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Almost aptly named
If you were busy scanning the dual core phone horizon, you’d missing something. And it’s been awhile since an Android device performed better than we expected! The Incredible S is quite suave looking – nothing fancy, just a rubberized finish on a solid yet plastic battery cover, and an aluminium bezel encompassing slab of glass that hides four capacitive touch controls and a 4-inch display. The battery cover has a pronounced bulge that some love and others do not, but it feels comfortable to hold. The Incredible S feels pretty sturdy and all the buttons on the body are quite intuitively laid out and usable, with the capacitive controls on the front bezel featuring an auto-orienting backlight depending on portrait or landscape mode. The 1.3 MP front facing camera is a welcome plus for future proofing as and when 3G video conferencing becomes a possibility here.
With a 4-inch display, the onscreen keypad is very well laid out and the display is very sensitive. HTCs autocorrect and keypad is very intuitive to use, making typing longer emails easy. While the Desire HD is larger and we loved it for this, some people found it too large, while we find 3.7-inch displays too small. This makes the Incredible S a good mid-dleman. With a smaller pixel pitch than the Desire HD, the display seems sharper. And it doesn’t have the slight pixilation we noticed on the Desire Z with moving wallpapers. The Incredible S runs Android 2.2 and feels snappy, the 2.3 update wasn’t available at the time of writing this. A1 GHz CPU with 768 MB of RAM makes this a potent package and one temporary quirk with a stuck screens aside, the Incredible S performance flawlessly. An 8 GB card has been provided for media storage, since the 1.1 GB of internal ROM is only system usable and for phone based stuff like SMS’, emails and such.
Performance in the call tests was good, as good as any HTC phone we’ve seen, but still a little inferior to some Nokia and Blackberry handsets. In zone three, we could hear the other person coherently, with only the volume level dipping, twice it was low enough that we had to ask for a repeat, but voice tone never changed. The earpiece picks up any object rubbing near the bottom of the phone, where the microphone vent is provided – this is an annoyance, though a tiny one. The Incredible S has a very loud ringer at maximum volume level, ditto the vibration, and it is unlikely you will miss a call. We’re mentioning something that might seem mundane, but after 5 missed calls on the Samsung Nexus S, with the phones vibrator being weak enough not to be felt in a tight denim pocket, one learns to respect these minor details. The earpiece is quite loud in-call, although the loudspeaker is not.
Music quality on the hands free is good with decent (but not good) bass, although in-ear earphones are missed. The 8MP clicker is good enough for daylight shooting, but quickly loses ground with dim shooting. The flash unit is reasonably bright, nothing more. Battery life is pretty good for a touchscreen and we got through a day of heavy usage on a single charge, which is quite good given HTCs penchant for weak batteries. In fact, the battery on the Incredible S lasts the same time as the one on the Samsung Nexus S – a unit running Android sans frills and add-ons.
The Incredible S is priced at Rs. 28,900, although it’s selling for a good 2,000 bucks less on the street. Three months back this would be excellent value for money. It’s not bad today either, and we’re talking about a really sweet touchscreen phone. If it weren’t for the likes of HTCs own Sensation, and the Samsung Galaxy S, not to mention the Apple iPhone 4.0, we’d probably be flocking retail outlets after we’ve written this. However, if you need to buy an Android phone today, this is pretty much one of the most rounded performers we’ve tested.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Display: 4-inch, 480x800 pixels, S-LCD;
OS: Android 2.2;
SoC: Qualcomm MSM8255;
RAM: 768 MB;
Camera: 8 MP;
Battery: 1,450 mAh;
Weight: 135.5 grams
CONTACTS:
Bright Point India
Web site: www.htc.com/in
Price: Rs. 28,900