What's this phone missing?

[ChromeJob]

What's it missing? ... It's coming out 5 months too late! I decided in December to jump aboard the community and the Amaze seemed the best dang phone on the two carriers I was considering. I left an unlimited (grandfathered) data plan on AT&T to get the phone from T-mo (didn't see any trustworthy unlocked offers with warranty to sneak onto my old plan). I've since been through 3 handsets trying to determine the cause of an annoying noise in video recording (so much for that 1080p recording gewgaw), and haphazard BT functioning with my car (where I need it most). And I have to charge ever few hours if I'm actively using the handset for reading, writing, 'rithmetic.

Now I find that my old carrier, which my company has a 13% corporate discount with, is getting the more refined, faster, potentially longer-lasting battery version. Pardon ME while I utter a big huge ugly "HARUMPH!"

 

[MrSlippery519]

The phone seems pretty solid...if I had to find something to complain about I would ask for a Micro SD slot however I am not really concerned about that. File it under "would be nice"

 

[callmechewy]

Would ROMS be able to be applied to this phone?

I'm thinking of ROMS like MIUI. I hate almost every iteration of Android from all these companies.

 

[jroc]

Folks that have a tablet....shouldnt be too upset about no removable batteries. It hasnt hurt the iPad or any Android tablets so far.

Maybe the size of the internal battery is something to be upset about. Cuz I know tablets have larger batteries. Or looking at phones like the RAZR Maxx.

Also look at tablets when thinking about battery pulls and running custom ROMs. That hasnt hurt too bad on tablets.

 

[MrSlippery519]

Maybe the size of the internal battery is something to be upset about. Cuz I know tablets have larger batteries. Or looking at phones like the RAZR Maxx.

True however in this phones case the processor on paper anyways is much more efficient, on board LTE, etc so in turn the battery life should be much better than other comparable older phones with the same or simular battery size.

 

[ctc799]

I just hope this gets to America quickly! If not I'll get snagged on a GSIII.

 

[digthemlows]

Since I qualify for an upgrade on 4/2/12 this just may be my phone..........wonder if the bootloader will be locked? ....... I've been enjoying CM7 on my Infuse, and CM9 on my Touchpad that I hope to continue.........we'll see.

 

[thebizz]

Most likely no but HTC will most likely add it to the list of devices that you can use their unlocking tool which would be fine by me

 

[f1nzup]

No removeable battery is a deal-breaker for me. There is no way I get through a day on one battery. I just use my phone way too much. I'm very bummed because the rest of the specs are great. I love the bigger screen and NFC capability, but the battery issue will keep me from getting this phone. :'(

 

[thebizz]

Without late at or around my house as long as I disable it I should be able to make it a full day but I have enough chargers to suffice and if I'm on the go and really need to charge it they have small battery charging packs that you can buy that may be another option. I'm more worried about 16 gigs of storage. I don't keep alot of things on my phone but it could become an issue

 

[ChromeJob]

Since I qualify for an upgrade on 4/2/12 this just may be my phone..........wonder if the bootloader will be locked? ....... I've been enjoying CM7 on my Infuse, and CM9 on my Touchpad that I hope to continue.........we'll see.

You lucky BUGGER! Perfect timing!

No removeable battery is a deal-breaker for me. There is no way I get through a day on one battery. I just use my phone way too much. I'm very bummed because the rest of the specs are great. I love the bigger screen and NFC capability, but the battery issue will keep me from getting this phone. :'(

Seems this is one of the principle [sic] complaints about this phone. Now ... you can get 1000mA chargers pretty cheap (presuming you find one that is a true AC charger, with D+ and D- lines shorted)[1] and keep them in car, at work, in briefcase, etc. But I know that the adage "just have chargers around and top off throughout the day" won't hold water for people who are LITERALLY on the go, moving from meeting to meeting, from one site to another. I know people whose workdays truly are "mobile" and don't get to their desks very often. They have to have laptop chargers with them, and many of them use their iPhones and Androids to keep up with e-mail, calendars, etc. These folks can't always just plug-in every time they sit down

It's for that niche audience that I suspect replacement batteries are a must.

I don't profess to know how many of the Ones' potential buyers this subset comprises, but it seems to clear to me that HTC made a choice: LTE-capable phone with a Snapdragon S4, and an integrated transceiver (if I understand all the tech talk), OR a Tegra3 phone without LTE. Perhaps the LTE phone will have better power conservation than the Tegra to complement that wired-in battery, while the gaming-intensive Tegra phone's buyers will be sitting still, with a charger in hand to power all that gaming.

Am I summing up the argument accurately?

[1] Stopping off at Atlanta and Minneapolis airports, I was delighted to find AC and USB charge ports throughout the terminal seating area. Great idea, just not enough of them. It was also nice to see that the USB ports were true AC charging ports, identified by my phone. Whether they were 1000mA or not, I couldn't say, I didn't stop off and charge long enough to measure

 

[katamari201]

The thing that's missing is the build quality of the One S. I don't know what possesses phone makers to give the special treatment to lower tier phones and somehow leave the flagship bereft of said special treatment. I want to give the benefit of the doubt to the unibody polycarbonate shell of the One X, but I have read many hands-on accounts and the consensus is the One S is more premium and tougher feeling. If you go to AndroidPIT and watch their hands-on video, they demonstrate visible flex on the back of the phone. Another strange design choice is putting gloss on the sides of the phone. I have no idea why they would cheapen a classy matte look with some shiny icky-ness on the sides. I am a Samsung user and the main reason I am jumping ship is because I am tired of cheap, shiny plastic builds with give, especially on the sides where you grip it most often, and get oily and slippery because of the gloss. HTC had a good thing going on all their tough, matte metal phones. Sacrificing it for a trivial bit of weight loss is ridiciulous.

