Comparision-HTC One S vs Samsung Galaxy S Advance

We see if Samsung's Galaxy S revival, the Galaxy S Advance, can compete with HTC's One S.

Form
HTC One S - 130.9x65x7.8mm, 119.5g
Samsung Galaxy S Advance - 123.2x63x9.7mm, 120g

HTC's One S is, in our view, easily the best-looking phone the company has produced to date. Gone is the dull recycled rectangular shape with slightly rounded corners, instead you've got a nicely contoured and slightly curved body shell with chiselled edges.

It looks very contemporary, in part thanks to the thin ‘bezel' of bodywork around a smaller wedge of black plastic which the screen sits inside.

The back panel has rubber-coated panels on the top and bottom and the bodywork has a high-quality and somewhat metallic feel to it, while the camera lens is housed in a coloured metal ‘porthole'. Interface control is handled by three capacitive buttons.

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance uses the same form factor as the original Galaxy S, which still manages to look appealing and keeps pace with the current market.

It has a more angular and squared-off shape and overall slightly blockier proportions. However, it is a bit chunkier than the One S at 9.7mm to the HTC's 7.8mm.

We think the design has aged well but it's not got the sleek, cutting edge charm of the HTC One S.

Winner - HTC One S

Display
The Galaxy S Advance features a 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive multi-touch display with an 800x480 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 233 pixels-per-inch (ppi).

It uses Corning's Gorilla Glass for extra durability and should put out some pretty impressive visuals thanks to the AMOLED tech and relatively high pixel density.

HTC's One S has a slightly larger 4.3-inch capacitive display, it's still Super AMOLED, Gorilla Glass and multi-touch like its rival but has a higher 960x540 pixel resolution and consequently boasts a slightly higher pixel density of 256ppi, though we'd expect the picture quality to be somewhat comparable.

Winner - Draw

Storage
Samsung's handset has options for either 8GB or 16GB of onboard storage with 768MB of RAM and 2GB of ROM, plus a micro SD slot which allows cards up to 32GB.

The HTC One S has a fixed storage capacity of 16GB with no micro SD slot for expansion. It does, however, come with 25GB of free DropBox cloud storage integrated into the phone - all you have to do is register an account. It has more RAM than its opponent with a whole 1GB to play with.

This is something of a recurring theme with the One S, and indeed its stable-mate the One X, without micro SD capability they keep getting let down in the storage category. The Samsung Galaxy S Advance can have much more storage overall, as well as the added flexibility of micro SD.

Winner - Samsung Galaxy S Advance

ProcessorBoth Samsung's Galaxy S Advance and the HTC One S use dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processors. The One S uses more up-to-date chipset technology though with Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Krait clocked at 1.5GHz with an Adreno 225 graphics processing unit (GPU), which should run 30 per cent faster than standard Cortex A9-based chipsets. Samsung's handset is clocked at 1GHz.

Although the Galaxy S Advance should still offer capable performance by current standards, Qualcomm's cutting edge chip technology is a force to be reckoned with meaning the Samsung doesn't stand a chance in this respect.

Winner - HTC One S 

Operating System
The Samsung Galaxy S Advance runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread while HTC's One S uses the latest build, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

ICS is leagues ahead of Gingerbread, it's so much better in our view that comparing the two seems almost cruel.

The new version is much, much faster on performance and navigation, it has an extensively revised menu layout which is much easier to navigate and generally makes more sense.

We're particularly fond of the new multi-tasking interface, which has a quick app switcher and features a swipe-to-close functionality.

HTC's One S takes this one easily with its up-to-date version of Google's platform, which is a more rewarding experience on the whole.

Winner - HTC One S

Camera
The One S, like other members of the One range, features some extensive camera capabilities thanks to HTC's use of backlight-illuminated sensor (BSI) technology, updated Sense interface software and the inclusion of a dedicated chip to run the show.

This means it can do some nifty tricks, such as capturing 1080p HD video and still images simultaneously and a 20-image multi-shot mode.

The One S's camera is rated at 8-megapixels with a 3264x2448 pixel resolution, an LED flash, autofocus,  geo-tagging, face and smile detection, white balance, ISO control, HDR mode and filter effects. For video it has stereo sound recording and stabilisation.

There's also a 1.3-megapixel secondary camera with video call support.

Samsung has gone for a 5-megapixel primary at 2592x1944 pixels with 720p video capture and a 1.3-megapixel secondary for video calling. It features an LED flash, autofocus, geo-tagging, touch focus and face and smile detection.

The Galaxy S Advance's camera setup is certainly nice, but HTC has gone the extra mile with a much more thorough suite of capabilities on the One S.

Winner - HTC One S

Final Thoughts
The Samsung Galaxy S Advance is a worthwhile and competent revival of the original Galaxy S which brings it well in-line with the current smartphone market. However, it is on the whole outclassed by HTC's One S which is, in our view, quite an exceptional piece of hardware. 

Posted in: Android,Comparisions,HTC,Samsung,Samsung Mobiles