*** The official HTC One S thread ***

[Nexus18]

Got them both setup up evenly in the browser regarding flash - got thrown by the fact I have ad-blocker from rooting my s2 - didn't know it took away adds from the browser - just thought it did in-app adds.

Lol

That is the beauty of that adfree app as well, gets rid of the annoying ads plastering every side, top and bottom of web pages

Would be great if I had the S3 on hand for comparison's - but that's mega effort .


My HOS seems to be the older model without the bevelled egde on the usb port .

Batterylife on this thing is mega-epic - 4hrs+ screen on time is easy (deffo better than the S2 with ext. battery). Am currently on 3hrs with 50% battery left. RAZR-HD MAXX should be a monster!

Yeah it would have been very interesting to see some comparison shots against the GS 3 as the photos that stoosh took on both phones, the 1s also came out better looking for colours, sharpness and just overall detail IMO

You should hopefully be ok though, as you may have got one from a newer batch.

3 hours and 50% left?!?!?!

What is your screen brightness and your usage roughly and wifi/mobile data connection etc.?

Very impressive that

Image quality hasn't changed that much from last year tbh. For me the biggest difference is all those extra usable features!

Zero shutter lag = Awesome!
Burst mode/best shot = Awesome!
Group shot = Awesome!
Full 8MP recording = Great! (well, if you could turn it off and have much better 1080p and no full res still output. HX-Camera-mod please )
HDR = Cool! (but the 8MP sensor can be pushed quite a bit in the shadows without gaining much grain too, Stock HOS vs quick Lightroom edit)

You forgot about the SLOW MOTION VIDEO RECORDING!?!?!?!

Quick question, where the hell are the power buttons on the Notification bar (WiFi, Rotate, GPS etc)? Do you need to activate/customize them or will i have to put on a Custom ROM?

Stupid question, but i just don't understand why they've gone!

Sense V4 doesn't have them any more, you will have to root and flash a custom ROM to have them or............

You can install this app

 

[Robbo]

This outrageous battery life is making me jealous, it almost sounds too good to be true.

 

[Nexus18]

It is never too late to join us!

 

[Robbo]

Hehe, I'll have to pass on that one!

Hopefully this is the start of a smartphone battery life revolution of sorts though.

 

[Nexus18]

Hehe, I'll have to pass on that one!

Awwwww




The XL really would be a good option to consider though. The battery life is supposed to be more or less the same as the S.

Hopefully this is the start of a smartphone battery life revolution of sorts though.

Indeed!

I think it could be, as the GS 3 has great battery life as well and the Razr is going to be out of this world by the look of things and that combined with the S/XL is one of the main areas that people are most impressed with so hopefully the companies will now see that it is more important than having the thinnest phone on the market


Hoping that next year with all the new phones being announced, will see true wireless charging on a few handsets as well

 

[kona786]

So do you find the GS 2 screen to be sharper for text etc. then as well?

More smoother than sharper tbh -S2 is better for small text and lack of jagginess. All relative though as the HOS screen is still sharp.


This is the batterylife I got on my first charge - all internet use has been on a strong HSPA signal - brightness @ 35% most of the time - no syncing of anything - and very similar usage pattern to my S2 so a good direct comparison. I'd have to massage my S2 (ext.-bat) to get 4 hours batterylife - the HOS does it with ease - amazing.

GPS Lock is amazingly and blisteringly fast on the HOS - read instant.
Much MUCH faster than the S2.

My latest software version below; everyone have the same?

The phone signal has been great at my house and at work - but at my brother in-law's place, who's phone it is, the signal is really bad, even dropping out to zero sometimes. I'm surprised that Vodafone doesn't have great coverage in London!

 

[Nexus18]

This is the batterylife I got on my first charge - all internet use has been on a strong HSPA signal - brightness @ 35% most of the time - no syncing of anything - and very similar usage pattern to my S2 so a good direct comparison. I'd have to massage my S2 (ext.-bat) to get 4 hours batterylife - the HOS does it with ease - amazing.

snip

Damn very impressive then as it was a H connection as well!

I also thought the GS 2 with the extended battery would have matched the S more or less and possibly have got slightly better battery life overall.

GPS Lock is amazingly and blisteringly fast on the HOS - read instant.
Much MUCH faster than the S2.

Also found that to be the same as well

My latest software version below; everyone have the same?

snip

Yup

Should be a new update out soon as well.

