HTC Desire S in the flesh, first impressions

We got our hands on the new HTC Desire S over the week-end and I’m kind of divided how to place it among all the other handsets released by HTC in the Philippines.

The Desire S borrowed several key features from other previous handsets of HTC. The aluminum unibody construction was obviously derived from the HTC Legend, although the Desire S is slightly toned down by a couple of plastic covers at the back panel.

The Desire S also feels like an enlarged HTC Wildfire, with its slight chin-like protrusion at the bottom end and the incorporation of touch panels minus the optical trackpad. Actually, just by the looks of it, the Desire S is closer to the Wildfire than the original Desire.

Of course, the genetic make-up of an HTC Desire is evident specs-wise:

HTC Desire S specs:
3.7 inches S-LCD touchscreen @ 480 x 800 pixels
1GHz Scorpion processor (Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon)
Adreno 205 GPU
768MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
1.1GB internal storage
up to 32GB on microSD
HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
5MP autofocus camera w/ LED flash
720p video recording
Front-facing VGA camera
Stereo FM Radio w/ RDS
GPS with aGPS support
1450 Li-Ion battery
Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread

One would actually think that the Desire S is just a refresh of the Desire with a Super LCD instead of the original, more expensive and scarce AMOLED display. Oh and they dropped the optical trackpad altogether (probably because nobody was using it anyway).

The S-LCD screen on the Desire S holds its ground pretty well and is comparable to AMOLED. In fact, unless you scrutinize it very thoroughly against an AMOLED screen, you’d hardly notice the difference. But remember, the later versions of the original Desire also swicthed to S-LCD due to the low supply of AMOLED displays.

With a suggested retail price of Php25,990, the Desire S came in at a price point that is actually a little more expensive than the current price of the old Desire and the Desire HD. Expect this price to even go lower (goes down to Php23,500 for cash purchases here).