I made a comment earlier in another thread that I wasn't going to wax poetic about this phone, but after the last few days using it I felt compelled to share my thoughts with others. Every once in a while there's a phone that comes out that intruiges me and this year it happened to be the HTC One. Admittedly, I'm a Nexus user; I've had nothing but great experiences using both the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4. That being said, the prospect of using another phone that had a custom skin on it seemed pointless. I watched the Galaxy S4 launch like I'm sure most of you did, but I skipped the HTC One launch. Last year, I picked the Galaxy S3 over the One X (although I still own a One X to this day). This year, my choice could not have been any easier.
Design:
Let me preface my comments here by saying that I have absolutely zero issues with a phone being plastic. There are several advantages to using plastic over metal, but the one major drawback is that it tends to feel "cheap". With the HTC One, there is no such thing as cheap. I rarely get impressed with phone designs, but over the past year or so I've had a few phones catch my eye. When I first held an iPhone 5, my first thought outside of the solid, thin profile was the chamfered edges. The attention to detail was immense and the result was a phone that felt extremely premium in the hand. I also appreciated their ability to decrease the size of the phone while still being able to upgrade the hardware. When I first got ahold of the Droid DNA, I was extremely surprised at how thin the phone felt even though it truly wasn't. The curve on the back just made sense. As if HTC had read my mind, they took the two phones that impressed me with their design cues and made the most gorgeous phone to date; the HTC One.
Aluminum body. Chamfered edges. Curved back. When you see the One for the first time, especially if you've used as many phones as I have, you instantly appreciate the beauty of it. They've clearly paid attention to the rest of the market and infinitely improved on a line of phones that are great in their own rights (One X, One S, etc). From the speaker placement to the injection of polycarbonate in a pattern that doesn't take away from the design, the One is just simply gorgeous.
We all know there's more to a design than just looks, though, and functionality has to be just as good. If there's a negative to the design, and one that I will list only because of several other opinions and not my own, it's the button placements. I use my phone right handed so the power button and the home button are easily accessible to me, but those that use their phone left handed will most likely need to use two hands. I can see where that would be annoying, but the One almost requires two-handed use because of it's size anyways. Using it with my right hand can sometimes result in an indent on the inside of my right pinky finger, but that's to be expected with chamfered edges. I haven't caught myself reaching for the HTC logo in the middle, but I can see where others would. It is definitely different, but not something I consider a negative because it hasn't taken me hardly any time to adjust.
The design of this phone alone almost made me buy it without researching anything else about it. It's that good.
Hardware:
It wasn't until actually picking up an HTC One X that I actually appreciated the hardware that HTC brought to the table. CPU and GPU aside, as they've historically made solid choices, the choice to use SLCD 2 over something similiar to AMOLED really stuck with me. Up until that point, I had always been firmly in the camp of AMOLED. Maybe it was a bias I had, maybe it was the reviews I was reading, but I always thought AMOLED was better. I quickly formed a different opinion looking at the One X. That opinion was punctuated by the 1080p display on the DNA. It's set in stone now that I've turned on the HTC One. SLCD 3 at 1080p is absolutely gorgeous on this 4.7 inch display. Viewing angles are excellent, text is crisp, and it performs extremely well in sunlight. Far and away the best screen I've ever seen/used on a mobile device.
BoomSound is probably one of the most ridiculous names they could have picked, but regardless of how silly the marketing may be, the speakers themselves are amazing. HTC never seems to let you down with audio, but this is just on another level. I read some reviews with people claiming it was the best they've ever used on a mobile and I was skeptical. I'm not anymore. This is easily my first choice to watch a movie on, regardless of the fact the screen isn't the largest around. This wasn't a selling point for me when I bought the phone, but now that I have it, I'm definitely spoiled.
Brian Klug from Anandtech described the CPU/GPU better than anyone else can, so I'll refrain from going into too much detail. 28nm at 1.7ghz with an Adreno 320 is extremely fast. Gaming, though I don't usually have any, goes by without any hiccups. Sense 5 is actually extremely quick now (more on that later), so much so that it kind of threw me off. I expected better performance, but even the Droid DNA with the S4 Pro was kind of laggy. The more efficient 600 definitely makes a difference, and although it's not going to benchmark at the very top (here's looking at you, S4), it's close. I tend to buy phones that have the quicker performance, and although the Snapdragon 600 in the One isn't the absolute fastest, the performance optimizations in Sense 5 may just tip the scales in it's favor.
I'm not much of a camera guy, to be honest, but I will say I'm pretty impressed with the Ultrapixel camera. I understand the idea behind it, and it definitely delivers on what it intends to do. Allowing more light equates to better low light pictures. Most people aren't photographers and take pictures in less than ideal lighting. Makes sense to me, but then it suffers in ideal lighting compared to phones with a higher megapixel count. Could they have opted for a 8MP camera with the same tech? I believe so, but the top of that phone would be pretty damn thick. I understand the trade off and I'm happy with it. You should be, too.