The phone signal has been great at my house and at work - but at my brother in-law's place, who's phone it is, the signal is really bad, even dropping out to zero sometimes. I'm surprised that Vodafone doesn't have great coverage in London!

Shame

Is it just vodafones network/coverage or due to the signal issue of the phone?

Is he going to return it then due to that problem or do something else?

If he is planning to return it, try and get him to hold on to it for a bit longer as the next update is suppose to improve reception even more.

Also if you haven't already, use GSM instead of WCDMA (even if you're on wifi) as it will/should improve the voice reception by a good bit.



So is that your time with the S over now?

If it is, what did you think overall and how did it compare to the GS 3 overall?

 

[kona786]

I'm pretty sure he will still keep the phone - he is a very light user.

Changing the signal to GSM only does boost the signal in my house considerably - so maybe a good bet for my bro - however data seems to only be EGDE - so very slow. Is that how GSM works - no HSPA?

I hope the update does improve the signal.

I should have said - that battery usage was on Saturday - and when not using the data I turned it off.

My current usage/screen on time is even higher like I said - will post those up once the battery gets low.

I'll keep the phone till toinght; maybe even till 2moro .

Comparing it to the S3 - In short:

S3 - better screen, more storage, I like new TW launcher more than Sense launcher.

HOS - Better design (comparing it to the blue S3 - I may like the black S3 better), I think better batterylife too - great as it only has a 1650mah battery.

Both are powerhouses - fast and smooth.
Camera wise I'll have to do head to head comparisons - easy as his wife and son have the S3

 

[stoosh]

Lol, amazing animals! They absolutely love butterflies! TC catches everything there is, lol, he has caught/killed 3-4 baby mice and a bunny! Leaves them on the drive way or the back garden somewhere.

Oh, he most certainly does! Goes absolutely hammers around the back garden, running around catching the leaves etc. Will have to get a video of him going mad He is a very big cat though (about 2 and a half years old now), Sprite is still kitten size, lol (she is about 5-6 years old).

See that is mainly why I am not too bothered about the storage as I am not a huge music person, I only have like 5GB in total and a couple of albums are FLAC and 2 are over 700MB and besides I wouldn't even listen to half of that!

If I do listen to music whilst at home, I would just stream it via estrongs explorer or some other method over the wifi connection from my PC.

TV episodes and films would be great for when you're on the move/long journey on the bus and whilst in work etc. but again I am the sort of person who rather just watch the stuff at home in peace with a nice drink & something to eat and on the 42" TV or my 23" PC monitor, much bigger and much better quality as well as better sound quality

But it really does suck for people like yourself who have a large music selection and want to throw a few films/tv episodes etc. on as well

Heck even the 1080P recording takes up a xxxx load of space! 35MB for 30 seconds of 1080P footage!


I'll second that about the screen! (again )

I don't log on to the forum for a few days and the this thread is getting epic! It'll take me a while just to catch up! Love the discussion this is exactly what this phone deserves!

Nexus18 sounds like you absolutely love your cats Mate and quite rightly so! You'll have plenty of opportunities to take photos and videos of both your cats, unfortunately I don't have any pets at home so that option isn't there!

Going back to the One S's lack of memory I have a massive collection of music as I used to be a DJ and I like to carry most of my music around as I like to listen to random tracks from various artists. I also have a quite a long commute to and from work hence and due to work commitments I hardly have time to catch up with TV and films hence why I use my commute to catch up with TV episodes and films.

I was quite happy rotating music and tv episodes on the phone and it can be managed quite well however if the phone had 32Gb on board it would've been a god send. I understand that there's consumers out there who don't need 16Gb but there's also the flipside of those who do.

HTC are quite simply brilliant in a lot of areas but quite simply stupid in others! Frustrating!

I've taken a few more pics in the garden with both the HOS and S3, all settings on Auto. Here they are:-

One S

S3

One S

S3

One S

S3

One S

S3

Apart from the butterfly picture, I think both the One S and S3 are very close in terms of image quality. What do you all think?

 

[Nexus18]

I'm pretty sure he will still keep the phone - he is a very light user.

Changing the signal to GSM only does boost the signal in my house considerably - so maybe a good bet for my bro - however data seems to only be EGDE - so very slow. Is that how GSM works - no HSPA?

Yup, GSM only mode is for just an E and G connection.

WCDMA only mode is for just H and 3G connection.

