I?ve had the HTC One for almost a month now and am really loving it. The first impressions of this phone really stick with me over all this time.
Design: The design of the phone is stunning. I still find myself ogling my phone from time to time. I?ve had phones made of plastic, metal/plastic mix, but the all metal design of the HCT one just screams quality and style. At 4.7?, the HTC One is just the right balance between being small enough to handle, yet providing a knock-out screen for media watching. Being a right handed user, I wish the power button on top was on the right side instead of left for easier one handed use, but that?s my only nit-pick.
Sound: I still marvel at why it took so long to get great sounding front facing speakers on a phone. No more doing the right hand cupping to get the sound to be loud enough to hear. Plus the fact that it is stereo on top of that makes this incredible to listen to. This sounds better than my Macbook Pro speakers. Makes a big difference for having music in the background or for watching media (youtube, etc). But that is only half of the experience. The sound coming from the headphone jack via Beats audio is even better. Having had 2 phones with Beats audio, it would be hard for me to go without. Rating: 5/5
Screen: The 4.7? screen is just awesome. I use auto-brightness adjustment and it is always fine. Text from websites and email are crisp and images really look sharp as well. Rating: 5/5
Software: I?ve used other HTC Androids in the past and thought the HTC Sense software felt a bit over the top from the unlock screen with the silver ring to the home screen clock style and multi-tasking screen that looked cool, but wasn?t all that easy to use. Sense 5 is exactly what HTC needed to do to refine the UI to be elegant and enhance Android. It no longer feels in the way, but a beautiful interface to the OS. The multi-tasking screen allows you to see all the apps quickly and close the ones you want with ease. The lock screen is clean and easy to customize with incoming texts, calendar and email notifications. The biggest change to Sense is the new Blinkfeed feature. I?ve read mixed things about this feature and I like it, but have played with it as my home screen off and on (you can make any of your screens your home screen if you choose). It is great for getting a quick glance at things that matter to you (news, twitter, facebook, etc) from a variety of sources in one place. I think it is a great new feature that will get better with updates. Rating 4/5
Camera: The camera on the HTC One is great. It has a wide angle lense, so you really get to capture more in the picture. The picture quality can be really stunning, especially in low light. I?ve heard enhancements are on the way which will improve normal daytime shots, but I?m pleased with the camera performance so far even without. Some of my favorite shots have come in evening light ? the camera sensor is so good, I?ve had several come out great that I thought would be too dark. The HDR and panorama modes are a great feature, so be sure to check them out. On top of the core technology in the camera sensor, you have HTC?s Imagesense technology, so you can rapidly capture multiple pictures in a very short time (burst mode). But the best new features related to camera involve the new Zoe capture mode and highlight features. When you put the camera in Zoe mode, you record a 3 second clip of the moment. This serves 2 purposes ? you can go back to one of 20 moments in the clip and capture the still image you want (or do other cool things like object removal or create sequence shots). But the Zoe clips are the star of the new highlight video and HTC shares. When you go to your gallery of pictures from the day or event, the phone creates an automatic highlight video from user selected pictures in the folder. These videos are awesome ? they professionally blend still pictures with the Zoe clips to create 30 second videos with a selectable style and music. While these are great on the phone, HTC makes it easy to share these highlight videos (or any selection of still and Zoe clips) via the HTC Share feature. You upload these to HTC?s site with a simple menu selection and then get a link to these that you can email or text to family and friends for them to review. This is a really easy way to share events with others. Way easier than manually downloading to a PC and messing with the upload to other sites and much more elegant than a simple picture upload to facebook. Rating ? 5/5
Performance ? Not much to say other than this phone is blazing fast. Everything I do has been snappy. While the built-in T-mobile software told me it recommended rebooting the phone periodically when I went too long, I dismissed that and am able to run the phone for weeks at a time without the need for reboots. I wish T-mobile had opted for the 64GB version of the phone, but coming from a 16GB device, 32GB will be fine for a long time. Rating ? 5/5
Overall ? I really don?t know how HTC will top the HTC One. It has so many design and software features that are such a huge step forward. The things I wish I could change are more storage and more customization options in Blinkfeed. I?m very pleased with the HTC One and can?t recommend it enough. HTC has focused on the core experience of the phone (instead of gimmicky features I?ll never use) and the result is a phone that feels refined and elegant. Overall Rating ? 5/5
Design: The design of the phone is stunning. I still find myself ogling my phone from time to time. I?ve had phones made of plastic, metal/plastic mix, but the all metal design of the HCT one just screams quality and style. At 4.7?, the HTC One is just the right balance between being small enough to handle, yet providing a knock-out screen for media watching. Being a right handed user, I wish the power button on top was on the right side instead of left for easier one handed use, but that?s my only nit-pick.
