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HTC Wildfire S review: Media
The technical specs of the HTC Wildfire S state the phone is able to play 3GP, 3G2, MP4 and WMV video files, with audio support for AAC, AMR, OGG, M4A, MOD, MP3, WAV and WMA music files.
In reality, this means most mainstream, paid-for video downloads will play, but there's no joy for those of you hoping to play any of the more popular AVI or MKV video formats.
The Android video player is always something of a disappointment, offering nothing more than the option to play/pause, skip through the clip and toggle between a zoomed-in full-screen view and a bordered original scale.
The music player is rather standard too, letting you sort tracks on SD card by artist, album, playlist or a massive list of everything. There are no affiliated shopping systems on here, so if you want to buy music directly through the phone, you'll need a standalone app.
HTC supplies a full-page app for playing music, although there's not much use in it. It plays and pauses and lets you skip tracks, but that's all. Pressing the album art opens up the main player. There are no lock screen audio controls, either.
Of course, being a Google-powered phone means you get the official YouTube app on here. The HTC Wildfire S handles this with ease, even supporting direct uploads of your own video recordings from within the player.
HTC has also stuck in an FM radio, which comes with plenty of customisable presets. It's possible to route the sound through the speaker, although it still requires the headphones to be plugged in to act as an antenna.
Sound quality through the onboard speaker is good, lacking bass as ever, but sharp enough. HTC's headphones are simple in-ear bud things, with one button – Play and pause – on the cord. They do a good job.
There's not much in the way of onboard storage space for downloaded applications, sadly. Just installing a few essentials took us up to 60MB of used memory, with only another 90MB free. If you plan on playing some of the bigger games, memory space is going to be an issue with the Wildfire S, no doubt about it.
