The HTC One: A Remarkable Device, Anand’s mini Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 21, 2013 4:49 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Mobile
- HTC One
For the past week and a half our own Brian Klug has been hard at work on his review of HTC’s new flagship smartphone, the One. These things take time and Brian’s review, at least what I’ve seen of it, is nothing short of the reference piece we’ve come to expect from him.
In the same period of time I’ve been playing around with a retail HTC One and felt compelled to share my thoughts on the device. It’s rare that I’m so moved by a device to chime in outside of the official review, but the One is a definite exception. By no means is this a full review, and I defer to Brian for the complete story on the One - something we should be getting here in the not too distant future.
I’m not a financial analyst, but HTC hasn’t been doing all that well over the past few quarters. There’s a general feeling that the aptly named One is HTC’s last chance at survival. Good product doesn’t always translate into market dominance, but it’s a necessary component when you’re an underdog. Luckily for HTC, the One is great.
Design
Over the past two years HTC has really come into its own as far as design is concerned. The difference between the HTC One X and the plethora of flagships that came before it was remarkable. Moving to the One, the difference is just as striking.
I don’t seem to mind plastic phones as much as everyone else, but the One is in an appreciably different league compared to its peers. It’s the type of device that you just want to look at and touch. Given how much you do end up looking at and touching your smartphone, HTC’s efforts here seem well placed.
The One looks and feels great. The proportions are a little awkward in my hands, but I fully concede that’s going to vary from person to person. Despite the heavy use of aluminum, I don't feel overly worried about scratching/damaging the finish.
The challenge with any smartphone is to build something that looks distinct in a sea of black rectangles on a wall in a store. With the One (and arguably the One X before it), HTC does a good job of balancing the need to be seen with the need to be subtle. Elegant is the right word here.
While I’m sure there will be comparisons to the iPhone, the fact of the matter is that the design cycle on these smartphones falls somewhere in the 12 - 24 month range. With something as sophisticated as the One, you’re looking at the longer end of that spectrum. For what it’s worth, if I had to estimate I’d say design work on the One probably started before the iPhone 4S came out.
| Smartphone Spec Comparison | ||||||
| Apple iPhone 5 | HTC One | Samsung Galaxy S 3 | Samsung Galaxy S 4 | |||
| SoC | Apple A6 1.3GHz | Snapdragon 600 1.7GHz | Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz | Exynos 5 Octa (1.6/1.2GHz) or Snapdragon 600 1.9GHz | ||
| DRAM/NAND/Expansion | 1GB LPDDR2, 16/32/64GB NAND | 2GB LPDDR2, 32/64GB NAND | 2GB LPDDR2, 16/32GB NAND, microSD | 2GB LPDDR3, 16/32/64GB NAND, microSD | ||
| Display | 4.0-inch 1136 x 640 LCD | 4.7-inch SLCD3 1080p, 468 ppi | 4.8-inch Super AMOLED 720p, 306 ppi | 5-inch Super AMOLED 1080p, 441 ppi | ||
| Network | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE Cat 3 | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE Cat 3 | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE Cat 3 | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE Cat 3 (depending on region) | ||
| Dimensions | 123.8mm x 58.6mm x 7.6mm | 137.4mm x 68.2mm x 4mm - 9.3mm | 136.6mm x 70.6mm 8.6mm | 136.6mm x 69.8mm x 7.9mm | ||
| Weight | 112g | 143g | 133g | 130g | ||
| Rear Camera | 8MP | 4MP w/ 2µm pixels | 8MP | 13MP | ||
| Front Camera | 1.2MP | 2.1MP | 1.9MP | 2MP | ||
| Battery | Internal 5.45 Wh | Internal 8.74 Wh | Removable 7.98 Wh | Removable 9.88 Wh | ||
| OS | iOS 6.1.2 | Android 4.1.2 | Android 4.1.2 | Android 4.2.2 | ||
| Connectivity | 802.11a/b/g/n, BT 4.0, USB 2.0, GPS/GNSS | 802.11ac/a/b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, IR LED, MHL, DLNA, NFC | 802.11a/b/g/n, BT 4.0, USB 2.0, NFC, GPS/GNSS, MHL | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (HT80) + BT 4.0, USB 2.0 NFC, GPS/GNSS, IR LED, MHL 2.0 | ||
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CeriseCogburn - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Class 4 is fast enough actually. Just jayspew doesn't really know anything.eebrah - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - link
Why trust that " $COMPANY are not Apple, they probably won't do $BAD_THING " when you can guarantee that they won't fuck you over by getting some features out of the box? say expandable storage and removable battery?phillyry - Sunday, March 24, 2013 - link
Pylon757+1
jayseeks - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
