HTC One S officially launched in India for Rs. 33,590

HTC One S, the next highly anticipated smartphone from HTC has made its official entry into the Indian market. The One S is, in every right, the little brother to HTC’s superfast, quad-core toting HTC One X, which also made its debut recently. It’s also a slightly higher end model to HTC’s other One Series device, the One V.

“In continuation to the introduction of One series in India, this is a time to bring a highly desirable lifestyle handset for everyone who want to achieve a unique artistic bling and advanced technology” said Mr. Faisal Siddiqui, Country Manager, HTC India. “HTC One S is truly a complete package of style and performance. It is an easy-to-use smartphone that enriches customer experience with super fast camera with unique ImageSense technology and authentic, studio-quality sound with Beats Audio.”

The One S will be available in a light-to-dark Gradient Metal finish and it features a unibody design form. HTC also claims that the One S is scratch-resistant, so it should keep those nasty smudges and scrape marks at bay. 

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

It ships with Android 4.0 (ICS) running on a 1.7GHz (according to the HTC India website spec sheet), dual-core processor or a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset with HTC Sense UI version 4.0.

The One S

The One S comes with HTC’s ImageSense technology to help enhance the 8 megapixel camera quality and overall functionality. The ability to record video and take pictures simultaneously is also a very handy feature to have. It can capture video in 1080p (@30fps) full HD and the camcorder also features a slow-motion setting. Other features include face and smile detection and continuous shooting (not to be confused with Burst mode found on the One X) .

In the media field, the One S integrates Beats Audio technology to help boost the audio capabilities for music playback. HTC’s new Music Hub allows users to gather all these services and applications together, providing one go-to place for music options. HTC’s in-built HTC Media Manager software should also make it easier to wirelessly update your media libraries and transfer songs without connecting to a computer.

The One S will also come with 25GB of free Dropbox space to store your media or other files for quick access to and from your handset and PC. 

A selection of accessories will be available with the HTC One S - HTC wireless Media Link HD enables the phone to connect directly with an HDMI enabled television, taking all content stored on the phone onto the big screen with a swift three finger swipe across the phone’s screen. Gamers can also make the most out of TV streaming by activating mirror mode and transforming the handset into a game controller. 

Users can also wirelessly link up the phone to a car sound system, thanks to the HTC Car StereoClip, allowing them to take full advantage of the phone’s integrated mapping and navigation services while listening to music.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here’s a quick look at the HTC One S’ specs – 

• 4.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with a 540 x 960 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS and Wi-Fi (hot spot) + DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS support for Google Maps and Locations
• Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP and USB 2.0 (Micro)
• 8MP camera with LED flash and secondary camera up front
• FM radio
• TV out via MHL
• 16GB internal memory

The HTC One S is priced at  33,590 (MOP). Saholic.com currently has it priced slightly lower at  32,949, a further reduction from their previous offering of  33,000. 

Current Saholic price

Stay tuned to tech2 for the full review of the HTC One S.