It helps battery life a bit as well

I hope the update does improve the signal.

I haven't got any issues with the strength (could be better overall though), but I hope that data speeds will improve a fair bit as I think I should be getting better than 2MB dll etc.

I should have said - that battery usage was on Saturday - and when not using the data I turned it off.

My current usage/screen on time is even higher like I said - will post those up once the battery gets low.

Oh nice! Look forward to seeing the SS's

I'll keep the phone till toinght; maybe even till 2moro .

haha

Give him your GS 2 and keep the S

Comparing it to the S3 - In short:

S3 - better screen, more storage, I like new TW launcher more than Sense launcher.

HOS - Better design (comparing it to the blue S3 - I may like the black S3 better), I think better batterylife too - great as it only has a 1650mah battery.

Both are powerhouses - fast and smooth.

Yeah you can't go wrong with either device, both are great

Camera wise I'll have to do head to head comparisons - easy as his wife and son have the S3

Nice

They won't be best pleased when their phones go missing for a few days


What do you think about the audio compared to the GS 2 and GS 3 (with both headphones connected and speaker mode)?

 

[stoosh]

Battery wise the HOS easily holds its own against the S3, as mentioned elsewhere on this thread it doesn't seem to take a hit when watching videos on it. The screen is a joy to watch tv / films on. Even when listening to music the battery doesn't seem to drain at all.

Qualcomm have done an excellent job optimising the S4 chip, it doesn't heat up as much as the S3, however I suppose when the S3 is running quad core chips they're going to generate abit more heat than the dual core counterparts!

I have a day off from work tomorrow (thank god!) when I hit the gym I'll try and take both the HOS and S3 out with me and take a few more pictures for comparison.

As Nexus18 mentioned above both the HOS and S3 are excellent phones and you can't go wrong with either!

 

[Nexus18]

I don't log on to the forum for a few days and the this thread is getting epic! It'll take me a while just to catch up! Love the discussion this is exactly what this phone deserves!

There you are!

Was wondering where you went

Yeah this thread has really grown over the last few days now

Certainly is good discussion in this thread

Kona has posted great comparisons/his opinions to the GS 2/GS 3 as well and Sarge has also posted good photos/opinions etc.

Nexus18 sounds like you absolutely love your cats Mate and quite rightly so! You'll have plenty of opportunities to take photos and videos of both your cats, unfortunately I don't have any pets at home so that option isn't there!

Yup I most certainly do, love them more than anything Even more than the one S

Haha yeah, loads of opportunities

Should get yourself a cat or some other pet, great to have.

Got a couple of new videos and photos, which I will have to upload at some point.

Going back to the One S's lack of memory I have a massive collection of music as I used to be a DJ and I like to carry most of my music around as I like to listen to random tracks from various artists. I also have a quite a long commute to and from work hence and due to work commitments I hardly have time to catch up with TV and films hence why I use my commute to catch up with TV episodes and films.

I was quite happy rotating music and tv episodes on the phone and it can be managed quite well however if the phone had 32Gb on board it would've been a god send. I understand that there's consumers out there who don't need 16Gb but there's also the flipside of those who do.

HTC are quite simply brilliant in a lot of areas but quite simply stupid in others! Frustrating!

Yeah it is an inconvenience

Don't know if you have seen this from a few pages ago, but this is how I feel when I find that HTC didn't implement something into their phones or did a **** job on something *cough* notification LED *cough*

I've taken a few more pics in the garden with both the HOS and S3, all settings on Auto. Here they are:-

snip

Apart from the butterfly picture, I think both the One S and S3 are very close in terms of image quality. What do you all think?

Wow!

I have to say the GS 3 actually looks better in those shots by a good margin as well IMO particularly the frog one! The colours are better and more detail is captured as well as being sharper overall I think.

In fact the GS 3 for those shots makes the 1S look a bit washed out for colours when side by side, lol

Battery wise the HOS easily holds its own against the S3, as mentioned elsewhere on this thread it doesn't seem to take a hit when watching videos on it. The screen is a joy to watch tv / films on. Even when listening to music the battery doesn't seem to drain at all.

Qualcomm have done an excellent job optimising the S4 chip, it doesn't heat up as much as the S3, however I suppose when the S3 is running quad core chips they're going to generate abit more heat than the dual core counterparts!

I have a day off from work tomorrow (thank god!) when I hit the gym I'll try and take both the HOS and S3 out with me and take a few more pictures for comparison.

