HTC Desire S

Available now
15th February 2011

The replacement for the original HTC Desire launched a year ago, the HTC Desire S doesn't stray too far from the original handset with a series of small improvements to make it a slightly better device all around.

The Desire S has a slightly improved processor, a little more RAM, a slightly bigger battery, a new front-facing video camera, better WiFi support and a revised case design. If you already own a Desire, then there's not much you are missing out on here.

As with the previous version, there's a 3.7" 480 x 800 pixel display, although this is now a Super LCD panel rather than the OLED display the previous version had. On the back is a 5 megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video capture, and there's a basic VGA resolution camera on the front for video calling.

Inside is a 1 GHz Qualcomm MSM 8255 CPU and 33% more RAM than the old model at 768MB. Internal flash memory is quoted as being 1.1GB, expandable via a microSD slot to another 32GB. It's a bit lighter than the old version at 130 grams, and the casing is a new unibody design that looks similar to other HTC smartphones.

The 1450 mAh battery is quoted as giving up to 7.25 hours talktime on 3G which isn't bad. In our experience, the old HTC Desire was pretty good when it came to battery life, but the change in screen technology might give a different performance with the Desire S. The Desire S has quad-band GSM support, UMTS 900/2100 and WiFi, now including 802.11n plus DLNA support.

There's a comprehensive multimedia player with a 3.5mm audio socket, and of course GPS and all the usual Android smartphone features.

We're not entirely sure what version of Android the HTC Desire S runs, it looks like either version 2.3 "Gingerbread" or a newer revision 2.4. HTC have added their own "HTC Sense" interface on top which is excellent as far as we are concerned.

It may only be a minor upgrade to the original HTC Desire, but then we think that the original was the best handset of 2010, so there's plenty of life left in this phone yet. Although die-hard HTC fans may be disappointed to see that it is still a single core device, there is a rumoured HTC Desire 2 in the pipleline which should be even better.

HTC say that the Desire S should be available during Q2 2011.

HTC Desire S promo video