HTC One S - Is HTC fooling its customers?


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I checked HTC One S in the local store (India) and found the hardware mentioned on HTC website is not relevant to the specs on the box.

Box specs;

S3 Snapdragon

1.7 Ghz

HTC website;

S4 Snapdragon

1.5 Ghz

Why sell 2 different hardware under the same name?

HTC One S with S3 is priced 28-30k (Indian Rupees)

HTC One S with S4 is priced 35k (Indian Rupees)

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They are phasing out the S4 version due to limited supply of the chip and due to Samsung buying the last of it for their USA version of the GS 3 (due to its LTE capabilities).

The S4 CPU is considerably better than the S3 for everything, it is even better than the quad in the X and GS 3.

The S3 is old gen now, HTC have only overclocked it to try and close the gap between it and the S4, but the S4 is still in a league of its own :p

Also the main reason why the battery life on the S is so great is due to the S4, it is very power efficient and unfortunately the S3 version won't be as good for this area, possibly even worse due to the heavy overclock :(

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Also the main reason why the battery life on the S is so great is due to the S4, it is very power efficient and unfortunately the S3 version won't be as good for this area, possibly even worse due to the heavy overclock :(

S4's power "efficiency" might not be quite as efficient as you believe.

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The S4 CPU is considerably better than the S3 for everything, it is even better than the quad in the X and GS 3.

No it isn't

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S4's power "efficiency" might not be quite as efficient as you believe.

What makes you say that?

The S/XL (XL is the same as the X essentially but with the S4 chip) have the best battery life there is for android smartphones, the X with tegra has pretty poor battery life and the only other smartphone to achieve the same as the S/XL is the GS 3 (and the S/XL is still a bit better anyway, need to see more battery life tests for the GS 3 first to truly judge)

It is the main reason why the battery for the XL/S is great (The s only has a 1650mah and the XL has a 1800mah battery, not 2100mah like the GS 3), it isn't due to the screen (pentile matrix as opposed to RGB matrix is supposedly better for battery life though), RAM, GPU or anything else. The only other part that would help a lot is the software/driver optimization.

It could probably be better, but compared to every other phone that has older chips etc. it is definitely one of the best for PE.

EDIT:

The S also beats the GS 2 with the extended battery for battery life as well.

I've heard from a friend that the S4 is an awesome phone.

S4 is a phone?! :p

It most certainly is! :)

Nothing slows it down, no matter what is thrown at it.

Everything is just instant and smooth.

No it isn't

Emmm what?

Look at the S and HTC One X (Snapdragon S4) compared to the HTC One X (Tegra 3) and galaxy S 3.

http://www.gsmarena....eview-761p5.php

Just because it is "quad" does not mean that it is better.........

The S4 chip is the next gen tech.

Granted there isn't a huge difference between it and the GS 3, it is still better overall. Not only is it better for power (more or less the same as the GS3), but it is better for the other factors such as heat.

EDIT:

Also not only is it shown by benchmarks but it is also shown in real world usage. Everyone who has used a X and S/XL have said that they found the S/XL to be the faster/smoother phones overall compared to the X for everything, they said everything just felt more instant/snappy and the performance is on par with the GS3, I too have also found that to be the same. Nothing that a little tweaking/optimization on the X could fix though.

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^ Easy, I -own- an S4 based device; and right now, the damn thing doesn't go 24 hours without needing a charge.

It's fast though, I'll give it that, but it runs warm and it eats battery.

Edit: And just in case you think I'm talking BS...

battery1g.th.png

battery2.th.png

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^ Easy, I -own- an S4 based device; and right now, the damn thing doesn't go 24 hours without needing a charge. It's fast though, I'll give it that, but it runs warm and it eats battery. Edit: And just in case you think I'm talking BS..

Firstly you didn't mention any of your usage (calls, texts, browsing, games etc.?) or post on screen time and the screen brightness :p This information is very important.

Is that the XL (custom ROM etc.) or the S (custom rom etc.)?

I have the S and this is what I get:

This time I adjusted brightness via qbright when necessary so brightness was set to either 0% (at night and first thing in the morning, so probably about 30 minutes in total for each day then), 30% brightness (during the day indoors, so most of the day) and then 50 or 70% when outdoors (about 15-20 minutes each day, maybe).

Usage was much of the same (good bit of browsing, phone calls, texts, whatsapp, a lot of messing around with apps, youtube as well as the usual syncing for weather apps etc.) except this time a fair amount of files/photos/1080P videos transfer via estrongs and wifi transfer with wifi max performance enabled during these transfers and quite a lot of speedtests via wifi along with a bit of GPS usage in google maps and whilst in the speedtest app. Had H connection for a bit when browsing and camera (photos plus 1080P recording) usage as well as about 30 minutes in total of TV catchup etc.

