The HTC Wildfire arrived in mid-2010, when the world was still reeling from the impact of the sensational HTC Desire.
And the Wildfire was almost as popular, coupling HTC's fantastic Sense user interface with a smaller, solid and capable little body – it was a lot of people's first, affordable smartphone.
If you are in the market for a new smartphone, you should check out our buying guide video:
But things are a little different in 2011. The dual-core "superphones" have arrived, which means something with a lowly 600MHz processor is going to have to win fans via features and price rather than power.
The HTC Wildfire S isn't exactly a cheap phone, either. Currently on sale for around £220 through the SIM-free retailers, there are now plenty of extremely capable Android-powered phones out there for less money – such as the Samsung Galaxy Ace or LG Optimus One.
It's going to be a bloody fight, this.
Design
HTC has refreshed the design substantially, giving the Wildfire S the same workmanlike black and chrome look as seen in the excellent HTC Desire S.
There are no physical buttons on the front of the phone, with HTC opting for four capacitive touch-buttons. These are your standard Android Home, Menu, Back and Search options. They're responsive, plus HTC has put in a little vibration feedback to reassure your brain that your finger did indeed just hit the right spot.
HTC has removed the optical trackpad, which has allowed it to make the Widlfire S a little shorter than last year's model. It's a very tiny phone and also manages to be lighter – 105g versus the original's 118g.
The 3.2-inch screen runs at 320x480 resolution, so obviously isn't going to be as sharp as displays found on more expensive phones. But it is pleasingly solid, nice and glassy and responsive to even the lightest of touches.
Given that the old HTC Wildfire had a screen outputting at a shameful 240x320, this is still a big step up. It's not particularly sharp, mind – there's a noticeable mesh over everything if you look closely.
Feel
Round the back is your classic HTC moulded rubber cover, which is grippy and feels pretty solid. There's also the 5MP camera lens and, thankfully, an LED flash.
There's a proximity sensor in the front case, allowing the Wildfire S to dim the screen when you press it to your ear. But there's no front-facing camera here.
It's a chunky, well-made little phone that feels very nice in the hand and impressively solid. But is it any good when you turn it on?
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Your comments (10) Click to add a new comment
henry
September 14th
10. Absolute rubbish.
This review shows just how useless these reviews are.
In fact, with everything turned off, and I mean everything, screen brightness at 18% and not using the phone at all, standby is about 30 hours if you're lucky.
talk time is about an hour tops.
I don't know what phone you reviewed but I simply do not believe that numbers that you got for battery life.
Were you apid by HTC to say that?
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jimijabble
July 22nd
9. 3 is a bit mean of a rating for such a great little phone.
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silmer
June 25th
8. Help me choose between this and the Galaxy Ace. Its for my girlfriend, so no heavy demands put on it.
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khimaros
June 9th
7. 3* is such a harsh rating for a phone that looks and feels amazing. My Wildfire S does everything i want of an Android phone without being a huge brick in my pocket. It took an hour to setup Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail, Wi-Fi settings and getting Angry Birds on there. I don't want a 1.2gHz processor.... Surfing the net on this is absolutely fine and the buttons aren't too small for me.
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michelle259
May 23rd
6. The designs of most of the HTC phones are almost alike. The phone is a bit expensive but it is a quality handset. Every gadget freak will love it.
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manik.arora
May 19th
5. One of the few things no body talks about is after sales. Apple stores are miles ahead in support. I have an HTC device and it back with HTC for second time. It has been back for more than 10 days and they can't say how long it will take and what to expect. As per HTC professional, they are a smaller firm and can't match APPLE customer service. I know which device I'm going for next time.
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bradavon
May 12th
4. Have you tried installing Flash manually? Either via the market or APK file.
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wrongd0g
May 12th
3. "Sadly there's no Flash Player support in here, due to the speed of the processor, so you can forget about BBC's iPlayer site or app working. That's a fairly large problem when it comes to selling a mass-market phone aimed at the casual buyer."
Apple are ****** then.....
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assilok
May 11th
2. The galaxy ace received from techradar :
"Slow internet, Laggy and jerky response when swiping, Social media lacking, Low quality screen, Pre-loaded applications that cannot be uninstalled
Read more: http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-ace-930912/review#ixzz1M4MeVUbc"
and got 3.5 stars.
Something is wrong with your reviewers.....
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alimostofi
May 11th
1. The reason people buy is not to just be with the latest technology which you think is Wildfire's short fall. The main reason people would buy this phone, is that it is small and neat. The other phones are just too big. We need a reviewer who is small hands! Be less Geeky and a bit more practical please.
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