Features/ Practical Uses (Opinionated)

[anon(5857879)]

What features of the HTC One will actually be useful to you? What features of the HTC One do you consider gimmicks or useless?

Useful - Blinkfeed
Useless - Beats Audio

 

[mistyisland]

The opposite

 

[ffejjj]

Really excited to try the camera, Zoe particularly. Bit skeptical about the 4 ultra pixel but open minded

Front facing speakers (about time)

Aluminum body

Great screen tech

Not to keen about blink feed yet

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

 

[ksavaiano]

Honestly I don't think there's really anything I think would be useless as far as features!

Really excited for the IR capabilities, I've heard beats makes a difference with the front facing speakers too, the new camera stuff should be awesome with slow motion, sequence shot, object removal, always smile, and highlight videos! I'm thinking I will be using blinkfeed because too often I find myself in a line somewhere wanting to hop on the Internet for some news and blinkfeed seems perfect for that! Overall I am very excited for this phone but I will have to wait and see if any of those features become just gimmicks

Sent on my dying Evo 3D

 

[Russ Smith]

I like and use the IR remote, stereo speakers, Zoes (love the zoes!), gaming on this beast is fast and lag free, love the feel of it (no case for me) I also like the sense 5 look inc the browser, email app etc it all looks smart and it's fast and fluid nothing annoys me and I haven't replaced any stock apps with 3rd party ones yet.
I don't use blink feed, hoping for rss support in first then this will be my main plus point! Atm I use widgets for my news and have the feeds turned off and changed my home page. Also annoys me I can't change the weather source to a local UK one like met office, the current one isn't worth looking at - it's too often wrong. It did annoy me about lack of toggles but I've downloaded an app to add those now so problem sorted.

Sent from my awesome HTC One B-)

 

[Russ Smith]

I like and use the IR remote, stereo speakers, Zoes (love the zoes!), gaming on this beast is fast and lag free, I'm loving the screen size and tech and love the feel of it (no case for me) I also like the sense 5 look inc the browser, email app etc it all looks smart and it's fast and fluid nothing annoys me and I haven't replaced any stock apps with 3rd party ones yet.
I don't use blink feed, hoping for rss support in first then this will be my main plus point! Atm I use widgets for my news and have the feeds turned off and changed my home page. Also annoys me I can't change the weather source to a local UK one like met office, the current one isn't worth looking at - it's too often wrong. It did annoy me about lack of toggles but I've downloaded an app to add those now so problem sorted.

So yea pretty positive

Sent from my awesome HTC One B-)

Editops clicked quote not edit again :O

sent from my awesome HTC One B-)

 

[mcpricex]

Useful - Front facing speakers. These make listening to music without external speakers a viable option, you won't wake the neighbours but they do give a rich, distortion free, room filling sound. They are also great for watching video too and Beats kicks in on almost any audio/video source including youtube and my radio player app. Not sure how much effect Beats has on the actual sound (seems to help bass more than anything) but the built in amp used to power those speakers does an excellent job.

Useless - No built in EQ. Putting so much effort and inovation into the way the phone sounds seems a bit pointless if there is no way to shape the output to suit your personal preference. The Beats system has two options, on or off.

Useful - Blinkfeed. This is a controversial one, at first I didn't like it, apart from my facebook/twitter feeds I couldn't see anything there of any real relevance or interest to me, but if you dig into the individual options rather than just selecting catergories, there is plenty of specific content there even for me. I can understand people taking a quick look at it and thinking the same, then dismissing it as a gimmick, but there is a lot more to it than first meets the eye. It has to be said that, love it or hate it, it is a very well made piece of software, it looks great and it does what it is supposed to do very smoothly. Who has a One and doesn't scroll up and down their blinkfeed when someone asks to take a look at the phone?

Useful - IR remotes have been done before but what makes this one so good is the app HTC have tagged on to it. Setting up my TV took less than a minute and works perfectly. Walked into work and did the same thing with the set there even quicker. I am now the King of the canteen tv, lol!

