New HTC One - like/dislike

[MikeLip]

Like - it's beautiful OK, it's not BB 9930 beautiful, but still darn good looking. Best looking non-BB phone ever (yes, I am a BB fan - too bad they seem to be treading water with their toes being nibbled by rabid sharks).
Sound is awesome. Using the FM app I was listening to WCLV today, which plays classical music. Sounds really good, surprisingly. No, it won't replace my home system. But I was amazed at how good it sounds.
Screen is excellent. Nice colors. Slightly smaller than the DNA, but looks better somehow.
Fast. Seems faster than the DNA. Somewhat faster than the updated S4, although that's just my feeling since I didn't benchmark it.
Even the stock keyboard seems pretty good to me, although I immediately went to Swype.

Dislike - I liked the carousel task switcher of the older Sense better than the 9 place grid.
The buttons are not real user friendly. The DNA top center button was just exactly where BB put theirs, and you could both feel it and reach it easily. Not so the power button of the One. My habit is to punch that button to sleep the phone as I pocket it. The volume rockers and also not easy to find.
The notifier light sucks. Useless. I do not need a light to tell me the phone is charging or charged. I DO need a light to tell me when I have a text or missed call, even when the phone is charging. Duh, HTC.
The 4x4 grid. Come on. HTC skinned Android. I'm sure they could have given me more grid positions than that. I would have been happy to keep Sense, but the grid is too sparse. I put Holo launcher on.
Lock screen - can I put my own widgets on it? If not, why not? I can on the S4. So far I don't see any way to change what's offered.
I wish I could scale the display. For instance, when using Navigon on this dense a display, you cannot read street names. They are too small. It's fine on a less dense screen, like the Razr MaxxHD. A setting to emulate a lower screen res for certain apps would be useful.

Don't care; two buttons, I'm fine with. It took me 2 minutes to adapt to that. Blink feed - eh. I am not a social animal. I frankly don't care what people are doing every minute, and I don't need news updates 24/7. If I want news, I will go to CNN or BBC or something. Or for tech news I will go to websites.

Beats, I fail to see the advantage. An equalizer would do the same trick. And I don't listen to the thumpy stuff that teenagers do. A little more nuanced music is my preference. Or some old school rock with nuanced screaming.

OS - one thing Android could learn from WP8 and iOS is battery management. WP8 will stretch a battery for days if you keep your hands off the phone. Not so Android. I don't know why, but there is a huge difference in idle time between Android and WP8 phones.

Quick boot - pointless. My phone is never off. I had no issue with the boot time of the old BB Curve, which was glacial in comparison to any modern handset.

 

[Scott Kenyon]

I agree with your list mostly. I've noticed between beats and the speakers, it's a lot better for acoustic guitar stuff than it is for hip-hop or electronic stuff. The way it sounds with the crisp mids is awesome. Also, the 9 panel switcher is a lot better than the carousel if you want to just switch to an app you used awhile ago. Everything else is pretty accurate IMO.

 

[H_Wordsmythe]

OP, how are you able to use an FM app? Other users here have stated that they can't get the radio to work.

 

[DS1331]

Hah thumpy stuff !

Sent from my HTC One

 

[MikeLip]

OP, how are you able to use an FM app? Other users here have stated that they can't get the radio to work.

It's just a streaming service. It's the preinstalled TuneIn app.

 

[MikeLip]

Hah thumpy stuff !

Sent from my HTC One

Yup As opposed to music with, you know, notes and fancy stuff like that.

 

[DS1331]

Fancy stuff !

Sent from my HTC One

 

[VidJunky]

Buttons - The power button was on this side with my Inc and then on the other side with my Rezound, and now they've moved it back. I'm starting to get whiplash with the back and forth. Now when they switched sides with the volume rocker I was good with that, because on my Inc I was always turning down the vol when watching a video or playing a game. However the new mid point vol rocker is a little more difficult to find, which may be why they textured it, but still once you've found it picking vol up or down is challenging.

Tasks - As for the 9 panel or carousel, it matters not to me, my beef is with the 2 button thing. I get that you have to double tap the button to get the previous or background app list, I changed the setup on mine, but I liked the long home press. And I have apps that do not have menus, that relied on the phone's menu button. Now they either work without being able to edit the options or don't work at all. There's no double tap for that.

Extras - Blink feed, where do I start with the giant waste that is? If it were an option I'd be OK with that, but to just stick you with it and that's that, that sucks. I've done everything I can to disable it, close it's eyes so to speak.

Screen - They keep making these beautiful screens bigger and bigger but still 4x4 is the best you can offer? That's genus. Really you should be able to, out of the box, pick your grid size. After all this is Android and not iSomething.

