HTC Butterfly S vs HTC Butterfly: Comparative study of features, specifications and prices
Are you thinking of buying a high-end featured HTC Butterfly S smartphone? It is but natural that you might like to compare the features and specifications of the newly announced HTC Butterfly S with HTC Butterfly released in January 2013. You will also be interested to compare the prices of two smartphones before you take a buying decision. Read this article to study the comparative features, specifications, price and availability of HTC Butterfly S and HTC Butterfly.
Introduction
After releasing HTC Butterfly in January this year in the phone markets of the world, HTC has now announced Butterfly S this week. The original Butterfly is selling around Rs.39,500 at Flipkart and around the same price at other online sellers in India. It is likely that the new Butterfly S might be priced around Rs.46,000 in India with the dollar soaring high against the rupee. HTC was founded in Taiwan in 1997. From 2006 onwards, the company has been manufacturing Android and Windows Phone OS based smartphones. The company has been focusing on a variety of innovations including an imaging camera. HTC deviated from the usual megapixels resolution in the camera to ultra pixels technology in HTC One. It has integrated the sound features of its smartphones with Beats Audio sound enhancement. HTC has several firsts to its credit. After introducing an ultra pixel camera in HTC One, the company has now equipped its next generation Butterfly S with this new innovation. It is pertinent to note that HTC does not manufacture smartphone at very short intervals like Samsung. It has less than a score of smartphones in the mid-range and premier range group. HTC has put for sale its Desire series of mid-ranged phones numbering about five. It has a one or two Windows 8 OS based mid-ranged smartphones. HTC Droid, HTC One and HTC Butterfly Android based series are the company's high end featured smartphones. Let us now compare the features, specifications, price and availability of HTC Butterfly S and HTC Butterfly.
Networks supported, SIM and release date
The 2G GSM network frequencies supported by HTC Butterfly S and Buttery are the same 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz. The 3G network frequencies supported by Butterfly S are HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz, whereas these are HSDPA 850 / 2100; HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz for Butterfly. The later model Butterfly S does not support 4G networks, whereas these are supported by the earlier Butterfly model in the selected regions. Both the smartphones use a single Micro-SIM. Butterfly S was announced in June 2013 and is expected to be released for sale anytime during the third quarter of 2013. The Butterfly version of HTC was announced in December 2012 and was released in January 2013.Dimensions and weight
The dimensions of Butterfly S are 144.5 x 70.5 x 10.6 mm, as against the dimensions 143.0 x 70.5 x 9.1 mm of Butterfly. This reveals that the earlier version Butterfly was slimmer than the present version Butterfly S. Similarly, HTC Butterfly weighed 20 g less with a weight of 140 g as compared to the weight of 160 g of the Butterfly version announced in June. Display
There is hardly any difference in the display features of the two phones except that the earlier version had a screen protection by Corning Gorilla Glass 2 and the present Butterfly S has a screen protection by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Otherwise, both the phones have the same display size of 5.0 inches. The display type in the two phones is Super LCD3 capacitive multi touchscreen with 16M colours. The screen resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels is the same in both the phones. There is no difference in pixel density as both of them have a pixel density of 441 ppi. Of course, the user interface in Butterfly S is the HTC's latest Sense UI version 5 as against HTC Sense UI 4+ of the Butterfly. Sound features
The sound features like vibration, MP3, WAV ringtone alerts, provision of loudspeakers and 3.5 mm audio jacks are the same in the two phones under discussion. Both are also provided with Beats Audio sound enhancement as well. Memory and storage
Both the Butterfly S and Butterfly models of HTC has the same 16 GB internal memory. Both also have 2GB RAM. However, the expandable memory in Butterfly S is up to 64 GB as compared to 32 GB expandable memory in Butterfly via microSD card. Connectivity
Both Butterfly S and Butterfly models of HTC have almost similar connectivity features with slight variations. The later model Butterfly S supports GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, NFC, Infrared port and microUSB 2.0 connectivity. On the other hand, the earlier model named Butterfly supports GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, NFC (market dependent) and microUSB 2.0 connectivity features. This shows that Butterfly S has dual band Wi-Fi connectivity. There is no infrared port in Butterfly model. The NFC connectivity in Butterfly S is regular as compared to the market dependent NFC connectivity of Butterfly. Camera and video features
