Design
HTC is a company that's no stranger to great design, with iconic devices such as the Nexus One and the HD2 under its belt. The Wildfire S sticks firmly to HTC's 2011 design ethos, with a sleek, classy and appealing look, with curved edges that make the device sit kindly in your hand. There's even a little chin at the bottom of the Wildfire S, which brings back memories of the HTC Hero.
HTC Wildfire S
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The casing of the device is plastic, but it doesn't feel cheap and nasty; instead, it gives you a nice, grippy feel — so don't think that you're going to drop this one easily. There are chrome accents around major features, such as the display, front speaker and rear camera (there's no front-facing camera), as well as the volume rocker and power button.
(Credit: Buzz Moody)
The screen is 3.2 inches in size, with a resolution of 320x480 (HVGA), which doesn't look too bad when you're holding the device a reasonable distance away from your overly attractive face. Colour reproduction is quite good, and it's nice and responsive when the CPU isn't bogged down.
The four capacitive buttons below the screen — in home, menu, back and search order — are placed a little bit too close to the screen for our liking, as we found ourselves accidentally hitting them instead of on-screen options near the bottom of the screen.
(Credit: Buzz Moody)
Getting the back cover off can be difficult if you're a nail biter, as you need to peel it off from the top. Be prepared to use a knife or similar object to open it up if you need to get to the battery, SIM card and/or microSD slot below the cover.
User experience and performance
HTC takes great pride in its Sense user experience atop of Android 2.3, but when it's coupled with the underpowered 600MHz Qualcomm CPU in the Wildfire S, it can become quite annoying to use. Although 512MB seems like an adequate amount of RAM, we saw the device get bogged down and needing to "force close" certain apps. While this didn't happen constantly, it did happen enough for it to become an annoyance.
When using the Wildfire S for the simple tasks of reading emails, browsing Twitter and Facebook, sending texts and making calls, we didn't encounter any significant issues. Opening up the browser and expecting to load a fully blown website (ie, not the mobile site) such as CNET will leave you with a frown on your face. It's really slow, and pinch-to-zoom is hit and miss.
It's clear that HTC has cut back on specs in order to keep the price low, so that means the overall experience takes a hit as well. As we said earlier, if you're planning to use the device for simple tasks, then you won't have much to worry about.
Camera
The camera is 5MP with autofocus, which is higher resolution than most cameras on devices in this price range. I'm not going to lie; the photos aren't great. However, if you're just going to post a few pics on Facebook and Twitter, or get all trendy-hipster and use Instagram, then you'll have very few problems. There is a single LED flash, but don't expect it to do you any massive favours.
(Credit: Buzz Moody )
(Credit: Buzz Moody )
Overall
If you're not all that fussed about overall performance, and just want a phone that looks pretty darn classy, then the HTC Wildfire S is a device you should definitely take a look at. If you're wanting something with a little less glam and a little more power, then perhaps something like the Huawei Vision would be worth taking a look at.