Hardware

This device has several elements right on the surface that make it live up to the HTC legacy that is high-quality delivery of Android starting with the manufacturer. Up front you’ll find that the 4.3-inch AMOLED display sits at qHD resolution, 960 x 540 pixels strong, and has fabulous viewing angles all around. This is partially because HTC has opted for optical lamination to bond the AMOLED panel to the fascia glass, this allowing the actual lights to sit closer to the surface of the phone as they’re able.

The glass along the front is Gorilla Glass and is mainly flat with some extremely smoothly integrated plastic sides making it seem like the front panel bends over and down the sides, making for a comforting experience across the full front, left and right of the device. The rest of the device is made up of three panels, the topmost being able to be removed to reveal a micro-SIM card. This device is the international edition of the device meaning that if you’re using it in the USA, you’ll be wanting to pick up micro-SIM from AT&T or T-Mobile to get data outside of Wi-fi.

The back panels, each of the, are made up of one of two kinds of finished metals: grey “Graded Anodization” or black “Ceramic Metal”. We’ve got the latter of the two here, it being featured as part of a video series on how fantastic the HTC One series is. This is because the Ceramic Metal is made what it is with Micro Arc Oxidation, a process in which the metal is bathed in plasma and electrocuted. This terrifying process makes the metal temporarily “hotter than the sun”, resulting in an oxidized surface that makes sure you need no 3rd party protective casing to protect it. It also feels fantastically high quality to hold and use on a daily basis.

The top of the device has a small space for you to be able to pop it off to access your micro-SIM, this sitting beside a mic hole, headphone jack, and power button. On the right of the phone is an extremely low-profile volume control (up/down) which is nearly too small to detect – but once you’ve used it a couple times, you’ll realize how little you miss that extra space between the surface and the tops of the buttons. The bottom has another mic hole (this in combination with the first resulting in noise cancellation for better audio recording), and the left has a simple microUSB port.

The back of the device also features the HTC logo pushed down into the metal in the center as well as a tiny Beats Audio logo near the bottom panel, the bottom panel having the micro-perforated holes which allow the Beats-enhanced audio to exit the device into the palm of your hand and reverberate out unto the world. HTC also mentions that Beats is integrated into this system through the headphone jack as well – and indeed we are hearing the base-heavy overall decent audio quality we’ve come to expect from these brands working together.

The top back of the device also features a red-ringed camera lens aside a single LED flash – this is the 8-megapixel camera which HTC notes has its own dedicated silicon inside to back it up, and indeed we are seeing some quality images and video the likes of which we’re comparing only to the quality we’ve seen in the Galaxy S II series from Samsung and the iPhone 4S. More on that later in the review.

HTC Sense 4.0

The next level user interface being released by HTC here with the One series is the fourth full version “Sense 4.0.” This version includes integration with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich set of capabilities like facial recognition for your lock screen, live dictation (just so long as you’re connected to the web or mobile web), and the full gamut of Google-made Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tuned apps.

Have a peek here at the applications that come with the device right out of the box – and remember that this is the international version of the device so you won’t see any carrier-added apps, only apps added by HTC on top of the standard Google set of apps. Noticeably missing is Google Music, which of course you can easily download from the Google Play App Store, but the selection of HTC-added music apps cannot be overlooked.

Sense 4.0 provides the same great set of modification abilities you’ve gotten with HTC devices for the past few generations, that being in a system app by the name of Personalize. Here you’ll have the ability to create several different homescreen setups if you wish, one for home, one for work, one for play, each of them with different apps and widgets on your standard set of 7 homescreens. HTC provides here the best out-of-box customizability of any of the manufacturers on the market today.

HTC’s widgets are second to none, and HTC has chosen here to separate them out from the apps to their own area. Where the vanilla version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has a home screen shortcut to wallpapers, this same shortcut – holding your finger down on an empty spot on a home screen – will bring you to HTC’s widgets. This screen also gives you shortcuts to certain apps and app icons to place on any homescreen as well. Access to this area also exists in Personalization.

Car Mode is updated to its simplest and most aesthetically pleasing form ever, Sense 4.0 providing you with a set of controls you’ll be able use easily with a car dock. Connected apps work in car mode as well, each with modified capabilities like instant directions from where you are physically located in Navigation.

This Car Mode video as well as the two other hands-on videos above should give you a fairly decent idea of how quick the device handles everyday tasks. See the Benchmarks below to get another perspective on things, then see the Gaming video even later in the review to see the real fury – it’s hot!

Software / Benchmarks

The software you get on this version of the HTC One S (international version) includes several music apps which each work together to bring the quality of the Beats Audio integrated throughout the device to the ear. Included here are HTC’s basic music player for music files you have on your device, SoundHound, TuneIn Radio, and 7digital. SoundHound appears several times in the other music apps, it there to allow you connections to related music which you can then purchase.

TuneIn allows you to extremely easily listen to streaming radio stations from around the world, and 7digital is a music store which HTC trusts to bring you sweet music galore. Expect these apps to perhaps exist in the USA version for T-Mobile as well, with some changes inevitable via T-Mobile’s requests – we’ll see! For now, this is a healthy set of music apps that work with one another to bring you the beats one way or another constantly.

HTC also includes a set of multimedia viewers, they connecting with HTC Watch, an app we’ve seen before which has HTC selling and renting out full-length video at high quality resolution. Play your movies and flip through photos with Media Share, a wireless ability offered up by HTC to bring wireless connecting and live sharing from your device to your HDTV. This function works perfectly well, and for those of you without the necessary equipment but with an MHL converter cord, you can plug that into your microUSB (MHL) v2.0 and convert to HDMI, this providing you with high definition output to your HDTV again.

Watching videos also has a new set of controls including a built-in screenshot function (in addition to the two you’ve also got built-in with Sense and Android 4.0, imagine that!) Check this screenshot out from Escape from the Planet of the Apes – high definition!

