FollowThe HTC One is the Taiwan based company’s answer to the likes of the Apple iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4, Nokia Lumia 920 or the Sony Xperia Z. The company claims it to be the best smartphone it has ever come up with. Let’s find out if that really is the truth.
Design:
The HTC One is a stunner of a device and maintains its visual appeal from just about any angle. Fortunately, the beauty is skin deep so that the smartphone also boasts of a solid build to match its good looks. It’s built of light-weight aluminum which significantly enhances the durability of the device. The only place where plastic is used is along the sides all round the device. However, despite the solidity the smartphone exudes and extensive use of aluminum, the One still tips the scales at just 143 grams. It’s incredibly thin too, being just 0.36 inch.
A 4.7 inch LCD screen with a layer of Gorilla Glass 2 sitting on top makes up the front of the device. The display boasts of a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels which makes for an incredible pixel density of 468 pixels per inch. That is the highest ever seen on a smartphone so far and the crystal clear images speak for themselves. A front facing 88 degree camera allows for video chats. Above and below the display are speaker slots and one positive aspect of the One is its front mounted speaker. Also, while still on speakers, the device incorporated with Beats Audio ensures exemplary quality sound output. Also, it’s just a Home and Back button included at the front which rounds off the frontal looks of the device. Another cool aspect with the HTC One is that it can also be used as a TV remote, with the power button at the top serving the purpose of an IR Blaster if so desired.
Performance:
The HTC One is a beast and will impress with its speed right from the word go. Much of that can be attributed to the 1.7 Ghz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip which in unison with the 2 GB RAM ensures zippy performance which clearly has the competition covered. Storage options with the device is either 32 GB or 64 of internal memory though there is no micro SD card slot included to allow further expansion.
Quoting the performance figures of the HTC One wrt to its competition will bring this out in better perspective. In the GeekBench 2 synthetic performance benchmark test, the HTC One returned average scores of 2721 points. Now compare that with the iPhone 5 that has a score of 1650, the Xperia Z 1986, or the Nexus 4 2009 points. Even the iPhone 5 with the least score has already impressed us with its performance, which should drive home the point what kind of a performance one can expect out of the HTC One.
The good run continues with graphics files as well, with the One managing a score of 34fps in the GLBenchmark HD framerate benchmark tests. A quick comparison with how the other flagship devices in this segment fared will drive home the point better. The Nexus 4 emerged the topper with scores of 39fps, trailed closely by the iPhone with 38fps while the One managed 34 fps. The Xperia Z managed 30 fps. This should be a clear indication of just how impressive the HTC One can be with its graphics performance.
Or a simple measure can be a good indicator of how fast the device is. The time taken by the HTC One to get fully booted up and ready to go from complete shut down is just 8 seconds flat. That’s a simple measure of the smartphone’s performance and it sure is exhilarating. However, on the flip side, the device does tend to become a bit how during processor intensive operations.
HTC One Camera:
Special mention need to be made of the main camera the device boasts of at the rear. It’s just 4 megapixels, a far cry from the usual trend of packing in as many pixels as is possible that is followed by other manufacturers. However, the magic lies with the way each of the pixels are made to work, as they are exposed to more light, which together with f2.0 aperture as well as optical image stabilization ensures high quality images snapped. Overall, good for the occasional snaps and goes well for a device that primarily is a smartphone and not a dedicated camera.
However, while still pictures taken are incredibly sharp, the same unfortunately can’t be said of the video quality, which seems to lack some details, maybe even watery at times. Things tend to get even worse with HDR videos.
Software:
The HTC One comes pre-loaded with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, with a layer of Sense 5 built on top. Speaking of the latter, the Sense 5 comes as a major development over its predecessor and comes with a lot of cool features. These include BlinkFeed which essentially acts as an aggregator of news stories sourced from social feeds or from your news sources to be presented in a tile format much like what can be seen on the Windows Phone.
These apart, other cool aspects of the Sence 5 UI include the lock screen that presents more customizable options, a new look clock and weather widget, as well as a new layout for the app drawer. Overall, it’s built on the principle of simplicity and efficiency.
However, the stock keyboard can be termed as nothing but a big disaster, what with the punctuation marks being placed in the most odd manner. Its labor intensive to say the least and the good news on this front is that there are several other options that users can pick up from the Play Store.
Another aspect of the software that too disappoints is the TV Remote feature which seems to be a work in progress thing on the HTC One. This since the app has been found to be lacking layout and utility as seen on similar app such as Peel. Similarly, the TV Remote will also be much better off if made compatible with more devices.
Battery life:
The HTC One is powered by a 2300mAh battery which incidentally is non-removeable. The battery though has been found to be just about adequate to support an entire day of operation, something that is common with smartphones of its genre. Of course, more is always welcome here though it’s just about adequate the way things stand right now.
Conclusion:
The HTC One is helluva of a smartphone and is among the best out there. It offers a well-rounded package and while it is surely not without its list of quirks, the pluses it comes up with far outnumbers its negatives. It’s a brilliant looking device, has a solid build and a near flawless hardware makeup. The software can be disappointing at times but on the whole, the HTC One can definitely be recommended.
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