Database Info

[Q] Samsung Galaxy S vs HTC Desire

I'm going to buy a new phone very soon, and have some difficulties in choosing the perfect phone..
After a lot of thinking and reading I've come to a conclusion that it will either be the Samsung Galaxy S or the HTC Desire.
Samsung Galaxy S has overall exceedingly better hardware (GPU,CPU,Camera) than the HTC Desire, but the software, TouchWiz 3.0 looks like **** (iOS copy). Therefore I'm also thinking of buying HTC Desire since HTC Sense looks brilliant.
I want Galaxy S because of the amazing screen and the FLAC support which is quite important to me as I have the Monster Turbine Gold Pro headphones, and I don't want to waste them on bad audio quality. The HTC Desire as I said earlier has HTC Sense which is an extremely attractive UI, but then again it lacks the ability to play FLAC files and the screen is supposedly useless in direct sunlight.
Galaxy also lacks flash, but I could live without it as Galaxy's camera is better than Desire's.
Is the audio quality on the Galaxy S a lot better than the Desire, or is the FLAC support just there for advertisement, does it actually play FLAC in the quality it should be played?
HTC Desire from my understanding has already gotten Froyo while Galaxy has to wait till the end of September, is this true?
Is there any possibility that Galaxy S will get ROM for HTC Sense?
Which Phone is the better one and why?
Thanks in advance
Please do not come with recommendations of phones using another OS than Andriod and that doesn't sell in Europe.

Welcome to forums
Have a look here for a detailed comparative.
I would choose Desire as it´s HTC build and has Sense
Better design as well!

The Galaxy S has a 4" screen with a the faster hummingbird processor. Front facing camera.
I'd choose the Galaxy S.

Major hardware specs are probably agreed to be better for the Galaxy S over the Desire (i.e. cpu, gpu functionality, ram, screen) - that's something you can't change.
Externally, the Desire hardware design is nicer (subjective) - but that's something that a skin or case can change.
If you need a flash then that may be an important factor to you. The Samsung has had issues with gps (although that may be fixed now) and some lag (although all potentially suffer from that - may also be something that'll be fixed in firmware updates) - these are also mostly subjective though.
Desire has 2.2 already, Samsung has committed to bringing it to the Galaxy so that's hopefully a moot issue.
HTC do turn out phones rather quick so their current top may not be there for long - Samsung don't push that many out so their current champ *may* be so for longer and *may* get longer support...
Both are ultimately great. Software is software so you shouldn't really go on that - interfaces can be changed. Go with what you feel and what you can get the best overall deal on - I doubt neither would leave you wishing you had got the other.

Music quality
I'm leaning towards the Galaxy S.
Still not sure, only remaining factor would be whether the music quality on the Galaxy S is actually better than on the Desire.
Anybody tried to play music on both with good headphones?

I'm also about to get a new phone and my choices were basically between those two. I'm not enthralled by the fact that both have PenTile screens (which makes text less sharp, as they don't have the full complement of subpixels) but there's not really anything else in the UK at their level, and the Galaxy S' screen is both bigger and unambiguously better, particularly in sunlight. The Galaxy S also has a much better multi-touch digitiser - the Desire has the same one as the Nexus One, which only supports two points of contact and gets easily confused.
The Galaxy S also has a slightly better CPU and a much better GPU, and more built-in storage (though that's not very important), while the Desire has more RAM and a camera flash but is otherwise outclassed hardware-wise. But the Desire is more polished software-wise, with HTC Sense and without the lag and GPS issues of the Galaxy S - but it's early days and Samsung are clearly working hard on firmware so hopefully these will be fixed, and there's workarounds for the lag. The Desire also has the advantage that developers around here are more familiar with HTC devices, but there's work on porting CyanogenMod to the Galaxy S which suggests that developers are taking it seriously.
I'm going to go with the Galaxy S because of its hardware advantages - software can be changed but hardware can't etc. TouchWiz 3 gets mixed reviews, but it's always possible to just use something like Launcher Pro instead, that being the advantage of having an open OS!
Afraid I can't comment on the audio performance of the phones though.