After that it’s all smooth sailing with, again, Sense modified Android 4.0 bringing HTC’s greatest user experience yet. This is the first device released to the market with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor, aka Krait, this particular iteration numbered MSM8260A. Its performance utterly fabulous as you’ve seen in the hands-on videos above as well as the benchmarks here below.

And all this without heat – there’s been an absolutely unbelievable lack of heat emanating from this device the entire time I’ve used it. Qualcomm and HTC have created an experience here that’s bypassed the heat we’ve otherwise gotten used to in high-functioning smart devices.

This device makes every other smartphone I’ve used in the past seem sluggish. Ice Cream Sandwich allows you to switch between apps or knock apps out completely with your Recent Apps button – but you wont need to shut any apps down to work with app on top of app on top of app – there is slowdown (you can see it if you open many apps and run the benchmarks above) – but you won’t notice it in everyday app activities.

Gaming

Have a peek at this hands-on video to see a few games being played with great success. The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 is more than ready to bring dual-core goodness to the Android gaming world and take on any game that developers are able to throw at it so far.

This video also shows once again the power of the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor in action in that for the entirety of the video we’ve got no less than 6 applications open at the same time. As the video progresses, more games are opened and performance remains superb.

Camera

The camera is one of the biggest selling points of the HTC One series, and here with the One S you’ll find a camera experience that’s more diverse than any you’ve used before. There are more built-in effects and adjustments here in the stock HTC photo app than in any other stock app that’s come out thus far, and certainly trumps what the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has with vanilla Android 4.0, and the results are, it goes without saying, one whole heck of a lot better in the gallery. First have a look at the camera experience in this video:

Then have a peek at a compilation of videos filmed with the 1080p-capable video camera, some of them filmed during the video you’ve just watched! Here you’ll see some general awesomeness in fair lighting conditions, some dark, and even some super slow-motion work – a new special effect right out of the box here on the One S!

Then here come the photos. With the brand new HTC Image Chip integrated here in the One S, there’s been a dramatic photo quality improvement that cannot be denied. HTC devices over the past year have done a generous job with photos, no doubt about it, but these images take the cake – then run a mile with it.

We’ll be doing additional posts on the photo quality of the HTC One series, but for now all you need to know that you’ve not seen in the video above is this: this camera takes less than a second to start up, can take photos extremely fast (while taking them extremely well), and the camera interface is intuitive enough that anyone could operate it. That’s important for your great aunt Bessie when she’s asked to take the family photo with your smartphone – she’ll be able to do it!

Also included here and in the gallery below are several examples of odd shots taken with the HTC One S including low-light situations and photos taken during video. Each image is identified with a tag telling how it was captured.

Battery

Here with the HTC One S running with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 processor, we’ve got better power savings than we’ve seen in most phones on the market thus far. Expect epic battles to go on from this point forward between the S4 and NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core 4-PLUS-1 processor for battery time, especially given that chipset’s fifth core kicking in when the rest aren’t needed. Have a peek here at an average day’s work. Mobile data on all day, messages coming in, games played, wars won, and everything else that comes with relatively heavy use:

The closest we’ve seen to this battery time on a smartphone has been the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II – that being the one closest to the original Galaxy S II which was, like this version of the HTC One S, an international version. As far as we can tell thus far, this device, thanks to the Snapdragon S4, will be running at least as long as any other device on the market on minimal charges. The screenshot you see above shows how I took this device off the charger in the morning and each time I put it in my pocked (aka when the screen is off), the battery drain essentially drops to zero.

Wrap-Up

Here in the HTC One S we find that HTC is certainly living up to the promise that they’ll be coming in strong in 2012 with a hero series of phones. The HTC One S also reminds us that HTC was once the king of high-quality hardware for Android, and indeed here again they do regain that crown – bringing a device (and a series of devices) whose features fit together so well that they’re more than ready to take on the rest of the top-tier devices in the industry. I’m honestly having a tough time attempting to find any faults in this device as it’s quit honestly impressed me enough to say that HTC has completely redeemed themselves from last year.

Though last year didn’t have HTC jamming out win after win, they did have some proving themselves to do here in 2012 – and they’ve done it. It’s as simple as that. Have a peek at the gallery of images below for additional software and hardware shots, feel free to ask additional questions in the comments section below, then prepare for the USA version of the HTC One S coming soon! Also be sure to check out our review of the HTC One X today as well – just as hot!

Device Specifications and Information

Device Info

Device Name : One S

Manufactuer : HTC

Carrier : NA

Announced Date : February 26, 2012

Release Date : April 25, 2012

Also Known As :

Display

• Screen Size : 4.3 Inch
• Resolution : 540x960
• Screen Type : Super AMOLED

Dimension & Weight

• Height : 5.15 Inch
• Width : 2.56 Inch
• Depth : 0.31 Inch
• Weight : 120 Grams

Battery & Power

Battery Type:
• Lithium Ion

• Battery Capacity : 1650 mAh
• Talk Time : NA
• Stand By Time : NA

Software

Android OS:
• 4.0.x

Audio Playback:
• AAC
• AAC+
• MID
• MP3
• WAV
• WMA

Video Playback:
• h.263
• h.264 / AVC
• MPEG-4 (MP4)

Messaging:
• SMS
• MMS

Hardware

CPU : Snapdragon S4

CPU Clock Speed : 1500 Mhz

Core : 2

Ram : 1024 MB

Internal Storage : 16 GB

Front Facing Camera :

Camera Resolution : 8 MP

External Storage:
• MicroSD

Camera Features:
• Auto focus
• Flash
• 1080p Video Recording

Sensors:
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light
• Proximity

QWERTY :

Cellular Network

Network Technology:
• GSM

GSM Band:
• 850
• 900
• 1800
• 1900

CDMA Band:
• 1700
• 2100

Device Connectivity

Wi-Fi:
• 802.11b
• 802.11g
• 802.11n

Bluetooth:
• Bluetooth 3.0

Location Features:
• Compass
• GPS
• Cellular location
• Wi-Fi location

FM Radio :

NFC :

To pre-order your device, just walk into a Best Buy and reserve your One X for $50.00. You’ll get that back of course, unless you decide to take your name off the waiting list. This AT&T version will sport a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 processor instead of the NVIDIA Tegra 3. This was purely due to LTE incompatibility on the Tegra 3, or else we’d probably see it included on both versions.

