HTC Incredible S In-depth Review

The Incredible S is mature. It’s an 18-year single malt scotch or a fine French Bordeaux. It’s what all Android devices should be by now: stable, quick, and robust. It is the culmination of years of HTC research and design, and compromises between size, specs and price. And for the most part it is successful.

Launched in February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona alongside a the mid-range Desire S and entry-level Wildfire S, at first glance the Incredible S didn’t have the same market impact as the wave of dual-core phones launched at CES in January. But what it lacks in sheer hardware specs it makes up for in what I like to call The Whole Package. HTC pairs their exquisite hardware with a highly modified attractive Android overlay called Sense. To see Android running on the Incredible S is to do away with its bland legacy.
It does, however, favour a resemblance to its predecessor, the Verizon-only HTC Incredible. Much was said, both pro- and con- about its industrial, asymmetrical battery cover, and the Incredible S shares this remarkable pedigree. This time, however, it serves a purpose: sharing the same over-sized 8MP camera sensor as the Desire HD, HTC wanted to prevent it from being scratched, and does so by extending the entire battery cover to the same straight length. The phone rests flat and the camera glass is protected.
The rest speaks for itself: a 1Ghz Qualcomm 8255 Snapdragon processor, 768MB RAM, 1.1GB internal storage, 4” 480×800 pixel SLCD display, 8MP back camera with dual LED flash, 1.3MP front camera, 1450mAh battery, WiFi/GPS/Bluetooth, all running smoothly on Android 2.2 Froyo with Sense UI. It’s certainly an evolutionary product, resembling in many ways the Desire HD and myTouch 4G internally, but with a few notable improvements.