The HTC Butterfly S is obviously a very hot prospect and it can easily outdo its far more popular One sibling in all but two aspects - premium styling and camera. The large "ultrapixels" are there, but as we found out when we reviewed the One mini optical image stabilization is an essential part of the equation. And while the glossy plastic of the Butterfly S certainly catches the eye, it's no match for the aluminum unibody of the One.
The HTC Butterfly is an extremely capable device. It gave the Galaxy S4 some serious competition in our benchmarks, and the very well-rounded Android 4.2.2 build with Sense 5 has some great software features you won't find from other manufacturers.
The problem comes when you consider the Butterfly S next to what's currently on the table from HTC. With the ink barely dry on HTC One retail boxes, it feels like HTC are playing another trump card before the hand is even over. By releasing two flagships in such close succession, HTC could find itself with no response to a strong smartphone offering from a competitor come the holiday season.
But maybe the smartphone race, like many others, is really a game of inches where every little improvement counts. Maybe the extra 0.3" in screen estate, 200MHz in clock speed, 900 mAh in battery capacity, and expandable storage are what it takes to get ahead. But let's not forget that you're going to be paying a premium for those extras, and you'll be sacrificing superior build quality including a significantly more compact frame, as well as the optical image stabilization, which is the 4MP UltraPixel camera's saving grace.
Advantages
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support; 3G with HSPA; LTE
- 5" 16M-color 1080p Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen with 441ppi pixel density
- Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
- Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Sense UI 5.0
- Quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300 CPU, 2 GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset
- 4 MP autofocus "UltraPixel" camera with 1/3" sensor size, 2µm pixel size; LED flash
- 1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR mode, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
- HTC Zoe
- 2.1 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
- Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA; Wireless TV out
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
- 16GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot
- MHL-enabled microUSB port
- Bluetooth v4.0
- NFC
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- Front-mounted stereo speakers with BoomSound tech
- Class-leading audio output
- Ample 3,200 mAh battery
Main disadvantages
- 4MP camera has disappointing performance in good lighting conditions
- No optical image stabilization
- Awkwardly-placed and uncomfortable power button
- Non user-replaceable battery
- Poor video and audio codec support out of box
- Questionable build quality - paint chips off easily
Posted in: HTC,HTC Reviews,Reviews
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