HTC Butterfly S Has Been Unveiled In China

HTC Butterfly S

In an event in Taiwan, HTC unveiled the next big device in its Butterfly series (you probably know it as Verizon’s Droid DNA). Droid DNA and its international edition, J Butterfly have been two of the most exciting and high-end smartphones developed by HTC. Here is Butterfly S, which comes with similar features and a whopping large screen of 5 inches, the largest that HTC has ever made.

Engadget China has managed to get its hands on the device here. Here is the promo video of the device:

Technical Specifications

 

Here is the technical specifications of Butterfly S in comparison to two other devices, HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S IV.

Feature HTC Butterfly S HTC One Samsung Galaxy S IV
Display Super LCD 3; 5 inch 1080p (441 ppi) Super LCD 3; 4.7 inch 1080p (469 ppi) Super AMOLED HD; 4.99 inch 1080p (440 ppi)
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Corning Gorilla Glass 2 Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (quad-core) 1.9 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (quad-core) 1.7 GHz Samsung Exynos Octa (quad-core 1.6 GHz or quad-core 1.2 GHz); LTE Model has 1.9 GHz Snapdragon 600 processor
RAM 2 GB 2 GB 2 GB
Camera 4 UltraPixel; 2.1 MP front-facing 4 UltraPixel; 2.1 MP front-facing 13 MP; 2 MP
Operating System Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Storage 16 GB with MicroSD card slot for up to 64 GB 32/64 GB no card slot 16/32/64 GB with card slot for up to 64 GB
Battery 3200 mAh 2300 mAh 2600 mAh
Connectivity HSPA 42 Mbps; no LTE version HSPA 42 Mbps; LTE Cat 3 100/50 Mbps HSPA 42 Mbps (model I9500); LTE separate version (I9505) with LTE cat 3 100/50 Mbps
Dimensions Height 144.5 mm Height 137.4 mm Height 136.6 mm
Width 70.5 mm Width 68.2 mm Width 69.8 mm
Depth 10.6 mm Depth 9.3 mm Depth 7.9 mm
Weight 160 g Weight 143 g Weight 130 g
Additional Features
  • HTC BoomSound
  • Beats Audio
  • HTC software technologies: BlinkFeed, Sense, Zoe, etc.
  • Dedicated Image chip for camera with Optical Image Stabilization technology
  • Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
    Bluetooth 4.0
  • NFC
  • Dropbox 25 GB free
The same as Butterfly S
  • Samsung technologies: Dual shot, Group play, Smart Scroll, Smart Pause, Air View, Story Album, WatchON (TV remote), S Health, S Translator, etc.
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • NFC
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • Dropbox 50 GB storage

 

As you can see, Butterfly S is a power-packed smartphone and is the most high-end device from HTC’s range. Although HTC’s flagship model is One, Butterfly S has slightly bigger screen than that. The only problem is that Butterfly S is not yet in the US, and there is no LTE version.

Apparently, Galaxy S4 zaps the competition easily. It has the best features of the three. However, there are a few aspects that Butterfly S excels over it—processor, display, build quality, and battery life.

Firstly, the processor. Snapdragon 600 is the fastest processor in the world of mobile devices. Samsung Galaxy S4’s Exynos Octa is definitely not as powerful as Snapdragon 600. Although Octa has eight cores, it is actually made of two four-core processors, and only four cores work at a time. When intensive tasks are being done, 1.6 GHz 4-core processor comes into play, while the other 1.2 GHz version works when there are no intensive tasks and the power needs to be saved. However, S4 has an LTE version which comes with the exact same processor on HTC One and Butterfly S. They hence provide identical performance.

On the build side, HTC Butterfly S has a slightly better build quality than Galaxy S4, although with plastic, doesn’t measure up to One.

All of those technologies that HTC has brought with One are there in Butterfly S too. HTC BoomSound, with front-facing speakers, which use Beats Audio enhancement technology, gives Butterfly S a better sound quality than Galaxy S4. There are also HTC Zoe, BlinkFeed, OIS on camera, etc., on Butterfly S.

The display is amazing. Butterfly S has the largest display of all HTC phones, and it comes with Full HD resolution. With much higher pixel density than Apple iPhone, it is sure to give extremely sharp images. You may remember in our early comparison of the best display, HTC Droid DNA (Butterfly J) was ranked number one. It is the same here. I would prefer SLCD 3 to Super AMOLED due to certain reasons outlined here. This makes Butterfly S’s display the best among the three.

In the battery department also, Butterfly is the king, leading with 3200 mAh battery, which delivers up to 25 hours of talk time on WCDMA as compared to 17 hours given by Galaxy S4.

Another advantage over HTC One is that this phone has a MicroSD expansion slot supporting up to 64 GB. This well compliments the puny 16 GB storage provided. Android takes up a chunk of that storage, remember.

What about the price? Well, that information is already available. The price given is in New Taiwan Dollar, NT $22,900, which roughly comes to  USD 760.

Conclusion

 

It definitely looks like HTC has made a wonderful device here. It is not known when this one will come to the US market and whether it will be the successor to Verizon’s Droid DNA. The device will be released to the Taiwanese market in July. We may be able to publish a more detailed review once the device hits the market. In the meanwhile, check out this device gallery, given by Engadget China.

Butterfly S in various colors

 

Butterfly S three colors

 

Back of HTC Butterfly S

 

Micro USB port

 

Butterfly S from the top

 

beautiful orange back of Butterfly S

 

phone from the side

 

The huge display of Butterfly S

 

HTC Butterfly S smartphone

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