HTC Desire S Reviews
The HTC Desire can S overshadow its predecessor, the HTC Desire makes us strong impression at the time? More brings this new high range of the Taiwanese manufacturer Android smartphone? All the answers in our test of the HTC Desire
More : well finished, and solid performance, wrapper HTC Sense neat and effective, S – LCD, autonomy, 10.2 without slowing down Flash screen
Less : banal design, camera disappointing below the rest
The HTC Desire first name was the flagship of the range of the Asian constructor to its output. A year after water flowed under the bridge and HTC has diversified its models with particular Desire HD on the giant screen of 4.3 inches. It is the turn now the Desire to receive a true successor: the HTC Desire s. implementation through update or true innovation that this Android smartphone?
Design : a classicism grass
On HTC Desire was a conventional design, the look of the S Desire change does not solve this aspect. Tastes and colors not to discuss course not but it is clear that the Desire S takes the generic design of the range of HTC smartphones at the Mobile World Congress. Aestheticism not of the most original.
Should we complain too much of this form factor? Non. If HTC sacrifice the originality, the Taiwanese manufacturer book a product very well finished, solid and dense with HTC Desire. But at the time where smartphones look strongly their configuration and OS (Android), simply a not very attractive design can be risky to a Galaxy S to more attractive aesthetics.
The HTC Desire S is built with a so-called “unibody” brushed metal hull. The unibody Shell to detach the bottom plastic of the back to reveal the location of the SIM card and battery (with some effort). In the same manner as HTC Legend thus. It is thus possible to replace the battery, not necessarily feasible manipulation with all the smartphones…
In drawing design of HTC Legend, the Desire physical buttons dedicated to navigation in the bones have been replaced by tactile keys, which is not to displease us. The trackpad has also disappeared, HTC conforming strictly to the 4 essential Android buttons (home, menu, previous and research).
Once the smartphone in hand, the density of the HTC Desire is supported by slightly lower than its predecessor dimensions. Indeed, with its 115 x 59.8 x 11.6 mm for a weight of 130 g, it is a little more compact than the Desire while keeping a screen of 3.7 inches. This S – LCD, a camera VGA screen is present. The rear face shows the 5 million pixels camera with LED Flash and the multiaxial.
On the top is taking jack and the lock button. The left side is the volume control button and the Micro-USB port which is not protected. A small cache would have liked to cover this port which remains in the open air and just break the uniformity of the framework. But this is the detail.
The general impression once the HTC Desire S in hand is that it’s a solid mobile and without embellishment in which you can trust.
Good wear components
While the HTC Desire S has been redesigned from the Desire, the components themselves have not fundamentally changed. Thus the Qualcomm QSD8250 1 Ghz chip team the previous model was replaced by a Qualcomm MSM8255, it also dual-core 1 GHz. It is this same chip team S Incredible. The most recent Snapdragon processor is not a good in terms of power (its frequency is always 1 GHz) but is chiseled more finely (45 nm), thereby reducing consumption and for verbatim a gain of substantial autonomy.
This new chip is also more richly equipped with in-RAM: 768 MB Ram now against 576 previously. This is always to taken.
The dorsal camera remains to 5 million pixels while a frontal VGA camera made its appearance.
A fact sheet that fits in sum in the high-end smartphones average failure racing beasts that are the Motorola Atrix or LG Optimus 2 X P990.
User interface : a wrapper that makes Sense
It was already able to rent the HTC Sense interface which we believe is one of the best – if not the best – wrapper for Android (see the HTC Legend and Desire HD test). This is version 2.1 of Sense team S Desire.
S – LCD screen of 3.7 inches with resolution of 480 x 800 pixels brilliantly displays this successful interface. The angles of vision are wide and the contrast is good. Blacks and colors are more well rendered.
The wrapper HTC Sense is very pleasant for two reasons: it has a look & amp; refined feel and is highly customizable. Several overall themes are proposed and widgets are beautifully made. Can navigate among the different pages of home via the classic finger movement, to the right or left but also by pinching with 7 pages in a mosaic. It is intuitive, fluid and very effective.
If you wanted realised, could regret the fact that the new version of Sense, the 3.0, is reserved for HTC Sense
Performance
1 GHz processor running Android 2.3.3 and the wrapper Sense without any slowdown. Navigation is always fluid, even with several applications running at the same time. User experience is so excellent, touch screen dragging and reacting to very well.
The Web navigation takes place smoothly and the HTC Desire S supports Flash 10.2. Playback of Flash does content poses no significant problems.
The camera is equipped with a 5 megapixels sensor, but the S Desire is now able to shoot in 720 p (30 fps) – the Desire was limited to the 800 x 480 pixels. Unfortunately, the quality of the photos is very disappointing, even in good conditions. Photos taken with the smartphone are always too moutonnées (they lack of nose). Damage, the camera has many settings (ISO, detection of faces, retardant, white balance, geo-tagging…) and it is possible to use the physical button dedicated to the volume for zoom in/zoom-even during video recording.
Point black HTC desire, autonomy has been greatly improved on the Desire. In intensive use it beyond the day of use. The new more finely engraved Qualcomm chip is not foreign.
For those interested in benchmarks and diagrams, we refer you to our comparative LG Optimus 2 X vs HTC Desire HD vs Samsung Galaxy S, the HTC Desire S doing the same scores as Desire HD (it is equipped with the same chip). The HTC smartphone outperforms most of the time the Galaxy S.
The telephony part, it suffers no tare.
On paper the HTC Desire S is not the hottest products on the market currently. It has a fact sheet rather mundane at the time where the first smartphones top range dual-core processor begin to point the tip of their nose and a design without contention. But under its traditional garb, the HTC Desire S is a very good smartphone. It is very pleasant to use thanks to its excellent quality of manufacturing combined with the very good wrapper Android HTC Sense.
If you are looking for a not too imposing Android smartphone (everyone did not need a screen 4 inches or more) and without concession, the HTC Desire S is here.
The choice of the Desire will be even more difficult for those who already have a Desire for them to see if this new design with a front camera and a gain of autonomy is worth again to hand the portfolio.
The HTC Desire is available around 100 EUR with a subscription or it can be found naked in a little less than 400 euros (its launch price was fixed at 419 euros).