audio and video are both excellent in the galaxy s (vibrant here)... I got one force close on touchwiz... it was day one and I was putting my phone under as much stress as I could... its the only one so far...
My quadrant score is between 1400 and 1500, linpack is between 8.3 and 8.5
--this blows all htc devices with the same software away...--
My phone gets 55+ fps on neocore and finishes the benchmark ten seconds quicker than a desire..
with all the different versions coming out and the developer support I see growing galaxy s hands down
(I have also owned or tested nearly every htc gsm android device... minus the aria, and desire.. )

As a current Vibrant owner I was unsure whether to wait it out for the rumored HTC handsets coming to TMO. I'm glad I didn't, the screen is unbelievable, the processor is lightning fast, and the dedicated gpu makes gaming an experience. In other words pick up the phone use a home replacement app, and you'll be good to go.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Galaxy S has froyo now leaked but all working

I think I'll go for the Samsung Galaxy S.
As a lot of you have said already the software can always be changed, hardware on the other hand, cannot.
I still want to know, just out of curiosity, if the Galaxy S' sound quality is actually better than Desire's?
If the sound quality is noticeably better on the Galaxy S' I'll 100% go for it, if not, I'll most likely go for it anyway.
Seems like almost nobody actually tried the music on both.

From the reviews I read people said sound was definitely better then the Desire...

All I can offer on audio quality is this:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9000_galaxy_s-review-478p6.php
According to that GSMArena review it has a flatter frequency response curve than the Desire, lower noise levels and higher dynamic range.
I don't have personal experience of it though, so I can't vouch for how it sounds myself.
Edit: It does do some odd filtering on headphones, though, which can apparently be turned off:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=735918

I'm going to buy the Samsung Galaxy S.
Thank you to everyone that replied to my posts.

Just to stir things up!!!
My partner received her galaxy last week, within 3 days she had returned it for the Desire. and is completely satisfied, as am I, that she made the correct choice.
Don’t get me wrong, the Galaxy was a nice phone. but it was very light and plasticy which was a major turn off for us. Plus the audio quality was no where near as good as the Desire.
on paper the Galaxy may have better hardware performance, but let me tell, actually using both devices you don’t notice anything different, other than the Desire feels like its built properly.
That’s just our opinion, but hope it helps you

dont know, the galaxy S should be faster and better than the desire... but i tried it at the store, hell, it has loading times wtf Oo some friends got desires.. they never really need to load long..
i think thats cause the touchwiz **** from samsung.. if there would be a possibility to flash a stock froyo rom (probably there is already one), that phone would be awsome, but ONLY THEN.
but i have to say.. i love the screen. its smaller then the one from my hd2.. but still big. for me its the almost perfect size of screen. probably 4.1" would be better, but 4" is enough, i lile it. + the super amoled screen is really fantastic
the only thing why the galaxy s is crappy is the software.. if someone gets that fixes, its the best android for my opinion^.^
EDIT: btw, for me the desire screen is just too small i could NEVER enjoy surfing with that...

gdallas said:
Plus the audio quality was no where near as good as the Desire.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That does sound kinda weird, as GSMarena did say that the audio quality was amazing. There is a fix for getting the phone to sound good through headphones, and BTW, what kind of headphones did you use?

Sony bud earphhones. the sound isss both better in ear and via speaker

Short comment from me as i do have both of them in my hand for a while already.
What Desire have in advance:
- flash light
- much better mail client, support for meeting requests (create, accept, etc..)
- much easier switch of USB mode
- much better phone dial pad with really working search
- more widgets
- search in exchange global address list from peoples list (everywhere), displays even phone numbers not just email
- really good sw keyboard
What Galaxy S have in advance:
- better camera, picture is actually more crisper and more real colors
- much better display, with more precise multi-touch
- better battery live (lifetime was about 135% of Desire in my case, same usage)
- better sound from build is speaker (good for in-car instructions or as "radio")
- can play almost every audio/video format without noticeable lacking
- 3d accelerator, much higher FPS for 3d games
- 2 gigs ROM = more applications can be installed, good especially for games as games can be big
(i now froyo allows you to move it to SD card, but no app supports it so far)
- and have more sexy design!
My conclusion:
If you are sort of corporate user, with high usage of email and especially Exchange, go for Desire.
If you are multimedia freak or gamer, go for Samsung.
Howk!

