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
Android/Sense
The One ships with Sense 5.0, and I have to say that the latest version of Sense is really the first custom Android skin that I don’t mind. I’m not sold on Blinkfeed, the default homescreen that allows you to aggregate content from multiple web sources as well as Twitter and Facebook, but thankfully you can easily change that default to something more traditionally Android.
With Sense 5.0 HTC dramatically reduced the presence of widgets on the default home screen. Other than the Blinkfeed screen, there’s only a single home screen by default and the only widget on that screen is a Google search box. You can obviously add all of the widgets you want, but this is a noticeable departure from HTC’s strategy in the past. To be honest, it’s a lot cleaner.
Sense 5.0 isn’t intrusive, and the work HTC has done in the gallery app sort of make the customizations worth it (more on this later). Even the default pre-load of apps is very sensible.
Thanks to the underlying use of Android 4.1.2 combined with the fast Snapdragon 600 SoC, UI frame rate is incredibly smooth. Some interactions are still not perfect (e.g. zooming in Google Maps) but the overall experience is very polished and very fast.
Performance & Battery Life
The One is the first Snapdragon 600 based smartphone that I’ve used regularly. For those who aren’t familiar with Qualcomm’s latest branding change, Snapdragon 600 refers to a quad-core Krait 300 based SoC with Adreno 320 graphics (APQ8064T). The SoC still uses the same 28nm LP process as the previous quad-core flagship (APQ8064), but clocks are a bit higher (1.7GHz in the One, 1.9GHz in the Galaxy S 4).
GPU clocks appear unchanged, which is contrary to what I was told at the launch of Krait 300 but it’s entirely possible that we’ll see implementation with higher GPU clocks.
Performance, as I mentioned before, is very good. Even the speed of the NAND HTC used in the device is among the best I’ve seen in Android devices. We’re still not yet at the point where I believe smartphone SoC performance is good enough, but at least we won’t see a huge jump in SoC performance (at similar power) until the move to 20nm in mid to late 2014.
The impact of all of this on battery life, as always, depends on your usage model. I’ve been using the international One on AT&T, and 3G battery life is comparable to the iPhone 5 on the same network (non-LTE) at identical brightness levels. I have yet to see what the difference will be like with LTE enabled.
Obviously with four cores and a larger, higher resolution display, the One definitely has the ability to draw more power than the iPhone 5. Keep the cores more active and/or drive the display at very high brightness levels and you’ll see worse battery life. For the past couple of years I’ve been talking about the increase in dynamic range when it comes to smartphone battery life, the One is no different in this regard. Brian will have a full rundown of battery life data on the One in his review.
Other Frills: Of Big Screens and Usability
For me, the iPhone 5’s display is a little too small, and the One is probably a little too big. I think I agree with Brian here in that the ideal display size is somewhere around 4.3”. That being said, I find both devices (the 5 and the One) to be comfortably usable. The 5 is better for one handed use, while the One is better for actually consuming web content. In pocket, the One is thin enough to not be a problem.
Although it’s probably a bit overkill, I am pleased with the move to 1080p across all of the high end Android smartphones. The One’s display looks excellent and lacks the oversaturated colors of the alternative AMOLED displays.
The One also features stereo speakers that get impressively loud (louder than any other smartphone I’ve used, by a considerable margin). I keep my phone on silent all the time but when showing others highlights reels, the One’s loud stereo speakers definitely come in handy.
The final element of the One that I’m really happy about is the integration of 802.11ac support. The One is good for WiFi speeds of up to 275Mbps (that’s actually tested, not theoretical).
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
434 Comments
View All Comments
acky2lum - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
You mean your picture frames actually have a usb sticking out from the frame? You know the usb flash drive is actually a sd card with a different case right? But sd cards and usb have seperate uses, u can't replace everything with a usb drive.Just because u are so used to not using a sd card and pay more for extra storage, doesn't mean you can discredit / bash the usage of sd card. The only reason nexus 4 have no sd card slot is because they need to compensate for the cheap price of the phone itself, not because sd card is not important.
