HTC One S Review - International and T-Mobile
by Brian Klug on July 17, 2012 9:30 AM ESTThe One S display is a 4.3" SAMOLED panel with qHD (960 x 540) resolution. If that sounds really familiar, it’s because it’s the same as what was in the Motorola Droid RAZR series, including PenTile RGBG.
What’s different, however, is how well HTC has controlled the color temperature and gamma compared to Motorola in the RAZR. As shown in the HCFR galleries below, gamma is pretty close to 2.2 until you get to the high end, and color temperature is pretty close to 6500K, except at the two darkest grey points. This is so much better than any other OEM calibration of an AMOLED panel I’ve taken a look at, which is rather humorous because the panel is undoubtably Samsung’s. HTC is also letting the panel go pretty bright, up past 350 nits, instead of clamping it way down around 200 (I’m looking at you, Galaxy Nexus) to save power. I also haven’t noticed blacks not being totally off on the One S like I have with some others. Of course, colors are still massively oversaturated if your source color space is sRGB.
I’ve griped about PenTile RGBG before on this panel and other SAMOLED displays, but I find the One S to be completely enjoyable in spite of having it thanks to two things. First, how well HTC has controlled the panel (no awful hues, weird white points, or dramatic shifts as you change brightness) - this is basically the best I’ve seen this particular panel, and until SGS3, the best I’ve seen AMOLED in general. Second, because HTC doesn’t appear to be applying any processing that applies sharpening (like Samsung’s mDNIe) to text.
How you feel about PenTile really is the final factor: it’s there, but I’ve slowly become accustomed to it after staring at it for so long. If you go back to the Nexus S days, I was one of the most outspoken critics because of how large those subpixels were. With small enough subpixels (below visual acuity), PenTile starts to make sense. In other news, HTC moving back to Samsung AMOLED for phones is an interesting move after supply issues forced HTC to SLCD with some earlier phones, here on the HTC One S however, it looks great.
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flashbacck - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
I have a T-mobile One S. I've noticed (and would be interested in hearing what other people have experienced) that battery life is destroyed if you turn on the "best wi-fi performance" setting in the wi-fi > menu > advanced menu.Zoomer - Thursday, July 19, 2012 - link
That should be the settings that leaves wifi on all the time (disables sleep). That would destroy battery life for any device.Death666Angel - Thursday, July 19, 2012 - link
My SGS2 runs with that I always get comfortably through a day of medium to heavy use. Since my 2000mAh battery upgrade, I could maybe approach 2 days but why bother? :Ddxkj - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
It pulls ahead for "some reason". I believe that reason is the quad core is on the international version and the 2 core is on the US versionsunsetsam - Friday, July 27, 2012 - link
Article says "sealed battery", chart shows "Removable". Pretty sure it's sealed, and if so, that's a deal killer. Really like my Sensation and was looking to upgrade, but sealed battery, no deal.Tomsgate - Monday, September 10, 2012 - link
Generally a nice device, but be aware that many times many users, including myself, are experiencing a SERIOUS ISSUE whenever carrier signal is weak: The capacitive Home Touch Button then tends to press itself. When in an app or on the home screen with or without the finger near the home button it seems to spaz out as if the home button gets pressed in quick time succession.Basically, you then completely loose control over your phone. Just google "HTC one S touch home button issue" and you'll see plenty of posts and videos about it.
This issue has been reported to HTC by many users for several months now, but no patch or update has been released now as to address the problem. So keep this in mind if you want to purchase this device... You have been warned.
HTC, please take position and FIX THIS ISSUE! Thank you...
Other issues on this phone (personal experience):
- HTC Task widget duplicates tasks by itself, up to X times
- Connectivity issues, phone suddenly switches between 3G and HSPDA permanently, resulting in extremely slow data connection
- Sync issues with contacts (ICS issue)
Reported issues:
- Black metal coating chipping off on black edition
Karl1 - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link
HOME SCREEN BUTTON ISSUE!In many ways this phone is excellent, but it has a huge design flaw and becomes almost useless in areas with poor reception.
No point describing it in detail here, just google 'home screen button issue'. There are hundreds of people reporting the problem and receiving precisely zero support from HTC.
Obviously not every handset seems to be affected, but I have had two that were (replaced the first one), and the spreadsheet listing those affected is growing daily. Worse, the problem seems to take a few weeks to develop (so you will be outside your cooling-off period and will not be able to return it), then becomes increasingly bad after that.
Seriously, think twice before buying this phone. If I knew what I know now I would not even consider it. I certainly will never buy an HTC again.