HTC’s mid-range phone, the One S, is hitting the stores here on June 16. Sporting the Taiwanese phone maker’s familiar metallic design and with a dual-core processor, it will cost S$948 when bundled with the Beats Solo Headset.
The One S retains the old metallic unibody design that HTC had so much success with in the past, but which its high-end One X eschewed for a new hardy, polycarbonate design when unveiled earlier in Singapore.
Clearly, HTC still sees value in the proven design, and that it will appeal to users looking for a mid-range phone running updated versions of the Android operating system (4.0) and its Sense interface (now Sense 4).
The 4.3-inch screen is nothing to phone home about, though you can expect the brightness from a Super AMOLED display. Neither is the 1.7GHz dual-core processor the quickest off the mark, when the One X and others like Samsung’s Galaxy S III now come with quad-core designs.
The main selling point, as HTC will point out, is the speedy camera onboard. As part of the One series, the One S sports a f/2.0 capable lens that will let in enough light in dim scenarios as well as fire up extremely quickly. That’s 0.7 seconds to shoot and 0.2 seconds to auto-focus, according to the company.
Like with other One series phones, there’s also the 25GB of cloud storage with Dropbox which you enjoy for two years for free. After that, you’re still able to access the files, just that you can’t add or upload more to the online locker unless you pay for the service.
The One S is expected to sit between the top-end One X and budget One V. All in, the One S is not too bad in terms of features.
But strangely, HTC has bundled the One S with a Beats Solo Headset, pushing up the price to S$948, which is higher than the S$898 One X and too close to the S$998 Galaxy S III.
We’re still checking with HTC Singapore to see if the phone is available without the headset. Not everyone’s a Dr Dre or Beats Audio fan, so forcing users to buy the headphones with the phone will surely push some away.
UPDATE: HTC Singapore has said that the phone only comes with the headphones. Pretty expensive bundle, and it’s hard to recommend, as a result.
Errm I thought Techgoondu was a tech site?
“Neither is the 1.7GHz dual-core processor the quickest off the mark, when the One X and others like Samsung’s Galaxy S III now come with quad-core designs” is pure hogwash, and is misleading.
If you look at benchmarks carefully, the dual core krait goes head to head with the quad core One X, and even bests it often enough that it matters.
No, we’re not a tech site. Don’t take us seriously since you’re obviously smarter. Seriously, there are benchmarks which show either is true – faster or slower for dual/quad core, but many a times not all cores are used for all apps. Years ago, people used to laugh at quad-core PCs. Not today.
No offence intended but, you guys have been generally alright most of the time. This time though, i think you’ve ignored the fact that the processors used are of a different class. The One X, S3 etc are Quad core Cortex A9 processors, while the One S uses a hybrid A9-A15 core.
Here’s the performance benchmarks for the Krait based One X which uses the same CPU from my favorite tech-site. It has comparisons to the International Tegra 3 based One X in all the benchmark tests.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5779/htc-one-x-for-att-review/4
Thanks for the link – Anandtech’s a great site. Your point’s noted. The benchmarks, as with others online, have shown that quad and dual cores do beat one another depending on the benchmark/scenario.
Here’s one random example: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/05/01/dual-core-and-quad-core-htc-one-x-models-benchmarked-side-by-side/
On the other hand, there are others which show dual-core chips, like the hybrid A9-A15 does better too. We do believe in everyday use though that the quad-core CPUs on the Galaxy S III and One X appear faster.
That seems like a random gauge, but so are many mobile benchmarks these days, compared to, say, the more mature PC tests.
Thanks for pointing this out, in any case.
singapore One S will be using a S3 processor…even thought the clock speed is 1.7, it still lose out the a krait 1.5 in terms of power and also the battery consumption rate…
Pls help to check if both colour is available also. Thank you very much!
Hi, it’s only available in “Gradient Metal”.
That’s tough to accept too. The black is much nicer. Thanks for e info