The HTC One X will ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) skinned with HTC Sense 4.0, so depending on when it’s finally released, it may have the latest version of Android for at least a little while. Android 5.0 is quickly approaching, so we’ll see how quickly HTC will be able to update these devices to the latest. They were the most prestigious Android manufacturer for quite some time, so let’s see if they can pull it together with this new strategy and offer its customers the best experience possible.

[via DroidLife]

We went hands on with the Samsung Galaxy Note from AT&T, and presented an unboxing and some overall first impressions. There’s no question that it’s an amazing device, but its size will likely not appeal to the average user. And on the other side of the spectrum, many will find it was just what they’ve been waiting for. Many are surprised to see the stylus come back in play, but with such great, new capacitive screens – the new-age stylus is much more comfortable to use. We’d also managed to get a hands-on and unboxing up of Lenovo’s IdeaPad A1.

The Motorola DROID 4 was rooted this week, but just recently a developer had managed to find an exploit that allows a ‘one-click-root’ to any current Motorola device running either Gingerbread or Honeycomb. The method was originally meant to root the DROID XYBOARD, but to everyone’s surprise it worked universally.

Sources say the Samsung Epic 4G Touch could be the first GSII device to receive Android 4.0. And when the first GSII device finally receives it, you know the others will soon follow. Hopefully it hits before Android 5.0 (Jelly Bean) is rolled out in the 2nd quarter of this year. And with Quadrant Benchmark finally updated for ICS support – it’s going to be great seeing how the new OS compares.

Finally, be sure to stay tuned for Android Community’s WIMM Spring Developers Project. We’ve already given away three WIMM developer packages, and there are many more changes to win throughout next week. Contest entry is simple: Just let us know some great application ideas and/or features that should be implemented into the WIMM One.

Connectivity includes 3G, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0, while there’s a microUSB port and a microSD card slot to augment the minimal 483MB ROM. The 1,230 mAh battery is hidden behind a soft-touch, rubberized rear cover, initially available in black or blue though HTC tells us they’ll have alternative colors soon.

The camera is a mere 3-megapixel unit, further example of what HTC told us was a “focus on device expectations, not specifications” but what’s really more likely to be the result of building to a strict budget. Pre-pay users and cash-short students are the expected audience, with HTC adding a “data monitor” app which can keep track of how much data, SMS and calls you’ve used. Unfortunately – for the user, at least, not the carrier – the app won’t actually pop up and warn you when a limit is about to run out, you’re expected to check it manually, and there’s no homescreen widget at this stage.

Otherwise the only app of note in the updated Sense 3.5 is “Best Deals”, HTC’s interpretation of the local deals market. Unfortunately we weren’t able to test that in our pre-briefing with the Explorer.

The HTC Explorer is expected to go on sale in Europe and Asia from October 2011. Pricing will depend on market.

Update: Vodafone UK tells us they’ll be offering the Explorer, though still no word on how much.

Looking for an affordable smartphone capable of Verizon’s incredibly fast 4G speeds? The Pantech Breakout was officially announced on Verizon Wireless for $100 with a two year service contract. Though this device may not give you the same speed and functionality available on their recently released DROID Bionic, it is indeed much cheaper. The HTC Rhyme is also scheduled to debut on Verizon soon; Chris Burns went hands-on with the phone Tuesday. As the name suggests, one would expect the Rhyme to ship with Beats integration, yet this was not the case within our hands-on coverage. The Rhyme will run HTC’s Sense 3.5 UI, which is now said to incorporate a free 5GB of free Dropbox storage.

Google Wallet went live this Monday and is now available for all Nexus S 4G devices. Currently, only Citi and Mastercard users can link to the service. However, Visa, American Express, and Discover will all support Google Wallet in due time. It will surely be supported by the next generation Nexus device, so Google Wallet’s potential may rise from spread popularity. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is now rumored to arrive before the DROID Prime on Verizon’s network with a launch date of November 3rd. Verizon normally launches devices on Thursdays – so this very well may be accurate.

If the tablets released as of late have been slightly too small for your taste, then maybe the Android MegaPad 23″ life-sized tablet may be of interest to you. Within the video demonstration, it’s easy to see how adapting Android to such a large tablet is such a good idea. Two other awesome gadgets previewed this week were the Sphero robotic ball and the TankBot micro-vehicle. Both of these are remotely controlled by your Android device! Who wouldn’t want to control a tiny ball around their house with Android or iOS device?

Even though Android 2.4 Ice Cream Sandwich hasn’t even hit devices yet, Notion Ink has confirmed it will be running on their Adam slate this October. This may very well fall through, as Notion Ink previous history hasn’t complemented their ability to follow through with their customers. Finally, Amazon has just recently started sending out invitations to their press event in NYC come September 28! Could this be the introduction to a long awaited (and affordable) Android tablet? The majority of us hope so!

If you’re out of LTE coverage, then the Raider 4G is also good for up to 21Mbps 3G downloads or 5.76Mbps uploads. There’s also WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, and all the usual sensors you’d expect, along with an 8-megapixel rear f/2.2 camera with dual-LED flash and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera. Full HD video recording is supported. OS is Android Gingerbread with HTC Sense on top.

HTC will also offer the Raider 4G with an optional DMB dongle, allowing owners to tune into digital TV broadcasts when in South Korea. The whole thing measures 128.8mm x 67mm x 11.27mm and weighs 163.8g with its 1620 mAh battery. No word on pricing or availability internationally at this stage, though AT&T is tipped to get the Raider 4G at some point.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

So here’s the long and short of it: the HTC Runnymede is the shorter of the more stout of the two devices and will be called the HTC Bass. The HTC Bliss, aka the one with the metal strip in the middle, will be called the HTC Rhyme. With the names both having to do with music and the HTC Bass literally having the beatsaudio logo on the center bottom back, we can very safely assume that these will be amongst HTC’s newest recruits for the Beats-laden future of HTC handsets. With the event happening next week, we can also assume we’ll be seeing both of these devices.

