But First the Specs
The HTC One S features a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display with 960-by-540 resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 16GB onboard storage with no expansion slot, an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p video capture at 60 frames per second, front-facing camera for video chat, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin), and DLNA compatibility. The device also features the usual HTC additions such as the Sense UI overlay (version 4), Beats Audio, and (available on all HTC One series handsets) 25GB of free Dropbox storage for two years. The One S is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and available on T-Mobile for $200 (after a $50 mail-in rebate) and a new two-year contract.
Love that Camera
PCWorld’s HTC One S Test Video:
Speedy
PCWorld’s benchmark tests found the One S to be faster than the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, our formerly top-rated smartphone.
Great Beats
HTC’s investment in Dr. Dre’s Beats Electronics appears to be paying off for the company in terms of sound quality for its smartphones. The One S reportedly has superb Beats Audio integration for enhanced music listening. GigaOm said “music sounded richer and louder” on the One S, thanks to Beats integration. “Beats signal processing has a dramatic impact on sound quality; more so than equalizer functions on any other smartphone, in my opinion,” said Epstein.
Bloatware
One of the biggest downsides for the One S is the bloatware that T-Mobile and HTC thrust upon users. Some of it will most likely be welcome, such as Dropbox integration, but other things including T-Mobile Mall and T-Mobile TV may not be welcome. Engadget said most of these apps cannot be uninstalled, but Mies said you could at least disable most of these annoying add-ons.
Sense 4
“Sense 4.0 is much subtler than previous versions of the interface. The company has cleared out a lot of unnecessary icons and text that cluttered older versions of Sense,” Mies said.
Sealed Up
Perhaps the biggest disappointment for reviewers was the fact that HTC decided to go the “iPhone route” with the One S by sealing the battery and deciding against an expansion slot. Most critics, however, found the battery life to be great. “I am able to get well over 24 hours of use out of the One S on a single charge,” Epstein said.
PCWorld has yet to complete a full set of battery life tests for the One S.
As for storage, you only get 16GB onboard with no option to expand that capacity with a microSD card. That is unusual for an Android phone, so critics are warning prospective One S users to consider this factor carefully before purchasing the device. On the upside, at least you won’t suffer through those annoying warnings that your phone’s onboard storage space is getting low as often as you do on SD-expandable phones.
HTC’s One S is a winner as far as the critics are concerned, but we’ll have to wait until next Wednesday when the handset hits the streets to see how Android fans react to HTC’s latest smartphone.
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