Review - HTC One S

It became time to finally start looking at cellphone upgrades this summer, and this time around, I was going to go for a little more high end than I normally do for my cellphones.  Chasing the top performing phones is an ultimately losing proposition because you'll only be the top dog for a matter of weeks before something bigger, faster and 'better' is released.

My shopping and investigation led me to the HTC One S and the Galaxy Nexus, and it was a very difficult decision, and one that I have had twinges of regret once in a while.  I'll get to that a little later.  I went with the HTC One S because it was brand new, and a top performing phone.   I think it's sleek, very well made, and absolutely top notch.

Build Quality
The phone itself is surprisingly thin and has a very solid feel to it.  I would say it feels almost as sturdy as my older HTC Legend, which was made from a solid body of aluminum.  The finish on the case looks very nice, it's not simply a brushed metal finish, and is a metallic matte grey colour.  On the top of the back of the phone is the camera, with a blue accent ring around the lens.  The camera lens does protrude a bit from the body of the phone, but my simple case is thicker than that protrusion.   The volume rocker is on the right side of the phone, and the power button is on the top of the phone along with the headphone jack.  The micro USB is on the left side.

Some with smaller hands may find the power button on the top as being hard to reach, but I happen to prefer that location to my wife's Galaxy Note which has the power button on the right side, which I find awkward to use.  That's a matter of preference I'm sure, but my last 3 phones have been HTC, and I'm used to it;s location along the top.

On the front of the phone is a very smart looking black border on the screen that extends down the sides of the phone.  This gives the illusion of the phone being even thinner from the side, and makes for a very nice feeling on the fingers as the screen feels truly edge-to-edge with no bevel at all.  There are 3 capacitive touch buttons on the bottom (Back, Home and Recent Apps) and the front facing camera is on the top right of the phone, and the speakers are actually tiny holes drilled right into the solid body of the phone, again lending to it's solid build and design esthetic.  Hidden in one of those tiny holes is a single LED which is the notification LED.  A simple design choice that speaks to the thought that went into this phone.

The only feeling of bad design is the cover that goes on the back of the phone around the camera, which is where the SIM goes.  There is a bit of squeak, and hollowness to it which is disappointing.  Aside from that, the phone feels absolutely great in the hand, albeit a little slick to hold on to, which was  the driving factor in me getting a case for the phone.

Audio
The new HTC phones comes with 'Beats Audio', but to be 100% honest, I'm not entirely clear on what that is, aside from an equalizer.  My phone didn't come with headphones which is a weird decision by either the carrier or the maker when you're touting something like Beats Audio.   With that being said, the audio quality is good when listening to music, but truth be told I sometimes play music with the Beats Audio option enabled, and sometimes disabled.  As far as the in call quality is concerned, it is very good, and the speaker phone works well too.

Camera
To say that the rear facing camera is fast is an understatement.  The time between me pressing the camera app icon and the camera launching and being ready to take a photo is barely measurable.  There are also realtime camera filters, and the ability to hold the button down on the screen and take several photos per second which works very well for sports photos.  The neatest trick though is the ability to take photos while recording video without interruption.  I'm not much of a picture taker, but this camera is the best I have seen on any mobile device.

Speed
This is one of the few times where you'll get technical stats from this review (If you want specs, you can them all over the internet, this review is about user experience).   This phone has a dual core 1.5GHz processor which makes for an amazingly quick phone.  Are there faster phones out there?  Of course there are, but this phone is far from a slouch.  I'll be getting a lot of miles out of this phone based on it's speed and build quality.

Software
Here's where HTC either wins people over, or loses them completely.   The phone comes with the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android modified by what is called HTC Sense.  Sometimes it's minor design changes, and other times it's more major application integration and functionality.  While I love the pure Android experience, I really do like what HTC has done with this new version of Sense.  It's far less obtrusive and very sharp visually, and for me was a major selling feature for the phone.

Now, the software is where those moments of regret have come in with my choice of phones.  When I bought the phone, JellyBean had not yet been offficially unveiled, and I figured it would be a very minor release without a lot of updates, given how major ICS was.  JellyBean was announced and unveiled about 3 or 4 weeks and the speed upgrades from 'Project Butter' and Google Now were far and above what I was expecting to see.  It was announced that the Galaxy Nexus and the Xoom (which I am using to write this review) were going to be the first devices to get this operating system upgrade.  I have an irrational need to have the most up to date systems for my phones and tablets, and I knew it would eventually mean having to root my HTC One S, and installed a custom system with JB.   However, I have been using CyanogenMod 10 which is their JellyBean release, and while I am very happy with the system, I do miss some of the HTC Sense features.  When HTC gets around to upgrading my phone to JellyBean themselves, I can honestly see myself going back to their system, which I think speaks to how well it works.

Overall Impressions
As you might expect, I am very very pleased by this phone.  At the time it was released it was the top performance phone in North America.  It's bigger brother, the HTC One X, has a higher screen resolution but was lacking the quad core processor of it's international version.  Higher screen density with the same processor means it is slower.  I've had this phone for almost 2 full months now, and looking at the current phone market, there isn't a phone that I would trade this one for, and that includes the massively popular Samsung Galaxy S3.

Editorial
Since I have already mentioned the Galaxy S3, I simply do NOT understand the incredible appeal of the Samsung Galaxy line of phones.   I find their physical design very underwhelming, and the physical Home button baffles me.  Touch Wiz (which is Samsung's Android modifications akin to HTC Sense) really seems to me to lack a strong design aesthetic.   At the same time that I bought my HTC One S, my wife bought a Samsung Galaxy Note, and while it's a great phone, and she's very very pleased with it, she does miss HTC Sense. I think HTC pushes the design envelope more, and I don't see the same from Samsung.  HTC has also acknowledged that people who by there phones want to root and unlock them, and HTC has made the process VERY easy in direct response to their community.  I think the fact that HTC launched their high end phones in the forthcoming shadow of the unstoppable GS3 launch may have hurt them.  HTC has had a difficult year financially, and I'm disappointed that their hard work isn't paying off as much for them.  I do want my next phone to be an HTC, and I just hope there is still room in the market for them in 2 years.

Now, to HTC, I will simply say, get that Jelly Bean release done quickly.