test that we run on every phone we review—it froze during 3D graphics rendering and had to be rebooted. When we attempted to use GFXBench, the phone ran out of memory during the T-Rex test. Asphalt 8 runs, but it's barely playable due to unresponsive controls.
General usage was not much better. Apps were sluggish to open—the camera app, in particular, took about five seconds to launch. Animations and screen transitions were jittery, and even simple tasks, like sending a text or making a call, became frustrating due to latency.
Battery life is not a bright spot either. The phone clocked just 3 hours and 4 minutes in our battery test, in which we set screen brightness to maximum and stream full-screen video over LTE. It's a poor result compared with the 4 hours and 45 minutes of the Galaxy Core Prime, not to mention the 6 hours and 32 minutes of the Nexus 5X ($89.99 at Amazon) . If you use your phone a lot, you'll likely need to charge the Desire 626 before the day is up.
After running the performance and battery tests, the Desire's 8-megapixel rear-facing camera felt like a breath of fresh air. Outdoor shots are clear and surprisingly crisp, with little of the noise you'd expect from a lower-end device. Low-light shots weren't great despite Night mode, but even flagship phones struggle with that. Video capabilities are average, recording 720p footage at a smooth 30fps. The 5-megapixel front-facing camera isn't as impressive, as it struggles to handle shadows and lighting.
Software and Conclusions
The Desire 626 runs Google Android 5.1 Lollipop, and according to HTC's update tracker, there is no Android 6.0 Marshmallow update scheduled. HTC's Sense 7.0 skin makes a number of changes to Android—app icons, the notification shade, and the settings menu have all been altered—though the modifications are relatively light.
In addition to the look of Android, HTC has added a few features of its own as well. Blinkfeed provides a continuous stream of news, weather, and sports updates based on your interests; Zoe integrates with the camera and allows for photo and video editing and sharing; and Dot View makes the Desire compatible with one of HTC's LED cases (which are sold separately).
The Desire comes with a bunch of pre-installed Amazon, HTC, and Verizon apps, which we refer to as bloatware. Verizon apps are largely duplicates of Google apps—Caller Name ID, Cloud, Message+, My Verizon Mobile, Voicemail, VZ Navigator, and VZ Protect. Amazon apps include the standard Amazon store app, along with Amazon Kindle, Amazon Music, and Audible. Other third-party apps include fx Photo Editor, IMDb, and Scribble. Ultimately, you're left with 9.64GB of available storage. Thankfully, you can always add a microSD card if you need additional space.
The HTC Desire 626 has a good-looking design, a decent camera, and a very affordable price. But a pretty face can't make up for lackluster performance. It's hard to recommend the Desire 626 over other options like the smaller, but better-performing Samsung Galaxy Core Prime, or even the Windows-powered LG Lancet. For the best combination of price and performance, it's worth it to shell out an extra $100 for the Nexus 5X. It comes unlocked and bloatware-free, and offers a great camera, snappy performance, and the latest Android updates. The Droid Maxx 2 is another good option on Verizon, offering great battery life and a sturdy build, though it's twice the price of the Desire.
The HTC Desire 626 is an affordable, attractive Android phone for Verizon that's held back by poor battery life and slow performance.
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