HTC Desire 516 has just been launched in India at a price of Rs 14,200 and is available for purchase around the Rs 13,500 mark. It has entered the highly competitive sub Rs 15,000 smartphone category where Moto G has been ruling as an undisputed champion. Every company has every now and then made an attempt to dethrone it but has often been unsuccessful. Let us see if HTC has been able to bring in a package that somewhat challenges the Moto G.
Display and Processor
The HTC Desire 516 comes with a 5 inch display which has a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels resulting in a pixel density of 220 ppi. The Moto G on the other hand has a 4.5 inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels which translates into a pretty high pixel density of 329 ppi. On top of it, it has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection which the Desire 516 misses out on.
The Moto G has a 1.2 GHz quad core Snapdragon 400 processor ticking as its heart coupled with a 1GB RAM which offer you just the right amount of performance you’d seek from the duo. The Desire 516 gets the same amount of RAM and the same clock speed for the CPU but it is a Snapdragon 200 unit which does not really match up to the performance level of its elder sibling.
Camera and Internal Storage
The camera at the back of both the smartphones is a 5MP unit coupled with a LED flash. So both are expected to produce similar pictures. But it is the front camera department where the Desire 516 triumphs the Moto G by a slight margin. It has a 2MP front camera which is slightly better than the 1.3MP front camera of the Moto G.
The storage department is where things get slightly tricky. The Moto G comes in two storage variants which are 8GB and 16GB but lacks external storage. On the other hand, the Desire 516 comes with merely 4GB of internal storage capacity but makes up for that with the microSD card slot which will support expansion of up to 32GB.
Battery and Features
The battery unit juicing things up for the Desire 516 is a 1,950 mAh one and the one at the heart of the Moto G is a 2,070 mAh one. The smaller battery of the HTC has to power a bigger screen but a lower resolution and the Moto G has a smaller screen but higher resolution. The battery consumption is further affected by the difference in chipsets and if we were to trust either of them to last longer than the other one, my safest bet would be the Moto G.
The Desire 516 runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and has Dual SIM abilities which are shared by the Moto G as well. But that one instead runs on Android 4.4 KitKat and there’s a high chance that it will get upgraded in future too which the HTC one won’t be. So this one also goes to the Moto G.
Key Specs
| Model | HTC Desire 516 | Moto G |
| Display | 5 inch, qHD | 4.5 inch, HD |
| Processor | 1.2 GHz Quad Core | 1.2 GHz Quad Core |
| RAM | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Internal Storage | 4 GB, Expandable | 8 GB/ 16 GB |
| OS | Android 4.2 | Android 4.3 |
| Cameras | 5 MP/ 2 MP | 5 MP/ 1.3 MP |
| Battery | 1950 mAh | 2070 mAh |
| Price | Rs. 13,499 | Rs. 12,499/ Rs. 13,999 |
Conclusion
The Moto G again comes out shining against another competitor in the budget smartphone arena. The Desire 516 makes a decent attempt at dethroning it but fails to do so. It is let down by a slower processor and poor internal storage. If you can live with 16GB of storage, the Moto G still makes a lot more sense than any other device in a similar price range.
