HTC One S a Less Powerful HTC One Phone

The first thing noticed about the HTC One S phone is that it is built for Ice Cream Sandwich specifically.  The next thing you will notice is that it’s one of the thinnest HTC phones you will ever see.  The downside though is that with its dual core chip instead of quad core though it will probably be seen as the less powerful version of the HTC One X.

Going up against high spec rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy Nexus and LG Optimus 2X does it have what it takes to at least rise high among its rivals? Or will it be a case of go for the more powerful HTC One X instead.

Build

As mentioned this is probably the skinniest HTC phones that has been produced.  It is also very black, with only a hint of colour around the lens for the camera on the back.  Although the phone has an aluminium body it feels more ceramic due to its micro arc oxidation finish, which gives it a snazzy design.  With only the area around the camera being removable so the Sim card can be slotted into the phone it also feel more solid than more Android handsets.  So as well as being thin it also feels tough.

Features

This phone is one of the first to be built for Ice Cream Sandwich so this will of course be one of the main selling points.  HTS also have their Sense 4 interface loaded onto the phone but unlike previous version of sense it is less complicated for the user.  The camera that is included is 8MP with 1080P recording capability but there is only 16GB memory on the phone itself with no expansion slot.  Bluetooth has been upgraded to 4.0 which is more reliable on this phone.

Screen

The screen on the HTS One S uses AMOLED technology which shows excellent colour reproduction and contrast giving colours an added depth.  At a resolution of 540 x 960 it’s not top of the range (the Sony Experia S for example beats it in this department as does the iPhone 4S) but it’s still enough to impress the average user.

Performance

Obviously this phone will not be as fast as the quad-core HTC One X but it still pretty slick when in use.  When skipping between applications there is no obvious lag and everything seems to run smoothly, in fact the performance was a slight improvement on the Galaxy S2 and Nexus.

The camera on the phone is surprisingly good providing quality pictures that are excellent for phone based cameras such as these.  The 1080p recording was seen to be just as good which of course is not a surprise as it uses the same lens.

Verdict

With a built in battery that will cope with all uses for a full day and its stylish design this is one of the top of the range phones on the market.  Not as powerful as the HTC One X obviously, it still has enough power to cope with everything you need and provides an excellent camera.

The inaccessible battery and limited un-expandable memory may be an issue to some but the inclusion of Ice Cream Sandwich pushes the performance of the phone up a notch and provides a solution for people who want the most current technology.

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