The HTC Desire S combines a uni-body design crafted from a single piece of aluminum, a powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor, large high-resolution display and the Android 2.3 operating system Gingerbread. Basically HTC took the best pieces of the earlier model Desire and made a better Smartphone. The 3.7 inch display is the same size as the original, but the phone is a tad bit smaller than its predecessor. It also weighs 5 grams less than its older sibling, but retains the feel of a solidly build mobile phone.
HTC Desire S, 50 minutes to any network and 150 texts.
Tariff Name: Talk 50 £7.99 (24m), Network Talk Mobile, 24 Month Contract, 50 Anytime Minutes, 150 Free Text Messages, HTC Desire S, Phone Price 215, Total Cost After Discounts £407
Overview
The HTC Desire S runs on the latest Android OS, Gingerbread, which may account for the faster performance than the Desire. That sounds reasonable since the original model and the Desire S both have the same engine, the 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The 3.7-inch Super LCD touchscreen display produces clear, sharp images. There are a few noticeable hardware upgrades over the older Desire. One is that the HTC Desire S has a front-facing 5 megapixel camera and back-facing video camera producing video at 720p@30fp. The optical trackpad and hardware buttons are replaced by the capacitive keys. If you aren’t used to that type of touch response it will take some practice, but you’ll quickly adapt. This phone comes with 768 MB of RAM and fairly generous allotment of storage at 1.1GB. The memory can be expanded with a microSD card up to 32 GB. Speaking of microSD cards, one design inconvenience is that you insert the microSD card under the battery. Not a show stopper, but that can have a better design solution.
The HTC Desire S touchscreen operations are smooth and fluid. The display produces vibrant images, but readability does suffer when you try to view the screen in direct sunlight. Its made of the tough Gorilla Glass that is nearly impossible to scratch. The user interface is HTC Sense UI. The Leap View is rather handy as you can combine all 7 homescreen panes with a pinch gesture. Six homescreens have pre-established widgets to fit the purpose of each screen. For example, the Work homescreen has a stock ticker widget and the Social screen has a Twitter app. All the screens can be customised to fit your needs. Just tap the Personalize button and you’ll have scenes, wallpapers and skins to choose from for customsing your screen. If you are someone who likes to stand out in a room by having unique sounds for phone alarms, ringtones and notifications then you’ll enjoy trolling through the various sounds to select just the right one for your mood.
The HTC Desire S is capable of SMS, MMS, and email messaging. There are apps and widgets for Twitter and Facebook. SMS and MMS messages are displayed in threads and you activate one by tapping the conversation text. You use the on-screen QWERTY keypad to enter text. If you are accustomed to a hardware keyboard you’ll find this easy enough to learn. There’s plenty of display area for the keyboard so you aren’t typing the incorrect keys because everything is too small. Keys are large and well-spaced apart.
There is a 5 megapixel camera that takes still pictures up to 2592×1952 pixel resolution. There is an led FLASH for stills and works for videos too. Video frame rate is at 720p videos @ 30fps.
The HTC Desire S has a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band 3G at 14.4Mbps downlink and 5.76Mbps helped out by HSPA. Wi-Fi is available for local wireless connectivity, but there are issues with signal strength fading out when you hold the phone in landscape mode and your hand covers the camera lens plate. There is a Connected media app that plays media from you DLNA smart devices through the Wi Fi connection.
Features
- 1 GHz Scorpion processor
- OS: Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread), upgradable to v2.3.5; Multi-touch input method
- Band: 2G Quad-band GSM support, 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900; 3G HSDPA 900 / 2100 s
- Memory: 768 MB RAM; 1.1 GB Storage; expandable microSD card up to 32 GB
- Connections: Bluetooth 2.1, microUSB port; Wi-Fi: Yes, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA
- Display: Gorilla Glass, S-LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 3.7-inch ; 480 x 300 pixels
- Camera: 5.0 megapixel; 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
- Video: Yes, 720p@30fp; Secondary camera: yes, VGA
- Radio: Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Dimensions: 115 x 59.8 x 11.6 mm
- Weight: 130 grams
- Battery: Li-ion battery 1450 mAh
- Battery Life in Stand-by Mode: Up to 430 h (2G) / Up to 455 h (3G)
- Battery Life in Talk Time: Up to 9 h 50 min (2G) / Up to 7 h 10 min (3G)
Pros
- Faster processor
- Gorilla glass touch to scratch
Cons
- All touchscreen keys; hard buttons or optical trackpad
- Backlight doesn’t always light up when you touch the screen
- Some glare off the screen in direct sunlight
- Wi-Fi signal may degrade if the top of the phone is covered
Wrapping up, the HTC Desire S phone includes improvements to the OS (Gingerbread), camera (5MP) and sweet unibody construction. The experience with use and tweaks to personalize the phone was positive. The processor is still a single processor, but the phone was fast even at that.