The One S is also a bit strange since there are two distinct builds. The matte black with the oxidized ceramic metal is 4x harder than normal aluminum, supposedly. The gray/blue one has a gradient coloring and is smoother and made differently compared to the ceramic metal matte black one. I don't know which one is better. The difference is more than just coloring.

The One X would be far more appealing with the One S build quality. Other complaints I have with the One X is with the lack of a shutter button, as well as the ugly contacts on the back. Put them on the side like other phones why don'tcha? The rim around the lens also is not too appealing. Looks like an inverted cup. I rather they made it more bowl shaped. The way the flash sits on the edge of the circle though is kind of cool.

I love the 720p 4.7" screen. It looks better than any other 720p display at MWC, including the IPS one on the Optimus 4x. I really abhor Super AMOLED and its the main reason why I am not getting the One S.

Another problem I have with HTC in general is that from the photo samples I've seen of the One X camera, HTC's old way of doing things hasn't changed a bit. Yeah there's an ew fancy ImageChip that makes things superfast and HTC is touting their imaging chops, but the images are the ultimate benchmark. They are still the same anomaly as before, with super-crushed, lurid/strange looking colors, super-oversharpened and pokey, crushed details, and just a general fakeness to their images, like some artsy and inky cartoon drawing. This extends to their video capture as well. Other phonemakers' cameras don't have this problem. Only HTC.

Blah Blah Blah.

I'm still probably gonna buy the HTC One X though, even though it's not as perfect as I want it to be and comes with many shortcomings.

 

[ChromeJob]

The camera was supposedly the hottest thing about the Amaze, but yet I've noticed serious color noise in my images, and the chronic cycling noise on stereo video recordings has me miffed.

Well, maybe the dedicated camera BUTTONS were what they were proud of. Those are gone here.

 

[katamari201]

The Amaze had an awesome design and build. They could've used a lighter, thinner version of that for the One X...

BTW I just saw several sample videos of the One X. So far, it is quite awful. The videos are super blurry when in motion, and has the same lurid colors and oversharpened, flat, squeaky cleaned of noise and detail, cartoony look. What's worse is they were making some progress with the audio recording on the HTC Vivid. Everything before it was absolutely horrible. Now it has returned to its former horrible state. Don't quote me "stereo recording". It could have 7.1 surround sound recording and still sound extremely awful.

 

[ChromeJob]

Another minor quibble ... it's not really "missing" but I have gotten spoiled by the dedicated Photo and Video camera buttons on the Amaze. Sure, you can poo-poo them if you haven't used them ... but if you don't have a passwd/pin/pattern lock on your phone, it makes it supremely easy to just hold a button, aim, click. all without having to touch the screen (generally, in practice the focus cursor requires a little coaxing).

The s***-hot new cameras that HTC are hyping so hot wet & sweaty deserve more than having to drag one of the lock screens icons to the ring, don't they?

 

[katamari201]

Yeah I still don't understand why they are bipolar and constantly swinging between having a shutter button and not having one. With a windows phone at least, the shutter button is mandatory. If they were aiming for a sleeker look, their power button, super long volume button, and big open ports already ruined the purity of "sleekness". That one extra button (or two!) won't make it look any worse. Makes it even classier too, like the buttons on the lumia 800.

This is a complaint for the whole industry in general. Curse you phone makers!

@ChromeJob
On the Amaze, can you turn down the colors in the camera settings to make photos look more natural? The worse thing I see on HTC photos is the skin tones. Everyone turns into this red/rorange alien race and look posessed.

 

[ChromeJob]

...
@ChromeJob
On the Amaze, can you turn down the colors in the camera settings to make photos look more natural? The worse thing I see on HTC photos is the skin tones. Everyone turns into this red/rorange alien race and look posessed.

I haven't had that much of a problem ... you can set the white balance in the "M" manual mode ... tried that yet?

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Hmm....since we're all guessing about the camera, and don't really know for sure, it seems like we're really getting nitpicky here. I think that's a good thing. It means that the phone isn't missing any major features that we'd like to see.

 

[ChromeJob]

That ... or we're tired of talking about the main discrepancies. Me, I'm on 3-4 sites reading and commenting, and as the week progressed I saw more of the hands-on video demonstrations, which definitely help see the phone in a more practical exhibition.

I think your assessment is pretty much spot on, Kevin. The One series not only builds upon the 2011 models, but also remedies a complaint I heard late last year that HTC was confusing consumers with too many choices, too many easily confused names (Sensation, Vivid, Inspire, Amaze, quick which is the best, which carriers are each of those on, and which is not an adjective? 3...2...1...[buzzer] sorry time's up, thanx for playing). There will always be some compromises and changes from one model year to another, and I think people who have a current model are always most critical of the superseding model coming soon. (I'm a prime example. I'm irked at a couple of common faults with the Amaze, and was eying the One as a replacement. But now I'm not certain they're worth the trouble.)

New customers won't even blink at the 2011 models, just snap up what's on offer in the moment. ... That can be good or bad. (In 2009, my gf wanted the latest highly reviewed Samsung SomethingOrOther, and I could not dissuade her to look carefully at a Nokia, or iPhone. No, no, no, she'd made her mind up. Fast forward 11 months later ... its screen was messed up, she couldnt' access menus or anything, and swore never to own a Samsung again. )

 

[IMjBI]

Does it have a Notification LED.

I see on some shots a green LED glow from under the earpiece speaker. Is that a hidden notification LED?