HTC One S to launch on June 15 for approx. Rs. 33,000

Our earlier reports indicating the HTC One S launching on June 8 didn’t exactly happen, but now, Infibeam has the phone on preorder with the launch date set to June 15. Let’s hope HTC follows through and actually launches it this time. Meanwhile, the MobileStore have stopped the pre-order, and it simply now reads ‘Coming Soon’. You can still preorder the phone off Infibeam for Rs. 1,000, although they haven’t disclosed the final amount, yet. We believe it  to be priced at around Rs. 33,000, which could be the MRP, so the street price should be closer to Rs. 30,000.

HTC One S

Touted as an equally powerful phone as the HTC One X, the One S was left out when HTC initially announced their One series. In the first half of March, it was reported that Manu Seth, Country Head of Marketing for HTC India, said that HTC will be launching Android Ice Cream Sandwich based smartphones, the One X, One V and One S in the first week of April for the Indian audiences. However, HTC only launched the One X and One V in India on April 2, and no word had surfaced about the third handset from HTC’s One series, the One S. Now however, the device is soon going to hit Indian shores and from what details are available of the phone online, it looks like a pretty interesting device with a better battery life than the One X and a competitive price tag.

It’s also interesting to note that the Black version of the One S had a micro arc oxidation problem and HTC was offering replacements for those devices that faced these problems. The HTC One S is currently selling in the United Kingdom at a price of £419, which roughly converts to Rs. 33,994, so the 33,000 price tag is pretty accurate. At this price, the One S directly competes with the likes of the Sony Xperia S and the popular Samsung Galaxy Note.

Here are some of the specifications of the phone:

• 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display with a 540 x 960 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS and Wi-Fi capabilities for net access
• GPS with A-GPS support for Google Maps
• Bluetooth with A2DP and USB 2.0 (Micro)
• 8MP camera with LED flash and secondary camera up front
• FM radio
• 16GB internal