I find some of the software comparisons in this thread a little hard to swallow. There are over 63,000 (over 100,000 including paid) FREE apps/widgets/keyboards/games/FLAC that can be downloaded and installed without needing any form of root or warranty voiding modification.
The sound comparison may be the only issue. However, most of the sound problem is resolved by using lossless compression: FLAC, WMA, or otherwise (an app supporting various formats can be downloading for either device!). I have yet to notice a different between a qualcomm cpu's audio processing or a samsung cpu's audio processing - when using the same headphones, and same audio file. I mean... really???

I'm getting quite confused.
Some say that the Desire's sound quality is better, some Galaxy S' is better.
Which one of these two statements are actually true? Some even say that the sound quality is the same...
Looking at the poll it looks like most people think that the Galaxy S is better, so if to just go by the poll the Galaxy S would win, but well, democracy isn't always correct.
BTW nightswim, nice post, very detailed and nice to hear from someone who owns both. Would you say that the sound quality on both phones are the same? Since you said, and I'm quoting "better sound from build is speaker" (I assume that u meant "built in"), would that mean that the sound quality is only better on the Galaxy S when listening through the built in speakers?
Bottom line: Galaxy S is overall definitely the hardware king and Desire the software king , but still extremely confused about the sound quality.

Sony Xperia Play Vs HtC Sensation

I own a Sony Xperia Play r800i I believed unlocked on T-mobile US and I also own a HTC Sensation 4G.
Now the Sensation of course has a slightly bigger screen at 4.3 inches and the screen is a bit darker being QHD vs the Play's LCD i believe.
But I am trying to decide which phone I should keep and which phone I should sell and i was playing with both phones at the same time and I noticed that my Sensation is sometimes right on spar speedwise and often times behind the Xperia Play.
Which is baffling b/c the Sensation is 1.2 GhZ dualcore vs the Play's 1GHZ single-core.
Example:
Launching both HTC Contacts & Sony Contacts, the Play always loads the same contact faster. Sense tends to have to "load" the contact for a second or two when the play automatically launches it.
I'm using Go launcher on both with the same theme and the rotate times on both phones is equal though at times the play tends to rotate faster and the app drawer opens faster.
But the Speed of the browser is what baffled me the most. Now the Sensation is 4G so i didn't use T-mobile network speed. I used my own wifi connection to test the browsers.
I went to 3 different sites with both phones at the same time and loaded the pages. Flash was enabled on both phones and the Play loaded faster. Granted the Sensation did start showing pictures and text first by the end of the load times, the play loaded faster.
So how is this possible that a 1GHZ phone can best a Dualcore phone? I wish I still had my Galaxy S2 to test it.
Have you tried your phone against Dual-core phones?
Personally i am a bit torn on which to keep.
The Play does work out of the box the way it should however the Cameras on the front and back are awful though the Sensation is only slightly better....
The Sensation is an attractive device with a slightly brighter and bigger screen but at the same time it can be slow and the call quality is not great at all tbh.
It's OKAY but eh.
I wish I could root them both to see which is better but no clue where to begin.
Have you tried your phone against Single core phones? Notice any differences?

Well on stock our Sennys do have dual cores but the phone does not utilize the second one until it's needed. It reduces the strain and battery usage. It's been stated in many different threads.

kpjimmy said:
Well on stock our Sennys do have dual cores but the phone does not utilize the second one until it's needed. It reduces the strain and battery usage. It's been stated in many different threads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well given that I just got this phone and I only started frequenting this forum just last week or so, I didn't know that
SO to make sure I understand, essentially both my play and Sensation are only using 1 core until the Sensation actually needs to use the second One? If that is true, then would it have to "need" to use the second core.

