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.