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
The Camera
If the One’s industrial design and materials choices make it nice to own, it’s the camera that makes the One a must have. In fact, that’s how it all started for me. I popped my test sim into the One and started carrying it around with my iPhone 5 as I went about the user experience part of my review process. I quickly found myself only taking photos using the One, and using the 5 for everything else. After a few days, the 5 was pretty much only used to check iMessages and answer calls to that number - with the One being used for everything else.
I remember talking to Brian after he first learned about what HTC decided to do with the One’s camera system. I believe he said something like “this is exactly what they should be building”. In the three years I’ve worked with Brian I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say that about any smartphone OEM’s decision with any component/subsystem. The strong endorsement was enough to pique my interest in the One.
Brian will go into great detail about the One’s camera in his review, and what I’ll provide here is no where near doing it justice but I’ll do my best.
At a high level, HTC’s strategy with the One is to boldly bow out of the megapixel race and instead integrate a lower resolution rear facing camera sensor with larger pixels. Each pixel in the One’s 4MP rear facing camera sensor is over 2x larger than those in the iPhone 5, and even larger than those in the Galaxy S 4. Larger pixels help ensure a better signal to noise ratio, which in turn can really improve low light performance when paired with a suitable lens.
The downsides are obvious. Very well lit scenarios can suffer compared to a higher resolution sensor, and the bigger issue for HTC is that 4MP doesn’t sound as good to the uninformed consumer compared to the Galaxy S 4’s 13MP rear camera. HTC tried to get around the latter problem by calling its larger pixels Ultrapixels, but then it’s up to point of sale training to ensure that the benefits are adequately conveyed. Call me cynical but I don’t have a bunch of faith there.
The F2.0 lens ensures a bunch of light can hit the sensor, and the result is easily the best low light performance I’ve ever seen in any Android or iOS smartphone. I took this shot during Jen-Hsun’s GTC 2013 keynote earlier this week:
The One seems to want to drive ISO as high as possible to increase brightness, so for this particular shot I manually set ISO down to 100, but otherwise everything else was left to defaults.
The Auto ISO algorithm doesn’t always drive itself super high however, the shot below is outside of Terminal 2 at the RDU airport at 11:29PM:
For this shot I didn’t touch anything and the result was a surprisingly low-noise shot.
It’s not just night shots where the One’s camera excels, but also in the more common poorly lit indoor scenarios where I come away very impressed:
HTC One
iPhone 5
In well lit outdoor scenes the One’s camera does a reasonable job (although HTC seems to have an issue with noise in these well lit scenes from whatever processing they seem to be doing):
Integrating a good sensor and camera system is just part of what the One does really well here. The feature that I’ve found resonates the best among normal smartphone users is the highlights reel.
Sense 5.0 will automatically assemble 30 second highlights videos based on photos and video you’ve taken throughout your day. The One automatically adds filters, background music and stitches everything together; all you have to do is use the camera to take photos and video, everything else happens automatically.
The highlights reel below is one that was automatically generated based on my photos and videos from opening day at GTC 2013:
Although highlights reels are automatically generated, you can also generate highlights of individual albums. I created an album of photos I had taken over the past couple of trips (as well as some shots I took at home) and the One created this video:
Each highlights reel is shared as standard MP4 (baseline profile, ~3Mbps 720p H.264), so compatibility isn't a concern.
You can manually choose from multiple themes (filters/music combinations, 6 total), but there’s unfortunately no way to add your own background music yet (I suspect this is coming in the next major update).
The highlights reel is easily the most emotionally engaging feature the One has to offer, even ranking above aesthetics and build quality in my opinion. It’s the type of feature that really seems to resonate with everyone I show it to. The killer aspect in all of this is the fact that the One will put together highlights reels automatically, with no user intervention.
I can see the background music and filters getting boring after a while, and that’s why it’s very important for HTC to quickly enable end users to supply their own audio tracks (as well as quickly - and regularly - expand the collection of filters offered).