As Nexus18 mentioned above both the HOS and S3 are excellent phones and you can't go wrong with either!

Yeah, after seeing a few more battery life tests of the S and GS 3, I think the S has better battery life overall, to be kind of expected though given the screen differences etc.

They most certainly have done a great job, I love how little drain there is when idle (although largely brought by ICS this as well).


Nice, look forward to seeing more shots

 

[Robbo]

The GS3 looks quite a bit better from those pictures...

 

[sarge78]

Looks like the HOS had finger greese on the lens, thats one thing I'd like to see oems add... a automatic lens cap!

 

[stoosh]

@Nexus18 It's all work and no play with me I'm afraid so I was unable to find time to get on to Overclockers and catch up with the forum.

Kona's S2 and HOS picture comparison was superb, I'd say that the pictures on the HOS are much better than the S2, colour reproduction and the detail are more refined, the S2 pictures seem washed out.

The battery stats that Kona and Sarge and of course your good self have posted are impressive and on par with what I've been getting with the S4 chip having the added benefit of keeping the phone cooler!

Mate I wish I could get myself a cat but I'm outnumbered on this one with the rest of the family saying NO!!! I'm looking forward to your videos and pictures as they really do capture TC's personality!

Some good points noted by Sarge, yourself in respect to various omissions and errors made by HTC, I suppose we can't have it all however they have made some very basic errors. It still doesn't detract from the general enjoyment and usage of the One S.

In respect to the pictures the S3 has had new camera firmware since the last time I posted a comparison between the HOS and S3. I think that's what made the difference this time around with the S3 producing the better pictures overall.

@sarge78 Prior to taking the pictures I did wipe the lens with a microfibre cloth so there wasn't any smudges that may detract from the pictures.

 

[sarge78]

Fair enough, 50% of my shots are washed out from forgetting to clean the lens first

 

[Nexus18]

@Nexus18 It's all work and no play with me I'm afraid so I was unable to find time to get on to Overclockers and catch up with the forum.

No worries

The battery stats that Kona and Sarge and of course your good self have posted are impressive and on par with what I've been getting with the S4 chip having the added benefit of keeping the phone cooler!

Yeah, I just can't get over the battery life, this is just another one (again ) and to make Robbo more jealous :

Much the same usage as before, browsing, phone calls and texts and some whatsapp, youtube, installing/uninstalling apps, messing around with apps, a lot of camera usage for photos, slow motion recording and 1080P recording, weather syncing every 2 hours and sense weather every 6 hours, gmail in the background, mostly wifi the entire time and some G/H connection for about 1 hour or so, airdroid for about 15 minutes and this is what really killed the battery life near the end, transferring over 214MB of photos/videos via estrongs manager with wifi max performance enabled and earlier on I transferred about another 50-100MB of files but with max wifi performance disabled and of course manual control of brightness ranging from 0-30-50-70-100.

If I hadn't enabled wifi max performance I would have easily hit the 5 hours on screen time mark:

Also I had used ICS + browser a lot more but I uninstalled it near the end (hence why it isn't showing in the battery usage chart) and am now using quick ics browser instead (better in every area I find except you have to pay for auto text reflow)

Mate I wish I could get myself a cat but I'm outnumbered on this one with the rest of the family saying NO!!! I'm looking forward to your videos and pictures as they really do capture TC's personality!

Pffft, screw them! Just get a kitten and surprise them, and as soon as they see her/him playing and cuddling up with them on the couch, there hearts will melt and then there is no way they can get rid of the kitten

Yeah, will try to get them uploaded tonight

Some good points noted by Sarge, yourself in respect to various omissions and errors made by HTC, I suppose we can't have it all however they have made some very basic errors. It still doesn't detract from the general enjoyment and usage of the One S.

Indeed!

In respect to the pictures the S3 has had new camera firmware since the last time I posted a comparison between the HOS and S3. I think that's what made the difference this time around with the S3 producing the better pictures overall.

Ah yeah I forgot about that camera update, that probably is why then as for the first photo comparisons, the 1S looked more saturated and the GS 3 looked washed out

 

[kona786]

Apart from the butterfly picture, I think both the One S and S3 are very close in terms of image quality. What do you all think?

The S3 certainly looks the better of the 2 there. Sharper and overall nicer. On the last frog one - there is an amazing difference. Soo much sharper and nicer colours.

