There’s plenty of reason to suspect that this guy is in fact Verizon’s variant of the Galaxy S III. The naming convention suggests something that’s at a higher level than the Galaxy Nexus (Verizon model number SCH-I515) and the DROID Charge (SCH-I510). The “MSM8960″ indicates the clear presence of a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4. The reference to a 1280×720 screen leaves little doubt that this is the Galaxy S III, or at least a very close relative.

Those mourning the loss of an Exynos processor shouldn’t feel too bad. The S4 is a fantastic piece of silicon in and of itself – check out our own comparison between the Tegra 3 version of the HTC One X and the Qualcomm-equipped One S to see why. We’ve got just over one day to go until Samsung announces the Galaxy S III in London, and hopefully puts rumor to rest for good.

Hardware

As it turns out, the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor in this device has been turning up some fantastic results in both everyday performance and benchmark numbers, and the AT&T connection here isn’t half bad. You’ll find some changes to the software insomuch as there are a few more built-in apps, otherwise this is mostly the same phone as the original – its that processor that changes the performance. The casing is the same lovely hard plastic and the device is shaped exactly the same as it is in its international iteration.

Therein lies another dilemma for me. Any device larger than 4.3-inches simply seems to big for my normal human male sized hand to work with on a daily basis. Those used to using smartphones every day with a love for using both hands almost without fail will love the beast of a display and casing you get here – otherwise I suggest you check yourself before you wreck yourself. Head to the store and hold this monster in your hand – do it even if you have no need or plans to purchase a new smartphone, you simply need to handle this or the HTC One S in one of its couple of iterations thus far as well. The HTC One series devices released thus far certainly feel nice to hold.

The display glass combined with the curved glass-like plastic sides of the device here allow you a cool feel whilst handling the large-palm-sized smartphone. Likewise the camera lens sits above the back of the casing and allows your index finger to prop it up when it hits it. The back also contains your exterior speaker below the Beats by Dre logomark – sounding loud and clear as we’v ever heard a smartphone speaker sound.

The device is extremely light and thin, of course, and surprises anyone holding it for the first time after having used an HTC device of any variety inside the past few years. Though the camera lens does look nice and does provide a step for your finger to hook on to, it is nicer to have the lower-profile setup the HTC One S affords you, and the whole casing ends up being much more lovely there in a smaller form factor and with metal instead, too. That said, the HTC One X’s build is nicer than the vast majority of low-level competitors we’ve seen over the past couple of years to be sure, and will not disappoint those looking for a high-quality experience all-around.

Software and Performance

You’ll find that the device you’ve got in your hand or hands (depending on how big your hands are) is second to none when it comes to performance. Using the newest version of Google’s Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC’s user interface Sense 4.0, you’ve got what HTC says is the best they’ve got to bring to the table. HTC is no stranger to providing a high-level software experience for Android, and what they’ve learned over the relatively short time Android has existed shines brightly here.

The software build here tied with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor is an optimized experience like no other. It’s relatively difficult to tell the difference between the performance here and what we’ve seen on the international HTC One X with its NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, but the numbers do point to some interesting changes between one and the other in the benchmark world.

What you’ll find here is that the HTC One X for AT&T (with the Qualcomm processor) is defeated by the NVIDIA processor-toting international One X in CPU scoring by nearly 3000 points. In every other category however, believe it or not, the Snapdragon S4 won over the Tegra 3 by at least a couple points. In I/O there’s a giant surprise with the S4 beating the Tegra 3 by 600 points, with the S4′s Memory result showing at 4,000 more than the Tegra 3! This is due in a great part to the S4′s dual memory channels which allow data to be read and written much faster than the competition.

Have a look at the rest of the benchmarks in the gallery below as well and note the power you’re working with here. The HTC One X in both iterations is a powerhouse to be sure. There’s really nothing like it at the moment on the market (save the HTC One S of course) and we’re not likely to see it beaten for everyday speed soon. Samsung will really have to bring the heat if they want to compare to what Qualcomm and NVIDIA have brought to smartphones with the HTC One series.

Camera and Battery

The camera here is again part of the HTC One series and thus has a processor dedicated to the camera alone. This HTC ImageSense processor makes for an amazing experience in the camera department for both images and video, 8 megapixels strong for photos and 1080p for videos. Have a peek at a few examples here of each and note how extremely similar the results are to our original HTC One X review.