Useful - GPS. Only just discovered this on my first long distance trip since getting the phone but the GPS seems to connect almost instantly. On my last 3 phones and even my stand alone sat nav there would be a delay of at least 30 seconds (usually more, sometimes a lot more) while they were hunting down the satellites and establishing the current location, not so with the One, toggle GPS on and bang, there you go.

Not really useless but more of an annoyance is the charger port and supplied lead. The bottom edge of the phone is angled from front to back so even though the charger goes in nice and snuggly and parallel to the screen, the rear of the charger touches the casing while there is still a gap at the front. My other quirk is that micro usb plugs are one way and there is no way of telling which way around the plug goes until you try it, my S2 charger had a shaped plug which got around this problem quite elegantly and was a godsend when trying to put the phone on charge in the dark without suffering the wrath of a sleeping wife.

Bit of both, good/bad - Sense. It does what it has to do very well, it is smooth and responsive and it has some unique and genuinely useful built in features (eg direct access to settings from the notification area) but it still doesn't work in landscape, which it should do on such a relatively large screen phone.

Trying to be objective, but loving my One!

 

[Erik Pendleton]

Useful - Blinkfeed. This is a controversial one, at first I didn't like it, apart from my facebook/twitter feeds I couldn't see anything there of any real relevance or interest to me, but if you dig into the individual options rather than just selecting catergories, there is plenty of specific content there even for me. I can understand people taking a quick look at it and thinking the same, then dismissing it as a gimmick, but there is a lot more to it than first meets the eye. It has to be said that, love it or hate it, it is a very well made piece of software, it looks great and it does what it is supposed to do very smoothly. Who has a One and doesn't scroll up and down their blinkfeed when someone asks to take a look at the phone?

Good to hear. I guess people don't like that you can't disable it completely, but if they allowed that, probably people would disable and never find out that it is pretty good.

Useful - IR remotes have been done before but what makes this one so good is the app HTC have tagged on to it. Setting up my TV took less than a minute and works perfectly. Walked into work and did the same thing with the set there even quicker. I am now the King of the canteen tv, lol!

Interesting as several reviewers have tried to claim this was lousy software and hard to set up. Just goes to show actual users are better than reviewers.

Useful - GPS. Only just discovered this on my first long distance trip since getting the phone but the GPS seems to connect almost instantly. On my last 3 phones and even my stand alone sat nav there would be a delay of at least 30 seconds (usually more, sometimes a lot more) while they were hunting down the satellites and establishing the current location, not so with the One, toggle GPS on and bang, there you go.

Very nice to hear. My Infuse takes so long to connect that it may as well not have gps.

Not really useless but more of an annoyance is the charger port and supplied lead. The bottom edge of the phone is angled from front to back so even though the charger goes in nice and snuggly and parallel to the screen, the rear of the charger touches the casing while there is still a gap at the front. My other quirk is that micro usb plugs are one way and there is no way of telling which way around the plug goes until you try it, my S2 charger had a shaped plug which got around this problem quite elegantly and was a godsend when trying to put the phone on charge in the dark without suffering the wrath of a sleeping wife.

This is a relatively easy fix I would think. You can somehow mark which side is up - maybe a touch of glo paint on the top?

Nice post Mcpricex!

 

[Russ Smith]

Interesting as several reviewers have tried to claim this was lousy software and hard to set up. Just goes to show actual users are better than reviewers.

Yea really easy, well under a minute, also easy to remap any button, learns from any other remote

sent from my awesome HTC One B-)

 

[frellingfrakker]

I'll hold off judgement on software features until mine arrives next week (I can't f'n wait!), but the one useful as heck killer feature is the front facing stereo speakers FTW!