Sound: I still marvel at why it took so long to get great sounding front facing speakers on a phone. No more doing the right hand cupping to get the sound to be loud enough to hear. Plus the fact that it is stereo on top of that makes this incredible to listen to. This sounds better than my Macbook Pro speakers. Makes a big difference for having music in the background or for watching media (youtube, etc). But that is only half of the experience. The sound coming from the headphone jack via Beats audio is even better. Having had 2 phones with Beats audio, it would be hard for me to go without. Rating: 5/5
Screen: The 4.7? screen is just awesome. I use auto-brightness adjustment and it is always fine. Text from websites and email are crisp and images really look sharp as well. Rating: 5/5
Software: I?ve used other HTC Androids in the past and thought the HTC Sense software felt a bit over the top from the unlock screen with the silver ring to the home screen clock style and multi-tasking screen that looked cool, but wasn?t all that easy to use. Sense 5 is exactly what HTC needed to do to refine the UI to be elegant and enhance Android. It no longer feels in the way, but a beautiful interface to the OS. The multi-tasking screen allows you to see all the apps quickly and close the ones you want with ease. The lock screen is clean and easy to customize with incoming texts, calendar and email notifications. The biggest change to Sense is the new Blinkfeed feature. I?ve read mixed things about this feature and I like it, but have played with it as my home screen off and on (you can make any of your screens your home screen if you choose). It is great for getting a quick glance at things that matter to you (news, twitter, facebook, etc) from a variety of sources in one place. I think it is a great new feature that will get better with updates. Rating 4/5
Camera: The camera on the HTC One is great. It has a wide angle lense, so you really get to capture more in the picture. The picture quality can be really stunning, especially in low light. I?ve heard enhancements are on the way which will improve normal daytime shots, but I?m pleased with the camera performance so far even without. Some of my favorite shots have come in evening light ? the camera sensor is so good, I?ve had several come out great that I thought would be too dark. The HDR and panorama modes are a great feature, so be sure to check them out. On top of the core technology in the camera sensor, you have HTC?s Imagesense technology, so you can rapidly capture multiple pictures in a very short time (burst mode). But the best new features related to camera involve the new Zoe capture mode and highlight features. When you put the camera in Zoe mode, you record a 3 second clip of the moment. This serves 2 purposes ? you can go back to one of 20 moments in the clip and capture the still image you want (or do other cool things like object removal or create sequence shots). But the Zoe clips are the star of the new highlight video and HTC shares. When you go to your gallery of pictures from the day or event, the phone creates an automatic highlight video from user selected pictures in the folder. These videos are awesome ? they professionally blend still pictures with the Zoe clips to create 30 second videos with a selectable style and music. While these are great on the phone, HTC makes it easy to share these highlight videos (or any selection of still and Zoe clips) via the HTC Share feature. You upload these to HTC?s site with a simple menu selection and then get a link to these that you can email or text to family and friends for them to review. This is a really easy way to share events with others. Way easier than manually downloading to a PC and messing with the upload to other sites and much more elegant than a simple picture upload to facebook. Rating ? 5/5
Performance ? Not much to say other than this phone is blazing fast. Everything I do has been snappy. While the built-in T-mobile software told me it recommended rebooting the phone periodically when I went too long, I dismissed that and am able to run the phone for weeks at a time without the need for reboots. I wish T-mobile had opted for the 64GB version of the phone, but coming from a 16GB device, 32GB will be fine for a long time. Rating ? 5/5
Overall ? I really don?t know how HTC will top the HTC One. It has so many design and software features that are such a huge step forward. The things I wish I could change are more storage and more customization options in Blinkfeed. I?m very pleased with the HTC One and can?t recommend it enough. HTC has focused on the core experience of the phone (instead of gimmicky features I?ll never use) and the result is a phone that feels refined and elegant. Overall Rating ? 5/5
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