For battery there are certainly some interesting results to be seen. First if you’ll have a peek at a couple of different results we’ve found here on average days, you’ll find that the HTC One X’s battery management is fabulous with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 behind the wheel – when it’s asleep, it’s basically off. When you’re using it, it’s still not really draining the battery like a beast.

Then have a peek over at SlashGear’s review of this device and see a test comparing the HTC One X to its international version once again. There you’ll find that side-by-side, both HTC One X versions perform extremely similarly. It’s amazing!

AT&T 4G LTE

AT&T’s 4G LTE network is surprisingly strong here in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where just a year ago we weren’t seeing anything popping up – this is a testament to AT&T’s ability to set up their network at relatively quick speeds while they perform rather well against the competition in several respects. These numbers can be compared to the HSPA+ connection of the HTC One X international edition with which we’ve seen about half the data speeds both up and down. Have a peek at these AT&T LTE results:

Wrap-Up

In that the HTC One series has not yet produced a device we’ve not loved, the HTC One X for AT&T is a real winner for the United States. It’s certainly one of the nicest phones to have been released on AT&T and certainly one of two of the nicest smartphones to have ever been released by HTC. The other is, of course, the HTC One S. The decision between these two devices will likely be based on which carrier you like better here in the USA, but if you’re not taking that into account, you’ve got a basic question of screen size on your hands. If you want to get massive, go HTC One X.

Be sure to take a look at our whole timeline of HTC One product reviews below to get the whole spectrum of options on your radar. I’ve been using one HTC One device or another as my primary device since we first got the opportunity to start reviewing them, and it’s not looking like I’m going to be giving this one up any time soon!

Device Specifications and Information

Device Info

Device Name : One X [AT&T]

Manufactuer : HTC

Carrier : AT&T

Announced Date : February 26, 2012

Release Date : TBA

Also Known As :

Display

• Screen Size : 4.7 Inch
• Resolution : 720x1280
• Screen Type : S-LCD

Dimension & Weight

• Height : 5.31 Inch
• Width : 2.75 Inch
• Depth : 0.36 Inch
• Weight : 131 Grams

Battery & Power

Battery Type:
• Lithium Ion

• Battery Capacity : 1800 mAh
• Talk Time : NA
• Stand By Time : NA

Software

Android OS:
• 4.0.x

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

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

Messaging:
• SMS
• MMS

Hardware

CPU : S4

CPU Clock Speed : 1500 Mhz

Core : 2

Ram : 1000 MB

Internal Storage : 16 GB

Front Facing Camera :

Camera Resolution : 8 MP

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:
• 850
• 1900
• 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 :

With the T-Mobile HTC One S you get an impressive phone for sure. Other than a few changes to the software and the radios under the hood this is the same as the European model we linked to above. You get a brilliant 4.3-inch qHD 540 x 960 AMOLED display (no 720 HD here) but the AMOLED looks great as usual. The same 8 megapixel rear camera with a backside-illuminated sensor and HTC’s new Imagechip technology and additional processor. Then to complete the picture (and all tasks) is the equally impressive Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM that is under the hood. The One S runs on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich overlapped with the new and improved HTC Sense 4.0 UI tweaks.

Being 4.3-inches this could be considered the perfect phone for many that think the Galaxy Note is too big, or even the Galaxy Nexus at 4.6-inches for that matter. Coming with top-tier specs, the latest version of Android, and being the thinnest HTC device to date it’s destined to sell well. With T-Mobile you won’t get 4G LTE speeds like you’ll see from the AT&T One X, but they do offer a pretty fast “faux” 4G with HSPA+ nationwide. From the screenshots below you can see it doing quite well, averaging around 8-10 MB/s download speeds.

One of the only downfalls with the One S (or the other One phones) is the lack of a micro-sd slot, or a removable battery for that matter. The T-Mobile HTC One S will only come with 16GB of internal storage, but that should be enough for most users – then you can use the upcoming Google Drive or Dropbox if you need more. If you are wondering how the dual-core processor in the One S will fair next to the quad-core Tegra 3 competition in the larger HTC One X (which we reviewed here), you’ll want to check out head-to-head benchmark wars out. The fight between dual-core and quad-core is much, much closer than you’d think and the HTC One S is no slouch by any means.

