The HTC Wildfire S is a budget phone with some great features. That said, it isn’t without its quirks, so we’ve put together a tips and tricks to help you get the best out of yours, compensate for the tiny screen and enjoy everything the great camera has to offer.
Create a camera shortcut or five
With no physical camera button and a fantastic 5-megapixel sensor on-board the HTC Wildfire S, it makes sense to get a camera shortcut on your homescreen so you can quickly get the shot when on the go. There should be one there already when you get your phone, however if deleted, you can simply add it again by tapping the ‘Personalize’ button in the bottom right, selecting ‘App’, finding camera and tapping it. You can then position the widget as you see fit with a long-press. We actually have one in the bottom right of every single homescreen that has room so we’re more likely to capture that golden moment.
Small screen, big launcher
The screen has a decent resolution but is still very small at 3.2-inches. HTC Sense is well-oriented for the size, however for anyone who still finds it too fiddly, you may want to try Big Launcher, which, unsurprisingly offers a big launcher for your small screen.
As you can see from the screens above, it’s perfectly optimised for the HTC Wildfire S and pervades through about a layer into each option and actually turns the handset into a phone even those hard of sight can comfortably use. You have to occasionally work with the default menus as expected, but overall, we’re really happy with how usable this big launcher makes the Wildfire S.
600 MHz Processor – watch your widgets
The processor on the HTC Wildfire is a modest 600MHz. This is pretty paltry when compared to most handsets on market right now and unsurprisingly stumbles and stutters when demanding a lot from it. Unfortunately, that means you’d be best off watching your widgets, keeping only the ones you use active on your homescreen.
Additionally, as widgets take memory and slow down performance, try to also use shortcuts instead of widgets when possible.
Keyboard has issues
The default keyboard coupled with our big thumbs gave us an abundance of issues. In portrait, we couldn’t type on the 3.2-inch screen comfortably and in landscape, the enter button being far too close to the capacitive home button meant we hit the latter all the time – frustrating us no end. Our solution? Install Perfect Keyboard, swipe right and you’re entering text T9 style. Perfect for all you old school texters and big thumbed out there.
Shoot up close – because you can
On the subject of the camera, the HTC Wildfire also has a pretty incredible macro lens. Just activate macro mode, get close to your subject and you can take some fantastic shots and even get really nice, blurry backgrounds giving the illusion that you’re using a far more impressive camera than indeed you are.
Get a big memory card. Get a Spotify account. Sorted.
With its size and handy headphone jack location, the HTC Wildfire S is perhaps the best suited MP3 playing phone we’ve used. Coupled with a Spotify Premium account therefore and a large memory card, £10 a month will get you oodles of music on your handset with no faff whatsoever and offline listening included.
Move apps to SD
The HTC Wildfire S has a pretty tiny amount of internal RAM. This means if you overload it with apps, you’ll likely get a warning within a few months telling you your phone is filling up. While there’s no getting away from the fact that this is annoying, a remedy would be to move your apps to the SD card. This is simple and can be done with most, but not all apps installed.
To move apps to your SD card, jump into settings, select applications, manage applications, find an app you want to move and press it. There should be an option ‘Move to SD card’ on-screen. If it’s greyed out, fret not, this just means the application needs to be installed internally.
Wrapping up, the Wildfire S is a great phone with its idiosyncrasies. What that means is you’ll get the best out of it with a little tinkering, so hopefully our tips and tricks have helped you get the best from yours. If you’ve got any questions, just fire us a comment below and for any Wildfire S owners, let us know any tips you’ve picked up since getting yours.
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