What’s more is that in addition to the notion that the Sensation XE, a new edition of the HTC Sensation, would be the first on the block to get beatsaudio audio fidelity. This was recently trumped on the hack side by some developers who’ve craftily installed beatsaudio on the Desire HD pre-software launch. The same goes for the brand new look at HTC Sense, version 3.5 that is, which has been floating around the block for a couple weeks now.

Will the combination of the two plus this lovely new hardware be enough to entice you to join the HTC Android pack – or if you’re already running with the pack, will these devices keep you a wolf?

[via SlashGear]

The largest change you’re going to find here is the complete disappearance of the long standing three-button Sense launcher bar normally sitting at the bottom of your display. Instead you’ll have a completely separate app drawer and phone keys. There’s a brand new ability to add and remove homescreens now, and Widgets have been tweaked as well. Smells nice, doesn’t it?

What we’re seeing here is an upgrade to what yours truly considers one of the better out of the box user interfaces delivered by a manufacturer since Android began. Sense 3.0 has treated this team quite well, this upgrade to 3.5 is set to be the buffed-up and much more magical version of a winner. Expect to see this user interface on the HTC Holiday (aka HTC Raider), the HTC Vigor, the HTC Bliss, and maybe even the HTC EVO Design 4G. Be there!

[via TechCrunch]

What you’re actually looking at above and below is the app installed on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 – this is done because the tablet has instant screenshot capabilities which made taking such photos quite easy, but also to demonstrate how capable this app is of working on any Android platform. Agile lock is available on the market [as a free download on the Android Market] or you can get the paid version as well. What you’ll get with the paid version is a trade of one dollar and fifty cents for all the options under the sun.

There’s even a bug fix for those using CyanogenMod 7 – that means these developers are in the know, if you know what I mean. This lockscreen allows for four app shortcuts to be set above the unlock ring, each of them dragged into the ring resulting in them instantly launching. This is the same as the HTC version – where it differs is in the multiple options you’ve got for the screen above the shortcuts. You can add widgets galore – widgets that can be placed anywhere WITHOUT a grid restriction like the rest of Honeycomb, mind you.

You’ve gotta go grab this app right now. It works right out of the box to replace whatever lockscreen you’ve got, or you can easily shut it off, and it works on every Android version under the sun from what we can see at the moment: [Agile Lock on the Android Market] – go forth and unlock!

This location will also be the place where developers will be able to access all HTC SDKs as well as features available through HTC in the future. This is also the place where you’re going to be able to grab the HTC S3D SDK, allowing you to create applications made specifically for the HTC EVO 3D environment. Another site-specific feature download here is the HTC Pen SDK which will allow you to make further customized apps with HTC Scribe technology (as seen on the HTC Flyer and HTC EVO View 4G.

Furthermore, you’ll be able to pick up kernel source codes for all HTC products AND this will be the home for all of your sweet bootloader unlocking instructions. More than likely you’ll want to bookmark this site as it’ll be the place you’re going to want to go to get every and all things HTC developer – they’ve even got an HTCpro section that’ll show you how to turn your business into a mobile experience, creating your own apps for your own situations. There’s a knowledge base, resources up the wazoo, and it’s all designed very, very nicely.

We’ll of course be providing you with all links inroad to this portal when they release any new info too, so stick around Android Community as well!

This isn’t really all that surprising as HTC is the king of custom user interfaces with the highly popular HTC Sense UI. I personally love stock vanilla Android on both Gingerbread and Honeycomb myself. We can expect to see some sort of HTC Sense on the Puccini that is for sure, but we are also seeing loads of AT&T bloatware. As long as they don’t pre-load this thing with Bing I’ll be okay.

We do have the split keyboard layout we have been seeing as of late and I like the look. The new Wifi icon and menu button on screen in the image above are a little odd though.

We wont show you all of the bloatware but you can see plenty of AT&T branded apps pre-installed above. I counted like 5 straight off the back and then gave up on looking for more. Pre-installed apps are to be expected so we just have to deal with the bloatware. The HTC custom UI should bring plenty of improvements and fancy designs but we wont know until we see more but here is a small preview of the settings pane.

HTC has been known for their colorful icons in settings menus etc on most Android handsets and we have no reason to believe differently for a tablet. Clearly we can see the similar UI idea’s in the above image.

We don’t know a lot about these screenshots or how close they are to being a final build, we will probably see more eventually that might shed more light on HTC’s upcoming tablet and Honeycomb UI. Interesting shots and I can’t wait to see more.

[via PocketNow]

Before we continue, let’s have a look at our hands-on video so you know how incredibly handheld this device is, how the UI is looking, and what’s under the boot. This video shows yours truly taking the device out of the box for the first time as well as starting it up and exploring the contents:

Hardware

This being the smallest HTC device on the block, one might think that it’s squished, tinier than it aught to be, too small for Android. While this may be true of the competition whose devices are essentially the same size with basically have the pixel resolution in the display, here the HTC crew have provided a start screen for such a small device on a TFT display that looks rather bright and nice. The only complaint I’ve got about interactivity is the small area in which now the four Android menu buttons and the buttons at the bottom of the display (for apps, phonecalls, whatever you might put there.) This area has many different things now in very close proximity, a situation where a person with above-average sized fingers might find tapping to be rather inaccurate.

On the other hand, the rest of the display is just the right size for tiny computing. As this device is rolling out with a 600Mhz processor on a single-core chip, we won’t be using it for too many high-quality apps. On the other hand, its size and its ability to use music apps like Spotify and DoubleTwist (a shortcut for DoubleTwist is included on the device out of the box), this handset is perfect for day-to-day media interaction. The speaker is loud, the construction is creak-free, and the plastic making up most of the casing is not quite as nice as HTC usually comes out with, but isn’t the worst we’ve seen as far as quality goes either. Having the ability to get a different color combination in this device is a plus as well.

