HTC One S vs Sony Xperia S– smartphone comparison

HTC One S vs Sony Xperia S

Rather than pit Sony’s latest and greatest against HTC’s One X, we though it would be much fairer if it picked on someone its own size (and price…). Enter the HTC One S; the One X’s smaller, cheaper and some might say sexier brother.

Aesthetics

The Xperia S is certainly a striking looking phone with its monolithic square profile and translucent band giving it a very distinct profile compared to its competitors. The One S goes for a more understated look with rounded edges, although its space-age micro-arc oxidised casing gives the handset a pleasing, premium feel above that of even much more expensive handsets. Let’s see what they have to offer on the inside:

Display

HTC One S	Sony Xperia S
4.3 Inches 590 x 960 Gorilla Glass	4.3 Inches 1280 x 720 scratch-resistant

Sony prides itself on excelling in all things visual these days, and the screen on the Xperia S is no exception. It makes full use of the Bravia technology developed for its high end TV’s and this expert knowledge is applied to its smartphones.

Android

HTC One S	Sony Xperia S
4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich	2.3 Gingerbread

HTC came out of the blocks strongly with the One series phones, by being some of the first major non-nexus phones to include the latest version of the Android operating system. HTC has also announced that the One S will be updated to Jelly Bean, with the update due to begin rolling out in October. Sony has now upgraded the Xperia S to ICS, but there has been no mention so far of it receiving an update to Jelly Bean   

Processor

HTC One S	Sony Xperia S
1.5GHz Dual Core	1.5GHz Dual Core

A dead heat on this front in terms of clock speed, with both phones coming in with respectable 1.5 GHz dual-core processors and 1GB of RAM they both pack the power that would have seen them easily top the range of 2011 handsets. However, while the handsets are clocked at the same speed, the One S is running on the superior Snapdragon S4 proccessor, so comes out on top.

Camera

HTC One S	Sony Xperia S
8MP	12MP

The HTC One S has an identical camera to that of the HTC One X, which is rightfully regarded as fantastic. The Xperia, however has a 12MP Exmor R camera which is rumoured to be the same as the camera Apple are planning to include in their next iPhone, so you know it’s going to be a little bit special.

Storage

HTC One S	Sony Xperia S
16GB	32GB

Seeing as neither phone comes with a MicroSD slot, you’d think there’d be only one winner here, although the One S does come with a delicious 25GB of Dropbox space to help balance the books!

Battery

HTC One S	Sony Xperia S
1650mAh	1750mAh

The Xperia comes up trumps in this battle with a bigger (albeit, not massively) battery, helping you get a little bit more playtime out of the phone. Both handsets do feature non-removable batteries, which unfortunately limits possibilities for extending battery life on the go. It is worth noting that while the Xperia S does have a larger battery, its display also has a higher resolution which in turn will use up more battery.

Conclusion

Overall, there is very little to pick between these two handsets, and with the HTC One S dropping in price it makes the decision all the more difficult. The addition of the latest version of Android along with the newest version of HTC’s Sense UI does make the handset feel like a next-gen device and it certainly zips through anything you can currently throw at it. Despite its best efforts, this reviewer can’t escape the feeling that the Xperia S always feels like a (very, very) good previous generation device.

It is worth noting that while both of these devices have had their teething problems well documented, both HTC and Sony have been quick to respond and fix the issues.