Software/Battery Life:
Earlier, I alluded to being a Nexus guy. Stock android is so simple, so clean. In fact, I pretty much swore off using any other phones with custom skins for any real length of time because of it. I'm aware you can root and run CM10 on most devices now, but I got bored with that a while ago. When I saw the S4 launch, I immediately dismissed the device. No Octacore processor is going to make me forget how much I hate Touchwiz. That said, I've also never been thrilled with Sense. Any iteration of it. It's always bogged down the performance, it's had some weird design cues, and I just couldn't find anything I liked about it. Sense 5, on the other hand, completely changed that for me. I'm probably in the minority here, but it actually overcame the stock experience for me. Before the pitchforks come out, let me explain:
-I really, really like the darker scheme they've gone for. The clock widget is very prominent in this skin and it delivers. It sets the tone for the whole design just like the old Sense clock used to. For those still preferring that look, it's also available.
-BlinkFeed is still my home screen. I'm a huge FlipBoard fan and this just brought it front and center on my phone. Can it be better? Easily. Google Now integration, other third party apps having access, etc. I just like how it brings all the content I'd normally keep an app around for front and center. It also separates itself from your basic layouts you see in other UI's which is important to me.
-I don't hate the keyboard, but downloading the stock 4.2 keyboard made it so much better. Best of both worlds.
-I like having the stock browser around when I want to use Flash. It should be dead by now, but it's still around and having a browser that can use it helps.
-The new text and icons complete the look for me. If I were to design a skin, it would be damn close to this.
As with every OS/UI, there's things that I don't like, but they aren't deal breakers. I'd like the app drawer to allow me to scroll through instead of stop on each frame. I'd like there to be toggles on the notifcation shade. I'd like to be able to edit my icons on the bottom without being in the app drawer. These are so minor that they barely bother me, but there's always room for improvement. When it comes down to it, it's really the performance that gets me. This phone absolutely screams and Sense 5 doesn't slow it down. It really made a big impression on me the first time I turned it on and I appreciate it every time I turn my screen on.
I'm not going to go into battery life that much. I really don't have the ability to make a solid assessment at this point, but I've been okay with the results so far. On my first few charge cycles, I've been able to get through a day starting at 7 AM and ending at 11 PM with moderate use (Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, web browsing, 20-30 minutes of voice calls) with about 9 hours of that total on LTE. When I'm putting my phone back on the charger around 11, I'm at 20%. Saturday will be my fifth charge cycle and I'll be on WiFi most of the day, so I'll get a better look at how this performs.
Conclusion:
I chose the Galaxy S3 over the One X last year without hesitation. I was under the impression that I would also choose the S4 this year, but the HTC One made me rethink my stance. I'm not positive if it will attain the kind of success that the Galaxy line has, but I can give my honest opinion that it's a better phone regardless. If you're not into comparisons, then judging the One on it's own is an easy thing to do. It's everything your phone isn't, just like the slogan says.
Design:
Let me preface my comments here by saying that I have absolutely zero issues with a phone being plastic. There are several advantages to using plastic over metal, but the one major drawback is that it tends to feel "cheap". With the HTC One, there is no such thing as cheap. I rarely get impressed with phone designs, but over the past year or so I've had a few phones catch my eye. When I first held an iPhone 5, my first thought outside of the solid, thin profile was the chamfered edges. The attention to detail was immense and the result was a phone that felt extremely premium in the hand. I also appreciated their ability to decrease the size of the phone while still being able to upgrade the hardware. When I first got ahold of the Droid DNA, I was extremely surprised at how thin the phone felt even though it truly wasn't. The curve on the back just made sense. As if HTC had read my mind, they took the two phones that impressed me with their design cues and made the most gorgeous phone to date; the HTC One.
Aluminum body. Chamfered edges. Curved back. When you see the One for the first time, especially if you've used as many phones as I have, you instantly appreciate the beauty of it. They've clearly paid attention to the rest of the market and infinitely improved on a line of phones that are great in their own rights (One X, One S, etc). From the speaker placement to the injection of polycarbonate in a pattern that doesn't take away from the design, the One is just simply gorgeous.
We all know there's more to a design than just looks, though, and functionality has to be just as good. If there's a negative to the design, and one that I will list only because of several other opinions and not my own, it's the button placements. I use my phone right handed so the power button and the home button are easily accessible to me, but those that use their phone left handed will most likely need to use two hands. I can see where that would be annoying, but the One almost requires two-handed use because of it's size anyways. Using it with my right hand can sometimes result in an indent on the inside of my right pinky finger, but that's to be expected with chamfered edges. I haven't caught myself reaching for the HTC logo in the middle, but I can see where others would. It is definitely different, but not something I consider a negative because it hasn't taken me hardly any time to adjust.
The design of this phone alone almost made me buy it without researching anything else about it. It's that good.