Software and Performance

In your apps drawer, you’ll find your usual set of Google-set items including the Android Market, FM radio, Camera and Camcorder, and easy to use apps such as Gallery, Calculator,Music, Phone, and Peep for your Twitter activity. You’ve also got Slacker radio built in for some streaming music action, HTC’s Weather app for some excellent and totally simple GPS-location-based weather reports, and “My Device” which will give you, the new-to-smartphones user a full guide on how to get acquainted with your new device.

You’ll find that you’re able to run the simplest apps plus a few slightly-higher-functioning apps like Angry Birds without a hitch. Unfortunately the internal storage on this device is relatively low, and it’s not immediately apparent to brand NEW to Android users how to push their content over to their external memory, that being the 2GB microSD card that comes with the device. Once they DO figure out such a thing, then do the smart thing and upgrade to a much larger 32GB card, they’ll be doing just fine from that point forward.

As far as performance goes, you’ll not find the Wildfire S winning any contests, but the results are certainly OK for a 600Mhz single-core, that’s for sure.

Camera and Battery

The camera quality is OK, certainly no competition for the higher-range 8 megapixel cameras we’ve seen come out over the past few months. A 5-megapixel camera on the back of the device takes decent photos and 640×480 video at 24fps. Made for sharing, looks pretty good for day to day activities, not made for professional capture, if you know what I mean. Have look here:

Wrap-Up

This is THE perfect phone for a new Android user. Not only will they be treated to an easy to use interface with the fun extra bits HTC offers (such as the world-renowned weather widget, of course,) they’ll have a tiny screen with bright colors and relatively sharp picture to do it with. This device will both impress a new-to-smartphone user and make them wanting more Android in the future. Not only that, they’ll want to stick with HTC because of the ease in using that one single big time draw: the weather widget again! Customization is tuned directly to new users, and with such a compact device that’s not much bigger (and in some cases smaller) than feature phones on the market today, they’ll want to continue sizing up.

In addition, those who’ve used Android in the past and want to down-size for one reason or another would be wise to take a peek at the Wildfire S. Because I’ve got more than one Android device sitting around here for testing, i plan on using this little beast for short trips and those that I don’t plan on being out of the house for more than a couple hours. Email, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, photos, video, and all the rest of my basic communications work on here just fine, leaving only big-screen interactions like video chat (this device doesn’t have a front-facing camera) and video viewing for the bigger guns. Well done, HTC, what a cutie!

As you may already know, this device was announced with the rest of the HTC devices in one giant swoop earlier this year at Mobile World Congress (that being February 15, 2011.) It’s the smallest of the bunch, of course, and is made to compete directly with such devices as the LG Optimus U and V plus the Samsung Exhibit 4G, Gravity Smart, and the Dart – and don’t forget the Pantech Crossover, of course. But what none of these competitors have is something only HTC can offer: Sense. HTC Sense is what amounts to one of the hottest user interfaces on the Android market, and by the looks of it, HTC knows it.

With the Wildfire S you’re going to get a mid-range device with a top-range display and interface. While the plastic used to make the back casing of the handset isn’t as soft or as nice to hold as devices like, say, the HTC Sensation, it’s still well molded and in that it comes off all in one piece to reveal a simple spot for battery, SIM card, and microSD (2GB out of the box upgradable to 32GB), this device seems like a quick winner. We’re going to put this device through some hoops then get back to you on what the final verdict is.

Meanwhile here’s a question for you: what questions about the device would you like answered? Anything in particular you’d like to know?

Device Specifications and Information

Device Info

Device Name : Wildfire S

Manufactuer : HTC

Carrier : T-Mobile Vodafone

Announced Date : February 15, 2011

Release Date : April 27, 2011

Also Known As :

Display

• Screen Size : 3.20 Inch
• Resolution : 320x480
• Screen Type : TFT

Dimension & Weight

• Height : 3.99 Inch
• Width : 2.34 Inch
• Depth : 0.49 Inch
• Weight : 105 Grams

Battery & Power

Battery Type:
• Lithium Ion

• Battery Capacity : 1230 mAh
• Talk Time : NA
• Stand By Time : 360 hours

Software

Android OS:
• 2.3.x

Audio Playback:
• AAC
• AAC+
• AMR
• MID
• MP3
• WAV
• WMA

Video Playback:
• 3GP
• MPEG-4 (MP4)
• WMV

Messaging:
• SMS
• MMS

Hardware

CPU : S1

CPU Clock Speed : 600 Mhz

Core : 1

Ram : 512 MB

Internal Storage : .512 GB

Front Facing Camera :

Camera Resolution : 5 MP

External Storage:
• MicroSD
• MicroSDHC

Camera Features:
• Auto focus
• Flash

Sensors:
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light
• Proximity

QWERTY :

Cellular Network

Network Technology:
• GSM

GSM Band:
• 850
• 900
• 1800
• 1900

Device Connectivity

Wi-Fi:
• 802.11b
• 802.11g
• 802.11n

Bluetooth:
• Bluetooth 3.0

Location Features:
• Compass
• GPS
• Cellular location
• Wi-Fi location

FM Radio :

NFC :

For Q2 2011 the company shipped 11 million smartphones total. That 11 million figure is more than twice the number it sold in the same quarter of last year. The strong demand in the US and Asia offset the reduced demand in Europe for the smartphone. Asia in particular is expected to drive a higher growth rate throughout the year with solid gains in the US expected as well.

I wonder though how much of the sales of HTC smartphones with Sense are more to do with them only coming with the UI installed. If you have the same phone at the same carrier for the same price and could get it with or without Sense installed, which would you buy? I bet the purists that like to mod and hack their phone would certainly want the Sense free version.