The downside to the One’s highlights reel autonomy is the feature remains relatively buried, almost hidden in the gallery app rather than front and center like Blinkfeed. The highlights reel is easy to demonstrate to someone else, it’s just not as obvious of a feature when you pick up the phone for the first time.
I haven’t touched on Zoe, the ability to simultaneously shoot stills and record a short video - both at full res. Zoe is a difficult feature to really explain without demonstrating it, but it does wonders in the creation of highlights reels. Zoe is a great way of dealing with the problem of what to do when your subject is in motion - do you hope for a good still or just capture a video? Zoe interestingly enough does both. It’ll capture a 1080p30 video, as well as 20 full resolution (4MP) stills at the same time.
I’ve mostly been using Zoe as a way to make my highlights reels more interesting, but the best use case I’ve seen was actually by a friend of mine who used it to capture the actions of some street performers in Europe. In one Zoe he had performers spinning on their heads, which typically would make for a good video or an emotionless (but potentially cool) still. Zoe delivered both.
The One, like Nokia’s Lumia 920, features optical image stabilization (OIS), which is designed to help both in shooting video as well as improving low light performance. In practice, I’m not super impressed with the OIS implementation on the One. It seems to need a bit of tuning, but I’ll leave it to Brian to explain exactly what’s going on.
Shot to shot latency on the One is amazing. Video quality is solid as well.
The One has the physical beauty to get you interested, but the camera prowess to keep you engaged.
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CeriseCogburn - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Nice to know 27 million android phones never locked up once.Good for you idiot.
CeriseCogburn - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Another extremely stupid and actually clueless spew by dumb dumb:" The 16GB with SD is good for someone who wants to carry their music and video library around with them. "
EVERYONE wants to do that, stupido, but the problem is 16 is not enough for music files only for most, and forget about it for video.
But then, that's the stupid crap you had to argue, so that 16 is enough in a sealed tard iphone or equivalent.
DEECEE - Thursday, March 28, 2013 - link
I wonder, why HTC even leave this on the table. Slap a replaceable battery and a SD slot in, and the argument is over, Samsung will have to work much harder to push those S4's, and a lot more Ones would be sold. Why leave these features out?HTC is not Apple, they can't count on repeat buyers and built-in obsolescence to boost sales when so many competitor plays in the Android eco-system, especially better known, more cash rich competitors like Samsung? I think it's a complete bone headed decision for HTC to leave these features out, and Samsung will laugh all the way to the bank.
phillyry - Sunday, March 24, 2013 - link
Expanding markets are not considering the S4 and the One, so it's a moot point.For people I the developed world or wealthy people in the developing world, form facto will matter and making a device with a removable battery will affect the form factor, especially with regards to its perceived finish and lustre.
Cheap phones with SD card upgrades have been the bane of many a friend of mine. They come to me saying, "My phone's out of storage and it will only let me install apps on the internal memory!" This is likely because SD cards are slow and use a different interface. These phones are sold as 'expandable' but really they're just expendable.
I'd take a well-built HTC One over cheap feeling S4 that's gonna fall apart when I drop it and look like crap whenever I look at its washed out screen.
I'm not denying that there are people out there for whom SD cards are a real feature, I just think that they get blown out of proportion. I'd take 32GB base internal storage over 16GB plus expansion any day. Different kind of NAND.
Really, the question does come down to marketing, familiarity, and feel.
While I'd personally prefer the hardware of the One, the S4 is an easy sell. People know it because of the S3's prolific sales and marketing. The OS is more inviting and has more saleable features (than previous Sense, at least). The One will feel super-premium, I'm sure, but I'm also concerned that it might cost a premium, when compared to its real competition - the S4. If you look at the last round, although the S3 was priced at $199 on contract, you could often pick it up for $0.01.
So, the S4's cheapness will be its biggest strength. Samsung will be able to offload it in boatloads to carriers who can give it away on sales, once it's mid-term, and they will sell like hotcakes. Also, since you're selling to cheap people (most people when it comes to smartphones), they will be happy to have cheap storage and battery replacement/enhancement options.
