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The first time you lay hands on the HTC S310, the word that comes to mind is chunky. Not in a good way, like KitKat Chunky, but in a “didn’t phones used to look like this years ago?” kind of way. And with poor styling to go with its candy bar bulk, things weren’t looking positive. But there’s more to a phone than good looks... It only takes a little while to see where all the thought went with the S310. Because it might not win accessory of the year at Topshop, but it’s an absolute doddle to use. That’s mostly down to the large buttons on a well thought out keypad, which mean that when you go to press something then that’s what you get, instead of your thumb finding one of the other keys.
As part of that design, the Call and End buttons have been stripped out and given their own red and green light-up buttons just below the Back and Home keys. On top of those sit two soft-menu keys, with other functions such as the camera button and power button living happily on the side of the device.
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The S310’s usability also shines through when it comes to the software. The Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system has everything where you’d expect it to be and the power button at the side allows you to access a quick command list with one press.
Unfortunately, there are a few things missing. Fans of Microsoft’s Mobile Office software are unlikely to be impressed with HTC‘s own ClearVue suite of products. The big drawback is that they only allow the user to view PowerPoint, Excel, Word and PDF files, but (crucially) not edit them.
There’s also no 3G element in the phone, with the S310 relying on its quad-band GSM, GPRS and EDGE. And while it sports Bluetooth 2.0, don’t bother trying to connect it to your wireless network because it doesn’t have that ability .
The phone performed well, if not lightening fast, making good use of its 200MHz processor, 64MB ROM, 64MB RAM and MiniSD slot. It's only got a 1.3-megapixel snapper but that’s adequate for the 176x220, 65,536-colour screen that can’t compete with other PDA-style smartphones.
Overall, the HTC S310 is an adequate device rather than a mould-breaker. But its old-school, chunky styling won’t be a problem for those looking for a smartphone that’s extremely easy to use.
VERDICT: 6/10
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