[via Infosyncworld]

OS is Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense 3.0, and there have been a few tweaks made to suit the 3D capabilities. We met up with HTC last week to discuss the EVO 3D, and the company told us that, while it could have made the whole UI 3D, after tests it decided to keep things predominantly 2D as the third dimension was unnecessarily distracting. HTC Watch will offer 3D video content to buy (some territories will get a preloaded copy of The Green Lantern in 3D), though there won’t be any 3D games at launch; HTC tells us that they’re in the pipeline. 3D photos can be easily sent to users with non-3D devices as 2D versions, meaning backward compatibility.

Otherwise, the HTC EVO 3D has dualband HSPA/WCDMA supporting up to 14.4Mbps downloads and up to 5.7Mbps uploads (network depending), a microUSB port that supports MHL HDMI (with 3D output if your screen can handle it) and both WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. There’s 1GB of user-accessible ROM and 1GB of RAM, along with a microSD card slot, and the whole thing weighs in at 170g and measures 126 x 65 x 12.05 mm, though the blunt edges make it feel a significantly bigger, heavier device than the curved Sensation. We do like the dedicated camera button and physical switch for toggling between 2D and 3D modes.

As for the bootloader, since the EVO 3D was in development while the decision to open up future HTC devices to third-party ROMs was made, it’s not clear what will happen. HTC told us that’s still being discussed internally, and that it’s “not as simple” as throwing a switch on production units. Pricing is also to be decided, though it’ll likely come in alongside the Sensation.

For more on the HTC EVO 3D, check out our full review of the US version, which – radios aside – is functionally identical.

Like the Sensation, there’s a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of internal storage and an 8-megapixel main camera with autofocus and a dual-LED flash, capable of recording 1080p HD video. Up front is a 1.3-megapixel camera, and there’s MHL HDMI support for the USB 2.0 connection. HTC also throws in GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD card slot.

Connectivity includes both HSPA/WCDMA and WiMAX (WiBro) support, along with quadband GSM/EDGE. There’s HTC’s Sense UI on top of Android, complete with HTC Watch for renting or purchasing video content, DLNA wireless streaming, stereo speakers and more. No word on when it will launch in Korea, nor indeed when it might make it to North America.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

This device has a 540 x 960 pixel resolution 4.3 inch 3D S-LCD display set in a 126 x 65 x 12.1 mm chassis with a weight of 170 g total. If you’ll recall, we’ve had our hands on this device before, even going so far as to literally compare the size of it to the HTC ThunderBolt! Now we’ve got another HTC device in the house, that being the dual-core HTC Sensation 4G with it’s ultra-fancy chassis and Sense 3.0 with excellent new widgets and lockscreen in tow. Turns out the HTC EVO 3D has all that and more! Let’s dive in and see if it adds up.

First Impressions

What we’re dealing with is a hot 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8660 chipset. We’ll see soon enough. This device also comes packed with what’s basically the greatest 3D enabled game on the market today: Spider-Man! But wait, it’s not the full version, you’ll have to buy the full version via Gameloft – but you’ll be able to pay on your phone bill! That’s practically free! Look for a demo inside the hands-on below – it’s fabulous! Go Gameloft!

On the back of this device you’re going to find the dual-camera magic. That’s right, a 5-megapixel 2560х1920 pixel resolution, autofocus, dual-LED flash having camera that’ll be able to take stereoscopic photos (2 MP only) & videos with geo-tagging. Can you believe it?! There’s also a 1-megapixel camera on the front. Use it!

Now let’s have a look at some benchmarks. As you can see, this device does indeed hold its own directly out of the box. Want to compare these marks to the HTC Sensation which also JUST came out? Have a look at our full review! I think you’ll find the results to be tantalizing.

Now this device does have 1 GB storage and 1 GB RAM, but it also has a microSD port under the battery cover. While the HTC EVO 3D comes with a relatively small 8GB card out of the box, you’ll be able to upgrade that to a 32GB card if you wish in the future, per the standard for high-end phones these days. There’s a microSD port, a headphone jack, volume up and down, power button / lock, and that’s it – oh wait! There’s a couple additions that you RAREly see on HTC devices. First, a dedicated camera button. Not only does this button exist, it’s gigantic compared to buttons of old. Nice and big and metal and round, this makes the device seem as though it was made to take photos and video. Fancy that! Then there’s a 2D/3D switch which thus far appears to only function inside your camera mode. Games you’ll be switching on your own the old fashioned way.

Also of note – that microUSB port is also MHL enabled, this meaning that all you’ll need is an official converter and you’ll be outputting to HDMI in no time. That combined with the fact that this device has basically everything that the Sensation has and, again, more, should have your mouth watering in all sorts of ways.

On the other hand, the casing on the Sensation is going to be a doozy to beat, it’s ever so lovely.

Stay tuned with us here on Android Community as we continue to take a look at this device in more ways than one, crowning our looks off with a review or two VERY soon!

“To resolve Desire’s memory issue and enable the upgrade to Gingerbread, we will cut select apps from the release” HTC has revealed on its Facebook page. The exact nature of the apps that will be missing is unknown, as is whether they’ll be from HTC’s own Sense line-up or software Google normally distributes with Gingerbread itself. “Look for status updates starting next week” HTC promises,  ”we apologize for any confusion.”

HTC announced earlier this week that it had deleted the Desire’s Gingerbread update from the roadmap, after software engineers discovered they were unable to fit both the OS and Sense into a ROM that offered “the HTC Sense experience you’ve come to expect.” The news met with an unsurprising amount of vitriol from owners, with threats that they would boycott HTC’s future devices and accusations that it was a marketing move rather than an engineering one.

We’re checking with HTC now to see if they can tell us either which apps are on the firing line or at least whether they’re from Sense or core Android. Update: HTC UK tells us that it has no word on which apps will be kept and which will go at this stage.