If the day to day performance if the xperia play is only slightly behind (or maybe better?) than that of the sensation, then I say what the heck keep the xperia play.
I only say this because I'm a big fpse fan and the fpse experience on the xperia play is unmatched.
But that's just the opinion of a grown up gamer who is still trying not to let go.

rawrfische said:
If the day to day performance if the xperia play is only slightly behind (or maybe better?) than that of the sensation, then I say what the heck keep the xperia play.
I only say this because I'm a big fpse fan and the fpse experience on the xperia play is unmatched.
But that's just the opinion of a grown up gamer who is still trying not to let go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL i understand
The gamepad is unmatched really when it comes to gaming.
THe only thing really is the camera really of the play...it is utter crap.
Well, not crap really but i have seen much better 5 megapxiel camera and the Front Facing camera is even worse
Though the Sensation isn't the best either.
Such a tough decision and Idk what to lol

for gaming sensation will be absolutely better, a lot better!
consider that Sensation got a new cpu and games are to be optimized for it and for its dual core cpu, that use only 1 core if 2° not needed
For the pad, xperia own it, and there is no discussion, for gaming is better than touchscreen
But if you search for pure performance, Sensation is A LOT BETTER
Sensation btw, lacks on OPENGL driver, and sucks at that benchies.. But for sure it will be fixed by HTC soon, maybe with official ICS

Sensation advice from a SGS2 owner

Am thinking about swapping (well in fact have the opportunity to) my SGS2 for an HTC sensation
I have a few questions if you don't mind...
1) Is the Beats version more powerful than the standard Sensation
2) I read that dust gets under the screen is this common
3) How does the screen compare to the SGS2, will I notice the higher DPI
4) Is the sounds quality better than the SGS2
5) the SGS2 has 16GB built in, how does the Sensation manage with just its 1GB.
Sorry if I am asking all the same questions as done before
Reason I which to come back to an HTC is I used to own HD, HD2 and others with sense and I miss it
I also like the idea of the Higher pixels with the sensation

1.) Not really, they have the same processor, the XE has it clocked to it's full capacity by default while the non-XE doesn't.
2.) Can't comment on that yet but so far it seems okay.
3.) It'll be sharper but the colours are less vibrant and blacks will be less black
4.) Can't comment since I haven't heard a GS2 but the sound quality with headphones is fine.
5.) It manages well, the 1GB is for Market apps. User data goes on an SD Card so unless you have a huge movie or audio collection and don't have a million apps it's more than adequate IMO.

1. Its the same due to the processor
2. Hasn't happened to me yet
3. I had a samsung galaxy s2 and switched. You will notice the higher DPI, but the screen is less black as in the blacks will have a sort of greyish tint on them.
4. I must say that the sound quality of the samsung galaxy s2 with the speaker is better but with the headphones, htc all the way :] The beats are a really good feature.
5. You can manage easily.
PS: I also miss my htc hd2 The king of all phones IMO!

