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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dawp - Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - link
please allow us to flag these spammers on the front page like we can in the forumsmregan - Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - link
Brian,Did you notice the problem that Zoes included in a highlight video now only show 1 second of motion and then freeze? I've seen that one my One when I upgraded to 4.3 and others have reported the same issue. It really seems like a bug. The highlights become much more static. All the other highlight changes are great but this is a step backward.
Thanks,
Mike
frakkel - Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - link
I for one really appreciate that Brian has an opinion and sticks to it. He sets the quality bar high and let his opinion shine through when quality is not met.Speaking of quality I am happy to see that the different brands go more and more up in quality of the device and not only specifications. Of course some users prefer an easy setup and others prefer fully customized solution. Here I am sure that the latter group is far the smallest but this group still gets fully addressed by some of the biggest players in the market. This is impressive I think.
For me personally I am sticking to my work phone, which is an old blackberry and I can live with this situation. But if I am going to put my money toward a smartphone I for one also would go for build quality. Today I am not sure which one but it would probably be a Nokia (I have owned Nokia phones before and were happy with the build quality), HTC (I for one also like the metallic casing) or and Apple (The small form factor is for me a positive thing).
So to rap up. Brian stick with you preferences some likes some hate. But his is expected when an opinion is given.
Disclaimer: I am not a native speaking so my grammar and language errors should be overlooked.
Dentons - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
I can respect an opposing opinion as much as the next guy, but when it's delivered in Brian's smug, "I know what's best for everyone" attitude, it's a bit much to digest.MercuryStar - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
I didn't interpret it as being smug. For that matter, I didn't interpret it as an opinion, either. Take his claim that microSD slots are going the way of the dodo. I think you can objectively look at how many devices include microSD card slots and conclude that it's no longer the norm in Android devices outside of Samsung and Sony, and also objectively look at how Android is engineered and conclude that they don't seem to be accommodating microSD slots in their OS design anymore.I don't think you should interpret this observation as an indication that Brian hates microSD card slots or something, he's just making an observation. In the case of this handset he felt that the removable back for the microSD reader compromised the design and I agree - it's heavier, bulkier and means it's no longer a gapless unibody design. But if the device had included a microSD slot on the side or something, so as not to compromise the design, I don't think this would have been a problem.
GiantPandaMan - Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - link
Please stop using the word literally incorrectly.It should only be used when you could take the something either figuratively or literally.
IE-
"He blew up."
"He got popular?"
"No, literally he blew up. The dynamite he was carrying exploded."
Saying a phone is literally a larger version of another phone is unnecessary. The phone is a larger version of another phone.
Arbie - Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - link
"For the incredibly small percentage of users that clamors for an SD card..."How about the incredibly small percentage of users who obsess (for pages) over the color and finish on the phones? Oh wait - that's you guys at Anandtech.
I just bought a smartphone with an mSD slot BECAUSE it had an mSD slot. Money where mouth is; vendors, listen up.
onslaught86 - Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - link
I have a real soft spot for HTC. My first smartphone was the Apache, and for all its ridiculousness, I loved it. Followed by the Titan, a brief flirtation with Samsung's WinMo lineup for the Omnia, then the mighty HD2 - which is still my favourite smartphone experience due to the mad levels of developer support & fully functional Android + Windows Phone 7 ports. I've now been with Samsung for the life of the Galaxy S line, jumping on the Note bandwagon after the S III, and although I (genuinely) enjoy the functionality of Touchwiz, I'm getting sick of a few things that just haven't been fixed through three or four revisions of their software suite.I kept wanting HTC to make something that would tempt me away - had they shipped the international Evo 3D closer to the Galaxy S II's release, I'd have picked that up instead. Yet, for the past two years, there's been too many compromises - both the One X & the One disappointed in the battery life department above all others, something I'm not keen to compromise on. Especially so after the Note II set a hefty precedent.
Then there's the SD card argument. Given the instability & low quality of the memory, combined with the poor and confusing experience SD cards can give consumers, I don't mind that they're going out of vogue. Wouldn't store anything crucial on something so volatile. Although in principle I wholeheartedly support user-accessible upgrades, SD slots are no excuse for insufficient internal storage, as everyone with a '16GB' Galaxy S4 discovered. For my use-case, however (Swapping between devices regularly, keeping a lot of lossless music offline, and storing backup images), an SD card slot is a definite point towards a device.
Now, for the first time in 2+ years, HTC have made a device that ticks the most important boxes - screen size, battery capacity & run-time, expandable storage. I can deal with the size, I'm a Note fan (Also have the 5.9" Pantech Vega N°6, which is a mammoth device). Although flip cases are not my bag, a portable kickstand with 20% extra battery sounds fantastic. The metal build, the stereo speakers, the SLCD when I'm getting awfully sick of poorly calibrated AMOLED panels, it all stacks up. They're even taking proper advantage of the screen size with a 5x5 home screen grid, Samsung's persistence with 4x4 on the Note II & 3 is baffling to me. The lack of OIS is a downer, I do love and use the S Pen regularly, the lack of S800 is almost deal-breaking, and yet...
HTC have finally made a device that appeals to the core of my smartphone experience, and I feel compelled to give them money in the hopes they keep doing this.
Arbie - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Don't belabor it tiresomely.Arbie - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
@DavidjanThanks for the tip on the Meenova OTG-SD card adapter! I just went and bought one, even though I don't yet have an Android device. I will someday, and this is too good to pass up. Plus, such a tiny company could disappear. BTW I lobbied Sandisk, Transcend etc a year ago for something like this but those that replied said it couldn't be done...
As for Brian Klug's comment that microSD is "going the way of the dodo": He probably thinks that means an evolutionary death. In fact the dodo was killed off by idiots with no concern for the future. There's nothing "natural" about losing microSD - it packs huge amounts of affordable storage in a tiny, rugged, hot-swap package. It should rightfully be with us for many years. Unfortunately, it's being marketed out existence by tablet makers pushing internal RAM, telecom carriers pushing data usage, and probably even Hollywood.