HTC Desire S Android smartphone
Gingerbread temptation?
Review The revised version of HTC’s more than capable Desire offers an updated look and runs Gingerbread, the latest Android 2.3 OS. What the Desire S brings to the mix is a faster, more responsive handset with improved keyboards and video calling options, all for a reasonable price.
Android appeal: HTC's Desire S
The casing is made from a single piece of aluminium, rather like HTC’s previous Mozart and Legend – very classy, if a little cold. It’s also in complete contrast to the rubbery countenance of the recent Incredible S. There are a couple of plastic panels at the top and bottom for the aerials and the bottom one is removable for access to your hot-swappable Sim and Micro SD cards.
It’s slightly shorter and lighter than its predecessor at 115 x 60 x 12mm and 130g. The side-mounted features are limited to a micro USB power/sync port and volume rocker, with a 3.5mm headphone jack and power button on top.
The screen is the same at 3.7in with a 480 x 800-pixel resolution – not bad at all, but with screens improving all the time – notably from Apple, Samsung and recently Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc – it would have been nice to see a bit more of an advance in this department.
The hard buttons beneath the screen have been replaced with a touch sensitive strip under the same glass panel, with the usual Android controls: home, menu, back and search.
The OS update brings out the best in the single core CPU
As with each new incarnation of the iPhone, HTC’s flagship all-rounder isn’t so much about revolution as evolution. As expected, the Desire S runs on the latest version of Android for handsets, which offers future-ready enhancements like NFC (Near Field Communication) and SIP calling. Besides the video chat and keyboard improvements, Gingerbread has better cut and paste facilities and promises to speed up the phone’s operation through better memory management and performance enhancements.
Next page: Photo call
COMMENTS
Meh! Soft buttons
What is it with most android phones going the soft button route?? They're crap and they don't work as well as a hard button does.
Living the HTC desire
I got a HTC desire a few months back opting for the standard version over the HD version..
reading this review, I think I would have still made the same choice, and opting for the older (and cheaper) version. All the new stuff appears to be stuff that I would just not be interested in using.. the faster cpu would be nice, but every app I throw at the phone now all work fine. maybe in a years time there will be some really stunning games to play that would benefit from the extra core.
as for the camera. the stock camera software is not good on the old version, but after a trial of camera360 I paid for the premium version, which gives much better results than the stock camera app. (also, get a phone camera lenspen).
as I rooted my desire there are plenty of options to update the ROM software and there are already roms available based on gingerbread and am sure there will be version ported from the desire s to the desire any time soon... I rooted mine to get rid of the customisations that three dump on the phone and reverted to a stock HTC rom. then I found ROM based on a stock desire, but that wll use some of your SD card memory space as system memory to get around the poor limitations on available memory for apps. even on this new desire-s system memory will still be limited !
still,,, the HTC desire is a class phone, the phone that every iphone user if they are honest wishes they had got !
Mines the one wit hthe phone in the pocket that I decide what it can and cant do !!
There is NO NFC on this phone either
Wake up El Reg, this is the second phone you said is NFC ready but it actually isn't!
Just because they come with Gingerbread, which would support it doesn't mean they have the hardware for it!
In this case HTC even said "the extra bulk an NFC module would introduce wasn’t worth it given the limited availability of NFC services."
re: Original Desire.
I still have the Original Desire - I still love the Original Desire.
Yes it has the volume lowering when you pick the phone up - and silencing when you flip it over.
The camera is actually not that bad.
Runs whatever I have thrown at it so far.
My biggest gripe is that even with Froyo, internal space is limited and runs out quickly - but this would be easily overcome if the two biggest apps (facebook and twitter) would allow "Move to SD" instead they sit there consuming upto 20mb of application data which is a pain.
Also a pain is that MOST of the Google apps cannot be installed to SD either!.
What happens next with my phone will depend on what happens when Gingerbread arrives in a few weeks, there are rumours it further reduces the amount of space left in the phone - might be time to root after that.
I am on Three, I love their Network and I got the phone early enough that they had not had a chance to brand it :)
However - my next Android phone WILL be a HTC - but I have another year to go on this contract yet. UNLIMITED DATA + FREE TETHERING - how can anyone not love that? and I am in the middle of the Scottish Borders but I still get HSPDA at 7(ish)mbs woooooo
Double tap zoom with text column
Errr, the stock android browser on my original desire has done this on 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 android versions. I have a vague recollection that my old G1 also did this on 1.6.