THUDUK said:
Am thinking about swapping (well in fact have the opportunity to) my SGS2 for an HTC sensation
I have a few questions if you don't mind...
1) Is the Beats version more powerful than the standard Sensation
2) I read that dust gets under the screen is this common
3) How does the screen compare to the SGS2, will I notice the higher DPI
4) Is the sounds quality better than the SGS2
5) the SGS2 has 16GB built in, how does the Sensation manage with just its 1GB.
Sorry if I am asking all the same questions as done before
Reason I which to come back to an HTC is I used to own HD, HD2 and others with sense and I miss it
I also like the idea of the Higher pixels with the sensation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been lucky enough to play with both phones for the last few weeks so I can give you my side by side comparison
1: I've not had the Non-XE version, but from 3 colleagues who do have it, it seem more buggy than the XE. So for me, I'd fo go for the XE version (it was only €15 difference when I bought it), plus the headphones are amazing for Bass (I normally wouldn't care about sound..but still...wow)
2: Yes, everyone I know at work has this problem, myself included. Though in my case (sensation XE) I only have a tiny single spec of dust, barely noticable, but there none the less.
3: The SGS2 screen is Super AMOLED, and I gotta say Samsung wins on this occasion. I was blown away by the quality. That said though after using it for a few weeks you do notice the lower resolution on the Samsung, especially on 1080 movies/TV.
4: The XE wins this match, the sound from the phone itself and from any headphones you use even the included Beat sound by far better on the XE. If you watch any HD TV and films on the phone you'll notice that the XE does a better job of hardware sound decoding, less likely to ever lag. Particularly noticeable on flash and youtube.
5: This has never been a problem for me, I use both phones A - LOT, and have never had an issue. There was one time where Sense reset it self on the Stock rom, but since "Romming" the phone, I've had no problems.
A few other things to point out.
The weight. While the phones are only a few grams different, the Sensation does feel much heavier. This is because HTC love to use metal, which has a benifit. It feels far more sturdier than the SGS2.
Thickness. Again attributed to the metalic casing of the XE, but only about 2 mm, barely noticable you'd think, but it is very obvious side-by-side.
GSM/3G radio No noticable difference while using on 3 and Meteor in Ireland. However in Netherlands very noticable difference, Vodafone on both phones. The XE was only very slightly weaker in 1 location than the Samsung.
WiFi My Friends with the Plain Sensation have had issues with their phones but on my XE version, I've actually achieved better and faster speeds on both a G and N network.
What others say OK OK, owning a gorgeous phone is one thing, but we all deep down like to show off now and then In my experience the few people whom I allowed to even hold my phones remarked that the XE felt sturdier, where as the Samsung felt "plastic-y" More people liked the XE's styling, (though personally I prefer the simple and elegant SGS2).
Camera I really couldn't care about this, no-one, in Europe at least, uses Video calling (that's soooo 2003 ) and for photos I prefer a proper camera, with proper lenses...who really uses a phone for real "photography"??
Overall I like both phones, but if HTC could load up an XE with an AMOLED screen, It'd be my one and only phone

THUDUK said:
Am thinking about swapping (well in fact have the opportunity to) my SGS2 for an HTC sensation
I have a few questions if you don't mind...
1) Is the Beats version more powerful than the standard Sensation
2) I read that dust gets under the screen is this common
3) How does the screen compare to the SGS2, will I notice the higher DPI
4) Is the sounds quality better than the SGS2
5) the SGS2 has 16GB built in, how does the Sensation manage with just its 1GB.
Sorry if I am asking all the same questions as done before
Reason I which to come back to an HTC is I used to own HD, HD2 and others with sense and I miss it
I also like the idea of the Higher pixels with the sensation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Nope. The original Sensation has the same SoC as the XE and the original Sensation is underclocked.
2) Thankfully this hasn't happened to me.
3 and 4) I can't testify for either of these since I've only got hold of an S2 for like a few minutes
5) I have about 50 user apps tops and I store all of them in the internal memory and I still have around 650MB+ free. I put everything else in my microSD card.

[Q] Pros for Sensation in face of SGS2?

Hi, I have dilemma, the time has come to buy new smartphone
I know this question was considered many times but let me describe my point of view.
My adventure with smartphones started with Nokia N82 and now I have HTC Desire Z. I was really happy having Desire Z and HTC made a real impression on me. Now I am considering to buy HTC Sensation or Galaxy S2. I really liked dev support for HTC and Cyanogenmod ROM and also other ones. I didn't use stock ROM. I am reading about many positives for SGS2 like display, camera, RAM and cons like Touchwiz, display resolution.
I would prefer to choose HTC maybe beacuse I know their product, I didn't have any samsung before.
My preferences:
For me the most important is performence, customization possibilities and dev support. I don't care about outside but only what is inside. I like sometimes to grab a picture or record a movie. For sure I am using the phone for multimedia: playing, web browsing and waching films. It would be nice if some newer games could be played smoothly. And I was really impressed by HTC custom ROMs (especially CM7).
Could you give me any view for situation repsecting my preferences? I wouldn't like to miss HTC and would like to have sure I will be satisifed if choose SGS2 (it said better performance/hardware).
I hope you understand my uncertainties.

