Media information
HTC Wildfire S: a handful of smartphone
from Peter Wolf, trend scout and journalist, Ringier Ltd.
However, the two Androids are somewhat more compact: Flyer is around half the size of an iPad and is therefore easier to transport, because it fits in most pockets. Wildfire has also been reduced to the absolute minimum: while 3 mm thicker than the iPhone 4, it is 14 mm shorter and 32 grams lighter. In fact it is so small and light that I often thought I had lost it – until it turned up again in one of my pockets.
Even though it's one of the smallest smartphones on the market, it is comfortable to hold and can be efficiently operated with the thumb. It's even possible to type effectively. It's the way this text was written. It works very well thanks to the vibration feedback, which confirms all pressure on the virtual keys with a slight vibration. Needless to say, writing on a mobile phone with an actual keypad would be easier, and apart from that, I only use one thumb to type on the tiny device anyway. But as soon as I had learned to trust predictive text, I was soon able to enter text fluently.
Emails can be answered comfortably in this way, or appointments and addresses entered. On the one hand, therefore, it is a fully functioning business smartphone, but on the other, so small that you can take it everywhere. If the size of the display is sometimes too small, Wildfire can make its Internet connection available on a Wi-Fi tablet or go online on a laptop.
Wildfire S is a compact business phone, music player, hotspot for other devices, navigation device – and anything else you want to make it with the numerous apps from the Android Market. The biggest disadvantage of the device is its relatively small internal memory. Not every app can be moved to the SD memory card, and because I use a lot of them, and also have a lot of data on the device, its memory is constantly close to overflow.
But apart from that, Wildfire is a cute little device that I wouldn't want to be without. I've already found myself sitting in front of the laptop, with its far larger display, but still working on the phone.
Apps that I like to use on Wildfire S and that look good even on the small display
Lets you compile playlists from 11 million songs on PCs and various smartphones and stream them directly to the phone. The songs you always want to hear you save locally in the app itself. (player free, service approx. 9 euros per month)
Radio on demand, so to speak. Puts together elements of radio broadcasts based on your own tastes and streams them. You can therefore listen to the news or talk shows exactly when you want. (free)
Good and simple RSS feed reader. (free)
It might be a bit mean, but it solves practically every sudoku puzzle simply by holding the camera over it. (free)
News: You can read the news on the smallest display if the content has been adapted accordingly. A few examples:
- Blick (CHF 4.-)
- Los Angeles Times (free)
- Tages-Anzeiger (free)
- News360 (news generator) (free)
