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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antef - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
Remove the period from the end of that URL.Zoomer - Thursday, July 19, 2012 - link
Truphone lets you go on both TMobile and ATT networks.Brian Klug - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
Anyone can do it, what I did was just buy a SIM activation kit from T-Mobile (this one, or any other, it doesn't matter: http://www.amazon.com/T-Mobile-Tmobile-Mobile-Prep... ), then just select the appropriate plan when provisioning the line. :)-Brian
pookguy88 - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
I have it on pretty good authority that the Canadian One S is Pentaband, i.e. works on AT&T and T-Mobile... checking on it now but pretty sure this is the caseZoomer - Thursday, July 19, 2012 - link
The US version should work on ATT too, band II, V.I'm assuming the phone support bands I, II IV, V. Probably not IX, X.
geniekid - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
I think it all comes down to whether you can use the phone effectively using one hand. Given that the processing abilities are pretty much the same between the One S and the SGS3, and both have adequate battery life (arguable), the trade-off you're making is between display size and ease of one handed use.For some people watching shows while on the train is more important than texting while walking. For some people it's the opposite. I'm glad there are phones out there like the iPhone 4S, the HTC Incredible 4G, the One S and the Galaxy S3 that make my buying decisions so hard.
geniekid - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
This review is so late it's starting to lose relevance, which is unfortunate because it's the best review for the One S I've read. I hope, Mr. Klug, with absolute sincerity, that your life is finally calming down after the move.Brian Klug - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
It finally has, I have a big backlog, so there might be a few other phones that have lost some relevance to get through here, but then it's back to being on top of things hopefully :)-Brian
Impulses - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
Your reviews really are unparalleled, but Anand should seriously consider hiring someone to do some of the more mundane testing for you or something! It's a real shame that the best smartphone reviews on the web often tend to come out months after the phone's release.Impulses - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
Oh and thanks for adding some of the testing data for unreviewed phones within current reviews, it helps.