Honestly, I think you'd be happy with either.
Both should be able to play new games smoothly e.g. Modern Combat 3.
Both seem to have a good range of dev support over here there's MIUI, Sense and CM ROM's so quite a few choices. Not sure about the GS2 but I'd expect there to be even more.
Overall, comes down to whether you want a Super AMOLED + Display or a Higher resolution screen, solid build quality or a slimmer phone and Sense.

Understand, but I have a little mess after all reviews I have seen and would like to know actually which differences are exaggerated and which are really negligible :/
For SGS2 in comparision to HTC Sensation I get known:
- SGS2 salmoled display better than LCD but worse resolution
- SGS2 1 GB RAM, for HTC left 200MB RAM free on stock ROM
- SGS2 pretty nice photos, better than for HTC
- SGS2 better movie recording
- SGS2 better movies playing
- SGS2 faster GPS sattelites localization
- SGS2 10 multitouch counted, HTC only 4
- SGS2 worse built than HTC (personally prefer HTC onecast built)
- HTC "death grip" issue
- personal - no experience with samsung products
- personal - fall in love with HTC - THE MAIN REASON OF PROBLEM TO MAKE CHOICE
- will CM ROM look and function similar on both phones?
So I am asking you to make some objective assessment of both phones.

Sebalos said:
Understand, but I have a little mess after all reviews I have seen and would like to know actually which differences are exaggerated and which are really negligible :/
For SGS2 in comparision to HTC Sensation I get known:
- SGS2 salmoled display better than LCD but worse resolution
- SGS2 1 GB RAM, for HTC left 200MB RAM free on stock ROM
- SGS2 pretty nice photos, better than for HTC
- SGS2 better movie recording
- SGS2 better movies playing
- SGS2 faster GPS sattelites localization
- SGS2 10 multitouch counted, HTC only 4
- SGS2 worse built than HTC (personally prefer HTC onecast built)
- HTC "death grip" issue
- personal - no experience with samsung products
- personal - fall in love with HTC - THE MAIN REASON OF PROBLEM TO MAKE CHOICE
- will CM ROM look and function similar on both phones?
So I am asking you to make some objective assessment of both phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Saying SAMOLED is better is subjective. I don't find it's greenish hue all that tempting. Also S-LCD is actually legible in sunlight.
As for ram? Who cares, both phones have zero memory issues, so that in itself is a non-issue.
The Sensation is a decent phone, but it does have a known heat problem (Use it with the screen on for 15 minutes and it's noticeably warm, sometimes hot). Also, the speaker isn't too great. Performance and customizability is very high though. MIUI, that one WP7-esque rom, AOSP GB and 4.0, Senseless roms, and of course Sense 3.0/3.5/3.6. We have a lot to choose from.

Ok, but SGS2 isn't so much customizable and do you think the same ROMs probably except Sense couldn't be find?

I never said the Sensation is a better option - they're both wonderful phones, but two of your points were kind of off is all. Screen type is 100% subjective and RAM doesn't matter as long as the OS has enough. I don't care if the SGS2 has 1GB of ram if either phone can get away with 600-700MB.

Htc sense, camera, screen resolution. Build qualitu
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using xda premium

sshede said:
I never said the Sensation is a better option - they're both wonderful phones, but two of your points were kind of off is all. Screen type is 100% subjective and RAM doesn't matter as long as the OS has enough. I don't care if the SGS2 has 1GB of ram if either phone can get away with 600-700MB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Sensastion does have memory issues. The only reason I rooted and flashed was because Sense kept force closing even when I opened the smallest of apps. Granted, the update to ICS and possible Sense 4.0 may help things but if you don't want to root/flash, I would definitely go with the Galaxy S2.
I love my Sensation right now but the Galaxy S2 has a really, really great screen and it has great performance as well because of the killer CPU/GPU. But if you can, I would really really encourage you to wait for the new HTC One X or S or whatever.

