If you want an affordable phone on MetroPCS, your choice pretty much comes down to a budget phablet or a compact entry-level phone. The 5-inch, $159 HTC Desire 530 is the latter. With 720p display, and 8-megapixel camera it seems like a good option on paper, but it has a dim screen with serious touch latency issues. The Samsung Galaxy On5 has smoother performance for a lower price, making it a better option for most users.
Design, Features, and Display
The Desire 530's design is unique. It's shaped like your standard white plastic slab, but its back and sides are covered in colorful speckled dots, though they aren't very noticeable from a distance. On the right side the volume rocker is a sober black, while the ridged power button below it is bright orange. The camera lens on the back protrudes slightly and is surrounded by a circle of black plastic, as is the LED flash below. On the bottom right corner of the back panel there's a circular indentation with an attachment point for a wrist strap.
Both the top and bottom lip are charcoal gray, and the screen is surrounded by a bezel with HTC branding on the bottom. There's an off-center micro USB charging port on the bottom and a 3.5mm audio jack on the top. The left side has a flap that opens to grant access to dual SIM card slots (a rare feature for a US phone) and a microSD card slot which worked fine in testing with our 256GB card.
Similar Products
Samsung Galaxy On5
LG K7
ZTE Avid Plus (MetroPCS)
ZTE Zmax Pro
Samsung Galaxy J7
Motorola Moto G4 Play
LG Stylo 2 Plus
At 5.8 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and a weight of 5.6 ounces, the Desire 530 is a standard size, similar to the On5 (5.6 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches, 5.3 ounces) but heavier than the LG K7 (5.7 by 2.9 by 0.4 inches, 4.9 ounces). Regardless, single-handed use is simple and the sturdy plastic body is comfortable to grip.
You get a 5-inch, 1,280-by-720 display, which, despite matching the 720p resolution and sharpness of the On5 (288ppi), and surpassing the K7's 480p panel (196ppi), is dim and has mediocre viewing angles. The screen washes out when viewed from the sides and even at maximum brightness it's difficult to use in direct sunlight.
Network Performance and Connectivity
A MetroPCS phone, the HTC Desire 530 uses the same cell towers as T-Mobile. It supports LTE bands 2/4/5/7/12/13, which meant strong network performance in midtown Manhattan in our tests, with a top download speed of 14Mbps. The phone supports Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz band and has Bluetooth 4.1.
Call quality is generally good. There's a slight raspy, robotic edge to voices, but transmissions are clear and noise cancellation manages to dampen most background noise aside from wind. Earpiece volume could be a bit louder, but the speakerphone is loud.
HTC BoomSound is enabled when listening through wired headphones, but in testing, we couldn't detect a significant bump in audio quality.
Processor, Battery, and Camera
The Desire 530 is powered by an entry-level Snapdragon 210 processor clocked at 1.1GHz. In AnTuTu benchmarks, which measure overall system performance, the phone scored 23,631, putting it a tier beneath the Exynos 3475-powered On5 (25,753), and several paces behind the Snapdragon 617-powered ZTE Zmax Pro (47,007).
In terms of general performance, it also falls short. There's significant touch-screen latency with presses sometimes taking several seconds to register. Apps are slow to launch, and because the phone only has 1.5GB of RAM, multitasking abilities are limited. In testing, the phone couldn't handle Asphalt 8 Airborne or GTA San Andreas. Stick to less demanding titles like Temple Run.
Battery life isn't great. In our rundown test, the phone lasted for 4 hours, 16 minutes when streaming full-screen video over LTE at maximum brightness. That's a shorter runtime than both the Galaxy On5 (5 hours, 52 minutes) and LG K7 (5 hours, 57 minutes). The battery should still last you most of the day, but the cell isn't removable, which is a disadvantage compared with the On5 and K7.
The 8-megapixel rear camera takes fairly clear shots during the day and in well-lit settings. I found shots to have warmer color reproduction compared with the stark whites of the On5, giving most pictures a more wholesome look. However, the camera fared poorly in low-light settings, often either taking several seconds to focus or blurring out shots. In tests, the camera app was slow and unresponsive, requiring several seconds between shots and to switch camera modes. The phone can record decent video in 720p at 30fps, but footage tends to be muddy and jittery in lower light. The 5-megapixel front facing camera is fine for selfies and video chats, but produces grainy results in low light.
Software
The HTC Desire 530 runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with HTC's Sense UI skin running on top. Most design and visual elements resemble stock Android. The main addition is Blinkfeed, a custom home screen panel accessed when swiping to the left. It brings up highlights, news, weather, updates, suggested apps, and other information relevant to users. It can be disabled if you'd rather use that space for apps.
In terms of bloatware, you have the standard MetroPCS apps, and HTC adds AndroidNEmoji, EmojiOne for Go Keyboard, Facebook, Instagram, Kika Keyboard, Messenger, News Republic, Photo Editor, Textra, Themes, and Zoe Video Editor. The emoji keyboards and Textra can be uninstalled, but the rest like Facebook and Instagram can only be disabled.
Of a total of 16GB internal storage you're left with roughly half, 8.62GB. It's a hefty chunk of space eaten by pre-installed apps, but you can always use a microSD card and format it for internal storage using Marshmallow's Adoptable Storage feature.
Conclusions
The HTC Desire 530 is an affordable and relatively compact entry-level phone on MetroPCS, but its slow performance and dim display makes the Galaxy On5 a stronger option for most users. For $19 less, the On5 gives you a brighter screen, smoother overall performance, and better battery life, though at the cost of reduced internal storage and a weaker camera. However, if you're willing to go up in size, the ZTE Zmax Pro is our Editors' Choice winner among phablets with a snappy processor, a crisp 1080p display, and sharp dual lens camera sensors. At $179 it's the best combination of price and performance for most MetroPCS customers.
The HTC Desire 530 is an affordable MetroPCS phone with a decent camera, but it's held back by slow performance and a dim screen.
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