jayseeks - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - link
Yes, my digital frame has a USB port in the back where you can't see it. Because only the most incompetent manufacturers would place a USB port on the side. Most digital frames actually come with memory so that all you have to do is transfer the pictures, usually with a USB cable. I've used SD cards for a long time, they are extremely inconvenient and even the new ones aren't must faster. On top of that, if you don't properly eject them all the time, your SD card can actually get damaged over time, a major inconvenience if you plan on constantly switching them up. The SD card really isn't an important feature to me, and in my experience, most people. Even the IT guys I know don't care for SD storage. The only people that I knew that really emphasized microSD were the Blackberry people.DEECEE - Thursday, March 28, 2013 - link
This dude must work for HTC or something, if so, Jayseeks, go back and tell your boss to put replaceable battery and SD cards in the next One, and shut everyone up already, sheesh. It's a completely stupid move after the misstep that is the OneX, you'd think HTC would learn from that. Or create two versions, similar cases, one with the replaceable battery and SD card, one without, it's the total volume that generates revenue right, not stick to a design principal that is completely subjective to different individuals. Stupid, stupid move on the part of HTC.You know what, if Apple put replaceable battery and SD card in their phone, i'd make the iphone a much better phone, but they Apple loses on gauging its customers. HTC on the other hand does not have a monopoly on Android phones, it's simply stupid to leave out major features when you bigger competitor have them.
CeriseCogburn - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Below suckyface tells us how experienced he is and addicted to SD cards, he actually loses his own argument and solidifies my points.Not like tardobrain will notice.
People like the SD card, they don't want to rewrite and overwrite, and the SD card usually has a lock on it, unlike the USB thumb.
The usb thumb sticks out of their laptop and breaks off, NOT the sd card, slides in flush or worse case barely not flush( some HP's for instance).
Dummy lost and lost badly, as is the case, always.
eebrah - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - link
To know for sure if a feature is a "deal breaker" you need to compare a device that has that feature with a similar device lacking said feature. When it comes to the comparison between Samsung Galaxy S and iPhone, there is a lot different than whether or not it has a removable battery or SD card slotDEECEE - Thursday, March 28, 2013 - link
Exactly, so why would HTC even leave the door open for that comparison to be in favor of Samsung by not having Replaceable battery and SD card? Stupid. It'd would be such a quick decision for so many people deciding between the two phone if the One has everything S4 does and with a more beautiful design, but no HTC pushes customer to decide between the outward appearance and the practicality of having replaceable batteries and SD cards, why??othercents - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
I never said that they would use them. Marketing and sales is not about features you will use, but more about features that are nice to have. If you have two phones side by side that look and feel the same then features like removable battery and SD card slots become the deciding factor. However in reality it is going to be brand recognition that gets the masses to purchase the S4 over the HTC One. Samsung had a massive marketing campaign against the iPhone 5 which could be the deciding factor. This is especially true given that the HTC One and S4 are both supposed to be available at the end of April.eebrah - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - link
I think not. Quite a few people find the removable battery and expandable storage to be desired features that influence their decision to purchase a device, amongst other factors.To dismiss it so casually out of hand, when the most popular Android device has both and when the entire Android space is taken as a whole, a majority of devices have this features, seem to just be arrogant.
I am very familiar with the North American and European markets but in the places with the highest rates of Smart-phone growth, those features are essential and even in North America and Europe, a whole lot of people are buying and android phone with removable battery and expandable storage when they have other similarly priced options.
You may not like the idea of removable batteries and expandable storage [ your opinions and choices ] but please stop dismissing them without much evidence to back your claims.
Keep in mind that even if only 10% of the market wanted a feature, it is still significant enough for a manufacturer to include it in their flagship... and cheaper too, rather than created a similar device with/without those features for different markets.
You do not like a device? vote with your wallet and DON'T buy it, let others make their own choices
eebrah - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - link
Edit: I am *not* very familiar with the North American and European Marketsothercents - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Out of the 30 million S3 phones sold last year I would bet that less than 10% of the people have ever removed the batteries or installed an SD card. This makes it a nice to have feature that some people find necessary, however for the masses it is not critical. "Quite a few people..." does not equal a requirement for everyone (maybe to just you and your friends). While the SD and replaceable battery are not critical the S4 will still outsell the HTC One due to the brand recognition of Samsung vs HTC and due to the fact that when placing the handsets side by side some people will decide function (SD and Battery) over form regardless if they will use it or not.My original point is still the same. Marketing wins before anything else. Function over form due to fear of loss (IE. not getting something you might need later on).
Side note, people keep complaining about 16GB without SD vs 16GB with SD however the truth is you should be comparing a 32GB without SD vs a 16GB with SD since they should be similarly priced. For me since I only load apps on my phone and don't bog it down with videos or music then the 32GB or even 64GB without SD works great. The 16GB with SD is good for someone who wants to carry their music and video library around with them.
I find it interesting that someone would be arguing for the S4 and replaceable battery when I clearly stated twice that the S4 would outsell the HTC One.