I've never met anyone who actually purchased one of those battery packs on their own. 9 out of 10 people with those battery packs likely purchased it on a company account.CeriseCogburn - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
You don't know anyone basement dweller, or anything. Pure trollboy.SirSuperman - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
A USB battery pack, which usually requires you to carry a cable around and attach it to your phone and then use your phone with something hanging off it while charging is easier than simply slipping in a battery and instantly returning to a full charge?Pylon757 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
You forgot the part about having to turn the phone off and on.acky2lum - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
I still don't get why ppl can't get off the grid for that 30 seconds or less. Are you saying your usb battery pack can instantly charge your battery to a full charge within that 30 seconds?Johnmcl7 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
"When I had phones with removable batteries, the only time I ever removed them was to do a hard reset of the phone. Most people don't want to carry around extra batteries, and even if they do, a USB battery pack is easier to carry around than a bare battery."I find USB battery packs a fiddle to use as they're usually a lot larger than a bare battery and they need to remain connected to the phone for quite some time. I take a spare battery when I'm away travelling as it takes a matter of seconds to swap the battery over when the original one dies and then I have a fully functional phone again without having to leave it connected to anything.
Also the other reason I prefer a removable battery is that li-ion batteries don't last forever, they're unlikely to last the two years I expect a phone to last without losing performance if not outright failing and given the reasonably poor batterylife of these devices in the first place that's a prominent issue. Neither my N900 or Galaxy Note's original batteries lasted two years but it wasn't an issue as a couple of minutes later they were up and running with another battery.
"Most people also don't carry around spare memory cards, either. I can understand why someone might be worried about not being able to add additional storage space to a phone that only comes with 8 or even 16GB of storage, but do you really expect the average user to run out of space in a phone that comes with up to 64GB of flash? My desktop PC has only a 64GB SSD right now! Especially in the age of streaming media, memory cards are increasingly unnecessary in smartphones."
With increasingly powerful phones, higher resolution onboard video and increasingly higher resolutions, I disagree - why put up with lower quality video and reduced selection rather than have the option of being able to cheaply add storage. The Note's large vibrant screen is great for watching and showing videos, yes I could delete off the 1080p video files from its own camera and have a much smaller selection of videos but for the small cost of a microSD card I prefer to keep them onboard and take advantage of the screen Plus the price companies charge for storage is usually vastly more than it would cost as a microSD card, the cost difference between a Nexus 8GB and a 16GB over here would be enough to purchase a 64GB micro SD card. It also means the phone can take advantage of increasing flash capacities over its life.
As for streaming as a viable alternative, I also disagree for quite a few reasons. Firstly it may not even be possible either due to reception not being good enough, not allowed to have wireless radios enabled or congestion in the area, secondly data caps are frequently restrictive and third the phone needs a lot more power to stream wirelessly compared to just reading it off internal memory.
Plus there no gains from not having a removable battery or expandable storage with the HTC (aside from for HTC themselves), despite the praise in this article I don't count the metal body as a plus because if it's anything like previous HTC phones and most other metal phones on the market the metal is unlikely to be particularly durable and will easily pick up scratches and chips. There's a lot of complaining about Samsung using plastics but they're light and they're durable, I've seen some original S2's that have been used without a case and dropped a few times yet they've barely a mark on them whereas Sensations from the same time period were looking fairly battered in the same conditions after a few weeks despite the praise for the Sensation's supposed industrial build quality and the cheap build quality of the S2.
John
CeriseCogburn - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
The apple tards suddenly have no media - no music, no movies, no videos, no minutes and minutes of high resolution camera movies - the appletards don't like storage space, they yell at Siri to dial then they pocket their lead weight glass shatterbrick.I guess it was all true - apple users are inherently STUPID...