The Dreamy HTC Desire S: A Review

HTC Desire S deals

The HTC Desire S is best seen as an evolving step from the previous year's Desire, rather than as a completely different species. Not much has changed, but the changes are improvements at least (which sadly is not always the case with a supposed upgrade). So what's changed, what's stayed the same, and is it actually any good?

More than You Could Desire?

To skip to the end: yes, it's a good phone. Very good. We were a fan of the Desire and were glad to see that they hadn't changed too much. The user interface for instance, remains excellent. HTC is one of the few manufacturers who have actually made to improve upon the basic Android system. That's one of the differences from the original Desire in fact, as the Desire S has what was then the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread system (since been surpassed of course). The improvements with HTC's proprietary Sense 2.2 technology are small but effective. For instance the quick settings feature set in to the notifications bar at the top is a great addition, as is the simple genius of being able to silence an incoming call just by turning the phone over. The little things which don't sound like much actually considerably increase the pleasure of using this phone.

Other aspects which have remained the same from the original Desire are the screen, which is the same 3.7 inches with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, which to be fair is still good and provides crisp pictures and graphics. If you are looking for something better than that though then you could check out HTC Desire HD deals and get a 4.2 inch HD display.

The processing power of the Desire S stays the same with a 1 GHz processor, although the speed does increase with the upgrade to 768 RAM. Now that there are dual core processors coming out this kind of processing power no longer stands up to the very best out there, but it's more than enough for the vast majority of tasks.

One of the most impressive differences comes in the physical design of the phone. The chassis is made from just a single piece of aluminium, in a unibody design. This makes it feel very solid and classy (access to the battery and sim is available through a small plastic cover which doesn't detract from the feel of solidity).

Web browsing is fast, and with the pre-installed Flash support there's no problem watching videos on the web. The intuitive pinch to zoom feature is also included. No complaints there. The camera is slightly disappointing because it hasn't been upgraded from the 5 megapixel outing on the original Desire. Although you can now record 720p HD video, which is a welcome upgrade. Also, there's a camera on the front of the phone for video-call capabilities (which comes with with the Android Gingerbread OS).

Check out the full specs on the HTC Desire S at the HTC website.

To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade?

If you already have the HTC Desire then the changes made to the HTC Desire S will probably not be significant enough to tempt you to shell out for the upgrades. On the other hand if you're looking for phone deals on a user friendly Android, and you don't need the very top processing power, then it's definitely worth checking out HTC Desire S monthly contract deals. This might not be a market leader, but mid-range smart phones don't come much better than this.