HTC Wildfire S packs Android 2.4, but is the screen up to scratch?

It may be cold in Blighty, but there's a wildfire broken out at Barcelona phonefest MWC: the Android-powered HTC Wildfire S is burning down the house and fanning the flames of phone fans.

Fire-related puns aside, the Wildfire S is a pocket-friendly, affordable and colourful smart phone. It looks cheap but comes in white, black and pimpin' purple, all with contrasting coloured trim. The colour options and lower price should be appealing to anyone after a playful Android phone that doesn't cost the Earth.

The original Wildfire packed smart-phone smarts into a Desire-esque body, and all for a budget price. The only sign that it was a cut-price phone was its low resolution 240x320-pixel, QVGA screen. The S version's 3.2-inch screen doubles up to 320x480-pixel resolution.

The screen may not be up to scratch, but the Wildfire S doesn't skimp on software. It will pack Google's upgraded version 2.4 of Android, running on a fairly antiquated 600MHz processor and 512MB RAM. A meagre 512MB of storage can be added to with a microSD card, which will be useful given the 5-megapixel camera can shoot 720p video.

The Wildfire S launches alongside the Desire S and Incredible S -- not to be confused with the Samsung Galaxy S, of course.

The Wildfire S will arrive in shops in summer. Are you burning up over the new Wildfire? Will Android continue to spread like wildfire in 2011? Flame us in the comments.

• We've tested out the new HTC line-up: click here for hands-on previews of the Incredible S, Wildfire S, and Desire S.