HTC all out with Ultrapixels, Zoes, Blinkfeed etc.
Samsung and Apple better beware – the
HTC One combines stunning design, a supreme screen and explosive power to offer one of the best smartphones around.
It's
got a full HD screen crammed into 4.7-inches, which brings a 468ppi –
well above what's needed for the eye to discern, and it does definitely
bring sumptuous sharpness throughout the use of the phone.
On
top of that there's a CPU and RAM combo that is barely bettered, a
more-than-enough 32GB of storage and top-end Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G /
4G connections, all topped off by a completely re-imagined version of
HTC Sense. What's not to like?
The design of the HTC One is something that you simply have to experience in the hand. Where those that pick up the
Samsung Galaxy S3 will go ' Oh, it's a bit plastic, isn't it? But ooh, it's quite light' and those who encounter the
iPhone 5
will, to a person, say 'Ooh, it's very light isn't it? You don't expect
it to be that light!' those that try the HTC One will simply intone:
'Oh, that's really nice. Really, really nice.'
And do you know why? Simple: the HTC One
is one of the best-designed phones on the planet. Not content with
inventing a new machining process to allow the body to be all aluminium,
the Taiwanese firm has extended the screen to the edges of the chassis
further than ever before, meaning you're getting a 4.7-inch Full HD
display without the additional heft you'd probably expect.
It's even thinner than its predecessor, the
HTC One X
(we know, that naming strategy leaves a lot to be desired) and as such
slides nicely in the pocket. It's not light either, weighing more than
most of the competition, but rather than feeling overweight, combined
with the metallic chassis is oozes a premium build. Samsung is probably
hoping not a lot of people hold this phone side-by-side with the new
S4 as otherwise the buying choice is going to be a lot more of a worry for the Koreans.
Battery life and connectivity
The battery life on the HTC One X was one of the big areas that saw
it fail to nab the top spot in TechRadar's phone of 2012, so all eyes
are on the battery capacity of the HTC One. With a massive upgrade to a
2300mAh battery, a more efficient processor onboard and general
increased stability from Android 4.1.2, has HTC managed to erase its
demons?
Sadly,
it's a mixed bag, and it completely depends on what you intend to use
the HTC One for. For instance, we took the phone off charge when it was
fully juiced just before bed, and left it running all night.
Eight
hours later it had dropped only 1%, and yet emails and Facebook updates
had come through, despite the data connection going into a deep sleep
when the phone is in such a state. At this point, we were impressed.
However,
75 minutes later, with three minutes of Riptide GP played, 30 mins of
Google Music streamed, and 45 minutes of Spiderman watched (with some
RSS feeds checked and a to-do list created) the battery had dropped down
to 68%, which was slightly gutting. We did have to fire the brightness
of the phone right up during the movie watching, thanks to the
aforementioned darkness, but it was still a huge amount to lose.
Similarly,
using the camera and creating Zoe highlight reels decimates the
battery. From 70% left, we spent 90 minutes intermittently taking photos
and a couple of Zoes to test the camera - with no actual video shot.
However, the constant use saw that battery level drop to 21% in the
short time we used it, and the phone became very hot (which we were
thankful for, as it was FREEZING outside).
Connectivity
The HTC One comes with a huge range of
connectivity on offer, with all the usual suspects present and correct.
GPS is paired with GLONASS (the Russian system) to bring stunningly
accurate mapping, and the Wi-Fi is all the way up to 802.11n, with dual
channel bonding on offer too.
Bluetooth is offered at the
low-power 4.0 standard, with apt-X codecs on board for improved music
clarity over Bluetooth (and it really does improve the quality of music
streaming compared to a non-apt-X set) and NFC obviously makes an
appearance to allow Android Beaming of your photos and videos.
HTC's
MediaLink is available on the HTC One, so if you've got the little box,
a simple three finger swipe on any app will connect you up to your TV,
which in turn will see your One screen mirrored so you can play movies
and games and whatnot on the go. It's not a great experience doing this,
especially on the gaming front, as the response between finger and
screen is pretty slow, and the picture fairly jumpy at times.
You've
also got MHL available, so if you think the idea of streaming
wirelessly is too advanced for you, then you can buy an MHL lead and do
the same thing with a lovely connection.
HTC has included DLNA
within the phone, so if there are any nearby media servers sharing
content you can connect up to those and download content directly to
your phone - look for the option in the menu settings in the Gallery to
get an idea about what's on offer there.
And finally: HTC Sync is
on offer, and has been combined with HTC Setup on the PC. The latter is
more interesting, as it means you can set you sound profiles, wallpaper
and ringtones from the web, when logged into your HTC account, and from
there it will be beamed directly to your phone with the minimum of fuss.
On
top of that you've got the fact you can drag and drop the content
directly into the heart of the HTC One - if you don't want to fiddle
about with the drivers you can just look through the folder system and
dump your pictures, music and video in there without needing to worry
about installing a million bits and pieces.
So overall, the HTC
One is a very well-connected beast; no, it couldn't have you killed - we
don't mean it in that way. But not matter what you fling at it, the One
can interact with it in some way.
techradar
