The HTC One Series of smartphones is providing some very decent handsets and in our look of the HTC One S we noted its real standout feature is its camera. With the new HTC Image Chip delivering real improvements in photo quality we thought it was worth looking at the HTC One S vs. iPhone 4S photography experience to see which one came out best.

The Apple iPhone 4S has impressed everybody with its camera and until now there hasn’t been much else in the smartphone arena offering a quality as high as the iPhone for photo images. The HTC One S though looks as though it will give the iPhone 4S a run for its money. Other specs and features include a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 4.3-inch AMOLED display and it runs on Android ICS skinned with HTC Sense 4.0. However it’s definitely the camera that has attracted most attention, offering plenty of adjustments and effects and capable of decent images in a variety of lighting conditions.

Apple’s iPhone 4S has an 8-megapixel iSight camera and a custom lens with f/2.4 aperture, backside illumination sensor, good auto white balance, face detection and reduced motion blur. It’s also capable of shooting 1080p HD video. It has also proven hard to beat in many comparisons since its release last October. The HTC One S also has an 8-megapixel camera with HTC Image Sense technology, f/2.0 aperture lens, face detection, smile detection and like the iPhone 4S is capable of 1080p HD video capture.

A Gadgetbox report has taken a really in-depth look at the cameras of the iPhone 4S and HTC One S and taken plenty of images in different conditions to try to decipher which one offers the best photographic experience. In detail images it was decided that the iPhone 4S just edged it as the camera captured more light creating a brighter image. HDR (high dynamic range) shots were then taken and again the iPhone 4S was the winner with photos seeming to be brighter and more colorful.

From a variety of outdoor shots it was more difficult to pick a winner. One taken with the iPhone 4S appeared to have better color saturation while in another the HTC One S image looked brighter although the iPhone 4S’s version was deemed to be more accurate. Moving on to indoor shots, an image of a cat appeared brighter with the iPhone 4S although did appear to have a yellowish tinge as opposed to a red/purple tinge with the One S. Another image of a baby looked sharper with the One S but the coloring of the same picture with the iPhone 4S looked more appealing. The winner of this category was the iPhone 4S but it was a narrow victory.

When it comes to shutter speed though, the One S won out over the iPhone 4S with the ability of taking a photo in only 0.7 seconds, a similar time to that of the Apple flagship device. However the One S was also capable of shooting in a 0.2 second burst mode for action shots and by holding down the shutter it can shoot 99 photos in a row.

For video purposes the HTC One S was judged the winner once again. Both videos taken looked extremely impressive but video on the One S appeared slightly more vibrant and the One S can also support 60 fps slow-motion. Finally, moving on to special effects and filters, the HTC One S held out to take the victory yet again with its superior ImageSense software.

All-in-all both of the camera set-ups on these smartphones are hugely impressive and there are a lot of similarities. If we are basing a winner on features alone then the HTC One S seems to come out on top. However, if image quality is more important to you then that is where the iPhone 4S excels and Gadgetbox voted the iPhone 4S as the overall winner based on that factor.

We’re interested to know what you think though. Would you favor a smartphone camera for features and software or choose instead one that didn’t offer as many clever features but where the image quality was better? Let us know with your comments.