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Set alongside the original Desire, it's head, shoulders and elbows above its elder, thanks to a massive improvement in battery life, a far more rugged construction, better ergonomics and the natural evolution of better specs and software.

The lingering question is “what’s next?” and with dual-core devices already on the market (though not, yet, from HTC itself) the Desire S goes up against faster, more future-proofed smartphones. Those cautious early adopters may do better waiting for the HTC Pyramid.

The S in the Desire S should stand for “solid”, but in the fast-paced world of smartphones, it’s no longer the market leader it once was.

The Desire S isn't a radical reimagining of its predecessor but it does keep it up to date, just about, with a sleek look, the latest Android, and faster processing.

The phone is a testament to good evolution being better than bad revolution. With the physical tweaks, the unibody construction, the improved HTC Sense and Gingerbread being on board, the sheer smoothness of the user experience makes it hard not to fall in love all over again.

The Desire S is a highly capable smartphone that offers an excellent user experience. Given HTC's track record with OS updates, it's likely to be supported long into the future, too.

The HTC Desire S certainly isn't the flag bearer for a new era in super fast smartphones, with it lacking the headline dual-core processor. However, it is a well crafted, elegant, easy to use, fast and very capable smartphone that thanks to HTC's tweaks stands it apart from the Android crowd.

Yet another accomplished handset from HTC, but this isn’t an unqualified success. For current owners of the HTC Desire, there’s not a lot more here, and the competition is fierce – especially from the dual-core crew.

If HTC priced the Desire S as a budget-friendly phone, the specifications would be more fitting. But, with a dual-core, qHD Atrix 4G going for about $100 more, unlocked, you'll probably want to pass on this phone and either wait for the next HTC phone to come out, or for the price to come down.