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
Final Words and the Galaxy S 4 Comparison
The One is without a doubt the best Android smartphone I’ve ever used. HTC’s build quality and materials choices have been steadily improving over the past couple of years and I honestly don’t know a more fitting name for its latest flagship other than the One - it’s the one to get. Even iPhone users looking for something different might be tempted by the One.
For me it’s the camera performance and the highlights reel that really seal the deal. The fact that the One is an excellent looking device built out of top notch materials is just icing on the cake.
The rest of the spec list is equally fitting. I’m glad to see 802.11ac make the list. The great speakers and display are both useful and impressive.
Sense took a real step towards subtlety with 5.0, and it’s finally at a point where I don’t really mind the customizations. My preference is still for vanilla Android, but the latest iteration of Sense is far closer than it has ever been. The real trick is ensuring timely updates with major Android releases. If you’re an infrequent smartphone upgrader, the Nexus line is still the best option there.
Despite how well the One does in the build quality, looks and camera departments, HTC has an uphill battle ahead of itself. Samsung is clearly the dominating incumbent in the Android space, and it has the luxury of an order of magnitude higher quarterly revenues to support its smartphone business. If there ever was a David v Goliath race in the smartphone space, it would be between HTC and Samsung.
Zoe and the highlights reel are great features that need marketing to demonstrate and spread their word. The litany of new camera and interaction features that accompany the Galaxy S 4 will likely translate very well to cleverly crafted TV ads. I’d argue that HTC’s camera features (great low light performance, highlights reel) are more useful to me personally, but Samsung’s features (touchless scrolling, dual camera, smart pause) are easier sells to the mainstream smartphone market. Similarly, design and materials choices are obvious advantages for the One, but it’s easier to market a thinner and lighter phone.
Ultimately, HTC appears to have built a great phone for enthusiasts and one that can be marketed, with some effort, to the mainstream. Samsung, by comparison, seems to have its targets set squarely at the mainstream and it has the features and the marketing budget to really capture the attention of that audience. You can argue about the merits of features like the ability to automatically pause video based on whether or not you’re looking at it - personally I’d take better camera performance - but that’s a much easier feature to explain in a TV commercial than why larger pixels matter.
The One is expected to be widely available beginning next month.
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piroroadkill - Sunday, March 24, 2013 - link
A bit odd, since I've owned a Desire HD for years, and the back looks the same as the day it was made, and it always felt really nice. Dropped plenty of times..crimson117 - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
Can the HTC One be updated to Android 4.2.2?One thing I preefr about iPhone is that, in general, all models get the latest iOS upgrades, even if a few features remain disabled (eg Siri), at least for a year or two.
Despoiler - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
Not until HTC releases the update. There will however be lots of ROMs for the hardware.The0ne - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
Anand is entitle to his opinion about removable battery and SD card support but these are very important features that a lot of people look for, myself included. I plan to use the phone for a long while not change it every two years, thus a removable battery is a great option. What if I want a larger capacity battery for business travels?SD card is just useful for storing more of anything. Heck go up to 128GB on my Note 2 if I wanted but 64 is holding up ok.
Why a professional person like Anand giving review would make these kinds of remarks is ludicrous not to mention incredulous. Might as well use the same line for every other reviews that's been done. I've learn to live with OC on CPU's now, I've learn to live without...
Sorry but that's just moronic for a professional reviewer to say.
jayseeks - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
Says the guy who probably just signed up for an account and is in all likelihood a paid Samsung shill like the rest of the Samsung supporters on here.evonitzer - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
We give up on things all the time! Laptops are getting sealed batteries to save size and stuff in a bigger battery, memory soldered onto the motherboard, 16x9 displays, etc.This is especially true with features that aren't unanimously loved, like removable backs and sd cards. All he can do as a reviewer is note that he doesn't really care, and move on. Me, I don't really care. If it's a big enough internal storage, that's enough. I store things long term on my desktop and don't need to carry around massive files on my phone.
But if you want to be like all the inflammatory commenters and act like every freaking review calls into question the last 16 years of this website's excellence, then be my guest and read some other site with views that fit into your staunch opinion of how cell phones should be.
groundhogdaze - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - link
Anand made a personal statement in the comment section suggesting he's okay with not having those features. He did not disparage the features in the review itself. He has an opinion, it counts, but you don't have to take it. Just take the arrow to the knee and stop while you are ahead.Hrel - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
I don't care so terribly about a removable battery, assuming it lasts all day and always will. Since that's never the case it does hurt. But the lack of a micro-sd card makes it useless for me. Very saddening since otherwise it's my idea of the perfect phone. Especially like the camera.dotroy - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
@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. - Yes ...it's so hard to admit that they copied apple design. In-fact even though they made it look 100% same as iPhone, you will still find some other excuse......very charmingCrazy1 - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
I agree with Brian that 4.3" screen is the sweet spot for smart phones. I would like to see a premium android phone come out with similar dimensions as the RAZR M. If a company could cram all of the One's features with a 720p 4.3" screen into a phone that size I would immediately go buy it. I'm just not sure a quad-core SoC, 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of NAND would currently fit with all of the other components and leave room for a decent sized battery.