User Reviews on HTC Desire S

Whoopee

8/10

philehidiot

18th July 2011

As far as I can tell, the only flaws in the build of this phone are the battery life and the lack of a macro mode on the camera - why??

The rest of it is software with the occasional very odd bugs which keep cropping up, the occasional resets and Android's lack of a decent multitasking system.

I've put the battery as a con - it will last a day with pretty heavy use and will easily get there with quite a few widgets and so on. Put simply you can use this phone with all the fancy stuff on (i.e. as it was meant to be used) and still get through a day. If you want more out of it, you can put a battery saving program on it and turn stuff off.

For those debating about the move from physical keyboard to touch screen - this is my first touchscreen keyboard and whilst I never, ever type the word I intend to, the HTC keyboard is fantastic at guessing the word and as a result I can type faster than with a good physical keyboard.

This phone is also built very solidly although dispite this I bought a case as my phones live a very hard life and to cover the holes when using in the rain. I would still be confident that it would survive without the case however and this does feel like a device you could lob at a wall without significant injury given the Gorilla Glass.

The screen resolution is about average but given the size it's nice and sharp.

Coming from a much less powerful android phone, the amount of programs this can run without any slow down is fantastic. There's a lot of RAM there and you'll rarely find yourself wondering why it's lagging.

I still lament the lack of a macro mode as I often use a phone camera to take a picture of text (menu, phone number, etc) and it came as a real surprise that this was lacking from an autofocus camera. The camera is adequate with some neat real time effects and is pretty responsive. A physical shutter button would be nice

Personally, I think this is the best compromise between the performance of the dual core monsters with their large screens and battery life. It's an evolution of a damn good phone, not a new model, so the flaws have been ironed out. The bugs will be dealt with in time and I can only hope a palm pre-esque multitasking system makes itself known as this would complete the Android OS.

Wi-Fi is not a problem for me!

9/10

Joleen

9th June 2011

I've had this for about 1.5 months now and can't fault its operation. The battery life is quite good, I use my phone for about 7 email accounts(+ 2 gmail) and all are busy. I get close to 1.75 days operation with everything on bar bluetooth. I've been using a Hero up to getting this and the speed of the device is is stunning even with the 50 or so apps I have loaded. Maybe I'm amazed because I know no better but its fast enough for me and it works well as a business phone too. Physicaly, I've dropped the device about 10 times and it still works well. My only gripe with the build is the Gorrila glass, I have a small 1.5" crack in the display and I've never sat on it! so it must be as a results of the drops, the first I've ever seen since using mobile phones.
I read about claimed wifi issues before I got this phone and I can safely say its not been an issue for me. I have wifi permanently turned on and I get notifications all the time. I think the antena is on the top and as I write this i'm watching a youtube video in HQ with my hand permanently cupping the top rear of the phone with no effect- just the loss of 1 bar in the wifi indicator. This phone is more good than bad.

user interface

9/10

villash

7th June 2011

The phone is pretty good for using.......battery stands for 2 to 3 days with average usage............awesome working htc sense and nothing really to worry..

BEWARE OF HTC DESIRE S: Loses Wifi signal

3/10

davidds

29th April 2011

BEWARE OF HTC DESIRE S. When gripped in the upper part it loses wifi signal. It is specially annoying when you hold it in portrait mode, for example when you are watching Youtube videos, if not switched to 3G. It is called "Grip of Death". More infomation at http://bit.ly/HDS-GOD . I have just received it and could see it for myself. It is not fixed by using a protective cover (at least the Barely There). Too late for me. I hope it is not so late for you. :-/