HTC Wildfire S review: S-size droid

Economical retail package

The tiny box of the HTC Wildfire S has the essentials duly covered. You get the mandatory charger and an USB cable (to use with the charger as well as in data connections). There’s a set of nice looking headphones and a complimentary 2GB microSD card inside too. The rest is the usual papers.

HTC Wildfire S retail package

The white set of accessories is suspiciously similar to the iPhone’s, the earphones especially almost a complete replica.

HTC Wildfire S 360-degree spin

The HTC Wildfire S measures 101.3 x 59.4 x 12.4 mm and is smaller in real life than it appears on a picture. It’s made entirely of plastic, tipping the scales at the acceptable 105 grams. Maybe it’s the similar styling but we got it wrong initially. No aluminum unibody in the HTC Wildfire S.

The phone feels great in your hand and – being so small, one-hand operation is hassle-free. 3.2” is still more than enough screen real estate to work with – you don’t feel crammed for space.

Design and construction

The HTC Wildfire S borrows some styling ideas from its bigger brother the Desire S and has inherited others from the original Wildfire. Bottom line, the Wildfire S is neat and friendly, and delightfully compact. The finish hasn’t suffered from the plastic build. The soft rubbery back contrasts nicely with the brushed finish of the front frame.

A little Desire S

The phone will be available in a variety of colors and the selection makes sense for a phone targeted at the young. Size is still the key selling point though.

The Wildfire S next to the Galaxy S II, iPhone 4

The front of the Wildfire S is dominated by a 3.2” capacitive touchscreen of HVGA (320x480) resolution. It’s a reasonably bright LCD unit but with no automatic adjustment for the lack of an ambient light sensor - our unit is a pre-release one and doesn't offer it. The final market-ready unit will have this covered. The smallish screen is quite reflective – making it uncomfortable to use outdoors. The poor viewing angles don’t help it either: colors quickly get washed out. Still it’s enough of an improvement over the poor QVGA screen of the original Wildfire.

The HVGA display of the Wildfire S

As you have every right to expect, the capacitive screen response is top-notch.

At the bottom of the device you get the usual four capacitive keys: Home, Menu, Back and Search. The major absence compared to the original Wildfire is the optical trackpad. It won’t be badly miss we guess – except perhaps in text editing.

The capacitive keys are small but well-spaced, with precise vibration feedback for comfortable use.

Capacitive Home, Menu, Back and Search keys

On the left side of the Wildfire S you’ll find the volume rocker and the MicroUSB port for charging/data connections. The volume control is unexpectedly big and prominent, with good press.

Volume rocker and MicroUSB slot

There’re no controls on the right, the asymmetrical contour of the battery cover a nice little accent.

The right side features nothing

At the top of the device there is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and the power/lock button. It’s easy to locate by touch and bounces right back up after each press.

Power/lock button and 3.5mm headphone jack

The mouthpiece and a tiny lanyard eyelet are the only things to note at the bottom.

Microphone, lanyard eyelet

The back of the device is simple but attractive. We like the soft matt finish and the light-colored patch holding the loudspeaker grill, camera lens and LED flash that stands out against the darker finish of the surrounding surface. The camera is a 5 MP auto-focus unit and the LED flash looks quite powerful.

5 MP auto-focus camera with LED flash and loudspeaker

Removing the back panel reveals the 1230 MAh Li-Ion battery. It’s quoted at 360-570 hours of stand-by and 430/350 minutes of talk time (between 2G and 3G). In reality our unit gave us about 5 days, used sparingly.

1230MAh Li-Ion battery

The HTC Wildfire S is a solid little mini whose key feature is its diminutive size. The premium feel is gone but getting a higher-res HVGA screen we’d call it a fair trade. And just to be clear, the phone has no aluminum unibody but the build and finish are up to the usual high HTC standards.

HTC Wildfire S in hand

It’s a small phone that handles well and comes in a variety of colors to please any taste. Friendly and compact, the Wildfire S will let even less experienced users enjoy Android.