HTC One max Review - It's Huge
by Brian Klug on October 28, 2013 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Mobile
- One
- Snapdragon 600
- Android 4.3
- One max
The software side of the One max also changes slightly from the original HTC One. The One max launches running Android 4.3, which as of this writing is the newest version of Android available, although 4.4 KitKat is right on the horizon. In addition the version of HTC’s skin and software suite, Sense, is bumped up to 5.5. The biggest changes in Sense 5.5 are to Blinkfeed, HTC’s newsfeed and home screen replacement, and the computationally generated highlights reel videos. First off, blinkfeed gets improvements that now allow custom topics, RSS, and more control over what items appear. In addition there’s now support for both Instagram and Google+ accounts to surface stories in Blinkfeed.
There’s also a read later feature in the highlights feed. Finally there’s also a way to disable Blinkfeed entirely, previously you could change the primary home screen to a widget panel, in Sense 5.5 this menu has been changed around to allow Blinkfeed to be disabled entirely.
A bunch of features that people originally wanted for the automatically generated highlights reel videos are now incorporated into Sense 5.5 as well. The gallery application it lives inside has been reorganized and is more intuitive now, albums and events views are now a pivot rather than drop down option, likewise the individual views beneath the are pivots. Video highlights now lives in its own pivot as well, and now has a simple picker for choosing what videos, Zoes, or photos the algorithm can select from. There are also more themes, which are entirely new, as well as the ability to select your own music. I’m told the highlights reel engine has been completely rewritten with better textures, film treatments, overlays, and dynamic editing. Subjectively I find the results of the new engine to be much better, where the previous highlights videos would always follow basically the same schedule, the new ones seem much more dynamic and won’t get tiresome nearly as fast.
Animated GIFs are all the rage right now, and HTC has chosen to capitalize on some of that with a GIF creator inside Sense 5.5. From the gallery’s edit menu animated GIFs can be created from continual shooting shots or Zoes.
The notification shade also gets a tweak, and the quick settings inside can now be customized. These settings tiles can now either be rearranged or disabled and swapped out for other ones. There is a simple picker for choosing the 12 you want to appear on the shade.
A new addition among these is a do not disturb function mode which can be toggled either here or from the sound menu. This does what you’d expect and silences incoming calls or notifications and prevents them from making sounds, vibrations, or activating the LED. Selected contacts can still cause a ring, and there’s also a timeout duration option.
A smaller but noteworthy change is that HTC no longer preinstalls Dropbox and gives free storage along with it. Instead of Dropbox, HTC has partnered with Google and gives 50 GB of bonus space with the One max.
There are a few other changes in the Sense 5.5 UI but I’ll get to those in the respective sections. The reality is that UI skins aren’t going away, but after spending a lot of time with Sense 5 I honestly never felt like it was distracting. I was able to live comfortably on the HTC One and One mini with Sense 5 just fine, 5.5 is a good refinement that continues to arguably look very good in a world of increasingly flat UI.
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Steven JW FCK - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
"I’ve said my part already on microSD cards and the fact that they’re going the way of the dodo in smartphones, I just don’t need one anymore, and definitely not at the expense of build quality. It is convenient not having to use a SIM ejector tool though, even if I carry one around all the time anyways"I'm sorry, you carry around a sim card removal TOOL, at all times with you, and you don't think micro SD cards are relevant any more? I don't think you are qualified to write a review about this phone if that is your opinion. I mean you would rather use a cloud/pay the extra money for inbuilt storage, than use an affordable, replaceable, micro SD card... But you paid to have a sim card removing tool, and then chose to wear it upon you? At all times?...
10101010 - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
I'm glad to see that you are not letting this issue with Brian's Klug's anti-local storage bias slip away. The sad fact of the matter is that most reviewers are notoriously biased. Some are biased due to ignorance, some are biased due to payoffs, many are biased due to both.The fact that Brian Klug has some sort of hate trip on SD cards is not surprising. All the big money players in the US want to get rid of local storage so they can (a) increase data revenues (b) mine and sell more data (c) comply with NSA directives to collect more data on people. So we have one of Anandtech's top tier reviewers going off on how bad micro SD cards are, i.e. implying you cannot build a high quality phone if it has a micro SD card. And then the same reviewer disparages the many millions of people who depend on SD cards every day as some sort of unimportant minority.
It seems obvious to me that objectivity and balance have been lost, that the reviewer is just a tool pushing an agenda.
Brian Klug - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
I clearly am an agent of the NSA and this is a long-game to get all of your data. Clearly.-Brian
nerd1 - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
So with the same logic laptop should get rid of SD slots too, especially macbooks with SD card sticking out. Heck, earlier macbook pros didn't have one!fenneberg - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
Still dissing, eh..PC Perv - Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - link
I don't think what 10101010 said translates to your intelligence, lol. For one you are not really a big money player. I think what 10101010 meant is that you happily obey.Dentons - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Wow, your arrogance is astounding.Stop listening to your friends in the phone manufacturing business for a minute and start listening to the technical crowd that makes up the majority of your readership.
piroroadkill - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
Hey, HTC, how about the Butterfly S?dawheat - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
I'm having a tough time liking the One Maxx - it's such a big phone for .2" screen increase over the Note 3, with the on screen buttons eating a decent part of the increased real estate.Also the Note 2 was pretty heavy, the Note 3 was a nice decrease in weight. The difference in weight between the Note 3 and One Maxx is close to the difference in weight between the iPhone 5 and Note 3.
Mondozai - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
Well, the fingerprint issue isn't really resolved yet. We will have to wait and see how the security aspect goes. Still, my guess is that Apple is probably better at this generally than Android OEMs, specifically 2nd tier ones like HTC.This seems like an unnecessary review, especially as many much bigger launches were ignored. Who will buy HTC One Max? Very few people. HTC is going down anyway.
I'm still waiting for the mother lode: Nexus 5.
I also hope Brian can overcome his WP8 bias and review a few Nokia phones out this fall.