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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UltraTech79 - Saturday, March 30, 2013 - link
As an Apple fan, Im really glad to see other manufacturer really pushing the highend. This just eans the iPhone 6 will need to be even better, and the cycle continues. Good for all of us!Im also very glad to see people brave enough to stop the MP wars and realize that SnR is worth far more. You can only bruteforce performance to a point.
dexter1 - Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - link
WOW....that's a remarkable device and happy that it impressed you guys very much...it's quite long...when can we expect full review...??
RacerCub - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
Anand, a couple of questions, #1. Do you think you would permanently replace your iPhone with the One? #2. Is 3D dead and #3. Do you think HTC will support the phone more than a year?I have owned many HTC phones over the years, and the biggest problems are no updates to fix issues or give you better version of OS and they ditch supporting it quickly. Things like HTC hub go away so you can no longer get HTC widgets or themes.
iamdluhansa - Thursday, April 4, 2013 - link
I've use 6 samsungs, 1 motorola, and 2 htcs..and, battery-wise, they are all the same to me. Don't know bout how you use your android, but they way I use androids, they are no different. btw, I use one of the htc the longest, a year.PubFiction - Friday, April 5, 2013 - link
I may have missed it but I saw no mention of the IR emitter. This to me is probably the first innovative (if you can call it that) addition to smartphones since Samsung brought back the stylus in the note. This is one of those things we should have had for years. I am pretty disappointed in the review because it makes little to no mention about the poor choice of HTC to seal this phone up, does it even have a microsd slot? And also completely misses the IR emitter. I guess anand has so much money now he forgot about value and flexibility because he can carry aournd multiple phones in case a battery isn't big enough or he runs out of storage and im sure his TV is completely remote controlled by his phone independent of IR.PubFiction - Friday, April 5, 2013 - link
And just for the record I currently have an HTC evo 3d, my mom has the evo 4g lte, its not that I don't like HTC phones but they are completely killing a portion of their chance to get sales because they they don't have removable batteries and microsd slots. It seems only Samsung is smart enough to corner that market in high end devices.SuBoX - Friday, April 5, 2013 - link
And samsung are killing a big portion of their sales by releasing such an ugly device.Like sd card + battery but don't like design => choose samsung
Like design but don't need sd card and battery => choose htc
Like design and battery and sd card => could try an ugly samsung and be unhappy about design and feel OR try the HTC with external battery chargers (not much bigger then a removable battery in you pocket) and usb otg for storing your extra movies and music on a usb stick
DannyOoi - Saturday, April 6, 2013 - link
Hey all tech fans. Really chill out. Removable battery or microSD cards do have their advantages but whether it is actually a number one priority in your decision to get whichever smart phones is a personal choice. Some prefer it some don’t, some just don’t give 2 hoots about it. From my opinion and from where I am, microsd slots are useful for mid tier phones as those phones usually come with 4gb space, hence the need for microsd. If you are looking at flagship phones which are usually equipped with 16gb upwards it becomes an accessory. Is it a must have? Especially we are moving towards cloud storage. And I have seen so many users android or apple alike have not fill up their 16gb storage. For users like this, what‘s the microsd slot for if not an additional accessory? For removable batteries, I find USB chargers selling for as low as 5USD. But batteries on the other hand cost about 30USD. From my usage pattern it is much easier to just plug your phone in whenever available is easier and cheaper than swapping batteries. For short vacations, some mentioned they could go few days without the charger with 2-3 batteries. Well I would rather bring a charger and leave it at the hotel. Or a power station which is essentially a battery pack and I could use that to charge both my phone and tablet. Rather than having a few different batteries. For long term, replacing a dead battery, I am sure many of you tech fans will want to keep your devices up to date which means before the battery reached its end of life you would have change from whatever you are using to the latest which is the trend I see among many users. And last I check, selling a used set with 2 additional batteries won‘t really make much of a difference to used price. Cheers and let's appreciate what new technology brings to us and let's argue less over trivial matters.RP99 - Saturday, April 6, 2013 - link
Pre-Orded. 'nough said.IsthatyouBevis - Saturday, April 6, 2013 - link
I ordered this. I am not concerned about no removable battery or SD slot. Coming from a samsung. Probably a lot of people out there like me that are ready for a change from samsung, don't like the direction of samsung design, have never needed to swap batteries or needed more than 32 gb storage.I saw a lot of comments saying that even if people don't need the swappable battery and sd slot, it is a marketable feature. For some, yes, but, most people have smart phones now and know if they need it or not.