The earlier version HTC Butterfly has an 8 MP primary camera with image resolutions up to 3264 x 2448 pixels. Camera features of this model include autofocus, LED flash, simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection. The video recording capability is at 1080p @30fps, stereo sound rec., and video stabilization. There is a 2.1 MP secondary front facing camera for video calling. On the other hand, the HTC Butterfly S has a 4 MP ultra pixel primary camera with image resolutions up to 2688 x 1520 pixels. The ultra pixels technology was first introduced by HTC in its flagship smartphone HTC One. The other camera features include autofocus, LED flash, 1/3'' sensor size, 2µm pixel size, simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection and HDR. The video recording capability is at 1080p @30fps, HDR. Like the earlier model Butterfly, it also has 2.1 MP secondary front facing camera for video calling. So, the main difference between the two is the primary cameras of different resolutions and video recording capabilities.OS, Chipset, CPU, GPU and Sensors
The Butterfly S runs on Google's latest Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) OS. On the other hand, Butterfly runs on Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) upgradable to Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). The chipset used in Butterfly S is Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600 as against the Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon chipset used in Butterfly. The former is powered by a 1.9 GHz quad core Krait 300 processor. On the other hand, the latter is powered by a 1.5 GHz quad core Krait processor. Both use the same Adreno 320 graphics processor. Both the smartphones support the same sensors like accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass.Messaging, Browser and radio
Both the smartphones has the same features for messaging such as SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email and Push Email. Both use the same HTML5 browser. The Butterfly model has a Stereo FM radio with RDS. However, the radio feature of Butterfly S is not officially known yet. GPS, Java and colours availability
The two smartphones HTC Butterfly S and Butterfly have A-GPS support and GLONASS and Java via MIDP emulator. The latest model Butterfly S comes in 4 colours black, white, red and grey. The earlier model Butterfly is available only in black colour.Audio and video file format supported
Both the smartphones from HTC support the same audio file formats and music player like MP3/ eAAC+/ WMA/WAV/ FLAC player and video file formats and video player like DivX/ XviD/ MP4/ H.263/ H.264/ WMV player. Additional features
Both Butterfly S and Butterfly support the same additional features like SNS integration, Dropbox (25 GB storage), Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, TV-out (via MHL A/V link), player, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Organizer, Document viewer/ editor, Photo viewer/ editor, Voice memo/ dial/ commands and Predictive text input.Battery, talk time and standby time
The latest model Butterfly S from HTC is equipped with a large Li-Po batter of 3200 mAh as against the Li-Po 2020 mAh battery of the earlier Butterfly model. The talktime supported by battery of Butterfly S is up to 29 hours (2G) and up to 25 hours (3G). The standby time supported in this model of the smartphone is up to 544 hours (2G) and up to 659 hours (3G). There is no official data available for the talk time and standby time of the earlier model Butterfly.Price and availability
The Butterfly S is likely to be available in July 2013 in Taiwan, where the company is located at a price around US $766. This works out to around Rs.45,000 in Indian currency. The release to other regions of the world can be expected later. However, there is no official announcement for the same by the company so far. On the other hand Butterfly is available at Flipkart for Rs.39,500. The same phone is priced at Rs37,974 at Kaunsa.com, at Rs.37,999 at Snapdeal, Rs.37,520 at Infibeam.com and at Rs.38,659 at Naaptol. Conclusion
The new Butterfly S, although appearing similar to the first Butterfly, is quite an improvement over the previous model. There is more power to it by using the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 as used by Samsung in its flagship smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4. The camera of the latest Butterfly model has included a 1/3" BSI sensor with a 2.0 micron pixel size and an f/2.0 aperture. HTC has used the same UltraPixel technology in the camera of Butterfly S as it has used it for its flagship smartphone HTC One. HTC has made use of the Google's latest Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) OS integrating it with HTC's latest UI 5 skin on top. The new smartphone has features like HTC Zoe with HTC Share and video highlights. HTC has introduced a novelty by surrounding the camera glass at the rear with a metal ring. The phone is a little thicker and heavy than the earlier version Butterfly. Otherwise, it has not changed much in its visuals and looks like its predecessor except that it comes in 4 colours now instead of only black of the original Butterfly. There has been quite an improvement in the battery capacity.
Read HTC One (M8Eye) Improves on its One M8 - A Review
