Review of UMTS/GSM-smartphone HTC S730

Mobile-review have posted their review of the HTC S730. Here is the final conclusion.

Conclusion
The volume level delivered by the earpiece is quite average, as you might not be able to get what’s said on the other end while in a busy street or underground. The loudspeaker for call alerts is not a stellar performer either. The vibro alert, on the other hand, is very easy to feel as long as the smartphone nests in ar shirt or trousers pocket, rather than in your outerwear.

The smartphone has already debuted on the Asian and European markets, where it goes for around 400 Euro. Given the price the sales of S710’s kicked off at (500 Euro, give or take), the S730 seems to be an adequate offering. On the other hand, even with this in mind, you won’t find a bevy of improvements – both WiFi and 2 Mpix camera were already featured in the HTC S710, just like the rest of the newcomer’s feature set. Effectively, the differences between the two come down to the revamped software department (HTC Home shell) and also a faster CPU available with the new smartphone. But in reality the latter isn’t much of a breakthrough, for those 200 Mhz of TI OMAP and 400 Mhz of Qualcomm won’t make a world of difference for the end-user.

That said, it is clear that a year after the release of the original model, the company rolls out almost an exact replica with some facelifts here and there. So the question remains whether the HTC S730 will be of any use for the market. The current owners of the HTC S710 have no reason to go for the new phone, so it will appeal only to those who didn’t pick the S710 in its day, but still consider this device type a worthy investment.

The S730 won’t be officially available in Russia not only due to it being a mixed bag in all departments, but also the estimated price of 690-770 USD, which is a stratospheric price tag for a model of this caliber, that can’t possible go for more than 600 USD, and we are being soft on it.

The example of the S730 is very interesting in that it demonstrates that HTC can’t really focus on market segments. Although you shouldn’t blame the maker for this, as HTC is currently into more promising products and fields. However, don’t shrug off HTC-branded smartphones just yet – we will see at least one more potent solution of this type in the near term.