The HTC Incredible S is a slightly odd device, fitting in the range between the Desire S and the Desire HD. In terms of specs, it leans toward being more similar to the Desire HD, with its 4” SLCD display up front and 8MP rear-facing camera. However, the Incredible S features a 1.3MP front-facing camera, like the Desire S, but unlike the Desire HD; see what I mean about the top end of HTC’s range being weird? I decided to go for the Incredible S because the Desire S was a little too small in terms of screen size, but the Desire HD was big and had issues with battery life. The Incredible is the perfect compromise, featuring a more compact and practical design than the Desire HD but still maintaining better hardware specs than the Desire S.
Form Factor
As I said, the Incredible S fits in between the Desire S and Desire HD, and it certainly feels that way in almost all aspects of the phone’s design. A 4” screen is perfect for me, as it has the ‘wow factor’ of the larger displays such as that on the Desire HD, but makes the whole device more pocketable. The Incredible S features the same ‘industrial’ look and feel that we saw on the original Droid Incredible over in the US last year, including the ‘plateau’ on the back cover (inside which is stored the battery).
I found that while the rear design doesn’t really detract from the design, it doesn’t really add anything. When typing in portrait orientation, I actually found the back to be rather annoying at times. Having said that, it is by no means a deal breaker; it adds a nice quirk to the Incredible’s rather subdued design.
The Incredible S isn’t too heavy, so is comfortable to old during long phone calls. It also features a rather nice rubberised plastic coating all around, which makes it easy to grip. Overall, the Incredible S feels like a very tough phone, and its form factor inspires a lot of confidence during use.
Browser
Browsing on the Incredible S is a fantastic experience; with full Adobe Flash support, the browser delivers rich content, with virtually no rendering issues. The browser is also pretty fast, even over an EDGE (2G) network, and ridiculously fast over a wifi connection. Thanks to the phone’s 1Ghz second generation Snapdragon processor and 768MB of RAM, Flash content runs very smoothly. The fast processor also means that multitouch zooming gestures are made even faster, even on Flash-heavy websites.
Camera
The Incredible S has the same 8MP dual-LED flash camera as seen on the Desire HD. It is capable of 720p HD video recording, and also features HTC’s latest camera interface with a plethora of different options for the keen ‘cameraphoneographer’, including some new filters and effects:
The Incredible S also has a 1.3MP front-facing camera for images and VGA video recording. It is decent enough quality for the quick self-portrait, but video recording can get choppy. In fact, the quality of the 720p video recording is acceptable, but not brilliant. Images, however, are very high quality and crisp; the camera does have issues in low light, but these can be resolved simply by toying with some of the in-built camera effects such as black & white or vintage filter.
HTC Software
The Incredible S runs Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense 2.1 running on top. This version of Sense is a minor update from Sense 2.0 (first seen on the Desire HD and Desire Z). It features HTC’s Hub, a place where the user can download some extras to further customise their HTC Sense experience.
One of my favourite features of this version of Sense is the ability to change the UI’s skin. This changes the look and feel of the entirety of Sense UI; as you can see I have chosen the slate skin, and all HTC apps and widgets change according to the chosen skin:
More recently, Sense 3.0 has debuted on the HTC Sensation and HTC Flyer, and brings even more features to the table. A lot of these features rely on dual-core processing power, something that the Incredible S doesn’t have, but it is more than likely that some of the previous devices such as the Incredible S, Desire S, or Desire HD will be updated over-the-air with some of the features of Sense 3.0 ‘ported’ over. In spite of this, Sense 2.1 is still a slick operating system, and still runs very quickly on the Incredible S.
Text Input and HTCSense.com
The Incredible S features the same HTC Sense keyboard that we’ve seen on previous devices, and is superb. The larger 4” display makes typing much easier in portrait, but turn the phone landscape and you have (what I believe to be) the ultimate on-screen keyboard.
HTCSense.com is an online tool to manage various different settings for your device. These features include the ability to track the exact location of your device, and to even remotely make it ring if you happen to have misplaced it. In case your phone is stolen, you can also remotely lock or even erase all data from it.
HTCSense.com is a good idea, but I have found that its execution has been somewhat lacklustre, rather than brilliant. Most of the time, the features (such as ring) simply don’t work, and all without explanation. Frankly, the service needs some work, and also needs to add a ton of features for people to actually use it on a regular basis.
Battery Life
With normal use (heavy messaging, light web browsing and email/Twitter, couple of short calls) I found the Incredible to last around 15 hours. Under heavier use, battery life can drop to around 10 hours, and with the heaviest use you probably won’t get more than 7 hours out of it. Overall though, most users will easily get a good day’s use out of the Incredible S.
Conclusions
Coming from an HTC Legend, the Incredible S was quite a big step up for me. I feel that during the course of this review I have highlighted its flaws more than its good points, simply because I struggle to find flaws with this device. Perfect form factor, fantastic camera, great software, and great battery life make this phone an all-time-great for me.
So is it worth getting now? Well, if you don’t need the massive processing power (and massive cost) of a device such as the Sensation, then the Incredible S (and even the Desire S or Desire HD) make great devices. The device is more than sufficient for my requirements, but if you need that extra bit of power and the latest HTC software, then it looks like the Sensation is for you. Otherwise, I actually prefer the Incredible S to the Desire HD, simply because of its more ergonomic and more practical design, and better battery life.