For more details head over to the official SlashGear review, then check out all the links below for anything and everything about the HTC One S.

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 :

If you enjoy looking at the numbers, breaking things down, or just want to dream of the piles of cash you can see all the details from Qualcomm.com here. During the earnings report Qualcomm lists an impressive Q2 revenue of around $4.9 billion, exceeding Q2 of last year ($3.9) by a fair amount. Claiming a 28% increase year-over-year. All of this equals an actual Q2 income hitting $1.51 billion for Qually.

For many earnings reports might be boring, but this gives us a pretty good picture of what the mobile market and Android is doing for companies such as Qualcomm. As we continued with the report it shows they’ve sold roughly 152 million Snapdragon MSM chipsets that power all of your favorite HTC, Sony, LG, Huawei, and many other smartphones on Android, and Windows. Qualcomm is set to have another impressive year and their new Snapdragon S4 “Krait” processor will be leading the pack until the quad-core hits the streets later this year. Again, for more details head to the investors link provided below.

[via Qualcomm]

It’s not unusual for a manufacturer to mix it up with regard to suppliers – Samsung uses no less than four different vendors, including themselves. But since the launch of the original DROID Motorola has been faithful to Texas Instruments’ OMAP series of SOCs, except for a few excursions into Tegra 2 territory. This could indicate a design shift within the company, which would be a welcome thing from our perspective. The news is also a boon to AT&T customers, who haven’t had a high-end Motorola phone to look forward to since the ATRIX 2.

If Moto is enamored with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4, it isn’t the only one. Our own tests of HTC’s One S show some frankly amazing results in the benchmarks, and they come without a serious hit to battery life – something that Motorola’s been very focused on as of late with the DROID RAZR MAXX. Unlike the Tegra 3, Qualcomm’s chips also work with LTE. We still don’t even know the name of this mystery device, but there is at least one comforting fact: it’s running Ice Cream Sandwich.

[via SlashGear]

The BlueStacks beta was downloaded a whopping one million times in just ten days after its release – an incredible showing for software that’s still very much experimental. What does Qualcomm, a company whose interests are overwhelmingly mobile, want with BlueStacks? Who knows – maybe it’s the same thing that AMD wants, or any of BlueStacks other investors, now totaling resources of $15 million. The software has already gotten attention from hardware vendors like ViewSonic, and as Windows 8 tablets start appearing later this year or in 2013, the lure of ready-made touch apps may be hard to resist.

BlueStacks is a free download, and anyone can use it to try out a variety of apps synced from their Android smartphone. Even if you don’t use an Android phone, the latest beta includes several third-party app stores for built-in access to hundreds of thousands of apps. If even that isn’t enough and you’re handy with a registry editor, you can try your hand at installing the Google Play Store or rooting the BlueStacks player – yup, there’s nothing that Android modders won’t try. Planned updates to BlueStacks include a premium version and an OS X port.

[via SlashGear]

What makes these special and different aside from the screen size is the processors under the hood. The HTC One X comes equipped with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor and a 4.7″ display. Then we have the One S being powered by Qualcomm’s brand new S4 “Krait” dual-core processor cranking along at 1.5 GHz. More doesn’t always equal better, and neither does speed. This is why the Qualcomm S4 is the same speed of the older S3, yet blows it away in all performance tests.

So what we’ll be doing is posting a few benchmarks showing both of these devices running the most popular tests. Showing where the Tegra 3 and all four cores just overpowers the dual-core, and then where the Qualcomm really shines. Obviously being different devices, on different carriers, one with LTE, one without, and of course screen sizes being different can all play a role. Instead of deeply breaking it all down we’ll just start with the most popular of them all — Quadrant.

Now this shows a few different things here. For one HTC devices always seem to be a little lower than others, possibly because the slowdown caused from HTC Sense UI. Clearly that is no longer the case with these phones just blowing away anything we’ve ever seen from benchmarks — especially while running stock Android builds for the masses. Many consider Quadrant the best of the best when it comes to benchmarks for Android, and here you can clearly see the One S and it’s Qualcomm dual-core takes the top spot, and does so with ease.

