HTC One S Review - International and T-Mobile
by Brian Klug on July 17, 2012 9:30 AM ESTIt took me a while to finish the One S review, partially because honestly I didn’t want to be done with it. Ok, well that's part of it, truth be told it took me far too long to finish the One S review, but I have some good excuses - a month full of abrupt life changes, a move across town, and a number of trips to exciting places covering the SGS3 announcement, Google I/O, and Windows Phone 8 all seemed to preclude hitting post on the One S review. The whole time, I've been using the T-Mobile One S with my own T-Mobile SIM and plan (the magical $30/mo prepaid one with unlimited SMS, 5 GB of full speed data, and 100 minutes) since getting it, and the device is almost always in my pocket alongside either the One X, SGS3, or Galaxy Nexus with my other AT&T line.
If you’re a T-Mobile customer in the USA, there’s no doubt about it that the HTC One S is the current number one or two device out there, thanks in part to that combination of DC-HSPA+ and new 28nm SoC. Even now that T-Mobile has the Samsung Galaxy S III, the One S still has a place at the top of the carrier’s lineup for shoppers that aren’t looking for the largest device, or value the metal construction. Since both are based on the same SoC, the differentiating factors really come down to display, camera, and other features. SGS3 obviously includes the bigger and better display, but HTC feels like it holds the upper hand in camera and construction. The rest is just personal preference. For international shoppers, their particular One S gets the plasma sputtered metal case in addition to none of the T-Mobile software preload.
Really the differentiator is the display, and LTE. With regards to the display, I initially thought that another 4.3" qHD SAMOLED display with PenTile would immediately turn me off, but HTC has done the best job I’ve seen thus far of getting that particular panel to a place where it doesn’t have a weird tint at every brightness level or insane amounts of sharpening. It blows my mind that Samsung can't get its own AMOLED panels tuned this well. With regards to LTE, there are still a number of carriers out there who don’t have LTE, but are instead looking to improvements on WCDMA to both increase capacity and deliver higher throughput. In my neck of the woods and other similar places where there's no AT&T LTE coming for the foreseeable year or so, going to a carrier with DC-HSPA+ in the interim does make some sense.
I really have to go back to what I started talking about in the first section - the One S has an absolutely phenomenal in-hand feel thanks to the combination of both that metal construction, and the center taper. Even in the supplied case, the device sort of fades away in the pocket in a way that is starting to become depressingly uncommon as OEMs push into much larger display sizes and form factors.
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Brian Klug - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
I have to admit I didn't try WiFI Calling, partly because on my prepaid plan WiFi calling is unsupported. I haven't had issues with WiFi in general, but then again WiFi calling does require a different QoS to be pleasant than the typical web browsing use case I stress on WiFi.-Brian
millerduck - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
Thanks for the reply Brian.I have exchanged this phone once and have also been pushed the OTA update without any change in performance. I am hoping another update may be in the works to resolve the issues.
WiFi itself does seem to work fine. If there is a way to add WiFi calling tests to these reviews that would be very helpful as it is a huge selling point on the T-Mobile network.
MD
Zoomer - Thursday, July 19, 2012 - link
What does WiFi calling have to do with the carrier?It's just data to your favorite sip provider, no?
BoloMKXXVIII - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
I find the trend of omiting a microSD card slot disturbing. I have about 8 months left on my current contract and I am hoping there are some quality phones left that still have a microSD card slot by the time I am ready to replace my current phone (HTC Inspire 4G).Johnmcl7 - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
I very much agree and I'm baffled as to why reviewers seem ok with it, I think it's a bit of a joke to have a very powerful phone capable of HD video recording, HD screen and capable of increasingly fancy games with a measly 16GB of a memory and no expansion. I thought it was poor that the slot was removed on the Galaxy Nexus but assumed it would get hammered for it in reviews so no-one else would follow suit but that slipped past and now HTC are at it which again seems fine in this review - I view it as a big plus that the S3 still has micro SD yet that doesn't even get a mention in the verdict. What is the point of having all this fancy hardware if it's crippled by a lack of memory? 16GB is really nothing by the time you've loaded a few games, HD films, music and started taking advantage of the HD recording. Yes you can stream data but data caps seem to be getting increasingly tight at the moment, you need decent reception and it uses considerably more batterypower plus a device with a micro SD card slot can do all that as well if needed.The S3 keeping its micro SD slot is a good sign and I hope that's the way Samsung stay despite others removing the micro SD slot. I also hope they keep the removable battery as that's also something I find increasingly handy, my phone's battery life is pretty good on idle but games and web browsing quickly hammer it but I don't need to worry about that because if I kill the battery I can swap it straight over to a fully charged one without issue rather than the fiddle of trying to charge it on the move with a portable battery charger.
John
OCedHrt - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
The One S's stock browser has an inverted browsing mode - however things I've read on forums (XDA etc) seem to indicate this doesn't really improve battery life.JFish222 - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
I, like so many, am trying to decide between the S3 vs One/Evo/etc (I'm on Sprint.)I prefer the HTC's in hand feel but am looking for other ways to differentiate (that damn 2GB of RAM on the S3 makes it so much hard to go w/ the HTC!)
Can you please include the S3's in the speaker volume tests?
Great Article!
Impulses - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - link
2GB RAM on the SGS3 and a removable batteryVs
Physical camera button, kickstand, and a slightly better display on the EVO LTE
I opted for the latter because I prefer Sense over Touchwiz and I rarely used the extra batteries I had in the past (with both previous flagship EVOs), they were nice to have when traveling but an external USB battery pack has it's own advantages (no rebooting to slap the battery in) and works well for traveling purposes (throw phone in bag and let it charge while I sleep/move between gates).
The kickstand and camera button are just things I'll get much more use out of. Had the Sprint SGS3 bring able to roam globally like Verizon's version I might've gone the other way tho.
This might be my first two year phone in a while I think, barring any uptick in my travel plans. :p (or a massive failure on Sprint's part to stick to their Network Vision & LTE deployment schedule in Puerto Rico)
TareX - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
Also, AMOLED consumes close to twice more power when displaying the predominantly white screen of web browsers compared to LCDs.Mumrik - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link
We're calling 4.3" device diminutive now?What the hell? Let's get real - that's a pretty massive phone. 4" is already biggish.