HTC One S vs Asus Padfone

It's an Android Ice Cream Sandwich battle as we compare HTC's One S to Asus' forthcoming Padfone.

Form
HTC One S - 130.9x65x7.8mm, 119.5g
Asus Padfone - 128x65.4x9.2mm, 129g

HTC has really pushed the boat out on visual design when it comes to the premium One S and One X handsets from its new range. Although at KYM Towers opinion is divided amongst the team on whether the One X is the better looking of the two, this writer in particular favours the One S for its slinkier and more elegant shape.

The One S features a slightly curved profile and the bodywork has what HTC calls a ‘piano key finish' with an interesting matte texture and feel to it, meaning it's not as slippery as the One X. The handset is light but solid and well-crafted - this is not a flimsy piece of hardware by any means.

Apart from this it shares a few distinctive and characteristic design features with the One X, most notably the fact that the screen sits inside a shiny black ‘wedge-shaped' panel on the front, around which you can see a slim sliver of the bodywork.

If you get the black version this isn't really noticeable, but it's a bit more visible on the blue-grey variant. It's rare that we actually like a white-coloured phone but in fact on the One X the white version works so well with these design features we actually wish there was a white One S too. We can but hope that HTC will launch a white one later.

Overall the One S has a less squared aesthetic than its bigger brother which is a look we feel works much better with many of the unique design elements.

Asus' Padfone is a tough nut to crack in comparison terms because it's really three devices in one. At its core, however, it's a smartphone and quite a good-looking one at that.

Shape-wise it bears some resemblance to the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S2, but features a contoured and tapered edge along the bottom which gives it a slightly different look.

The bezel on either side of the screen is suitably thin and the the back panel is quite minimalist and has a slightly grainy texture in what appears to be brushed aluminium - although we did hear some accounts from Mobile World Congress that parts of the phone had plasticky feel.

HTC's device looks much nicer and wins this round.

Winner - HTC One S

Storage
The HTC One S has 16GB of internal storage and 1GB of RAM for the processor to utilise. There is, however, no card capability so you can't expand storage space further. HTC has thrown in 25GB of free Dropbox cloud storage but you do need an active internet connection, either through roaming data or Wi-Fi, to access this.

The Padfone comes in either 16GB or 32GB flavours, either version has 1GB of RAM and a microSD slot for a further maximum of 32GB extra storage space.

Asus' Padfone is a clear winner here offering far more bang-for-your-buck.

Winner - Asus Padfone

Display
The screen technology on these two handsets is virtually identical, each has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED capacitive multi-touch display with a 960x540 pixel resolution, giving a pixel density of 256 pixels-per-inch (ppi).

This is a pretty decent setup, we were very impressed with the clarity and brightness of the HTC One S's display when we had it in for review and, for the most part, unless you have perfect vision you might be hard pushed to tell the difference between this and higher ppi screens.

Winner - Draw