[HTC Incredible S] vido.ardes:
If you are only into the latest and greatest hardware, and have to have dual core CPU's, this is not for you!

If you are actually interested in this phone, hopefully this will be of some help :D

Form Factor & Appearance

First off, this phone feels great in the hand. I don't have particularly large hands, and the Desire HD felt a bit too big, but this is perfect. It's nice to hold in landscape in two hands, or to use in one handed operation. The materials are nice and expensive feeling, very strong and sturdy construction, and it has enough weight to feel expensive without being heavy. The soft touch rubberised back is comfy to hold in the hand (even with the big ridge). From a looks perspective, to me it is a very attractive phone (from the front it looks like an iPod touch without the home button), very clean lines with almost the entire of the front being taken up by the 4" screen. The 4 capacitive buttons are accurate and responsive, and the rotating feature is a nice touch. They are completely invisible when not lit, which gives the phone a very clean appearance when the screen is off.

Screen - 4" SLCD

Let me start by saying yes, next to an AMOLED or a SAMOLED the colours do not 'pop' as much, but it is in my opinion a lot clearer (this may not be true of SAMOLED+ as that no longer uses pentile, but I have no way of comparing). In short it is a very nice screen. It is crisp and clear, and the colours are accurately represented to my eyes. Pictures and videos are sharp and pleasing to look at, and I have read for an hour on the Kindle app without problem. Games like Angry Birds look bright and colourful, but blacks are deep enough to not distract when watching a movie in the dark.

Horsepower - 1GHz MSM8255 Snapdragon & 768MB RAM

This thing is snappy. I am beginning to wonder what this dual-core noise is about as this phone literally flies through screens without a hint of lag or stutter. Whether it be browsing the web, playing games, adding contacts or using the sat-nav, I have not noticed a single hint of slowdown. I used a wide range of what I would consider to be fairly hardware intensive apps, including Angry Birds, Raging Thunder, Asphalt and CoPilot all of which ran without a hitch. For the benchmark junkies it linpacked ~ 38 MFLOPS, Neocore'd ~ 57 FPS and Quadranted ~ 1700.

Storage - 1.1GB Internal App Storage & 8GB Class 4 SDHC (Bundled)

Although I would like all internal storage, I am happy with the current arangement of > 1GB app storage and microSD cards. 1GB is more than enough for me, and I am planning to add a 32GB Class 10 microSD at the end of this month (here is the cheapest I have found if you are interested). Some may find this OK, some might want all internal storage, matter of personal preference really.

Cameras - 8MP Rear facing inc. Dual LED Flash & 1.3 MP Front Facing

The camera on the back is one of the nicest Android shooters I have had the privilege to use. Pretty sure it is the same as the one on the Desire HD, it takes clear crisp and bright pictures, the auto focus and face detection working quickly an accurately, and the time between being able to take photo's is very minimal (even when tested with a crappy Class 2 SD at 8MP!). The LED's provide very harsh, bright and unflattering lighting, but as no one appears to want to put a proper Xenon flash on an Android phone, it's the best we can get :mad:. They do however make for an excellent flashlight, and can be used with video recording. The camera can record 720p footage at 30FPS, and is pretty standard fare, while you won't be recording the next hollywood blockbuster on it, it is more than good enough for your next YouTube masterpiece of "Guy falling off skateboard" :p. The zoom level is not fixed for camera recording either, which is a nice feature to have.

The front facing camera is bog standard, good enough for video calling, and works well as a pocket mirror.

Battery - 1450 mAh

The battery life on this surprised me, especially after the Desire HD. HTC seemed to have learnt from their mistakes as this phone can get through more than 24 hours with fairly heavy usage. Might take a few more days to get a more acurate idea of how it will last, but I am pleasantly surprised

Other Notable Features -Notification LED, Dual Mics & FM Radio

An annoying feature missing from the samsung and Motorola phones, HTC have included a notification LED on the Incredible S (much to my delight). A small feature, but a much needed one and worth noting IMHO. The dual mics for noise cancellation work well and are a welcome feature, and something some have been phasing out is the FM radio. It hasn't been turned off yet!

And now for the cons...

This phone isn't without it's downsides. If I were putting together a list of improvements...

Better loudspeaker - the loudspeaker is very weak, and could do with improving.

Xenon Flash - Missing from all Android phones IMHO

Dedicated Camera Button - I don't see why people keep missing this simple yet much needed feature

Mini HDMI Port - It includes DLNA support, but a mini HDMI port would have been nice

Conclusion

HTC say this phone sits between the Desire S and the Desire HD, but I beg to differ. To me this is a Desire HD 1.5. Not a revolution of the flagship, but a marked improvement in several areas. The change in design and the slight shrink in screen size make it more comfortable to hold an easier to sit in the pocket. The smaller screen also helps the larger battery to fix the major flaw in the DHD, and the front facing camera makes the phone relevant n a world where video calling is trying to become popular (again, am I the only one who had a video mobile phone 8 years ago?!). I would recommend this phone to anyone looking for an upgrade now, unless you want to wait for the dual core craze to begin.

This phone was purchased at Carphone Warehouse on Vodaphone, 24 Months @ £30 with 500 min, unlimited texts and 500MB internet (free phone).

Note: I actually got this phone for my Fianceé as she was due an upgrade. She had a Samsun Pixon M8800 and she thinks it's the best thing in the world ever, and hasn't spoken to me for two days as she has been too engrossed in it :p. I am seriously considering one as an upgrade from My Hero, and will probably have my own before tomorrow is finished. I will upload some pics of the device, and sample footage and pics from the camera when I get the chance :D