HTC Desire S Pro Reviews

The HTC Desire S is incredibly well-built, plenty fast enough for even heavy use, and is all-around a fabulous phone. On it's own, the Desire S easily surpasses 4 stars. However, with phones from other manufacturers including 3D screens, stereoscopic 720p video, standard 1080p video, qHD screens, and multiple cores, the Desire S seems already outdated. If HTC priced the Desire S as a budget-friendly phone, the specifications would be more fitting. But, with a dual-core, qHD Atrix 4G going for about $100 more, unlocked, you'll probably want to pass on this phone and either wait for the next HTC phone to come out, or for the price to come down. That having been said, if price were no object and if the Desire S had 3G/4G T-Mobile bands, I'd trade in my G2 for it today, hands-down. I've never held a phone that's more comfortable and at-home in my hand than the HC Desire S.

The Desire S retains what we liked about the Desire - portability and performance. Just like its predecessor, it is small, fitted with an acceptable 3.7-inch screen, a standard 5-megapixel camera and a powerful processor. However, we have to question if there is really a need for the Desire S and how does it fit into the larger picture?

All in all, this is the kind of device that puts iPhone users to sleep. There’s only residual evidence of HTC’s legendary design acumen, but as a reliable workhorse or all-round handset it will do most anything you can think to throw at it.

A decent update to the original Desire, the S has a better camera, more space for apps and upgraded communications, but it's not enough to warrant a direct upgrade.

The original HTC Desire is the phone we still use every day, and nothing has yet come along to dislodge it. We aren't sure the Desire S will do it either - even though it is a very, very good smartphone. We'll wait for a dual-core smartphone to steal its place in our pocket.

Upon a casual glance, the HTC Desire S doesn’t seem to hold a lot of promise especially if you consider that the original Desire will get Gingerbread – and we guess there are enough of them already running unofficial ROMs. On the other hand though, the Desire S is a reasonable option for upgraders coming from the Legend too. The design may be a bit played out, but this is still one of the prettiest and best build droids out there. The screen falls short of the Retinas and Super AMOLEDs of the world, but it’s among the best in its class. And 3.7” is still considered by many to be the perfect screen size. The poor imaging is the big issue in the otherwise spotless performance, but with HTC it’s almost part of the charm.

The HTC Desire S is a perfectly good phone that, combined with HTC Sense, brings a smartphone that will serve you well, giving you a super-connected out-of-the box experience. However it is no longer the high-end smartphone it once was, making this the HTC Legend for 2011. It’s a device that offers something solid, but we feel something in the upper mid-range.

The new HTC Desire S is a handsome device, sporting a new metal unibody design and a slightly more compact form factor than the previous Desire. While the improvements over the previous handset are quite minimal, the Desire S is still a strong contender in the smartphone market, and the new tweaks help it stay in the game.

Wrapping up, reviewing the HTC Desire S has been a pleasure. The phone is a testament to good evolution being better than bad revolution. With the physical tweaks, the unibody construction, the improved HTC Sense and Gingerbread being on board, the sheer smoothness of the user experience makes it hard not to fall in love all over again. That said, this isn't a revolution, and power users will probably want some dual-core oomph from their phone, in which case, the LG Optimus 2X could fit the bill. Media-centric users will want more screen - making the HTC Incredible S or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S2 natural choices.

Back when we reviewed the HTC Desire, almost twelve months to the day, the smartphone was at the cutting edge of Android devices. Tagging on the coat-tails of the Nexus One, it closely followed Google’s example of a sizable screen, fast processor and up-to-date software, shaping up as a solid all-rounder.

The HTC Desire S certainly isn't the flag bearer for a new era in super fast smartphones, with it lacking the headline dual-core processor. However, it is a well crafted, elegant, easy to use, fast and very capable smartphone that thanks to HTC's tweaks stands it apart from the Android crowd. Where it actually falls down is on a couple of mundane extras, namely the lack of a physical button for the camera, the quality of said camera and the lack of an HDMI output. Thankfully, these omissions are made up for in its price, which while not bargain basement is very competitive.