Google Nexus 4 vs. HTC Desire 600: How Do They Stack Up?

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC on Thursday officially released the mid-range Desire 600 smartphone in to the Indian handset market, intensifying the price-war among international brands which often sell their mid-range handsets in the ₹20,000 plus price range.

Among the top MNC devices, LG's feature-rich Google Nexus 4 is reported to be the most sought-after phone in the market. What remains to be seen if the new HTC Desire 600 has enough tricks in its sleeve to sway prospective buyers away from its main rival.

Here is a brief comparison of main features between Google Nexus 4 and HTC Desire 600 [Spec-sheet wise]:

Display:

Nexus 4 sports a 4.7-inch WXGA IPS screen panel with a HD 1280x768p resolution and pixel density close to 318 ppi (pixels per inch), whereas the HTC Desire 600 features a super LCD 2 screen with sub-par qHD 540x960p resolution having pixel density close to 245 ppi.

Processor:

In this aspect, Google Nexus 4 once again trumps the HTC device as it boasts of a faster 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor paired with Adreno 320 graphics engine. On the other hand, Desire 600 packs a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with Adreno 302 GPU.

Storage and RAM:

HTC Desire 600 packs 1GB RAM and 8GB memory which can be further expanded up to 64 GB via microSD card, whereas Google Nexus 4 boasts of 2GB RAM and 16GB, but the only disadvantage is that Nexus users will be handicapped with limited memory as the LG handset does not support a microSD card slot.

Camera:

Nexus 4 sports a pretty good 8.0-megapixel camera on the rear side with auto-focus, LED flash, 4X digital zoom and other standard features. On the front side, it flaunts a 1.3-megapixel front camera.

On the other hand, HTC Desire 600 features an 8.0-megapixel camera with LED flash, auto-focus, HTC image chip along with a 1.6-megapixel camera on its front.

Mobile Operating System:

Even though LG-Google and HTC smartphones run on the Android Jelly Bean OS, Nexus 4 has an advantage over Desire 600 as it runs on the pure Android stock OS and will be the first among all other Android smartphones to receive the newly released v4.3 Jelly OS update and any new OS updates in future.

Currently, Nexus 4 runs on Android v4.2 whereas Desire 600 ships with older Android v4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS

Price:

As per recent reports, retail prices of Nexus 4 and Desire 600 are hovering around the same range of ₹25,000. Considering the overall aspects in the spec-sheet, LG-Google phone still holds an edge over HTC's new device.

Here is a breakdown of Key specifications of Google Nexus 4 and HTC Desire 600:

 *Prices vary depending on the market.