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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Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
I gave up removable batteries a while ago. Same thing on the lack of micro SD card slots :)Take care,
Anand
nerd1 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
Why do we need to give up any features? GS4 still offers replaceable battery, packs larger (and personally better) display in much thinner and lighter case.Muyoso - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
Pentile AMOLED is a better display to you? Wow.SodaAnt - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
I don't think pentile really matters when you have a 5" 1080P screen. The real issue with pentile is that it lowers the effective resolution of the screen, but once you get to the level of DPI that we're seeing it hardly makes a difference.metafor - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
People said that about the Galaxy S3's 4.8" 720p screen as well; that you can't notice the pentile matrix. I own one and while it's not terribly distracting, holding it side-by-side with the OneX's LCD is night and day. I don't know how true that is at 1080p and 5" though.nerd1 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
GS3 has 306ppi for green and ~200ppi for red and blue, which are not that terrible but still noticeable. On the other hand GS4 has ~300ppi even for red and blue, which should be almost as good as iPhone's retina screen.danbob999 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
It is much better than the iPhone screen. It's the total number of pixels that count, not the density.darwinosx - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
That is incorrect,robinthakur - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
Actually that's not true in the slightest. I own a Glaaxy S3 and would happily give up the extra screen size if I could see it in sunlight, if the edges of text didn't look all fuzzy due to the pentile AMOLED, if the colours were anywhere near accurate (greens and blues look odd no matter whether you set it to natural or not) and if the refresh rate was better. We've had retina displays since the iPhone 4 in 2009. The fact that it is touted as "720p" is a complete joke when the screen itself is of such poor quality, but I suppose it fools those that simply look at specs sheets. Next to the One X and the iPhone 5 (a display with both accurate colour and retina quality) the difference is astonishing. What is more astonishing is that Samsung make decent displays, they just choose not to put them on the S3 because most people don't know what a decent display looks like.danbob999 - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
Color accuracy and sunlight visibility is something else. However when strickly speaking about resolution, the S3 display is much better than the iPhone's. You can fit more readable content in the S3 than in the iPhone without having to scroll. Try it if you don't beleive me.