The camera will also be a tough sell. Are the sales reps gonna demo them both in store? I think not. People will just see 4MP and 13MP and the inevitable Samsung commercials highlighting the features (gimmicks?) that the phone has and will flock to it. They know the brand, they know the predecessor, and they know that 13>4 (even if they don't know that nomenclature).
I'd, personally, love to see HTC destroy this round, but somehow have my doubts. Time will tell but cheap sells.
DEECEE - Thursday, March 28, 2013 - link
While I disagree with you on your assessment on the cheap phone with cheap SD card sh-pew, you've got a perfect prediction on samsung's low cost sales pitch because they chose to go low cost on a plastic shell and cheaper screen, but try to grab people with features like replaceable batteries and SD. If you analysis is correct, I am just baffled WHY or WHY HTC will leave the sales of their FLAGSHIP, HAILMARY model that is the ONE in the wind by not designing in key features that will put a majority of their potential customer's mind to ease. I don't care if people actual replace their battery or SD card in their phone or not, it gets people concerned about not having them, why leave their concern and decision out for the buying public? Why not nip it in the bud and win the feature comparison against the S4? By going the machined aluminum route they are already not going to win the "low cost" war, why not win the "premium" war without reservation?tommo123 - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - link
well i use the SD card option (64GB mSD) and on vacation, the spare battery is very useful.with a portable battery charger i could do without the removable batteries but not expandable storage. phones still come with 16GB versions which are 10 or less in reality. install 2 games and most of that is gone.
then add your pics and videos - where are they meant to go? the cloud? that would be fine if i had unlimited data, at a min of about 25mbit/sec and never ever ever lost signal even on a plane, or underground. since that's not going to happen in the near future i need my extra storage.
google wants to do away with the cards to make people use their google drive and then pay for extra space. simple
CeriseCogburn - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
LOL - nice point tommo123 that's a first - google up that dropbox data charge....No problem, the know it alls have the deepest and widest pockets of space in their skulls...
ROFL - Nice SMACKDOWN, I note the crybabies have no response, but wait for it, the responses will stream in at an extraordinary rate once the charges become an issue for the sealed tarded crew of fools.
I don't like options, I don't like expandabilty, I don't like to be free, I can't make my own choices, I am techborg, the ultratard liar, I am spew, I am thoughtless, I am a liar, and I am legion.
DEECEE - Thursday, March 28, 2013 - link
I don't understand why people insist on "majority of people don't use replaceable battery and SD card" or "majority of people have to have replaceable battery and SD card". My concern is for myself, and I am hating HTC for not putting replaceable battery and SD card in because if they did, it's made my choice completely simple for my next phone, it would be the HTC One. But now, I have a HTC Sensation 4G as a personal phone and a OneX as a work phone, and I am not sure I want to live with the loss of replaceable battery and SD card and is seriously considering buying the Samsung S4 as a result.It is COMPLETELY STUPID for HTC to leave that excuse on the table, oh... the camera is great, the screen is nice, and case looks great, but... NO REPLACEABLE BATTERY AND SD CARD, too bad.. Why did HTC leave that on the table while HTC could put Samsung S4 out of its misery by simply having a better physical design and more feature? Stupid decision, I'd have the phone a bit thicker to have a replaceable larger battery and SD card slot, it's already thicker than the OneX, being super think didn't help selling that the OneX, why repeat the same mistake?!
Rits - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
In my 5 years of time with modern smartphones, I haven't met one person who carried a spare/extra battery. Many carry power banks in their bags but I've yet to see someone with a spare battery. SD cards, yes, those mattered, but only until phones started getting 32 GB onboard memory. Pretty much nobody cares about SD cards/expandable memory if the phone has more than 16 GB memory.sirelk - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
But no one cares about diminishing battery performance after one year? For all of us that have to make this phone work for 2-3 years, it sure matters. The option of expanding the memory (maybe I suddenly decide to carry my entire MP3 library on a microSD for a long trip or every episode of Seinfeld) or easily giving the phone extended life with a new battery is far too advantageous.If you are OK with losing hours of battery life as early as 8-12 months after purchasing your stylish-no-options-phone, then sure, there's no benefit for you.