[via SlashGear]

Previously, carriers had told Desire owners they could likely expect the Gingerbread update at the end of April or early May. Unfortunately, it seems HTC couldn’t get both Android 2.3 and Sense to play nicely together in what memory the Desire had to offer:

“Our engineering teams have been working hard for the past few months to find a way to bring Gingerbread to the HTC Desire without compromising the HTC Sense experience you’ve come to expect from our phones. However, we’re sorry to announce that we’ve been forced to accept there isn’t enough memory to allow us both to bring Gingerbread and keep the HTC Sense experience on the HTC Desire. We’re sincerely sorry for the disappointment that this news may bring to some of you.” HTC

Unsurprisingly, the news isn’t going down well among Desire owners, many of whom are still inside their original agreement from when they first bought the handset. Of course, they could head over to xda-developers where there are several unofficial ROMs to be had, bringing the smartphone up to speed with Gingerbread.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Hardware

The HTC Sensation 4G is a device that’s made for comfort. Not shedding a single tear for weight or thickness, HTC’s opted for a 4.96 x 2.57 x 0.44 inches and 5.22oz handset that’s heavy on the good looks. Soft-touch and hard plastic hardware surround the device with what we’d almost classify as an elegance not oft seen in smartphones at this time in history. What we’ve got here is a solid bit of mighty handset, one that’s not afraid to show off some curves in opposition to the much thinner and lighter competition.

The entirety of the back pops off at once to reveal the battery, SIM card and microSD departments, this offering a rather pleasing change compared to the terrible double-door openings on the HTC Inspire 4G. HTC had been moving towards this with the HTC ThunderBolt (which received some major press due to its replacement battery door that looked and still looks like a massive monster from heck), but now we’ve reached a new level of well-thought-out industrial design with the entire back coming off at once.

The display up front is a 4.3-inch qHD 960 x 540 resolution LCD above four touch-sensitive Android buttons below some fantastic curved Gorilla Glass. The curve occurs near the edges of the glass and the casing reaches beyond the glass so that, if you’d take a try, placing the device face-down results in no glass touching the table. This is great for catching ants or making sure your pet amoeba stay in check – also important because on the Sensation, as with all HTC Android devices, turning the device on its face will silence an incoming call – fun fact!

The display is clear, crisp, and unless you’ve got a Super AMOLED Plus device sitting right next to it, as bright as you’ll ever need to get. As with the T-Mobile G2x, the curved glass front ads a level of quality and uniqueness that cannot be calculated in processor power. Your thumb will thank you all day long, every day from now on.

Inside you’ll find the big guns, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon MSM8660 processor. This is a dual-core 1.2GHz chipset rocking with asynchronous cores that are able to run at different frequencies and voltages and give you the hottest blast of power you’ve seen yet in a dual core device. Let’s have a battle in the street! In addition to being wicked cool, this functionality has HTC claiming reduced power consumption on account of this processor’s ability to scale itself to however much power you need at any given time. Of course this chipset also contains Adreno 220 GPU, a hot system tag-teaming all the way to victory in a phone that now adds up to HTC’s most powerful to date.

Connectivity you’ll find happening along GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900, UMTS 900, 1700/2100, 2100, UMTS, and HSPA (HSDPA 14.4 Mbit/s and HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s). There’s some Wifi in there too incase you’re sitting around the coffee shop just kicking it. Bluetooth 3.0 is part of this party, microUSB, 1080p HDMI output through the same port if you’ve got the correct MHL adapter (not included, sadly,) GPS, gyroscope, G-sensor, digital compass, proximity and ambient light sensors, and two cameras: 8-megapixels on the back with the ability to record in 1080p and with a dual-LED flash, front-facing camera is a fixed-focus VGA resolution camera for video calls only – seriously, don’t use it for anything else.

FM radio, SRS Virtual surround sound, and the ability (like with all newer Android devices) to work with Googles still-beta cloud-based Music app make this a place to listen to news radio and Radio Gaga from as well. And did I mention how comfortable this device is to hold? It’s severely comfortable. The curved glass on the front is only the start. That soft-touch plastic on the back mixed with the metal swoop – goodness! What’s not such goodness is the fact that this device has only 1GB of ROM inside, with a microSD slot with a generous but not top-tier offering of an 8GB card out of the box. We got a 32GB card out of the box with the HTC ThunderBolt, here’s hoping that that particular trend comes back next time.

Hands-On with the HTC Sensation 4G

Software and Performance

What we’re dealing with here is the newest version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense, also the newest version with Sense 3.0. This newest version can also be found on the HTC Flyer, reviewed by us back here.. You’ll find yourself working with a brand new lockscreen that allows you shortcuts to whichever apps you’ve pre-set via a magical ring, a seven-pane homescreen that works on a carousel, and various tiny tweaks over the entirety of the stock Android HTC stated with to make it their own.

The differences between the Flyer version of Sense 3.0 and the Sensation version of Sense 3.0 are in the size of the screen, basically – this version not working in landscape mode being the most obvious of these. The lockscreen is a very welcome new addition, allowing you to both see and address missed calls, emails, or whatever else you’d like it to do on the fly easily. You’ll be able to customize this lockscreen with any of multiple skins offered up by HTC out of the box, plus you’ll be able to purchase more through the HTC Hub store if that’s your fancy. The store isn’t massively vast, but it does have some goodies.

You’ll be served a fully immersive media purchasing and rending experience in this newest HTC Sense environment if you want it, “Watch” starting off this bag of fun with purchased or rented movies and TV shows, free access to streaming movie trailers, and if you’ve got another HTC device running this same app, all of your purchased content from there here again for free. Thus far the only other device running such a function is, again, the HTC Flyer.

HTC Reader is an eBook platform that connects to Kobo’s bookstore, so you’ve got that option out of the box for books, then there’s a rogues collection of HTC-placed apps that you’ll be better to know about right this moment: Dock Mode, a helpful ability you’ll be using should you purchase a dock in the future or like to rest your device up against a wall in order to make use of Dock Mode specifically. It’s got the ability to show recent Facebook updates via HTC’s FriendStream, Weather, a clock for if you’d like to se yourself an alarm, and the ability to launch your Mobile Hotspot on the go. Additional apps include Flashlight, which uses the LED camera flash as a lamp, Locations for mapping, HTC Watch, Mirror, and everyone’s favorite metal ball game Teeter just incase you NEED to play a game out of the box. Qik is included out of the box for video chat, and other than the occasional report of an upside-down video from whoever else is on the other side of the line’s end, all is well.

