[Video] T-Mobile’s HTC One S Hands-On

We had the rare, but pleasing, opportunity to get a first hands looks at the HTC One S slated for T-Mobile. We had a few days to play with it, test it out and find the features that really make this device standout. For those of you that have been living under a rock the last few months, the One S is one of HTC’s latest flagship devices. It is the second to the top tier for their new line, the One X being the king of them all.

With the One S you are getting a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED screen at 960×540, 16 GB of on board storage, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM and a Qualcomm S4 dual-core processor clocked to 1.5GHz. There is a LED notification light located behind the speaker grid located at the top of the device. The camera is an 8mp on the rear with a standard VGA front shooter. The rear camera has a single LED flash and is capable of shooting 1080p video with stereo sound. While the camera has some great sounding specs, it’s the insane shutter speeds and the ability to take photo stills while recording video that really makes it stand out.

On the software side of things, the One S is preloaded with our favorite Android 4.0 OS. As with any HTC device that makes its way out to the public, the One line will be sporting the more slimmed down Sense 4.0. With it comes all the usual Sense applications, animations and widgets. You will also find the Beats Audio software built-in, but they have removed the Beats earbuds from shipping with the devices. Which makes the software absolutely useless without an additional purchase of a higher-grade set of earbuds or headphones.

The body of the One S is a uni-body design. This design locks the battery into the device, preventing you from replacing the battery or purchasing an extended battery of any sorts. The One S also doesn’t have any expandable memory options. Meaning they took out the micro SD card slot from the device, leaving with the 16GB of on board storage as your only means of storage. To combat that slightly, HTC has teamed up with Dropbox to offer all people who purchase a One series device, 25 GB of free storage. I could be wrong on the number exactly, but that is what I distinctly remember. At the top of the device where the camera is located is a removable panel. Under the panel is where you will insert your Micro SIM card. Moving you away from your current SIM card wich inevitably makes using any previous devices you own as a back up impossible.

The One S, even with the personal disappointments of the built-in battery, micro SIM, no SD card and no Beats earbuds, this device is extremely fast and beautiful. The screen is gorgeous in normal office/home environments and is easily visible in direct sunlight. I am sure you are tired of reading about this device and are more interested in seeing. So take a look at the video walk through prepared by our very own Simon Walker.