HTC 8S A260e – Reasonable Windows Phone 8, 4 inch display and Dual Core CPU [Review]

HTC was one of the earliest manufacturers of the Windows Phone 8. The Taiwanese manufacturer launched a mid-range Windows phone – HTC 8S A260e with a 4 inch screen and dual core processor. It is an enhanced version of the HTC 8X. Though the phone doesn’t have a giant screen or excellent features, but it is good product for the price it is being offered at.

Design

The styling of HTC 8S is highly inspired from 8X. It has a bold look with good build quality and comfortable, curvy chassis. The gadget has a two-tone design which adds to its style statement. The bottom end of the phone and the rims that surround the earpiece, camera lens have a brighter tone than the rest of the handset. However, the color combinations are not subtle as they are available in luminous green and black, light and dark blue, white and black colors. Due to this usage of colors, the gadget looks friendly and eye-catchy without being loud.

The back panel of the phone is a single curved piece made of soft-touch plastic material. Due to a soft finish and absence of hard edges the phone is comfortable to hold. 8S won’t create any trouble when used with a single hand.

Interface

HTC 8S runs on Windows Phone 8 software. The home screen of this phone allows smaller Live Tiles. The interface can pose problems for real technology geeks. The lock screen is very handy- as it displays information like time, date, next upcoming event and email notifications. It links social networking platforms like Facebok, Twitter, LinkedIn and email accounts at one place.

Performance

HTC 8S has a dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm Krait processor. While playing 3D games on this phone, the user might encounter minor frame drops. The keyboard is fantastic as it has aced its key layout, making typing fast, accurate and comfortable.

Camera and Battery

With a 5 megapixel camera and LED flash, the HTC 8S provides an above average clicking experience. There is no front facing camera so the users won’t be able to enjoy video calling. The camera is simple to use, but auto focus works slowly when compared to other phones. The image quality is good as the colors are pleasant and vivid. There are no additional features like fun-filters available in 8S. It is equipped with a photo-fiddling app called Photo Enhancer -a basic and fluffy piece of software working on the likes of Instagram. The handset has a non-removable 1700mAh battery. Moderate-to-heavy users will be able to use the phone for two days on a single charge.

Conclusion

HTC 8S is an attractive entry in the mid-range segment of new Windows OS phones. It has a great look and is offered at a very reasonable price. Though the phone is devoid of a front facing camera, NFC and has less internal memory, but it is packed with some excellent features.

The review is penned by experts at Reliance Digital.