No point in choosing either option IMO after MWC. Wait it out, get used phone, or maybe play with another OS in the interim. Come back for quad core, better camera, bigger battery, and HD screen. Also some of the quad core phones may be Playstation certified by end of year.

Superamoled plus is definitely better than super lcd except resolution. But there is not a big difference between samoled and super LCD. This is the only difference. But think about the future of your phone. Because samsung is the worst company i have ever seen. They won't publish ics for galaxy s ,plus and others. But htc community is bigger so sensation has a future. But galaxy s2 s future will be end by galaxy s3 s release.
I choose htc because I have used samsung before. And they really really pissed me off...
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk

decision HTC One S or Sony Xperia S

Hello Dear One s Community ^_^
finally im able to upgrade my phone from a HTC Desire to something better... But i can´t decide what to get : HTC 1 S or the Sony Xperia S
i need a phone with good cam so:
first of all the software is not important for me i will run MIUI on it so HTC Sense is not important for me
pro Xperia S:
-dedicated camera button
- RGB Led
-Design
-720p Display
-highest dpi
-Normal LCD+Bravia Engine
-Hdmi output
-USB OTG
-32 GB Storage
negative Points:
- much thicker then the One S
-"only" a S3 processor
- smaller community
- cam software not that good
now the One S:
PRO
- Newest S4 processor
- better cam software (sense based miui roms)
- much thinner then the Xperia S
- its from HTC ( i never had ANY problem with my Desire and the Desire is still an awesome phone with the greatest community on the block after 2 years!)
Negativ
- LED Only 2 colours
- Pentile Matrix ( not that good i heard... )
- lower resolution
- only 16 gb storage ...
- i read that the one s has some build issues that the case has some problems
- no USB Otg
- no HDMI (yes with an adapter but then you can´t plugin a keyboard or something like on xperia s only with bluetooth @ one s... )
i really don´t know what phone to get ...
no fanboy comments pls
best regarts Melly

My friend got xperia, I got HTC One S.
What can I say about this:
1. HTC One S is much much more thinner, and design is better
2. Xperia got 32gb memory (I kinda dont care)
3. One S got 25gb dropbox
4. Xperia got better camera and also a button for camera (I would like one on S).
5. S can make photos of video easly, also I think it makes a photo much faster
6. Xperia dont have android 4 officialy
7. I like sens on One S
8. I didnt see much difference between the displays...
9. One S battery lasts longer. Xperias bravia engine takes its part in it.

I came from the HTC Desire to the HTC One S and i am loving it. For me i checked out the Sony Xperia S in stores but not the One S since its not availible in my country atm.
I found the screen on the Xperia S to be amazing, the pixel density is unrivalled however other than the screen the Xperia S didnt have much going for it that i required. Its a bulky phone that ran gingerbread at the time and the user experience was a bit on the laggier side. I havent been keeping up so i dont know if it has ICS yet and if it fixes those issues. The experience on the One S has been great and coming from a HTC Desire its a massive upgrade in all departments.
Main reason i chose the HTC One S was because of the size, build quality and S4 chip. The S4 chip is amazingly fast and effiecient, runs much cooler than my desire for games and i suspect it runs much cooler and more efficiently than the S3 chip found in the Xperia S. In terms of camera, both phones carry good cameras for a phone and the Xperia S seems to have better reviews but neither will replace you digital camera any time soon. I dont think you will notice much difference in quality unless u do careful analysis ;p.
To answer you question on build quality, the Micro Arc Oxidation version (Black) seems to have an unresolved chipping issue and it seems to be the luck of the draw if you get chipping or not. They grey version has none of those issues though. One thing to mention is that HTC are releasing this phone with the S3 1.7ghz chip now so better make sure with your seller before you buy it.
I think you will be happy with either phone but in my opinion if you loved the experience on the HTC Desire you'll certainly love the experience on the HTC One S.
Lastly i think with the new Jelly Bean announcement and Project Butter, when it eventually hits the HTC One S official or ported by devs coupled with the S4 chip, i believe Sense 4 will be absolutely beastly!

xperia s seems like another phone from sony that's too little too late. had they released it with a S4 cpu and ICS then it would would do okay in today's market against the offering from samsung and htc.

