The forgotten smartphone: HTC Explorer from 2011

October 3, 2021 Luisa Rey

From the corner of HTC it has been dead quiet for a long time. The brand has quietly gone under, especially in Europe. A few years ago, the manufacturer was clearly more successful. In this edition of ‘The forgotten smartphone’ we look back at the HTC Explorer released in 2011.

HTC Explorer

In this edition of ‘The forgotten smartphone’ we go back ten years in time. A time when HTC was a lot more popular than it is today. After all, there is little or nothing left of the HTC glory. The Taiwanese manufacturer became known with the One series such as the One M7 and the HTC One M8, the Sensation models such as the HTC Sensation and of course many other smartphones. Do you remember the HTC Explorer?

HTC released the smartphone at the end of 2011. This smartphone was aimed at those who wanted a smartphones but didn’t want to pay the full price. It also didn’t have to be all the fuss. With those requirements there was a chance that you ended up with the HTC Explorer. This device offered the basic functionality to have a useful smartphone at home.

The HTC Explorer offered a 3.2 inch TFT display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels. No Full HD+ or high refresh rate; just a simple screen with a sharpness of 256,000 colours. The Explorer was nice and compact and weighed just over 100 grams. The Taiwanese also gave this device a Snapdragon S1 from Qualcomm. This single-core processor gave you a computing speed of 600MHz. Furthermore, the affordable entry-level device offered 512MB of RAM and a 1230 mAh battery. For taking photos, the HTC Explorer was equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera.

The Explorer appeared with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, along with HTC Sense. Due to the more limited computing power, some functions from HTC Sense had been scrapped; like the 3D animations. Thanks to HTC Sense, you could immediately see the status updates of that person, along with, for example, the birthday when you receive an incoming call! Users of the HTC Explorer were enthusiastic about the excellent design, the screen and the possibilities. However, the battery life and the camera were a bit disappointing on the phone. The smartphone appeared in our country for about 200 euros.