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
Concluding the One max review is difficult. I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about the larger sized smartphones and the state of that market, which seems to serve two purposes independently. For users who either don’t want or can’t budget for a tablet, the larger sized phones seem to bridge a functional gap between smartphone and tablet. Simultaneously, there are users who want the larger screen just to have it, and maybe there’s the perception that the larger phones still have some elevated status that comes with it. There’s a regional bias at play here too, and the One max seems to be a product designed to cater maybe more to some regions where supersized smartphones make up a bigger part of the market than others.
For me, the One max is probably a new upper bound in terms of size. It’s a very large phone, and although it fits in the front pockets of my jeans and shorts, it’s sometimes a stretch to sit down comfortably with the One max in a pocket. In terms of ergonomics, the One max is very much a dual-hand device.
The One max is really a product designed to fill out a hole in HTC’s One series portfolio than anything else, and doesn’t really change up the formula too much. It’s literally a scaled up version of the HTC One with few changes – OIS is unfortunately gone, the screen is obviously huge, there’s now a microSD card slot, and of course the new fingerprint sensor. Other than that though, the One max really is the One scaled up to gigantic size, with parts of the One mini tossed in for good measure.
I’ve said my part on the fingerprint sensor on the One max already. It works but isn’t the best or most intuitive implementation to date, although I think it’s fairly easy to make the case that nobody, not even Apple, has nailed a fingerprint sensor yet. The fingerprint scanner’s location on the back makes sense when you’re holding the One max in one hand, but becomes a problem when you’re using the phone on a flat surface. The use of a swipe sensor as well makes positioning on the back somewhat problematic unless you enroll fingers at a natural angle.
There’s also that elephant in the room about platform, specifically HTC’s inclusion of Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T instead of the faster Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 we’re seeing devices start shipping with right now. Although 8064 is still plenty fast and no slouch, there’s still a perceptible performance delta between an 8064 device and the newer 8974 phones I have on my desk now. I worry a lot about whether HTC will fall behind on platform, especially since it used to be the one OEM always shipping new Qualcomm silicon first. I have a feeling the One max saw platform change at the last minute, delaying its launch, but that's almost entirely speculation.
If you want a larger-screened smartphone and liked the One but have been waiting for a long time for the One max, by all means, get it. If you want a larger screened smartphone however, I think it’s easy to make the case that there are better devices out there right now. Had the One max arrived a month or two after the launch of the original One, this conclusion would've likely been a very different one.
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whatsa - Sunday, November 3, 2013 - link
Yes I have to admit brian has some odd perspectives at times.I find it easier when I remind myself that
" Es not the Messiah! - Es just a naughty naughty BOY!"
Impulses - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
I could see something like Meenova's reader coming a mile away once USB OTG support became common place... I'm just surprised it took a Kickstarter campaign to make it a reality, and that it isn't more popular given this apparent need for removable storage amongst enthusiasts.I also thought we'd see USB OTG flash drives before we saw a USB OTG reader.... Though I guess it wouldn't be much smaller since you can't hide the flash memory inside the male connector itself like some of the full size USB microSD readers do.
UltraTech79 - Sunday, November 10, 2013 - link
Stupidly large.jshsimpson1 - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
most note users do use their pens. I have the note 2 and the spend in one of the reasons I bought it among it being awesome. I love snote and I use it alot. I have a flip case which turns into a stand so that is useful for writing.fokka - Monday, December 9, 2013 - link
in the chart comparing the one/mini/max on the first page the mini is stated to have 4x krait 200 cores. as i understand, the mini is dualcore only and looking at the info on this page http://www.qualcomm.com/snapdragon/processors/400i believe it uses krait 300 cores because it's clocked at 1,4ghz.
hangfirew8 - Tuesday, December 17, 2013 - link
As always I really appreciate the depth and clarity of Brian's reviews. I've noticed one thing really missing from all, and perhaps that is because review hardware simply doesn't come with this accessory- car docks are not mentioned. After struggling with a poorly implemented car mode on the HTC Thunderbolt, I am very curious how well it works with the HTC dock. After all, one really good reason to buy a phablet over a normal size phone is that a phablet is the ideal form factor for a satnav app running docked. (Another good reason is to ditch a separate e-reader and just carry one device, not really a flaw in the review but this isn't really mentioned. I'm sure many buyers have this in mind when they buy that really, really big phone.acruhl - Saturday, April 12, 2014 - link
Sorry, I haven't read all posts. I liked the review for the most part. And I see someone was in Tucson to take the video, cool. I'm in Tucson.The HTC one max is my first smart phone (!) and I've been around since the early 70's. I got away with a pay as you go phone and an ipod up until now.
I wanted a bigger phone that could be used more like a laptop in a pinch for a new job I'm getting. I might need a keyboard for cli stuff, and using something like VNC is easier on a bigger, higher resolution screen is better.
For me, lots of this nitpicky stuff doesn't matter. I wanted a high quality, large screen and something I could hold onto reasonably well. The Mega doesn't have the screen quality. The Note is built around the stylus which I won't use. The SD card slot helps because I want to store all 30+ gigs of my music plus a few more gigs of videos (work related) on the phone. Not possible with the internal storage and software build.
Can someone explain to me why CPU speed is so important on a phone? For my laptop/home computer, the only thing I need CPU for is games or if I need a virtual machine to get a certain type of job done. Otherwise, I can wait, it's not a big deal. Even the virtual machine using my CPU isn't a huge problem, I'm patient :)
Tech for tech's sake is not productive. I haven't needed a faster CPU in my laptop or home computer for years. Memory, sure :)
The deal breaker for me on this HTC is the rattling vibration feedback. Holy cow, what were they thinking? But I don't like the other big phones so I have to decide if I can live with it.