You can take still images even while you’re simultaneously recording 1080p video, and can hold down the on-screen shutter to capture photos in lickety-split burst mode. This one isn’t, yet there’s plenty of power in there, including the ability to apply Instagram-style effects such as Vintage and Posterize as you snap pictures, rather than after the fact. Many Android camera apps are overloaded with icons, controls and other clutter. It’s not just the quality of the images, though - HTC nailed the camera software. (There’s also a front-facing camera for videocalls.) Judged in terms of pure image quality, it delivered some of the nicest snapshots I’ve seen from any smartphone - nearly as impressive as those from the iPhone 4S, but a tad softer, with less crisp details. When it comes to the rear-facing 8-megapixel camera, however, the One S is just plain terrific. The 540-by-960 display uses a rendering technique called PenTile Matrix which is notorious for creating jaggies and color fringing I noticed some of both when I eyeballed things closely, but didn’t find them distracting enough to be major liabilities. It delivers the intensely vivid look that’s OLED’s signature feature as usual, the sheer intensity of the color makes for an eye-popping experience, although anyone looking for accurate reproduction of photos may be less than enchanted. Its screen is based on Super AMOLED technology, and it’s just fair, not fantastic. (I didn’t perform formal tests of how long it could survive on a charge, but found that if I charged it in the morning it was dangerously low by the evening - typical for an Android handset.) It also includes 16GB of built-in storage for apps, music, phones and the like, but no MicroSD slot for memory cards. The phone is so thin in part because HTC sealed in the battery, iPhone-style. It felt comfy in my hand and didn’t threaten to burst my shirt pocket at the seams. The two-tone gray anodized aluminum case is wider and taller than the iPhone 4S, but thinner, and the 4.3″ display isn’t so humongous that it leaves the One S suffering from the gigantism that’s recently infected many Android models. But the One S, which weighs 4.2 ounces and is 7.8mm thick, not only beats most other phones on the numbers but feels like a featherweight. I’m usually skeptical about thinking that a phone’s precise weight and dimensions tell you much about about what it’s like to hold and use. (T-Mobile loaned me a unit for this review.) (Other variants are the One X, available on AT&T, and the EVO 4G LTE, on Sprint.) The One S is available from T-Mobile for $249.99 - not counting a $50 mail-in rebate - with a two-year contract. ( MORE: Read our reviews of other phones and gadgets)ĭespite the singularity of the name “One,” this phone is actually part of a line of slim HTC phones running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that vary a bit in specs. Those are easily its greatest assets, and they’re more than enough to make it T-Mobile’s flagship smartphone of the moment - something that T-Mobile could use, since it’s the only major U.S. HTC’s new One S, however, is an Android phone with a distinct personality: it’s seriously sleek and has an exceptionally good camera. What you have are a bunch of big-screen slabs incorporating similar features and components, and it can be tough to tell them apart unless you’re paying careful attention. But when you start to compare the smartphones that manufacturers actually release, it’s their sameness that’s striking, not the diversity. The whole notion behind Google’s mobile operating system is to give hardware makers software that’s flexible enough to let them build an array of different handsets.
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