HTC Desire S review

HTC Desire S: Battery life and connectivity

Battery life on the HTC Desire S proved to the very definition of adequate. We tend to be resigned to a charge per day for modern smartphones, and this is also the case here with any sort of intensive use.

In addition battery life was pretty good when mostly left on standby. Some phones will still eat through their lithium-ions, but not the Desire S.

The addition of easy access to switch off certain functions in the notifications bar helps here. Making it just a couple of taps to turn Bluetooth off, for instance, had an effect.

Connectivity

The HTC Desire S features 3G up to 14.4Mbps, and 802.11n Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP.

For a more physical connection (so to speak), there's a micro-USB port for charging and connecting to a PC. When you plug in, you'll be presented with several options, including being able to use the HTC Sync desktop client.

There's also the HTCSense.com service, which enables you perform some handy tricks with your phone from a web browser.

Once signed up, you perform several handy tasks, including making your phone ring at the highest volume, locating it with GPS, forwarding calls and messages, locking the phone with a message or erasing the phone completely.

It also enables you to back up your contacts, though this was a process that hung around in the background a lot and seemed to keep stalling.

Ringing the phone from the service worked well, though, which could make it easier to find when it's lost down the sofa. It's also nice to have the peace of mind of knowing you can wipe or lock your phone if you lose it.

It's all great to have for free, although we struggled to get the GPS part to find our phone.