Thinking of buying this phone

[Amberleaf]

So I'm thinking of buying myself an HTC One S. By December I should be able to purchase one. Factory Direct sells them for like $300 or whatever, and from all the research I've done, it sounds pretty good. I looked at other phones like the HTC One and all of the newer, better phones, but I don't want to pay upwards of $500 for a phone just yet (I only go prepaid).

So, anything that I should maybe be made aware of? I know that there was the home screen button issue but my current phone has similar problems due to water damage... I don't want to deal with those problems again, as God it is annoying. However it only seems to be in the UK, and I'm in Canada.

What kind of case should I buy for the phone? I'm thinking like an Otterbox or something as I've seen that it's pretty thin and I don't want the screen to break. I can be kind of rough with my things (I have an unfortunate tendency to drop things, or place them down in such a way that they go careening to the ground, or once I even placed my phone in the middle of a tall dresser, and someone scared me when I was standing right next to it and I accidentally hit it in such a way that it went flying off of the dresser and onto the ground...). !

Has anyone that has this phone found that it's very easily damaged? Like I said, I have a spectacular ability to break things even when I'm trying my hardest!!!

Tl;dr: What problems should I be made aware of, and what kind of case should I buy for the phone if I get it?

 

[ChrisAG]

I see your post was made a while ago so you might not read this, but here goes.

The One S is a very nice phone. It is my third smart phone, having had the original Galaxy S, and then a Galaxy Nexus. The One S is newer of course, so you would expect it to be better, but it blows even the Galaxy Nexus away, which has a bigger screen. Despite not being HD, the One S is very clear and bright, and the phone itself is very smooth operating.

The call clarity and WiFi performance are above average, which is important to me.

Keep in mind the phone design is 18 months old now, so it is not cutting-edge anymore, but the S4 dual-core processor is not slow, and despite it being on "only" android 4.1.1, it is still Jelly Bean, which means you get Google Now and lots of other features that keep it "current."

Newer phones are moving to 4.3 and even 4.4 now, but there aren't a ton of features above 4.1 that the average person would notice. The big jumps came in going from 2.3>4.0 and 4.0>4.1, so you're good if you go with the One S and its 4.1.1.

Here is a good, cheap case. It adds a lot of grip and some decent protection without making the phone bulky:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B007ZTA522/

(Fixed product link)