TrrZM.pngasik1.pngsg7fi.png

Usage: few texts, few phone calls, a lot of web browsing, installing/uninstalling apps, about 10-15 min of youtube videos, about 5 photos taken, about 10-15 min of games, about 15 minutes of TV catchup, a bit of GPS, mostly wifi connection and H/3G connection for a bit, snowstorm syncing every 2 hours and sense weather refreshing every 6 hours, general messing around in apps etc. some whatsapp use, gmail push and automatic brightness etc.

0BEiQ.pngMBSVD.png0iISD.pngSSGTH.png

More screenshots of battery life in my review of the S. All of them are more or less the same.

Also there could be a bug/problem with that ROM you are using, which is resulting in poor battery life.

I have had no problems with my S heating up. Runs very cool no matter what game I play etc. only time it has got "warm" to touch is after running benchmarks for like 13 minutes straight and it heats up a fair bit when charging but that is to be expected.

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No calls, no texts, no GPS usage.. The sudden dip visible was from 30 minutes of web browsing.

It's not an HTC device, btw. I can't actually say what make it is as its not yet released. The ROM it's using is NOT a final production ROM, but it's not far off it. It's not, however, a good sign so far.

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No calls, no texts, no GPS usage.. The sudden dip visible was from 30 minutes of web browsing.

It's not an HTC device, btw. I can't actually say what make it is as its not yet released. The ROM it's using is NOT a final production ROM, but it's not far off it. It's not, however, a good sign so far.

If it was an AMOLED screen then that is why it dropped a fair bit when browsing, browsing on AMOLED screens kills the battery due to all the whites and when you load a web page you get a white page for a second or so.

What about on screen time and screen brightness? Those are the most important factors?

Oh! Fancy giving a hint as to what it is? :p ;)

Can you say what size of battery it has?

Also that may well be the reason you aren't getting good battery life, the "not being a final production ROM" or even released yet. Could be some bugs etc. that are keeping a process active in the background, which is then consuming battery life, so you can't really judge the PE of the S4 chip on just that.

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Well, I've been doing this for a few years, and so far, this is the worst battery performance yet, and yes, there's a logging tool running in the background, but that's been the same on all the devices I've had.

The battery size is, I think, contributing to it. Again, I don't want to say as it might hint as to what device it is, but it's a little smaller than HTC's. On screen time is little more than the browsing time, but as you can see in the screenie, accounts for most of the battery usage. Brightness is at 40% and it may or may not be AMOLED. ;)

Now, don't get me wrong. I happen to like the S4 chipset and this phone is about the best I've had to test so far; I just don't think the reality of its power efficiency quite matches up to Qualcomm's claims

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Well, I've been doing this for a few years, and so far, this is the worst battery performance yet, and yes, there's a logging tool running in the background, but that's been the same on all the devices I've had.

The battery size is, I think, contributing to it. Again, I don't want to say as it might hint as to what device it is, but it's a little smaller than HTC's. On screen time is little more than the browsing time, but as you can see in the screenie, accounts for most of the battery usage. Brightness is at 40% and it may or may not be AMOLED. ;)

Now, don't get me wrong. I happen to like the S4 chipset and this phone is about the best I've had to test so far; I just don't think the reality of its power efficiency quite matches up to Qualcomm's claims

There must be something hogging the battery if you're only just getting over 30 minutes on screen time at 40% brightness and have only 46% left with little usage. That is terrible and the worse battery life I have ever seen as well.

And that could also be why if the battery is smaller than HTC's (smaller than the S or X? ;) :p)

Can you say what size the screen is roughly e.g. 4.3"-4.8" or 3.7"-4.3"?

You could (if you haven't already) install better battery stats from the market and see a detailed log of what is using the battery life.

I wouldn't base anything on what is essentially a test/beta phone as there could be a problem with the software/drivers. Wait till the final version is out and then judge :)

But so far the only phones that are on the market to the public now that use the S4 chip all have great battery life.

We will also see soon enough what the GS 3 (USA version) gets out of one charge, I imagine that will be good as well though considering how good of a job Samsung do regarding software/drivers optimization.

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It's a 4.3" display (and it's gorgeous too). I'll see what happens with the battery life when I get the next dev build. :p

Ah well then that isn't a good combination really, biggish screen and small battery :( But you should get much better with the final software version rather than what you currently are getting. Even the desire etc. has better battery life than that :p

Any clues about the resolution? :p ;) Better than the S, same as the X, GS 3 etc. or no comment :p

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Very nice! :)

Unfortunately this phone may not be so good for battery life when compared to the S, XL and GS 3 due to the res and biggish screen (guessing AMOLED as well :p). and smaller battery :(

Look forward to seeing this phone though, hopefully it will be out soon.

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