Back In February at the MWC ,HTC unveiled its ONE series. This new range from HTC is based on 3 hardware (processor) platforms. Single-core (HTC ONE V ),  dual-core (HTC ONE S) and the flagship ONE X a quad-core.  The ONE S as clearly visible, is a middle range phone (or rather the middle child) of the ONE series.
Being in the middle its a notch below the ONE X in hardware specs. It has a lot going for it though, being the slimmest and one of the sexiest phones that HTC has ever produced.

Powered by the latest snapdragon processor from qualcomm, with ultra light ceramic coated chasis and featuring an Ice Cream Sandwich OS, this baby has everything it needs to take on any other kid in the block.

However on the flip-side there are quite a few things that may raise eyebrows like the non-removable battery and the lack of a Micro SD card slot to expand memory. So let’s find out whether the compact design, brilliant build quality and a powerful hardware can take over the “sealed battery” and “lack of SD card” problem? Plus we check out the pricing of the phone and find its “true worth”.

DESIGN:

This beauty has a 4.3 inch screen featuring a Super LCD-2 display. For a 4.3 incher its amazingly compact and a delight to hold. The device is just a mere 7.8 mm thick making it one of the slimmest android phones available in the market. It only increases in thickness near the camera lens which protrudes out a little.  The phone weighs just a little over 4.2 oz (120 gm) which is amazingly light even after having a chassis made out of anodized metal. The Galaxy S II on the other hand weighs 4.1 oz being completely made out of plastic.  The volume rocker and the power button are ergonomically placed making it a very pleasant experience to operate on these keys.

HTC outed a dedicated video on their body framework which uses a technology called Micro arc Oxidation. This uses about 10000 V to oxidize the metal to reach tensile strength a few times stainless steel. HTC as of now is using polycarbonate to produce the body of the ONE X  like the Nokia Lumia’s. The top and bottom parts of the back are plastic, which we have been told is a smarter method for allowing signal penetration. The top piece can be easily opened for inserting a micro-SIM card but there is no slot for another to enter.

DISPLAY:

The 4.3 inch screen features an OLED like technology found in the Samsung devices which means the S-LCD display provides a very sharp contrast and insanely deep black colors found in the Galaxy S series.

Viewing angles are great till you keep the phone tilted less than 30 degrees. After this angle the color turns bluish and the images start to fade away a little.  The screen sports a 960X540 qHD resolution with a pixel density of 256 ppi. That makes for a great density thus allowing every icon, photo or video to appear crisp and detailed. The HTC hosts a PenTile matrix arrangement which makes for a bright screen and also a good anti-reflective coating allow day-light viewing incredibly soothing.

PERFORMANCE:

The HTC ONE S hosts the 4th generation snapdragon processor (S4) from Qualcomm and it is a dual-core beast. Launching apps, browsing through web pages or playing any graphics oriented game happens with utmost ease and there is no lag what so ever. The ONE S has a 768 MB RAM and is strapped in with ICS (Android 4.0) OS which utilizes resources very effectively. The new HTC sense 4.0 is well customized for ICS and has a lot of new features than its preceding versions.

All in all the HTC ONE S is a great phone to use and we had literally nothing to complain about except for the new trends of “non-removable battery and no SD card slot”. It is yet to be released in the US and is coming with a contract from T-Mobile.

No pricing plans have been revealed by T-Mobile as of now but we expect the non-contract price of the phone to be around $400.