I’d been contemplating buying a new mobile phone months before I even arrived at university because I’d had my Samsung Tocco Lite for over a year when it was only originally going to be a temporary phone while I got a new one. 2 weeks after moving to university, I decided that it was time to go out on a search for a new phone. Originally, it was going to be a Blackberry that I was going to get but I saw the HTC Sensation and really liked it. Unfortuantely, O2 didn’t have the Sensation so instead the saleswoman said that I should consider the HTC Desire-S which I did. It’s very similar to the Sensation and I’d heard a lot of good things about the Desire and imagined the Desire-S would be slightly better.
Specs
- Screen: 3.7 inch touch-screen
- Weight: 130g (with Battery)
- Platform: Android (with HTC Sense)
- Camera: 5 mega-pixel with LED flash and auto-focus
- Video: 720p HD recording
- Storage: 1.1GB internal / MicroSD
The Money Side of Things
This was the first phone I’d ever got on contract so I was a little nervous about taking out a contract for it. I’ve entered into a 24 month contract where for £27 a month I get unlimited texts, 300 minutes, 20 MMS, unlimited Wi-Fi and 500MB of data. I’m sure there are better deals elsewhere but I wanted to remain loyal to O2 as I’ve never had any problems with their network or anything. Currently the phone is advertised as being £349.99 on the O2 website on a PAYG deal.
How Does It Look?
Personally I think it’s a very nice looking phone and doesn’t have a complex design. The screen is a brilliant size and that was one of the main factors in my decision to buy it. Texting on the phone is made a little bit easier because of the screen being slightly bigger. The touchscreen is very sensitive and the touch-buttons on the bottom of the screen are also easy to press too. The back of the phone shows the camera lens, the speaker and the LED flash.
What Kind of Apps?
I’ve never had a phone where I’ve had the freedom of being able to download so many free apps. The Android Market is full of some really good apps, both free ones and paid ones. I am yet to pay for an app but there are plenty of apps that I wouldn’t mind paying for. Twitter and Facebook were both already installed on the phone but they are also available on the Market for free if they weren’t. I’ve downloaded a few different apps like Foursquare, Barcode Scanner and Angry Birds to name only a select few. Be sure to check out the Android Market before you buy if you want to see what kind of apps you could download. (www.market.android.com)
Is the Camera Good?
I’ve been very impressed by the camera. There is a camera on the back as well as a front-facing camera too giving you the option of easily taking a photo of yourself as well as being able to take pictures the conventional way. There are a few camera options which I have found to be incredibly useful such as the Vignette option and the Depth of Field options. The auto-focus is very useful and quite good too. You can tap the screen where you want the camera to focus and it will focus it for you. In terms of video, it produces a very high quality HD image which is very good for that of a mobile phone video. The power LED flash is very useful for lighting up a subject too and is bright enough to use as a flashlight at night time too. (There’s an app for that too).
What’s This About Battery Life?
You may or may not have heard about HTC’s reputation for having quite poor battery lives. The Desire-S apparently has a better battery than some of it’s predecessors but I have still found that the phone doesn’t hold it’s charge for more than a day. I don’t use the phone for much besides texting and quickly checking my Facebook and Twitter accounts. However with it being such a powerful phone, I don’t really mind that the battery life isn’t so good. The Power Saver function on the phone is good which turns off some of the functions of the phone to extend the battery a little bit. You should certainly not let the battery put you off. Just make sure you have a power supply nearby just in case your phone does show the dreaded ‘Connect your Charger’ message.
Overall
This phone is amazing and is certainly a big challenger to the other top dogs of the smartphone market such as iPhone and Blackberry. It is light, very user friendly and generally a great phone to use. The battery does let it down slightly but it’s nothing that a quick charge won’t solve.