After that, it’s all speedy execution across the board. There’s no lag in any crook or cranny in this device, and it’s essentially only the benchmark numbers we’ve got to rely on in telling this phone apart from the rest of the dual-core monsters out there today. Before we begin, let me set you up with some results from the Galaxy S II:

Quadrant Advanced: 3504 Overall, I/O Scores at 3823 and 4472 respectively
SmartBench 2011: 3878
Linpack Pro: 46.939 MFLOPS

What you see below all belong to the HTC Sensation:

For a good look at what the HTC Sensation vs the Samsung Galaxy S II looks like from over the pond, check out this video from our pal Chris Davies who has both devices on hand:

Camera

HTC’s ThunderBolt has been my primary device for filling up the archives of my personal Android – to – web family project A Tiny City – that’s about to change now that we see the quality the Sensation brings. While the difference between an 8 megapixel camera on one HTC device and an 8 megapixel camera on another HTC device isn’t large, it is ever so slightly noticeable, and since we’ve got the choice, heck, let’s go for the newer, slightly better version!

The video camera on the back of this device also records in full HD 1080p, dual mic holes on the back of the device near the flash of the camera offering stereo audio recording. Wind blowing against the device does not stand up very well, but your average everyday video of a baby certainly does. You’ve also got integrated video trimming featured in this version of Sense and you’ve got the option to stream over DNLA or roll out with full 1080p HDMI output – through your miniUSB port, but lo, the converter is not yet available to purchase or view.

The front-facing camera is no better than any front-facing camera we’ve seen thus far save for the Samsung Galaxy S, which does seem to fare bit better in video chat – for the perfect vision of the difference, check out this photo taken by our good friend and partner Chris Davies from all the way over the pond in England.

Phone and Battery

We experienced no problem to or from the device on telephone calls to multiple areas around the United States. When it came to speakerphone, a surprising amount of clarity was heard and not a crackle could be found. As far as the speakers to be used for example Pandora on a picnic, you’re in luck again because, like the HTC ThunderBolt your humble narrator loves so well, the speaker system is adequate and even nice sounding for close quarters.

Battery testing is always an ongoing process with devices such as this one, but initial tests have yielded at the very least a full day’s usage on your average amount of daily requirements being run through the phone. Google Maps, some YouTube videos, a couple of high-requirement games from the Tegra Zone, some Pandora on a picnic, and by nightfall we’re still not completely drained. Keep this in mind and be happy because the last time we tried such stuff using the lightening bolt of HTC phones, the results weren’t nearly so nice. HTC’s certainly made some improvements here OR indeed it IS the LTE that’s making the battery drain so fast on the ThunderBolt. Either way, the Sensation is good to go for at least a day at a time.

Value and Pricing

This device will be available on June 15th through T-Mobile for $199 after a $50 mail-in rebate. That is, tied to a 2-year contract and with a required data plan of course. This is a radically good deal considering the fact that this will be your daily electronic companion and portal to the web and the cloud on the web every day for the next two years. $200 should be nothing for you if you’re the type of person that carries around a smartphone, and I assume you are one if you’re reading this sentence, especially when you consider how advanced this device is compared to the rest of the Android lineup out there right this very moment. T-Mobile sells fantastically powerful phones for cheap, now all you’ve got to consider is the fact that you’ll be working on T-Mobile’s 4G network which, by all accounts, certainly isn’t the same network as the other iterations of “4G” out there.

Wrap-Up

Welcome to the second big phase of Android handsets. The first was the very first wave, this second wave is certainly a refined edition of that. We’re in a very awesome place right now in tech history, a place where Mobile is just being born, and here with phones like the HTC Sensation, we’re moving through history on finely-tuned spacecraft made of smooth metals and soft plastic sculpted the exactly the right preparations. The week this review was published, HTC spoke at Uplinq 2011 about the future of Android, that being HTC Dev, their collaboration with OnLive, HTC Watch, and HTC Pro. Now that their newest flagship is here in the Sensation, HTC’s set to continue to be, as Peter Chou, CEO of HTC put it, the number one Android brand and supplier “everywhere in the world.”

Of course no good wrap-up of a device of this caliber is complete without a comparison to a competing device. In this case, that competing device, quite obviously, is the Samsung Galaxy S II. This device is the successor to the most popular series of Android phones ever, has the brightest screen in the world, and based on the benchmarks we’ve seen thus far, is at least slightly more powerful at the outset than the Sensation. But in practice, which device wins out? The more square of the two, or the one that feels like aliens collected the palms of 1,000 humans and decided a swoop was best for the back of a handset? Samsung’s newest form factor, or HTC’s next step in a longstanding evolution of form factors? HTC Sense or Samsung TouchWiz? Truly this is a question for the ages.

But if I had to decide right now, I’d say that the HTC Sensation is going to be more of a hit for the greater amount of people who purchase it, and might very well appeal to a larger audience than the stark and flat Galaxy S II. While it may be awesome that the Samsung device is the thinnest Android device on the market, it’s certainly not got the smallest amount of pocket size taken up in the 4.3-inch display having category. Galaxy S II has more RAM and internal storage, but the Sensation is certainly going to pack enough punch to satisfy the masses. And if it’s a battle between TouchWiz and Sense? Sense is my choice right this moment.

The HTC Sensation will be a consumer’s choice phone, certainly and for sure. Look for few to no returns of this device to carrier locations around the USA, while other phones are switched out for the newer model day after day in droves. The HTC Sensation is not just a stepping stone toward future models like so many models are these days, even high-cost models, instead it’s the destination for HTC. Where do they go now? The guts can always get better. The form factor I wish them the best of luck on, because this is about as close to perfect a device in my hand has ever fit.

BONUS check out Chris Davies hands-on with the Euro version of the HTC and check out our reaction and understanding coverage of his full review – then we’ve also got another example of 1080p video capture courtesy of Vincent Nguyen – lookin great at Weezer!