I had always heard from friends that HTC phones were well made, the cream of the crop if you will, but never really had a chance to play with one and create my own bias. Then I received the HTC Wildfire S from Bell to review for the site, and quickly understood why their slogan is “Quietly Brilliant”. Read on for my thoughts on the compact new Android device.

First Impression

Taking the Wildfire S out of the box brought a smile to my face. I’m used to my iPhone 4, so seeing this little guy was a nice change of pace in a number of ways. The phone was lightweight, had a nice scratch-resistant finish, and its small size fit so nicely in my hand. On the top right corner of the phone is the power button, while the surprisingly large volume rocker is on left side, just above the micro USB port. The 5 megapixel camera is near the center of the phone on the backside. The speaker is also on that side, opposite the flash that’s just left of the camera.

Display

Straight out of the box, I noticed that the 3.2″ HVGA (320×480) display on the Wildfire S had a lower pixel density than I am used to. Despite this, everything looked crisp and clear, with good color reproduction. The display’s real problem is its sensitivity; all of the common touch screen issues are not only there, but amplified. If you’re not prone to typos while using a touchscreen keyboard, chances are you’ll make a lot more on the Wildfire S. The same holds true for clicking the wrong links in the web browser or inadvertently opening an application while attempting to swipe to the next page. We imagine a lot of these issues can and will be addressed via a software update, but it’s something to keep in mind. One huge plus the display has is that it is coated with Corning’s Gorilla Glass, an impressively durable glass that can withstand quite a bit of punishment without showing any signs of damage like scratches and cracks.

Just below the screen are the four buttons that are typical of Android phones: Home, menu, back, and search. They’re not physical buttons, mind you, but an extension of the capacitive touchscreen display. And unlike the display itself, these buttons are adequately sensitive, not to mention a cool way to distinguish itself from competitors.

Camera

The Wildfire S is equipped with a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash. The auto-focus works the same as it does on most other touchscreen smartphones – simply tap the focal point, and the camera will adjust accordingly. The maximum resolution of pictures taken with the camera are 2592 x 1994. The camera is capable of taking satisfactory pictures in broad daylight, but photos taken in medium and low light settings are sub-par, and feature a large amount of noise.

The camera application doesn’t allow for a lot of customization, so don’t expect to take masterful pictures with this little guy. There is, however, a cool feature I haven’t seen with many phones – the ability to adjust the effect the camera is using. While there are applications like Instagram that will let you edit the photos after they are taken, this camera application lets you switch the filters before you take the picture. It may be a small feature, but it’s nice to see something new. I would have liked if they included features like shutter speed and aperture settings, as well as being able to take lower-fidelity pictures to save memory, as with Xperia arc.

Sense UI

HTC’s custom Sense UI is possibly one of my favorite things about not only the Wildfire S, but all of HTC’s Android devices. When dragged down, the notifications bar shows all your recently used applications, as well as a “Quick Settings” tab that allows one to control Bluetooth, Network, and GPS settings. It’s all very handy, and is something I feel other companies should emulate.

Friendstream is the pre-loaded social networking aggregate for the phone. Just log into your email, Facebook, and Twitter accounts and you’ll receive alerts when you receive new email or whenever your friends post updates to Twitter and Facebook.

The app drawer and home pages display icons 4×4. The bottom of the app drawer has a tab grouping which collects your most frequently used applications, as well as a tab grouping all the recently downloaded applications. At the bottom of the home pages are the app drawer, phone launcher and the “personalize” buttons. The icons and widgets are all scaled-down versions from their original to compensate for the smaller screen. I haven’t had issues with selecting icons or widgets, for the most part. Every now and then an application will open when I meant to swipe to the next page but that’s negligible and somewhat unavoidable with touch screens. All in all, the conversion to the smaller screen is pulled off with elegance.

Performance and Battery Life

Now, everything that’s been mentioned up until this point works in favor of the Wildfire S, but there are two big downfalls that keep the phone from being truly great: the battery life and its processor. According to to HTC, the Wildfire S is capable of around 6 hours of talk-time on Bell’s 3G network. I was able to replicate the claim times, but found it wasn’t enough to match my daily usage. That might not be a huge deal-breaker for everyone, but we think the next point could be for a lot more people. Where most smartphones are equipped with at least a single-core processor in excess of 1GHz, the Wildfire S phone has a paltry 600MHz processor. It’s powerful enough for casual use, but anyone who is looking for a device to multitask or game with should steer clear.

Conclusion

The HTC Wildfire S is definitely brilliant in a downplayed way, so I suppose HTC’s “quietly brilliant” slogan is befitting. Despite my problems with the processor and battery life, the Wildfire S runs well and is a great little smartphone for the average person. The problem is I’m not entirely confident that there’s currently a market for l0w-end Android devices in this country. The typical Android user is very tech savvy, and will stop at nothing to get the latest and greatest high-end handset to get the most out of their Android experience. If you’re not interested in games but want a great Android experience, the Wildfire S is a safe bet. Otherwise, you might want to consider looking into the HTC Panache – as it had the same great user interface with a better processor. Check back for the upcoming review of that phone as well.