Next up on the list is AnTuTu mainly because it has emerged as one of the other go-to benchmark suites as of late for its well-rounded testing capabilities. Without further talk, here are the results.

Here the quad-core Tegra 3 shows significant increases in performance, as this also deeply tests the GPU and CPU both. A large part of the Tegra 3′s strong showing is thanks to the vSMP technology in the quad-core. Tegra 3′s floating point operation really shows up here. Using any of the available cores to complete a task.

While those are the few most important and most frequently used benchmarks for Android we also have some Linpack, Smartbench, and CFbench to round out the tests for those interested in seeing more. Linpack has been around for longer than most so we decided to run a few tests on each setting for you to see those results too. Linpack clearly favors the Qualcomm dual-core in this case, see for yourself below.

We have even more results from the other tests mentioned above below in the full gallery. Be sure to click through the gallery to see the full and complete battle, plus the photos are full sized so you can get all the details you’d like.

So what does all this mean? Well to the average user nothing really. Technology is going at such a quick pace that our phones are getting extremely powerful, beyond our means. Enthusiasts always want the best, and that will never change but the average customer wants one thing — and that is a good experience. While benchmarks can only tell part of the story the rest is with real-world use. In this case both of these phones run nearly identical software. Being powered by Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC Sense UI 4.0 and they run amazingly well, fast, and stable. Our in depth reviews below will attest to that.

When the AT&T 4G LTE equipped HTC One X hits the street later this month then we’ll truly have a real test on our hands. Being able to go head-to-head with the exact same device. One running NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3, and the other running Qualcomm’s dual-core S4 Krait processor. Until then stay tuned for more hands-on from these phones, and some gaming using the Tegra 3 on that One X.

Usage and battery life differs for everyone. Some may use their phone sparingly throughout the day, while others use them constantly and always need a wall socket. What is becoming more apparent is that SoC makers such as NVIDIA and Qualcomm have been working very hard on this aspect, and are looking to curb the bad battery life problem for smartphones.

While we’ll be testing both platforms from NVIDIA and Qualcomm this week, for now we have a screenshot or two from the quad-core Tegra 3-powered HTC One X using the power of NVIDIA’s 4-PLUS-1 processor technology. Many were worried that a quad-core would get terrible battery life, but it’s actually the opposite. NVIDIA added a fifth low power core to handle simple tasks like email sync, text messages, and everything else that isn’t processor intensive. Saving the battery for when the four cores really needs it. The screenshot below shows a heavy heavy day of use, and then a very calm day. Both showing exceptional battery results for the circumstances.

While 12 hours as you see to the right isn’t super amazing. Being used heavily for more than an entire 8 hour work day, from morning to night under heavy usage is quite impressive. Then on the left side you see that while not being used, or in a sleep state the NVIDIA Tegra 3′s fifth companion core we mentioned above sucks hardly 15% after 8 hours of limited use. Showing that you don’t have to suffer poor battery life to get great performance.

This could technically be called a sleep mode or a limited use state, and NVIDIA’s processor appears to cause very little battery drain in that scenario. Now obviously use patterns will differ from user to user, but from our initial finding with the HTC One series 2012 is looking up to be a year of better battery life. Results like these show that serious power users can still use their device for the entire day without needing a recharge, and people that use their phones casually can easily handle 20-30 hours or longer with some of the best and most powerful smartphones available today.

We’ll be doing tons of comparisons of both the HTC One X and its quad-core, and the HTC One S and the Qualcomm dual-core this week so be sure and stay tuned right here at Android Community.

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 :

The huge changes to Android 4.0 ICS especially in the graphics and hardware acceleration department is making porting Android 4.0 to older devices, or even some newer phones harder because developers need specific drivers for the graphics (GPU). Earlier this month Qualcomm released those needed drivers for the Adreno 2xx which is most of the devices running Qualcomm (HTC, LG, and Sony) from the past year.

This is good news but tons of older phones didn’t have the same fate, until today. The older Qualcomm MSM7000 series includes tons of lower end phones like the WildFire S, the Samsung Galaxy Ace, Mini, and more. Not to mention tons of LG phones. A large list of these can be found here. Today Qualcomm has helped the developer community yet again and just released the Adreno GPU drivers for the Arm v6 platform listed above. This doesn’t mean anything to the end user or the average reader, but if you are hoping for a port of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to your dated and older device — this is the first step.

