Review: HTC Incredible S
By Branko Miletic
- Super strong screen
- 8 megapixel camera
- Decent battery life
Global phone makers like HTC know that it’s all about the branding. Sure, you need a great product with standout features and acceptable price, but in an age of consumer brand recognition – if you aren’t known, you might as well pack up and go home, right?
Which brings me to HTC. Now I have never hidden the fact that I like HTC as a company – its innovation and foresight is something that makes this Taiwanese tech company a real gem. However, HTC does need to do a lot more work on its customer recognition.
The display on the Incredible S is what first makes you sit up and notice – being not quite HD at 800 x 400 pixels, but super bright nonetheless, the 4-inch screen means no more squinting – add to that the Gorilla glass and hey, it’s almost childproof, which is just as well as at 135gm in weight, it almost feels like a toy.
But I don’t want to get all hung up on the bells and whistles. Tech journalists can do that forgetting that at the end of the day, a Smartphone is a tool used by consumers with varying degrees of technical savyness and skill.
So, when it comes to the Incredible S, it’s all about the user experience as far as I am concerned. This experience first starts with the touch technology the company uses and all the way to how HTC allows you to micro-personalise your phone.
Second, with the ability to set up all your email accounts, social media logins and of course pick whatever Wi-Fi you want to use plus voice dialing, app download and shortcut key, means within 10 or so minutes, the Incredible S will become so customised, you’ll think you’ve had it for months on the first day you buy it.
Third, the Incredible S is an Android-based device. Now a couple of years ago that may not have been a plus, however these days, it’s a bonus. There is a reason why Android devices have been growing faster than those on Symbian, Win 7 and Mac iOS combined – it’s because they are so damn good is a good start, but there are many other reasons as well.
This phone runs on the Android 2.2 derivation or Gingerbread as it’s known, the best Android mobile OS so far and as such, it means this phone will allow you to do as much and if not more than your friends can with their iPhones.
In fact, there are a number of Android Apps, such as HomePipe and iTunes Remote App that allows users to migrate their songs from iTunes to your Android-based device. This should be good news for iPhone and/or iPod users that want to use an Android device and are worried about the music collection. I am also surprised that HTC haven’t added this type of App to its range of phones, although they might do so from now on.
The phone’s 8-megapixel camera will also prove to be a boon for those that use their smartphone as their point-and-shoot snapper.
Battery-wise, where most smartphones come unstuck wasn’t that awful- at about 4 days stand-by and a full day of constant usage, this phone should appeal to the business user as well.
Under the bonnet, there is a Qualcomm Scorpion 1Gb processor with 1100Mb of storage, which can be expanded using a microSD card seemed to handle just about any task it was given, with the only issues relating to the Optus network – however that’s a whole different story.
Overall, the Incredible S is another winner from the HTC stable. It could have done with maybe a bit more storage, a bit more RAM (currently sitting at 768Mb) and better speakers for your music collection, Yet, barring those wish-list items, the Incredible S should do well for HTC.
Pros: light, stable, fast and sleek
Cons: more RAM and better speakers would be nice
4 out of 5 Shacks
Brought to you by CyberShack.com.au
