HTC One S vs HTC One V

We compare HTC's dual core One S against its single core cousin, the One V.

Form
HTC One S - 130.9x65x7.8mm, 119.5g
HTC One V - 120.3x59.7x9.2mm, 115g

This part of the contest is a little bit uneven because of the three phones in HTC's One range the One S is, in our view, probably the best looking while the One V is easily the worst.

The One V pretty much sums up everything about HTC's old design ethos we didn't like. It's a very plain rectangular shape with rounded corners. It's the same basic proportions as virtually every HTC phone that has gone before it.

The One V is made a little worse, however, by the addition of a ‘chin' which juts out at the bottom, presumably this was added to give a better gripping angle but it just looks peculiar.

On top of that is the awful choice of colour - a sort of greyish brown. Perhaps HTC wanted to conjure images of Don Draper, but instead the result is more like an 80's Volvo.

Meanwhile, the One S is the antithesis to the One V's uninspired design. Instead of a dull slab it's a smoothly curving shape similar to Samsung's Galaxy Nexus.

The corners are rounded and the edges softened but in a much more appealing way than its stable-mate. On the front of the device is a chiseled black wedge which shows a stylishly thin strip of the main bodywork around the edge and houses the contoured screen.

It looks very sharp indeed to us and contrasts well with the bluish-grey colour of the device, although you can also get the handset in black.

Winner - HTC One S

Display
HTC's One V has a 3.7-inch capacitive multi-touch LCD display with an 800x480 pixel resolution and a decent enough pixel density of 252 pixels-per-inch (ppi).

It's not a bad screen by any means.

The One S has a slightly higher resolution of 960x540 pixels but because it's a bit larger at 4.3-inches the pixel density comes out at a very similar level of 256ppi.

However, the One S's capacitive multi-touch screen uses Samsung's Super AMOLED technology so it should be brighter, have better power efficiency and more vivid colours. The One S's display has also been reinforced with Corning's Gorilla glass so it should be quite resistant to knocks and scratches.

Although the pixel densities are very close, we'd still take the One S over the One V because of the superior AMOLED technology.

Winner - HTC One S

Storage
Both devices only have one internal storage option. The One S has 16GB of space while the One V has only 4GB. However, the One S has no micro SD slot for memory expansion where the One V can take cards up to 32GB.

On RAM the One S has 1GB and the One V has 512MB. Both devices also have 25GB of free DropBox cloud storage.

This is a tricky one to call, the One V can ultimately end up with more storage space thanks to its card capability, which also makes it more flexible all round.

As the One S has no card slot it lacks this flexibility and is stuck with 16GB. To make matters more complicated though, the One S has twice as much RAM which should give a noticeable boost to performance.

We'd prefer the One S's RAM but apart from this the One V's combined storage comes out on top. In the end we have to go with the One V.

Winner - HTC One V