Nexus 4 vs HTC 8S

Another mid-range Windows Phone 8 contender takes on the low-price Android powerhouse that is the Nexus 4. This time we see how HTC’s 8S stacks up.

Form

Nexus 4 – 133.0x68.7x9.1mm, 139g

HTC 8S – 120.5x63x10.3mm, 113g

The HTC 8S shares many of its design cues with HTC’s flagship model, the 8X.

That means it’s got a starkly rectangular shape with a slightly curved back. Like its premium sibling, it’s made of a slightly rubbery polycarbonate.

Although it's not quite a unibody owing to the presence of a removable endcap,  it does have enough of a continuous expanse of uninterrupted chassis that it pretty much qualifies in our view.

The bezel around the display is substantially wider than the 8X, making it look a little less elegant. Build quality is excellent, the materials feel really nice in the hand and everything is quite sturdy.

HTC’s choice of colours is a bit hit and miss, the two-tone red, blue and black/white variants all look pretty sharp but the grey/luminous yellow version is, we think, a bit of an eyesore.

Google’s Nexus 4 has a reasonable build quality and a decent feel in the hand, but the design is, for the most part, not particularly adventurous.

It’s a rounded-off black slab with a similar shape to its predecessor, Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, though without the curved back panel and a slightly shorter, wider silhouette.

Where LG (Google’s partner for this model) has been a bit more daring is the implementation of a slightly recessed glass back panel with a glittery texture. There may be some out there who like this but we certainly don’t.

Winner – HTC 8S

Display

The Nexus 4’s display is a 4.7-inch IPS+ capacitive touchscreen with a 1280x768 pixel resolution at 318 pixels-per-inch (ppi).

Sharpness and brightness are both brilliant and the contrast is good too. Saturation and colour depth are decent by contemporary standards.

HTC’s 8S has a smaller 4-inch SLCD touchscreen with an 800x480 pixel resolution at 233ppi.

Visuals should be reasonably crisp and the SLCD tech should ensure good brightness and colour, but it’s not going to be quite as punchy as the Nexus 4’s offering.

Winner – Nexus 4

Storage

On the HTC 8S you get 4GB of internal storage plus MicroSD support for cards up to 32GB. Being a Windows Phone you also get up to 7GB of SkyDrive cloud storage.

With the Nexus 4 you’ve got a choice of either 8GB or 16GB of onboard space but no card slot for expansion. There’s access to Google’s cloud services and third party apps such as DropBox.

Between its internal capacity and card capability, the HTC 8S has more storage potential for outside the cloud, but the downside (if you see it that way) is that only a small fraction of it will be onboard.

On the flip side, the Nexus 4 has plenty of onboard space if you choose the 16GB option, though either one you choose will have more internally than the 8S can achieve.

But, the kicker there is your only hope of expanding past these hardware boundaries is in the cloud.