After the developer community reached out for these drivers it’s nice to see Qualcomm responding by making them readily available. Now we are hoping NVIDIA will follow suite and do the same. For those interested you can find the download links from the source linked to below.

[via Qualcomm]

Obviously some will instantly have a few questions about the video, but it’s still neat to watch and imagine. No phone could realistically last on a single charge around the entire world. Most likely they tossed this thing on airplane mode, lowered everything to a minimum and proceeded to mail it across 8 different countries and 9 different cities as it goes around the world. Qualcomm’s new S4 dual-core processor will offer unparallelled battery life and performance, but this video is just a quick tease for fun.

They recorded a few small clips in each location using the Qualcomm Snapdragon smartphone (looks like a DROID Incredible, but it isn’t) then tossed it in a box and shipped it off to the next destination. We aren’t sure if they turned it off after each time or not, but either way the video is neat and pretty awesome. I can’t wait for smartphones that actually last longer than a day or two with full use. My favorite part of the video is near the end where they pop the red balloon — awesome!

While you’re here enjoy the Bug Circus Generator video I mentioned above. This is much more entertaining and extremely cool.

So what do you guys think about the videos? Just nonsense marketing, or a neat way to show the power of Qualcomm and their Snapdragon processors that power tons of the most popular smartphones? Let us know what you think.

This is more than just a place or a blog to share ideas. It is a digital magazine where communities of inventors and tech fans alike can not only learn of new ideas, but to share them and help each other look for the next big thing. The next amazing creation in this ever growing and expanding world of mobile computing we live in. Qualcomm themselves, industry leaders and analysts can all join together and talk about ideas, share perspectives and more with Qualcomm Spark.

They are calling it the Spark blog but it’s much more than that. Qualcomm isn’t just a company that builds processors. They innovate, research, and create. With things like Mirasol displays and more they have plenty of ideas for the world of mobile. Chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, Dr. Paul Jacobs talks about Qualcomm Spark in detail with the video below that should help any wandering minds.

Qualcomm hopes that Spark will help them and others to push the boundaries of mobile computing. In future releases to the Spark Blog we can expect to see real life stories of inventions and creations that will help Spark current or future ideas beyond anything we’ve seen so far in this crazy world of technology. Interesting to say the least. I can’t wait to see some of the awesome ideas or creations that come from this new initiative.

[via Qualcomm]

The huge changes to Android 4.0 ICS in the source code and things like hardware acceleration while great, has made porting it to older devices near impossible without the proper graphic drivers. Even the best developers were struggling to make smooth and fluid ROM’s without the hardware acceleration. Over on the Qualcomm developer forums the community asked for assistance and Qualcomm delivered. Offering up the drivers for all Qualcomm Adreno 2xx GPU’s. This includes the upcoming S4 and the Adreno 225, the TONS of devices all powered by the 1.2 and 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm S3 and its Adreno drivers and more.

If you were hoping to see an awesome build of Android 4.0 ICS ported to your device, especially from an impressive team like CyanogenMod, this was one of the steps we were all waiting for. This means basically all HTC and Sony Ericsson devices just got a huge boost of help from Qualcomm. Now let those awesome developers do what they do best and soon you’ll all be enjoying even better performance on custom ROM’s.

[via MoDaCo]

Manufacturing systems-on-a-chip is no easy processes, and anything from a shortage of rare earth materials to breakdown in equipment could be affecting production. At this point we don’t know what the issue is, or indeed, if there is one – there’s no word from Qualcomm or any of the manufacturers that would be affected. The good news is that a design flaw probably isn’t to blame, considering how long the S4 series of chips has been in development.

A delay of a few weeks could push major phones like the HTC One S back from their current April dates. Even more worrying is the idea that Qualcomm’s quad-core Krait platform, now in the late stages of development, could be pushed back further than its current target of late 2012.  Of course, none of this is confirmed and everything may be hunky dory – plus, there plenty of other things that can delay major device releases the old fashioned way.

[via TMo News]

Qualcomm is a little behind in the “core race”, with the Krait architecture expected to come some time in the second half of 2012, a good nine months at least after the Nvidia Tegra 3. That said, the performance on display here makes it look like it will be well worth the wait. In the meantime, Tegra 3 isn’t an option if you want LTE connectivity; in the case of the HTC One X and Asus’ newest tablets, LTE versions are instead opting for Quialcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon S4.

