The HTC Wildfire S is a small, budget Android smartphone that helps fill out T-Mobile's lineup. It runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which deserves a hallelujah, as plenty of new handsets are still shipping with the dated Android 2.2 OS, and even the sluggish, archaic Android 2.1 in some cases. No one will trade in a HTC Sensation 4G ($199, 4 stars) for this phone, but the Wildfire S offers some of Android's best apps and features at a particularly appealing price point ($79.99 with contract). Design, Call Quality, and Apps The Wildfire S looks like a lower-end, touch screen feature phone, even though it's an Android smartphone. It measures 4.0 by 2.3 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs a svelte 3.7 ounces. It's made entirely of plastic, with the exception of the glass screen. It's a smooth, appealing form factor that may snare many buyers based on appearance alone. The 3.2-inch, 320-by-480-pixel capacitive panel itself looks bright and colorful and quickly becomes smooth and accurate to the touch. The Wildfire S packs a G-sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor, and ambient light sensor, just like all the higher end Android phones do. Typing on the on-screen QWERTY keyboard was surprisingly easy in both portrait and landscape mode; credit the oversized keys (the tradeoff is that they block a significant portion of the screen). Dialing numbers was a little sluggish, but it wasn't unbearable. The Wildfire S is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band HSDPA (1700/2100 MHz) device with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi; it connected to my WPA2-encryped home network without issue. Although it doesn't hit T-Mobile's higher speed HSPA+ network, it's fine for a lower-end device, and you can use Wi-Fi for voice calls and data while at home or in the office. Call quality was just okay; callers sounded a little rough through the earpiece, although as long as I was standing outside and catching 3G signal, transmissions through the microphone were clear. Reception was below average; I live in a primarily EDGE (2G) coverage area on T-Mobile, but I couldn't use this phone at all inside my house without T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling mode enabled. Calls sounded clear through an Aliph Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4 stars). Voice dialing worked fine over Bluetooth without training. The speakerphone was a disappointment; even at maximum volume, I could barely hear it over my office fan when set to low speed mode. Battery life was a weak spot at just 5 hours and 44 minutes of talk time in EDGE mode. This result would have been fine for HSPA+, but it's several hours off the average endurance of other Android phones on T-Mobile's 2G EDGE network.
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