With a 3.7-inch touchscreen, the Desire S sports a new unibody design as well, meaning its shell is manufactured from a single piece of aluminium. The design even prompted IT news site TechRadar to call the Desire S "classy" and "a stunningly made handset".

The Desire S is slightly thinner and lighter than the original, at only 11.6mm thick and weighing just 130g. It runs on Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest Android operating system for mobile phones.

The phone also comes with HTC Sense, the custom interface HTC overlaid on Android that helps users to manage their communications, including e-mail, text messages and social networks.