Hardware:
It wasn't until actually picking up an HTC One X that I actually appreciated the hardware that HTC brought to the table. CPU and GPU aside, as they've historically made solid choices, the choice to use SLCD 2 over something similiar to AMOLED really stuck with me. Up until that point, I had always been firmly in the camp of AMOLED. Maybe it was a bias I had, maybe it was the reviews I was reading, but I always thought AMOLED was better. I quickly formed a different opinion looking at the One X. That opinion was punctuated by the 1080p display on the DNA. It's set in stone now that I've turned on the HTC One. SLCD 3 at 1080p is absolutely gorgeous on this 4.7 inch display. Viewing angles are excellent, text is crisp, and it performs extremely well in sunlight. Far and away the best screen I've ever seen/used on a mobile device.
BoomSound is probably one of the most ridiculous names they could have picked, but regardless of how silly the marketing may be, the speakers themselves are amazing. HTC never seems to let you down with audio, but this is just on another level. I read some reviews with people claiming it was the best they've ever used on a mobile and I was skeptical. I'm not anymore. This is easily my first choice to watch a movie on, regardless of the fact the screen isn't the largest around. This wasn't a selling point for me when I bought the phone, but now that I have it, I'm definitely spoiled.
Brian Klug from Anandtech described the CPU/GPU better than anyone else can, so I'll refrain from going into too much detail. 28nm at 1.7ghz with an Adreno 320 is extremely fast. Gaming, though I don't usually have any, goes by without any hiccups. Sense 5 is actually extremely quick now (more on that later), so much so that it kind of threw me off. I expected better performance, but even the Droid DNA with the S4 Pro was kind of laggy. The more efficient 600 definitely makes a difference, and although it's not going to benchmark at the very top (here's looking at you, S4), it's close. I tend to buy phones that have the quicker performance, and although the Snapdragon 600 in the One isn't the absolute fastest, the performance optimizations in Sense 5 may just tip the scales in it's favor.
I'm not much of a camera guy, to be honest, but I will say I'm pretty impressed with the Ultrapixel camera. I understand the idea behind it, and it definitely delivers on what it intends to do. Allowing more light equates to better low light pictures. Most people aren't photographers and take pictures in less than ideal lighting. Makes sense to me, but then it suffers in ideal lighting compared to phones with a higher megapixel count. Could they have opted for a 8MP camera with the same tech? I believe so, but the top of that phone would be pretty damn thick. I understand the trade off and I'm happy with it. You should be, too.
Software/Battery Life:
Earlier, I alluded to being a Nexus guy. Stock android is so simple, so clean. In fact, I pretty much swore off using any other phones with custom skins for any real length of time because of it. I'm aware you can root and run CM10 on most devices now, but I got bored with that a while ago. When I saw the S4 launch, I immediately dismissed the device. No Octacore processor is going to make me forget how much I hate Touchwiz. That said, I've also never been thrilled with Sense. Any iteration of it. It's always bogged down the performance, it's had some weird design cues, and I just couldn't find anything I liked about it. Sense 5, on the other hand, completely changed that for me. I'm probably in the minority here, but it actually overcame the stock experience for me. Before the pitchforks come out, let me explain:
-I really, really like the darker scheme they've gone for. The clock widget is very prominent in this skin and it delivers. It sets the tone for the whole design just like the old Sense clock used to. For those still preferring that look, it's also available.
-BlinkFeed is still my home screen. I'm a huge FlipBoard fan and this just brought it front and center on my phone. Can it be better? Easily. Google Now integration, other third party apps having access, etc. I just like how it brings all the content I'd normally keep an app around for front and center. It also separates itself from your basic layouts you see in other UI's which is important to me.
-I don't hate the keyboard, but downloading the stock 4.2 keyboard made it so much better. Best of both worlds.
-I like having the stock browser around when I want to use Flash. It should be dead by now, but it's still around and having a browser that can use it helps.
-The new text and icons complete the look for me. If I were to design a skin, it would be damn close to this.
As with every OS/UI, there's things that I don't like, but they aren't deal breakers. I'd like the app drawer to allow me to scroll through instead of stop on each frame. I'd like there to be toggles on the notifcation shade. I'd like to be able to edit my icons on the bottom without being in the app drawer. These are so minor that they barely bother me, but there's always room for improvement. When it comes down to it, it's really the performance that gets me. This phone absolutely screams and Sense 5 doesn't slow it down. It really made a big impression on me the first time I turned it on and I appreciate it every time I turn my screen on.
I'm not going to go into battery life that much. I really don't have the ability to make a solid assessment at this point, but I've been okay with the results so far. On my first few charge cycles, I've been able to get through a day starting at 7 AM and ending at 11 PM with moderate use (Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, web browsing, 20-30 minutes of voice calls) with about 9 hours of that total on LTE. When I'm putting my phone back on the charger around 11, I'm at 20%. Saturday will be my fifth charge cycle and I'll be on WiFi most of the day, so I'll get a better look at how this performs.
Conclusion:
I chose the Galaxy S3 over the One X last year without hesitation. I was under the impression that I would also choose the S4 this year, but the HTC One made me rethink my stance. I'm not positive if it will attain the kind of success that the Galaxy line has, but I can give my honest opinion that it's a better phone regardless. If you're not into comparisons, then judging the One on it's own is an easy thing to do. It's everything your phone isn't, just like the slogan says.
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