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9:09 AM
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We see how HTC's One S ‘hero' phone compares to Samsung's champion, the Galaxy S2.
FormSamsung Galaxy S2 - 125.3x66.1x8.5mm, 116g
HTC One S - 130.9x65x7.8mm, 119.5g
Samsung's Galaxy S2 and HTC's One S couldn't be more different in terms of visual design. While the Galaxy S2 is a very stark rectangular slab, the HTC One S bears some similarity to the Galaxy Nexus with its gently sweeping lines and curves.
HTC has come up with a very progressive and stylish looking design, there's a thin bezel of bodywork around the edge of a contoured black panel which sits in the middle of the phone and houses the touchscreen. On the light grey coloured model this looks particularly striking.
The Galaxy S2 doesn't have any nifty tricks but its simple design is elegant enough without them and its flattering proportions speak for themselves.
In other words the Galaxy S2 doesn't need to be flashy: it just looks good.
HTC has produced the thinner of the two handsets at 7.8mm to Samsung's 8.5mm, though the use of lightweight plastics in the Galaxy S2 means it weighs less at 116g to the One S's 119.5g.
We don't feel that one handset has the edge over the other here. While some users may be staunchly in one camp or the other aesthetically, we actually like both squared-off and curved form factors. The important thing is the execution and here it is all very well done.
Winner - Draw
DisplayBoth handsets feature 4.3-inch multi-touch capacitive displays and use Corning's Gorilla Glass to provide a bit of extra durability.
HTC has implemented Samsung's Super AMOLED technology in the One S and its screen sports a 540x960 pixel resolution giving a pixel density of 256 pixels-per-inch (ppi).
Samsung is, of course, also using its own screen tech for the Galaxy S2, this time, however, it's Super AMOLED Plus for a little extra visual ‘oomph'. The resolution isn't as high as HTC's though at 480x800 pixels, which also means the pixel density comes in lower at 217ppi.
Both are very competent display offerings but the HTC One S will offer a much sharper image quality for a more satisfying experience.
Winner - HTC One S
StorageThe Galaxy S2 has three storage variants with either 16GB or 32GB of internal space, depending on which you go for, either option also has 1GB of RAM and a micro SD slot which can take cards up to 32GB in capacity.
The HTC One S has 16GB of onboard storage and the same 1GB of RAM as its opponent, though unfortunately there's no card capability to be found.
Samsung's Galaxy S2 is still the top dog in this contest with more built-in storage and card capability to boot.
Winner - Samsung Galaxy S2
ProcessorSamsung's handset uses a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 (ARMv7) clocked at 1.2GHz and running Samsung's own Exynos 4210 chipset, combined with a Mali 400MP4 quad core graphics processing unit (GPU).
Against this, HTC has wheeled out the heavy artillery with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon S4 Krait MSM8260A dual core chip (ARMv7) clocked at 1.5GHz and featuring an Adreno 225 GPU.
Both setups are serious powerhouses and boast dual-channel memory for some incredibly fast performance. However Qualcomm's architecture now uses 28 nanometre technology where Samsung's Exynos is using conventional 45 nanometre.
You can expect this to make quite a difference, although Samsung's handset is still unlikely to drop the ball with even some of the most intensive Android tasks, the HTC One S will handle it all smoothly and effortlessly.
Winner - HTC One S
Operating SystemHTC's One S will ship with the latest version of Google's Android platform, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) 4.0, meanwhile the Samsung Galaxy S2's update to this build is rolling out as we speak, although to some extent it's very much in the hands of carrier networks.
For unlocked devices though, ICS should be readily available, if not now, then very soon indeed.
Thus, with both phones on the same platform there's very little to discuss here. We will say that Ice Cream Sandwich makes some substantial improvements both in system performance and functionality over Gingerbread.
Winner - Draw
CameraBoth phones feature 8-megapixel back-illuminated sensor (BSI) primary cameras with a 3264x2448 pixel resolution, LED flash, autofocus, video call capability and geo-tagging.
In addition, the Galaxy S2 has touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilisation, panoramic mode, a video light, 1080p video capture and a 2-megapixel secondary camera on the front of the device.
However, the HTC One S is armed to the teeth with some shiny new tech. HTC has added some new camera specific functionality to its updated Sense 4.0 user interface (UI) and implemented a dedicated chip to help.
This allows simultaneous video and photo capture at 1080p HD quality.
The One S features stereo sound recording on video, face and smile detection, video stabilisation and HDR mode along with a 1.3-megapixel secondary camera.
This is a bit of a tough one. There are certain features one device has over the other, but they also highlight what is missing.
For example, the Galaxy S2 has image stabilisation but not video stabilisation, the situation is reversed on the HTC One S. This sort of tit-for-tat exchange occurs quite a bit as your run through the features list.
In the end, we think this is a draw, as both have very good camera capabilities.
Winner - Draw
Final ThoughtsIt's a close run competition this time and these phones end up drawing more than they do outright beating each other on the whole.
Both have great cameras, the same excellent operating system and some sharp visual styling. Samsung's device is unquestionably the preferred choice if storage is a priority for you, however, the HTC One S wins on both display quality and processing power - two vital areas in our view.
At a push we'd probably go for the HTC One S, though we would miss the Galaxy S2's micro SD card functionality. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is still a hugely competitive phone in the current market though and well worth consideration.
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