HTC 8S Review - First look
The HTC 8S is the little brother to the HTC 8X - it might not deliver flagship specs, but it makes up for it with striking design and expandable memory
HTC's Windows Phone 8 line kicked off with the HTC 8X, a gorgeous unibody device with killer specs and a design to match. Taiwan's finest mid-ranger, the HTC 8S, carries forward the 8X's beautiful styling and couples it with a smaller form and two tone aesthetic.
In contrast to Nokia's beefy take on the Windows Phone look and feel, HTC has dropped considerably more demure shapes onto the smartphone market. Combining angles and corners with pillowy curves, industrial design is the clear reason the HTC 8S stands out from the crowd.
We got our hands on the black and white model but the phone is available in a range of colours including lime green and grey, blue, as well as orange. While it looks and feels like a unibody handset, the HTC 8S does in fact have a removable bottom portion. This reveals the micro SIM and micro SD card slots.
The screen is a 4-inch WVGA SLCD panel, so won't be as sharp as the HTC 8X or Nokia Lumia 920 but it will be a little crisper than the Nokia Lumia 820. The phone is less powerful than all the aforementioned Windows Phone 8 devices but only by a mere 0.5GHz.
Windows Phone is a very efficient platform and we're doubtful this 0.5GHz will impact performance all that much. At £250 offline, the 8S is definitely a great value proposition.
It's also easily the best looking handset available for its price, so it'll be interesting to see how it holds up in our full review. Keep your eyes fixed on Know Your Mobile for that and enjoy our hands-on video below:
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