HTC Wildfire S Review

Introduction:

Тhe original Wildfire played a significant part in bringing HTC and Android to the masses. More affordable than its higher specced siblings, like the HTC Desire, it was nevertheless endowed with HTC's trademark build quality and Sense UI. In our review, the handset got an overall thumbs up, with room for improvements, most notably with respect to the screen. Hopefully, with the HTC Wildfire S, HTC have managed to put the hot back into this Wildfire.

Design:

The design of the original HTC Wildfire played a key part in making it such a success, looking like a baby HTC Desire, it offered similar durability, but in a more compact form factor and at a lower price-point. HTC's Wildfire S runs with the working formula, delivering a smaller package, better screen and even slicker aesthetic.



You can compare the HTC Wildfire S with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

HTC have bumped up the pixels on the Wildfire S to a comfortable 320x480 spread across 3.2 inches. This makes the world of difference to sharpness, with LCD technology producing well saturated colors and good brightness and contrast levels, making outdoor viewing manageable in all but the brightest conditions.


Navigating around the phone itself, there are four capacitive buttons directly below the screen, all against a black frame that surrounds the screen. Our unit is white, with a silver finish surrounding this frame as well, though the Wildfire S also comes in a dark metalic grey. Up top is a power button and audio jack and to the left a volume rocker and microUSB port. On the reverse is the 5MP camera with an LED flash and a loudspeaker either side, with both the SIM card and microSD card slot present under the battery cover.


Overall, the design is a bit of a mix. The matted white plastic backing looks a bit sporty, bordering on cheap, so won’t be for everyone. Thanks to the great screen, small size and a solid feel however, the HTC Wildfire S still has plenty going for it.

Interface:

We covered Sense 2.1 in considerable detail in our HTC Desire S review, and true to HTC’s past behaviors, the interface of the Wildfire S is virtually identical.

To offer a quick recap, you are given 7 home screens that can be customized. Key improvements are found in performance and app / setting management, with a staggered app drawer and quick settings accessible from the notifications pull down bar.


HTC's widgets add a huge amount of functionality and user-friendliness. Examples of these include the email widget, calendar and the ubiquitous clock widget.


Social networking on the handset is heavily skinned, with HTC's Friend Stream giving you access to all your Twitter and Facebook news from your homescreen and within its own app.


Email and messaging on the HTC Wildfire S offer the same functions as any Android handset, though HTC have tweaked the visual, keeping them in theme with the rest of Sense UI.


Speaking of messaging, the keyboard itself is one point of contention. Given the small screen, when in portrait, it remains virtually unusable unless stationary, and even in landscape our oversized fingers kept missing this undersized screen, instead making a b-line for the capacitive buttons, constantly returning us home when all we wanted to do was press enter. SlideIT provides some relief to this frustration, though HTC is normally good at delivering complete out of the box solutions.



Camera and Multimedia:

Considering the compact form factor, we're pleased to see a flash accompanying the 5MP autofocus camera on the HTC Wildfire S. With slightly under-saturated images being the default output from the handset and shutter lag being present, detail levels are nevertheless good. Thanks to noise suppression, low light shots aren’t too grainy and the flash performs well for small groups / objects, though nothing more ambitious.



Video capture caps out at VGA resolution. The output is of mediocre quality suffering from patchy frame rates. Captured video can be comfortably exported to another phone or YouTube, but will crack under any higher caliber expectations.

HTC Wildfire S Sample Video:



With a microSD card slot on board, you can store up to 32GB of music. The unit also has a 3.5mm jack and is relatively small, so using the HTC Wildfire S as a primary MP3 player is a realistic ambition, as is using it for video playback, though unless you’re a fan of eye strain, we’d probably prefer viewing at 20 minute sitcom over a 10 hour trilogy.



Internet and Connectivity:

The HTC Wildfire S offers quad-band GSM, dual-band 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. While web browsing on a small screen isn't ideal, thanks to the improved resolution of the display, the handset definitely trumps its predecessor on that front. Browsing is all done through the native Gingerbread browser with all your standard perks such as multi-touch and Flash support.

Performance:

You get 600MHz of processing power under the hood and Android 2.3 in the driver's seat making for an undeniably underpowered smartphone. With HTC Sense being so good and making us want to use all its memory hungry widgets, occasional stutters and slowdown should be expected which is a shame.

In-call quality also has room for improvements, with us hearing soft audio when on a call. Callers we spoke to told us we were audible but un-sharp, so while perfectly functional, the handset doesn't give a premium phone experience.

With just over 7 hours of talk time and 15 days standby, battery life on the Wildfire S is standard, with a day of medium usage being a realistic expectation.

Conclusion:

The HTC Wildfire S is a neat, compact smartphone. Naturally, with the small form-factor comes some loss in functionality, specifically applying to the usability of a virtual keyboard on its 3.2" screen. The other drawback comes in the form of the underpowered processor resulting in lag. On the flip-side, screen quality benefits from decent resolution while Gingerbread with HTC Sense serves up a user-friendly treat. This makes for a good phone that could have been better. Alternatives include the upcoming Xperia mini if the compactness does it for you, or the Samsung Galaxy Gio for an alternative UI in a similar form factor.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Kernel version – 2.6.35.10-g60b2609
Baseband version – 47.10.35.3029H_7.46.35.08
Build number – 1.33.401.2.CL44680

HTC Wildfire S Video Review: