HTC One Review

Absolutely fantastic

Earlier this year, I jumped ship from Apple (the iPhone 5, specifically) to Samsung's Galaxy Note II. In the process, I also went from AT&T to a rival carrier offering unlimited data and slightly lower monthly bills. While I liked the Note II very much, the data speeds on the other carrier were so poor that, only four months later, I found myself willing to eat the very large early termination fee and switch back to AT&T (who I knew firsthand to have LTE in this market). Since I was switching carriers and had the option to get a new phone, I figured I might as well pick up the latest and greatest on the Android front. Plus it just happened to be release day.

So, I now find myself in possession of the HTC One, and I can say without hesitation that it's the best smartphone I've ever owned (and that includes the Note II, the iPhone 5 and the previous generation iPhones I've had in the past).



As I said, I really liked the Samsung Note II. The display size, for me, was not completely absurd, though the display quality wasn't entirely to my liking -- not crisp enough, and it had the slightly blue cast I notice on Samsung's Super AMOLED displays. The plastic build on the Samsung was also disappointing. I recognize that most people put their phones in cases, but I do not. I'm not careless with phones, and I've never been a fan of needlessly bulking up a device. Finally, Samsung seems to have a knack for stuffing in a lot of "gee whiz" features that seem impressive at first blush, but then get ignored completely because they're simply not very useful.

Those issues are all completely absent from the HTC One. While going from a 5.5" display to a 4.7" one was a bit uncomfortable initially, I've gotten used to it... and, yes, the smaller device is a bit easier to handle with one hand. But the HTC's display is spectacular. It currently has the highest pixel density of any smartphone on the market (and some that haven't hit yet -- like the Galaxy S4), and text is amazingly crisp and smooth. It's bright enough that I usually keep it at half brightness comfortably. And the colors look natural, unlike the hyper-saturated look from Samsung.



The phone as a whole feels solid, but not heavy. It's heavier than the iPhone 5 (which honestly feels almost hollow), but it conveys a sense of substance, which is appealing. The HTC One is the first phone that matches the iPhone 5 in fit and finish, but takes it a step further by incorporating an industrial design that is more beautiful than the stark simplicity of the iPhone 5 without straying into "over-designed" territory. It's simple, but interesting and thoughtful... and it feels wonderful in the hand.

Having gotten used to Samsung's UI overlay, there was a little bit of a learning curve when switching to the HTC device, but in the end, I find it a much more elegant experience. Samsung tends to needlessly complicate things in a very ham-fisted way. HTC's Sense UI is much more subtle, and one gets the sense that every decision that was made in its creation was done thoughtfully and purposefully, instead of "just because we can." There are fewer bells and whistles, perhaps, but the ones that exist are genuinely useful and polished.

The front-facing, stereo speakers are great. The device can pump out some serious sound, and once you experience a stereo sound source, you'll wonder how you were ever satisfied with the sound quality on other smartphones. I'm not entirely convinced that Beats Audio is much more than a marketing gimmick, but there's no denying that having two front-facing speakers on opposite ends of the device make for a great listening experience.

The built-in IR blaster is an interesting addition. Its functionality is wrapped up in a pre-installed app that asks for your cable provider and location, lets you set up remote control functions for TV, cable box and A/V receiver... and then ties it all together. There's a handy feature that displays shows that are currently broadcasting (there's even a handy progress bar at the bottom so you can see how much of the show is remaining) and allows you to jump straight to them with a push of a button. You can also store multiple remote setups for different locations/TVs.



The camera. Ahhh, the camera. HTC very wisely eschews megapixels in favor of larger pixels on the sensor. Anyone who knows anything about digital cameras knows that devices touting extremely high megapixel counts are usually just pandering to an ill-informed consumer. Today's smartphones, with very few exceptions, all have the same camera sensor size. By stuffing in a greater megapixel count, the manufacturer is simply shrinking the size of the individual pixel... to fit more of them on the sensor. This results in very large photos, but at the cost of low-light performance. A tiny pixel on a sensor is capable of capturing far less light than a large pixel. The HTC One's rear-facing camera is a 4MP camera. Compared to the iPhone 5's 8MP camera, that sounds like a huge step backward. The reality is, unless you're planning to print out poster-sized photos, 4MP is more than sufficient. (And, no joke, if you're doing poster-sized prints, you should be using a real DSLR -- not a phone.) The physical size of the sensors in the One and the iPhone 5, however, are very close -- though, in fact, the HTC One's sensor is actually a bit LARGER than that of the iPhone 5. But it has half as many pixels. The pixels on the HTC One's sensor, however, are twice as large. Why does this matter? It allows the camera to capture more light much faster, which means superior low-light performance. For me, that's a big deal, since 90% of the time I use my phone to take a photo, it's indoors -- frequently in a dim environment. The One's better innate low-light performance combined with the fact that it has optical image stabilization (as opposed to the inferior *electronic* image stabilization that most smartphones use) means more detail and better shots in darker situations.

In addition to the camera hardware, the software is excellent. I didn't realize how pedestrian Samsung's camera app was until I used this one. The settings make more sense, offering a nice level of control without being completely overwhelming, and it's all very intuitive.

One of my absolute favorite features of the HTC One is the Zoe feature (short for zoetrope). Instead of just capturing a still frame, Zoe mode captures a 3-second movie clip. You can pull out a full-size frame from the clip if you want, but far more interesting is to let the phone create an event highlight reel. Within the gallery app, photos and Zoes are organized into events (by date, as a default, though they can be reorganized as needed) and a highlight video is dynamically generated, which can be shared. These highlight videos are incredible. They seem to make even the most mundane subjects look interesting and exciting. They're only around 30 seconds each, but they give a much more rich and vibrant sense of the event. You can select one of six different "themes" for the highlight video, and you have the option of specifying which Zoe clips are included, but it literally takes seconds to create a polished, compelling video that would be a thousand times more interesting for others to see than flipping through a series of flat photos. Zoe and the highlight videos I think make one of the most promising new vehicles for sharing experiences I've seen in recent memory.

The downsides are well documented in other reviews, the two biggest being the lack of a micro-SD slot and a battery that is not user-replaceable. For me, these are a non-issue, but their importance will vary from user to user. The HTC One is available with either 32GB or 64GB of storage at this time. On my Note II, I had 16GB internal and a 64GB micro SD. After four months, I was using well below 16GB of storage space -- my storage needs simply aren't that demanding. The HTC One, meanwhile, has twice that much space. And to upgrade to the 64GB model is only $100 more. Honestly, since I'm still within my 14 day return window, I *may* end up trading mine for the 64GB model, just so that I never have to think twice about it -- I will definitely be using the camera more than I was on the Note II.



Some folks like to be able to add aftermarket, higher-capacity batteries. That would not be possible on the HTC One, but those high capacity batteries also add significant bulk and weight, which does not appeal to me. The micro-USB charging cable is easily available, and it's not a big deal to plug it in once in a while. That being said, the HTC One should have no trouble making it through a full day of fairly heavy use without needing a charge, but this will vary wildly from user to user. I'm also not concerned about the battery going bad. In several years and several smartphones, I've NEVER experienced it with any manufacturer or device, and I don't expect it to suddenly become a problem.

Really the only thing I might change on the HTC One is the position of the power button. I tend to hold the phone in my left hand and use the touchscreen with my right. Since the power button is on the top left corner, it requires quite a stretch with my left index finger to turn on (for checking the time, for instance, since I don't wear a watch). The power button, meanwhile, on the Note II was placed exactly where my left index finger rested when holding it, so I considered that placement ideal. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

If that seems like a minor thing to quibble over, that should give an indication of how satisfied I am with the device.

Android has finally caught up with iOS in terms of polish and performance. iOS, in fact, is getting a bit long in the tooth, whereas Android is very aggressively improving and evolving. So the software on the HTC One is great and eminently usable... and the hardware design is *at least* as good as the iPhone 5.

I repeat: this is the best smartphone I've ever owned.

see more reviews.........!!

Description: HTC One Review
Rating: 4.5
Reviewer: dex
ItemReviewed: HTC One Review