This is the final part for our HTC Desire S review marathon (yes, I have been using this baby for 2 weeks already). So we are finally here to make conclusion of this review once and for all! 🙂
In the post, I will point up the several great features (and improvements from the original Desire) of the phone and also some aspects that HTC can improve.
The Good
1. Solid Build Quality
One of the first things that catches my attention (and yours too) is the build quality. The moment you grab the phone, you should have sense a solid and premium feel of the phone. The phone sports an aluminium unibody chassis, where the phone is crafted out from a single piece of aluminium.
2. Fantastic HTC Sense 2.1 Experience
HTC has added more features (with some of them are really useful) to the HTC Sense 2.1, which delivers a fantastic Sense UI experience for Desire S. 🙂
Some of the Sense’s intuitive and useful functionality include the intelligent weather and clock widget (that update automatically when you travel), the new ability to quickly access the recently used apps and toggle switches from the notifications panel, a one-stop place to personalize your phone’s home screen, the FriendStream app that pulls Twitter, Facebook and Plurk feeds to one interface, HTCsense.com integration and more.
That’s not all! What’s make the phone more intelligent (thanks to the Sense) is the ability to silence an incoming call by simply flipping the phone over. Simply brilliant I must say! Also, the moment you lift your phone up to see who’s calling, the ringer volume gets lower. Plus, the phone will ring louder (to get your attention) if you have the phone placed in a bag.
Other great features include zero waiting time when viewing map and the Car Panel app (think Papago!) that assists your driving to a chosen destination.
Here’s a demo video on some of the HTC Sense 2.1 features.
3. Front-Facing Camera for Video Chat (and more)
HTC Desire S has a VGA secondary front-facing camera to help you stay in touch with friends via video chat.  Google Talk and Fring are some of the Android apps that supports video calling. Moreover, you can use the front-facing camera as a mirror (there’s a Mirror app pre-installed) or shoot photos of yourself (by yourself). 🙂
The Bad
1. Some Specs are Outdated
Sorry to speak the truth but some of the specs that Desire S have are outdated, which doesn’t take Desire S to the same league as other high-end smartphones like HTC Sensation and HTC Evo 3D. There is no improvement to the screen display and the camera specs (minor improvement).
As for the screen, it hasn’t changed from Desire, which remains at 3.7-inch with a resolution of 480 x 80o pixels. For me, this is a let-down because the phone should get a higher-resolution display. Meanwhile, the same goes to the camera, with only 5MP auto-focus camera with single LED flash. The only addition to the camera specs is the front-facing camera.
So here, I see the lack of several high-end specifications such as the 8MP camera, 1080p video recording (Desire S offers only 720p video recording), HDMI output to television, a higher-resolution display and of course the dual-core processor.
2. Decent Battery Life
Not only Desire S, but other big-screen smartphones also need charging once every other day of reasonable use. The more you can do with a phone, the more likely you are to use it. At least the battery life of Desire S is better from it’s predecessor. If you want to extend the battery life of Desire S (and other Android phones), please follow the battery saving tips that I’ve highlighted in the previous post. Alternatively, you can replace the 1450mAh battery with the Mugen Power 1800mAh (milliamp hour) Lithium-Ion battery at $44.95. It extends the life of the HTC Desire S by 24%! 🙂
Should You Get Yourself HTC Desire S?
As I said before in my very first post, the HTC Desire S is recommended to first time buyers who are looking at mid-range Android-powered smartphone. But if you are current owners of the original Desire, the HTC Desire S is not really worth the upgrade, as there are not much improvement and added features to the phone.
Moreover, the phone is lacking several high-end specifications which make the phone pretty much no match with other high-end smartphones like HTC Sensation and HTC Evo 3D.
The HTC Desire S can be purchased at suggested retail price of RM1799 from all Maxis centres nationwide. You can purchased the Desire S for RM1299 (RM500 discount from the RRP) if you tie up to 24 months contract with Maxis. For 12- and 18-months contract, the Desire S is offered at RM1499 and RM1399 respectively. For more details, visit the official Android page on Maxis.
P.S. : Thanks to Maxis10 Reviewers Programme for giving me the great opportunity to review HTC Desire S. Now, I feel like I am a much better hardware reviewer than before. 🙂 Hopefully, this is not my first and last time to do review for Maxis10. Yes, I am expecting the Motorola XOOM for review. Do you hear me, Maxis? 🙂