His current phone is a Samsung G600

What do you think about the audio compared to the GS 2 and GS 3 (with both headphones connected and speaker mode)?

Yet to test this - will do though.

Nice

They won't be best pleased when their phones go missing for a few days

My sis won't let me take it that's for sure - it's her main phone now .

Will have to do the tests when I'm at their house


EDIT - Ordered this case from the US - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=251047982451#ht_1830wt_1396

 

[stoosh]

@Nexus18 Yet again another fine example of battery stats for the HOS in particular the screen on time and the Wifi / G/H signal. The battery is like a powerhouse and it's safe to say that the HOS can easily last a day with mid - heavy usage.

I've heard a lot of good things about Quick ICS browser as the HTC stock browser (as useful as it is) has been crashing loading some sites and I'll probably install Quick ICS instead.

You say that Quick ICS is better than ICS+ from a users point of view what advantages does Quick have over ICS+ Mate?

In regards to the family two of them are allergic to animal hairs so it's a no go! Otherwise it would've been a good idea to surprise them. We did have a puppy years back which we had to give away in the end because of the allergies and he was adorable

Looks like we're lucky to have the S4 powered HOS as the HTC UK website HOS section has been changed to reflect that there's a good chance that future owners may well end up with the 1.7GHZ S3 chip!

I thought that certain European and Asian markets would get the HOS with the S3 chip but that's not the case! There really must be a shortage of S4 chips at Qualcomm HQ

Here's a quick example of an indoor shot (again comparing the HOS with the S3) HOS shot first:

HOS

S3

Again I think that the S3 is a better example of the two pictures. Samsung's firmware update has taken the S3 to another level.

@kona786 Indeed the frog picture totally shows the difference between the S3 and HOS sensor. I'm running the latest HTC firmware, it will be interesting to see what HTC do with the camera when ICS 4.0.4 arrives.

I'm going to test out the two phones later on tonight under low light conditions. I'm certain that the HOS will win that shootout!

 

[Nexus18]

His current phone is a Samsung G600

snip

Oh god! It is going to be a massive upgrade for him then!

Yet to test this - will do though.

Ok, thanks

My sis won't let me take it that's for sure - it's her main phone now .

Will have to do the tests when I'm at their house

haha

Ok nice

EDIT - Ordered this case from the US - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=251047982451#ht_1830wt_1396

Yeah, that case looks superb, may get one as well, just what I am looking for

Plus nillkin case still hasn't shown up

I've heard a lot of good things about Quick ICS browser as the HTC stock browser (as useful as it is) has been crashing loading some sites and I'll probably install Quick ICS instead.

You say that Quick ICS is better than ICS+ from a users point of view what advantages does Quick have over ICS+ Mate?

I just find it to be more polished overall with certain UI areas and features. It also has a quick share feature, which will share the web page via gmail, sms app etc. straight away (copies the web address and opens the text/gmail app and pastes it in the box automatically), the quick controls fit in the page no matter where you place your finger where as with ICS + they just go off the screen when you touch near the bottom or top of the screen. I also find it to be a bit quicker at loading and rendering web pages and just more features overall regarding the quick ics controls. Should give it a try, I think you will prefer it as well

In regards to the family two of them are allergic to animal hairs so it's a no go! Otherwise it would've been a good idea to surprise them. We did have a puppy years back which we had to give away in the end because of the allergies and he was adorable

Ah, definitely a no go then

I thought that certain European and Asian markets would get the HOS with the S3 chip but that's not the case! There really must be a shortage of S4 chips at Qualcomm HQ

snip

They were just the first to get it and then it would follow here etc.

We got lucky

Here's a quick example of an indoor shot (again comparing the HOS with the S3) HOS shot first:

snip

Again I think that the S3 is a better example of the two pictures. Samsung's firmware update has taken the S3 to another level.

Yeah the GS 3 photo looks better there as well. That update has worked wonders!

@kona786 Indeed the frog picture totally shows the difference between the S3 and HOS sensor. I'm running the latest HTC firmware, it will be interesting to see what HTC do with the camera when ICS 4.0.4 arrives.

I'm going to test out the two phones later on tonight under low light conditions. I'm certain that the HOS will win that shootout!

It certainly will be. Apparently the next update that we are getting (USA has it already) will improve the "camera stability" so will have to see what exactly that means

Hmm, after seeing the recent photos I am not so sure now