Behold, computing power with a reckless and gleeful disregard for utility:

As noted, Krait quad-core processors won’t be on the market for several months at least. But with Android making moves towards the desktop and third parties like Motorola and Canonical pushing it along as well, performance is no longer about bragging rights – multi-thread capability may be just as important for your phone as for your PC in the near future. We can’t wait to try out.

Obviously we have tons more coming soon, but for now we are starting with the basics you’ve come to expect from Android Community in our different reviews from past months and devices. The benchmarks that have become a standard in our mobile world such as Quadrant Advanced, AnTuTu, and Vellamo. We’ll briefly compare with similar offerings and the competing quad-core Tegra 3, then break down everything in follow up posts.

Qualcomm’s new super-phone processor that will be inside many upcoming devices with the new S4 is looking quite impressive to say the least. While we can break it down with more details later for now we’ll compare with the Tegra 3. The NVIDIA Tegra 3 uses the older larger Cortex-A9 processor and has essentially smashed four of these together. With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 we have two newer, faster Cortex-A15 processors instead. Not only that but it also uses Qualcomm’s new Adreno 225 GPU and put out surprisingly good results. From most benchmarks the graphics performance was steadily outpacing most of the competition, although the MDP device does have a much lower resolution than the Prime or Galaxy Nexus — so take that into consideration as it is doing less work than the others.

Testing

Now this isn’t a real phone, so comparisons will always be a bit subjective. MDP devices have no real battery life or thermal constraints as a shipping device would. So comparing is a bit hard but the results are still impressive. We have an odd 4″ 1024 x 600 resolution display. However it does run Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, have a 13 megapixel camera, and all sorts of ports and sensors you usually wont find on a smartphone.

Most of you probably know a little about these benchmark tests, but if not I’ll explain more about what they mean for the average user. For now lets see some of those impressive benchmarks. To start I have one word for this platform — WOW! Blazing fast in terms of performance on the device with browsing the web and such, and even more impressive on these general tests. Be prepared to be blown away with Quadrant scores passing 5,100 and Vellamo going beyond anything I’ve seen before.

Qualcomm S4 1.5 GHz dual-core / Tegra 3 quad-core

Quadrant
5531 / 3073

AnTuTu
6954 / 10,046

Vellamo
2164 / 1566

Linpack Pro
163 / unknown

Now as you can see from the benchmarks listed above (and pictured below) they are showing huge numbers for team Qualcomm. Overall performance in many key areas are just blistering fast and high. One hugely important area for smartphones and tablets is I/O results for retrieving data, accessing your photo gallery and more. Qualcomm was extremely impressive here with over 7000 in I/O. Quadrant tests CPU, Memory, I/O, 3D and 3D. AnTuTu wasn’t as impressive but we’ve been told it focuses too much on cores on not on actual testing, so take it as you will — although the Prime blows up AnTuTu and has excellent scores. AnTuTu however tests memory, CPU Integer, CPU Floating point, 3D Graphics, SD card reading/writing speed, and Database I/O so is quite accurate.

Last I want to mention in terms of what it tests in Vellamo. It is built in-house by a third party for Qualcomm and we’ve been assured its extremely accurate on all levels, not just for Qualcomm, but that always will worry some. Initially it was highly favoring the NVIDIA Tegra 2 but with the latest from Qually things are starting to change. It tests a little of everything from rendering, JavaScript, HTML 5, browser load times, rendering, scrolling, 3D, and much more. It is highly comprehensive and is only just getting started. Read our initial hands-on here.

So what does all this mean to the end users? Even if you are an average smartphone user or a diehard gamer that wants the best, we can assure you the Qualcomm S4 will be one of the best option available. Once we get it on different devices, carrier or manufacturer overlays like HTC Sense UI and more things will obviously change, and these results could drastically change. From our initial first impressions Qualcomm and their new Snapdragon S4 processor is not only extremely fast and stable, but highly impressive and really taking things up a notch for the dual-core crowd. Although this device doesn’t have any constraints and wont ever see the light of day — it’s the processor inside that is important. Once it gets tuned to save more battery life for smartphones and comes in actual products we’ll be sure to revisit this comparison.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 promises console-quality gaming, high-end performance, faster web browsing, and an overall much better experience across Android. This developer unit doesn’t have much for a battery (or need to worry about it) so that isn’t something we can actually test, but we’ll be sure to look at this on actual released devices in the next few months.