 

[xtn]

Ive gotten really used to the little divot on the end of my S2 cord. Such a simple concept. Annoyed by cords that don't impliment some similar feature.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[TomsAndroid]

I really want the ONE. To answer your question:

Camera- I like the indoor/low-light performance, the daylight performance is fine for on-device viewing, I love the software features such as Zoe (Object Removal, Sequence Shot etc.) and the slow-mo video, the video quality is good in daylight however I would like to be able to choose between better framerates or more light at night= Mixed but mostly great.

Screen- Although the pixel density may extreme, it sounds amazing and great for showing off and the colour and brightness should be good; Also 1080p might become standard and increase app support= Awesome!

Speakers- When at home alone or sharing with friends, having a phone or video-call, I love having louder speakers and front-facing just makes sense= Awesome!

Blinkfeed- I'm not into social networking but I did love Google Currents on my Nexus 7 so I'm kind of looking forwards to it... when HTC improves it= I can see why some people may like.

IR Blaster- I hate looking for a remote or having to flick through channels to find the right show; This also sounds great for pranks on unaware friends = Awesome!

Build Quality- I like the idea of being able to show off my phone to my iPhone-carrying friends; I haven't used one yet but I'm sure it feels great= Awesome!

These are just some of my thoughts and why I'm excited

Tom

 

[adriandb]

Beats audio is not only pointless, it could potentially be a huge negative if it impacts the devices ability to accurately playback music.

 

[hodan]

Beats audio is not only pointless, it could potentially be a huge negative if it impacts the devices ability to accurately playback music.

It's a PHONE, not an audiophile setup. And it's the best sounding phone...ever.

 

[xtn]

Beats audio is not only pointless, it could potentially be a huge negative if it impacts the devices ability to accurately playback music.

Its just a preset equalizer. Ive read that it can be turned off.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Gathomblipoob]

Its just a preset equalizer. Ive read that it can be turned off.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

It can. You might want it for the speakers but no serious music lover would want it on for use with headphones.

 

[Acelx]

It's a phone tho.. Are you really going to be mastering a EP from it? I'm just saying..

Samsung audio isn't that great if I'm correct they use "Wolfson" or whatever it is.. At least on my Galaxy Note 2 bass sounds so ugly..

And I'm not using just any kind of headphones, And they aren't beats either

I think HTC did a really good job on the sound quality of the device, judging from all the great reviews n reps I've heard from. Like other users said you can easily turn it off and download a EQ of your choice from the market.

 

[mcpricex]

Beats audio is not only pointless, it could potentially be a huge negative if it impacts the devices ability to accurately playback music.

While Beats (as a brand in general) is certainly not the pinnacle of audio nirvana that it is marketed to be, I would be hard pressed to describe it as pointless. If you want audio perfection then get a decent pair of headphones (not Beats lol!) and a DAC, or if you want to listen to the hype then spend the same amount of money on a pair of Beats and plug them into a Galaxy S4 (which you will buy because a 13 megapixel camera is obviously better than a 4 megapixel camera).

I use different headphones for different things, I have a decent pair of over ear Sonys that use at home for movies, ajay in ears for music on the go and a cheap pair of JVC to use at work. For big music I plug into my home theatre with built in DAC, its all about horses for courses and the Beats tech in this phone is just the same, it is a tool to make certain music sound better under certain conditions and when viewed as just that, it is a success.

As a blind test I have just played a random track on the phone speakers and then gone into the menu and toggled Beats on and off. With Beats on I have a rich, well seperated sound with above average volume, although there is some distortion there at full volume but that is probably the limits of the speakers themselves. With it off I have quite a flat, dull sound, lacking any depth or bass to speak of and the distortion at full volume is worse. Again it depends what you are playing and what you are playing it on, but for the vast majority of situations that you are going to use a phone as an audio source for, Beats does make a positive contribution.

I have no idea how much of the system is hardware and how much is software but it doesn't really matter, if it is not working for you then turning it off is a case of one swipe and two clicks.

 

[adriandb]

As long as it can be disabled then it's a non-issue.

 

[jgreeson25]

In regards to beats audio, does this function kick in when listening to music via Rdio/Spotify or just music stored on the device?