HTC Wildfire S

It’s almost shocking that the Wildfire S is the first HTC Android-based phone released in New Zealand. HTC has produced model after model of Android phone since its first, known as the Dream, launched in October 2008. In fact, the HTC Dream was the first Android phone available at retail. So we’re three years late to the party, but is there still a little something left at the buffet?

HTC’s unique offering for Android is Sense, an overlay that provides a selection of widgets, services and other features. Sense has been a standard feature on HTC smartphones since mid-2009. We’ve not been particularly fond of some overlays we’ve seen, and they often delay or prevent Android upgrades. So is Sense worth it?

It has some surprisingly nifty features, such as a louder ring if the phone is in a pocket or bag, and the ability to silence an incoming call by turning your phone onto its face. Aside from that, Sense provides Scenes and Screens – extensive ways to customise how your phone looks and works, a home screen featuring a clock and – if you want – the latest Facebook update. There’s also a clever settings tab in the drag-down notification screen at the top of the phone. There much more to Sense than this, but we’ve limited space to cover every nice aspect. One thing it doesn’t offer is a Swype-style keyboard app, but that’s one of it’s few drawbacks.

The Wildfire S’s design is sleek, with curved edges and a slight bumper at the bottom to allow the phone to nestle comfortably in your hand. It’s relatively small, as smartphones go, measuring just 101 x 59 x 12.4mm and weighing 105g. Despite that, it holds a 3.2-inch 320 x 480 Gorilla Glass screen and houses a 5MP rear camera. It feels very solid in the hand, sturdy and resilient without being bulky.

The processor is a mid-range 600MHz, with 512MB RAM to back it up and provide navigation around screens, widgets and apps that feels fast enough, if not quite zippy.

In addition to the onboard storage (512MB), you get a 2GB microSD card in the box, providing plenty of space for apps and photos or video.

The camera takes photos that have acceptable crispness and definition, with good colour accuracy in normal or bright light. In low light, you may find some blow-outs and colour inaccuracy: we found some shots we took had a slight red cast. You can also shoot video in VGA (640 x 480) at 24fps.

For a launch price of $599 from Telecom (although we’ve seen it for $379 in local online stores), the HTC Wildfire S is directly comparable with the likes of the Huawei Ideos X5. It features a newer version of Android but a lower screen size and resolution to that model. If the official price was lower – say that $379 we’ve seen it for – this would be a solid competitor against phones such as the Ideos U8150 and Samsung Mini with which it shares a form factor. As it is, though, it seems a little overpriced.

The solid construction, Sense overlay, pocketable size and decent performance are definitely points in its favour, but we can only recommend you buy the Wildfire S if you can find a retailer selling it for less than $400.

Update (23/11/2011): At the time this review appeared online, Telecom's official price had dropped to $399. So, take the preceeding review as a little less negative, and a little more of a recommendation to buy.

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