This is only one in a series of tests, benchmarks, and hands-on with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Krait SoC so stay tuned for more details.

We managed to get some hands on with the HTC One V, the most affordable of the three devices recently released by HTC. Most noticeable about the One V is that it brings back the ‘chin’ that was somewhat iconic for the international version of the Hero and Legend. It’s not nearly as powerful as the One X and S, but still a decent looking mid-range device. And yes, just like the other two you’ll find it will ship with Android 4.0.

Qualcomm showed off the Snapdragon S4′s 3D capabilities today, and they look extremely promising. There’s still no ETA of when we should see it implemented into mobiles, but it makes prior 3D renderings on a mobile device look prehistoric. It was a completely glasses free setup, and we snapped a video clip to show it off as best as we could. And as a reminder, be sure to check out the final winners of the WIMM Spring Developers Project. The list of all 10 winners is now up, so if you entered to win a WIMM One of your own, take a look to see if we picked you!

To call it impressive is an understatement. Keep in mind that the a 3D display needs to output two images at a time to simulate a three-dimensional image – that’s a total size of 4.6 megapixels, in video and software, running without a hitch. The S4 powers the new LG Optimus 3D Max/Cube, so its dimensional powers should be on display sooner rather than later. The second demonstration that Qualcomm showed off was their Krait quad-core machine, running a separate video on each core and displaying them all at the same time. Check it out:

Of course, there’s still no solid timeline on when the Krait architecture will make it into mobile machines. Given that Qualcomm is showing off the chip on its own developer hardware, it’s not likely to hit within the next 3-4 months, possibly longer. On the upside, Qualcomm is much more entrenched than Nvidia – Tegra 3 platforms don’t currently support LTE connections. Expect to see some more final hardware and presentations at CTIA, coming in May.

NVIDIA outed the first quad-core mobile processor, and it seems Qualcomm isn’t in a hurry to catch up. They’ve announced we shouldn’t expect a Qualcomm quad-core chip until Q4 of this year. They are more focused on making their current generation hardware more power efficient. This efficiency paired with massive batteries like the one found in the DROID RAZR Maxx will be just what Android users needed.

Official CyanogenMod 9 nightly ROMs are now ready for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and Motorola XOOM. It would be great to see it ported over to a Nexus tablet in the future as well, especially since the 7″ model is expected to start production in April. There’s not much known about the product, except that it’s “a tablet of the highest quality”.

Pictures of the HTC One X have leaked right before MWC, and it looks simply amazing. It’s supposedly supposed to sport Android 4.0 and a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, but expect the entire list of details in a few days during its official announcement. And wrapping up, make sure to download the new SlashGear v2.0 application for Android – available now in the Android Market! It will be the easiest way to access MWC coverage while on the go, and even offers the ability to “offline” articles for reading later.

That doesn’t meant that they’re not looking at greater performance – benchmarks from upcoming Snapdragon chips show some very promising results, as a matter of fact. But the previously hyped APQ8064 chip, which promised to run four cores at an eye-popping 2.5Ghz, won’t be seen any time soon. At the moment Qualcomm is more interested in getting its current-generation hardware to be more power efficient – a definite consideration, since the only thing that seems to stem TI, Samsung and Nvidia chips’ thirst for electricity is gigantic batteries, like the one in the DROID RAZR MAXX.

Even so, a lack of quad-core branding may come back to bite Qualcomm. Whether or not the performance of the Tegra 3 or the upcoming quad-core Samsung Exynos processors is significantly higher than new Snapdragon models, putting “quad core” on the side of the box is a surprisingly important branding move. Snapdragon doesn’t have the same clout that it did way back when the Nexus One launched. That said, a normal-sized phone with better battery life than we’ve been seeing lately would be a feather in anyone’s digital cap. We’ll just have to wait and see what develops – Samsung, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and Qualcomm will be duking it out for years, in any case.

[via Tom's Hardware]