HTC Wildfire S: A Budget Android Smartphone. Review on HTC Wildfire S

The era of smartphones have definitely arrived and people are now tired of the silly old cell phones that only allow us to make calls, text messages and take great pictures. Today, smartphones are the buzz of the town because they can let us do hundred different things that we could only imagine. However, smartphones are way to costly and finding a cheap budget smartphone would mean that you will have to compromise on the quality of the product. In 2010, HTC came out with HTC Wildfire which had everything that people would like in a budget smartphone. However, many users felt that the screen resolution was not up to the mark and it had Android 2.1 Eclair which is very much outdated.

To keep up with the market competition and to impress the budget conscious consumers, HTC has once again tried to upgrade the level and launched HTC Wildfire S which is the updated version of the HTC Wildfire. I have the HTC Wildfire S with me now for a week, I have explored various features and options and I found that this smartphone could be the best budget smartphone available in the market.

WHY?

Previously, I have used many Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung cell phones but I find HTC Sense UI very interesting. Its not only easy, its addictive to the core. You have the option to customize so many things in it that you virtually decide how your phone software should work for you. So, you dont let the software tell you how you should work, but instead you choose the options of how you want the software to work. The features are very people centric. For instance, when you go to People(Contacts) you can click on that one contact and you see all the options on one single screen. So when I need to make a call I touch on that contact and I see all the features lined up, like Call - SMS - Email - Facebook ID and every other possible contact way that is there on the same screen.

On the other hand, you can drag and drop any application anywhere on the phone and it will work. There are 7 home screens and you can modify it the way you want it. You dont even need to cut copy paste any thing because you just drag and drop the applications from one section to another. The menu section is divided into 3 categories. All / Frequent and Downloaded. In All you obviously see all applications, in Frequent you see only those applications that you use frequently and of course all your downloaded applications are in Downloaded category.

The Android 2.3.3 makes the job very easy for you because you can connect to Android Market and download thousands of apps that will work on your HTC Wildfire S without any problems. However, when you run too many applications at the same time you might experience little delay because the processor(600 MHz) is not really high speed to handle multiple apps at the same time. HTC Wildfire S is not good for power users who are always stuck with downloading apps, but if you are trying Android for the first time this phone will never disappoint you. On the other hand, when you use too much of Android apps on the phone the battery will only last for 15 to 18 hours, but if you are normal user who is not stuck to apps all the time then the battery will last longer. It has a 1230 mAh battery.

Sitting right at the bottom of the screen are 3 touch screen buttons, Menu, Phone and Personalize. There are four standard Android buttons Home - Menu - Back and Search which are embedded inside the touch screen. So basically there are no physical buttons on the front panel. The call connection is very good and you can have crystal clear call communication. Even international calls are crystal clear.

If you are crazy about SMS then in some ways this smartphone might not be best for you. The touch screen QWERTY keypad is too small so people with big hands might experience typing problems. I am thin and have skinny fingers so I have no problems typing paragraphs on that keypad because they are very responsive and work as fast as I type.

If you enjoy social networking, you will enjoy HTC Wildfire S. You can stay connected to all your social networking accounts and see live updates happening on the screen. HTC has an option called Friend Stream. This option allows you to view all your social networking accounts in one single window. So all you do is login to all your social networking accounts like Facebook, Twitter for once and then see all the comments updating on Friend Stream window.

Handling your emails is a breeze with HTC Wildfire S. Just like social networking you can sign in to all your different accounts at the same time and stay updated on your email accounts no matter wherever you go. The emails keep updating on their own so you never miss out any important email that matters. You can even set notifications sounds for new emails that arrive in your inbox.

Music is something that we like to carry all the time no matter wherever we go. HTC Wildfire S supports up to 32GB SD memory card so you decide how much music you want to carry. The music player is very simple and responsive. You can quickly create your own playlists and play your favorite music. The earphones that you get with HTC Wildfire S might not look that great, but they sound brilliant. The chromed volume rocker is nicely fitted on the left side of the phone which adds elegance to the phone design. The volume loudness is not up to the mark where it can blow your brains off, but the amount of bass and treble required is excellent so you will never feel disappointed listening to music on HTC Wildfire S.

HTC Wildfire S comes with a 5 megapixel camera but honestly it just does an average job. The pictures are clear when you click them. However, you start seeing small red and green pixels when you expand it to the maximum. Like I said, you can stay happy clicking pictures in whatever way you want but the problem begins when you try to zoom those pictures.

If you love to surf the web while you are on the go, HTC Wildfire S will make your job easier. The in-built browser is fast and allows you to open multiple windows. You can copy paste, share, find info about certain words in the page. When you zoom the page the text on the page aligns as per the window space so you never have to scroll from left to right to read the entire line.

HTC Wildfire S comes with internal GPS antenna, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP. It has 3G, Wi-Fi, GPRS and EDGE features. It also has G-Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor and Digital Compass.

The entire feel of HTC Wildfire S is very good and solid. It has a nice rubberized back that allows you to grip the phone firmly. The lower section of the phone is slightly tilted so that you can get closer to the mic of the phone, brilliant thinking by HTC. The power button and screen lock is the same which is on the top of the phone along with 3.5 mm audio jack. The USB charging slot is on the left below the volume rocker. The SD card slot is not accessible directly so you will need to remove the back panel and then access the memory card, but there is no need to remove the battery for it. The overall size of the phone is small it has 3.2 inch capacitive touch screen which is extremely feather touch and responsive(initially you have to be careful that you dont accidentally make calls because the screen is very very responsive and quick to get what you want). HTC Wildfire S comes in 4 different colors which are white, grey, purple and black. The market price is Rs. 13, 999/-

Any questions? Shoot:)