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).
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Mook1e - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Read back one page and you'll see one person who used those features in the last two weeks. Me.phillyry - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
So, stop bringing it up.Let sleeping dogs lie.
half_duplex - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Many of you are missing a very important factor. The HTC One will compete not only with Samsung, but also Apple.I don't feel there are very many Apple users who look at the Galaxy line as a serious option, they are too far apart. Apple users are accustomed to top of the line fit and finish, Samsumg users expect the top spot on the specs chart and the largest screen.
I am an iPhone 4 user who's waiting on an Android device for the first time. I'm getting a more powerful device, a larger (not too large) screen, but I don't have to take a step back in build quality.
I don't mind the camera issues, but it would be nice to see this thing launch with the latest Android.
phillyry - Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - link
+1krumme - Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - link
Well you should have no problem as you are used to a smaller screen in a big, heavy and fragile chassis and old softwareDEECEE - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link
But you're saying you don't have the imagination to see that you could use replaceable battery and SD slots? I am just saying HTC really goofed on omitting those, having those would win them a ton of customers given the higher build quality of the HTC ONE.brandensilva - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Well I certainly plan on getting this phone in the next couple of weeks due to its impeccable housing body and performance. I'm willing to sacrifice the battery and SD storage to be honest. That's hard to say as a techy but I've come to find those features to be unnecessary even for me after I went that route last time. I know I can root this and throw whatever OS I want on it, so sense 5 is a non-issue; although I may give this sense a try as its slimmer.I got tired of changing batteries and losing track of which one was charged and which one was not. I got tired of swapping around SD cards too. I just want a phone that works well, looks good (since I have to stare at the thing often) and can do what I need it to do. Speed, OS customization, and functionality are far more important to me these days.
I think most people don't care about batteries and additional SD slots. It's easy to see that today. Nexus line = no sd card. HTC is going the same route. The iPhone has already been there since its inception. Other handsets following suit or already gone that way.
I did the family test and I'm the only one in my extended family out of 50 or so smartphone users who has ever bought more batteries and sd cards. Half the family uses iphones, the other android. I'm sure if more people in my family were techies, those odds would go up for these features but people just need to stop arguing that these are critical features for the majority of users; they are not and they never be.
With that said, I know there is a small market for these features and I'm sure Samsung will be more than happy to cater to that.
brandensilva - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
I forgot to add the co-worker test. When I worked at a tech company with a group of 18 or so techies, over half of us had additional sd cards and batteries. It's clear, that the I.T industry loves more space (or pr0n I'm not sure) and juice. But then again, it could have just been a "my wang is bigger than yours" statement kind of thing too. I see the trend dying off more and more as internal space progresses.I also witnessed two iphone switch overs and they were content not worrying about the storage/battery stuff anymore. I'm at the same point myself but I just can't bring myself to the iPhone as I got my iPad for my iOS needs.
DEECEE - Friday, March 29, 2013 - link
I am glad you can let go, but why do you have to let go? I'd love to buy the ONE, but why would a product force you to let go? SD card with 64GB internal storage may not be needed, OK, I can tolerate that, but no replaceable battery? I don't need a spare to carry around, but I know one day that battery will die and I don't want to throw away my device just for a replaceable part, especially if I actually like the ONE. I still have my StarTac's, and with a new battery, they work perfectly well.superflex - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
It would be nice if the comments were devoid of fanboi bravado and would focus on the device at hand.Just imagine if the One had an AMD based GPU. Cerise would have an aneurysm and the comments would have expanded to 100 pages with his trolling.
As soon as this becomes available, I'm buying one and shelving the OG EVO.