I think the One S is sooo fast!
Now i have the cm9 alpha 12 and its running very good!
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium HD app

I own both Xperia S and One S(S4). I think there are quite a lots of misleading
things on the Internet, mainly from poor review bases.
1. The major advantage from XS is the 720P LCD, obviously clear than One S. You can notice it easily. However, it does come with complaint, little yellow tint or over warm color temp. I'm glad to get an excellent LCD with minor issues of both but you might not be the lucky one like me. I do rank them at the same score unless you could find Xperia S equipped with a problem-free screen but the chance isn't high, you have to be real lucky.
2. I believe all HTC ONE will has USB OTG support with custom kernels, just don't think we will see it soon.
3. The smaller community one sadly is One S. You can go to the XS board and spot the situation, there are more threads and more roms, more active users. XS is a worldwide available mobile while One S isn't(it's, now, but divided into S3/S4 lines and S3 just isn't selling any good, at least at here - Hong Kong. None of us going to buy the S3, there are only little shops who sells it too).
4. Pentile Matrix doesn't has any issue on a 4.3" QHD. I don't know how well it performs on a larger screen with higher resolution, it may has some problems there.
5. Both design well. XS is a sex lady while One S is a pretty young girl. It's just a matter of taste. Personally, I would like to know which kind you(OP) are? just kidding...
6. yup, I like the LED on XS. It's better. But I also like One S which is thinner and light weight.
7. S4 CPU is definitely fast and not as hot as XS. The major bonus to One S and this is my main reason to use it as a primary phone. Another problem is you can't charge the XS while the phone is on and the battery temp. goes over 40 degrees(One S still charges at 40+), which is very easy to get to this temp you know it's summer now. I've tried to use air-condition flow or a big cooling fan to cool the XS down, just wish it let me to charge without turn it off. You know it's a horrible experience.
8. Time to speak on the stock ROM side. HTC is overall better, faster and not as buggy as XS(Sony UI is really pretty and there are more custom roms on XS, I think they could solve the stock problems). The battery consumption on the XS rom is superior considered it is on a S3 cpu. Sony manged it very well on XS, did a good job. I've to say the stock One S rom is only a little bit better than XS, not very good performance on battery, almost a well-known here. I know you will switch to MIUI, I'm running LeeDroid V2.1 with SetCPU and got much better battery life.
9. Finally, the camera. They both do a good job on their own, I really can't tell you which is better. They work exactly in the opposite way, very confusing? huh?
In general, XS takes excellent photo at outdoor beat the One S easy, not as fast as but not much slower than One S. While at indoor or low light environment, One S blows the XS away with f/2.0, XS got more noise with slow focus. XS is great for outdoor and One S is great for indoor.
XS does a very accurate white balance all the time outdoor/indoor but One S has faster focus speed outdoor/indoor. The XS auto scenes mode and close up mode works better while One S gives you a 60 photo bursting mode(old rom supports up to 99).
Video part is the XS wins. The video is more stable and the quality is also improved in the official ICS. One S on the other hand, let you shoot 5M photo during recording and offers a funny slow motion video mode.
10. At last, I forget to tell you. The Xperia SL(Lt26ii) will roll out. No one know the details at right now but it might be a S4 cpu or LTE supported device.
Thank you to reading my long reply and not fall asleep.

Just some quick updates to my last reply ....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1629134&highlight=usb+host
It's my fault. One S already supported USB-OTG now. It is just quite trouble because it doesn't provide power. We still need a kernel mod like on One X to make USB-OTG supports better.
And second, it's confirmed Xperia SL remains as a S3 unit. I guess no S4 and LTE, just some minor upgrade like [email protected]

sold my experia and got a one s.. if that tells u something. Got damn small buttons on the xperia got me crazy