HTC announced new products at the Mobile World Congress including the HTC Gratia and Incredible S phones and their first tablet, the HTC Flyer.
The Good
The Incredible S is an update for world-wide release of the successful US Incredible, as a result it is polished, lacking the teething problems of some smart phones and, with the latest Sense Touch interface, the user experience is very good. It runs Android 2.2, including Flash support, allowing compatibility with most websites, though this is not the latest version of Android HTC have promised it will be updated. Physically the phone is unusual with a textured rubber back, this protects the phone and makes it easier to hold than its smooth plastic and Teflon-coated competition. The screen is clear a good size at 4 inches with an 800 by 480 pixel resolution. Its camera is up to date with 8 megapixels and a dual LED flash, capable of 720p video.
The Bad
At £500 sim-unlocked it is trying to compete with cutting edge phones when it is behind with only a single core processor and 768 megabytes of RAM while the standard is dual core and 1 gigabyte. Especially disappointing is the storage, though it has a microSD card slot, it only has 1.1 GB, barely enough for a single film or a few albums. This phone is caught between the current and previous generations, buyers would be better off getting the Galaxy S or a more recent phone such as the LG Optimus 2X.
The HTC Gratia is an update to the HTC Mini, a phone that is very small in the hand and light.
The Good
It is small and weighs only 115 grams and so would be good for people with smaller hands for whom larger phones may be awkward. It also looks good with a glossy black plastic finish, though this is marred by the fake screw head effect on the corners. Finally the interface is HTC`s Sense which is easy to use and well thought out.
The Bad
For the price and contracts available this phone is dated compared to its competition such as the Samsung Galaxy Ace. Its processor is only 600 MHz, 200 slower than competing phones and its 384 MB of RAM is too limited meaning it struggles with multitasking and the quality of video is poor.
HTC`s Flyer is their first tablet and will be the first with the Sense interface.
The Good
It looks good with an aluminium finish and its 7 inch screen may be preferable for some users over the 10 inch tablets. Sense has made the transition to tablets well, combined with 2.4 Android the software is good. The hardware is reasonable, with 1 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage it competes well with other tablets and the processor is an interesting choice, though it is only a single core it is clocked at 1.5 GHz so will single task better than the dual core tablets.
The Bad
The price is likely to be similar to the iPad 2, as this offers the same sort of build and design quality as the i phone this will be strong competition for the Flyer with HTC likely forced to lower the price.
(out of 40 reviews)
