Hands-on with the HTC One V

The HTC One V is the smallest, lightest, least powerful and least expensive member of the One Series, and takes its cues from a formidable forebear in the Legend.

Its design mirrors many of the things that made the Legend so popular, including a unibody aluminum chassis, and that bottom chin that conforms to your face as you talk. The specs have been upgraded significantly, to a 3.7-inch 800×480 Super LCD2 display, a 1Ghz single-core Snapdragon MSM8655 S3 processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage and a 5MP camera.

Most of the improvements, however, have been made in the software. It will launch with Android 4.0.3, but we aren’t certain whether the One V will have the same Sense 4 build as its siblings. Internally we’re looking at a non-removable 1500mAh battery

While we weren’t able to get a look at the software build on the One V — they are still finalizing it — it will share many functional similarities to the more expensive One S and One X, including an ImageSense-capable camera.

We don’t have much else to say right now, except that there is something strange about the One V’s listing for Bell on HTC’s site: it claims that the device will run on Bell’s CDMA network. While this is likely an error, the One V was announced for several regional CDMA carriers in the U.S. such as U.S. Cellular and MetroPCS, so we’ll try to get confirmation either way.

The HTC One V will be available in the Spring on Bell.