Battery - Now the OP talked about battery management as though Google has a whole lot to do with it. Ok they could build in some power management tools, actually on the other carrier versions of this phone they did, but 4.2.2 the Verizon version, is supposed to have those intergated making the options obsolete, but in reality HTC needs to invest a bit more in either battery quality, size, or both. Stop putting under sized batteries in these devices. Slim is nice, to a point, but at the end of the day, if your phone is dead before the end of the day, how slim it is in your pocket won't matter. They may suggest 8 hours of sleep but a lot of us are up longer than 16 hours a day.

My Beef - My only other beef is with Android, not this or any device per-say. First they took GPS and locked it up, and now they've locked up Airplane mode, stopping any app from enabling or disabling them. Even GMaps can't turn on the GPS of a Google device running Android? I don't get it? Maybe this is iSomething, or it's starting to feel like it.

 

[MikeLip]

Battery - Now the OP talked about battery management as though Google has a whole lot to do with it. Ok they could build in some power management tools, actually on the other carrier versions of this phone they did, but 4.2.2 the Verizon version, is supposed to have those intergated making the options obsolete, but in reality HTC needs to invest a bit more in either battery quality, size, or both. Stop putting under sized batteries in these devices. Slim is nice, to a point, but at the end of the day, if your phone is dead before the end of the day, how slim it is in your pocket won't matter. They may suggest 8 hours of sleep but a lot of us are up longer than 16 hours a day.

Well I agree with most of what you say, except this, Thing is, my 928 has a smaller battery and will outlast the One. So will the 8x. So SOMETHING is different. And it may just be that the software is less demanding, so the hardware doesn't have to suck up battery. But that comes to the same thing. W8 seems to be more efficient than any Android phone. Throwing battery at it is one solution, but that adds size and weight.

 

[VidJunky]

W8 seems to be more efficient than any Android phone. Throwing battery at it is one solution, but that adds size and weight.

Perhaps there could be a more efficient symbiosis between hardware and software. Apps like Juice Defender have been trying to bridge this gap for some time now. And yes it is surprising that OS devs haven't picked up on how many users have downloaded such apps and put a little more effort into emulating their effects. In the meantime under sizing their batteries for a few tenths of an ounce seems like a small price to pay. I'm sure your first phone weighed more and didn't fit into your pocket as well, but it lasted 2 days plus.

 

[MikeLip]

Perhaps there could be a more efficient symbiosis between hardware and software. Apps like Juice Defender have been trying to bridge this gap for some time now. And yes it is surprising that OS devs haven't picked up on how many users have downloaded such apps and put a little more effort into emulating their effects. In the meantime under sizing their batteries for a few tenths of an ounce seems like a small price to pay. I'm sure your first phone weighed more and didn't fit into your pocket as well, but it lasted 2 days plus.

Juice defender - doesn't work too well. I did some really extensive testing on it. At most it bought you like an hour runtime. So I suspect there is a lot to batteyr management that takes place both in the silicon and OS code to reduce clock frequency when the phone is idle, turn off cores and unused hardware, etc, that add-ons can't access. Android seems locked in a performance arms race, while WP8 and iOS have a simpler world to deal with, in terms of a far more controlled environment. They can get the performance they want and control the hardware to make sure they get the perfomrance as well. iOS is better at that than WP8, since they have total control, but WP is close. Android has to run on everything and I suspect the focus of the hardware makers is to get the OS to run, with running optimally a secondary consideration. Look at the S4 and performance at release for a good example of "hey, it works. Ship it!"

 

[VidJunky]

I'm not saying that the power apps work, I've never used one, but with so many people using them shows there's a demand. As if the complaints and comments of the forums wasn't enough. Lol. It does appear that their concern lies elsewhere.

 

[MikeLip]

There sure is a demand. I just developed the habit of plugging in whenever I have the opportunity. I do wish this thing was Qi compatible - I have several charging pads laying around. But the aluminum case prevents that, even if there were room for the pickup coil. Wireless charging is one of those things that look like "So what? I can just plug in." But once you have it, you're spoiled

 

[j_rivers]

Like - Very decent look, very nice camera, Good cpu&gpu.
Dislike - Short battery life, the heat...
Don't care about - Sense Ui ... I use some custom roms, It's fun to flash this excellent phone.

sent from my m7spr using tapatalk 4

 

[hawkeye16qb]

Like: design, screen, front speakers

Dislike: only able to wake with nearly recessed power button. Volume rocker difficult to use. Lockscreen notifications work only with stock apps, blink feed could be cool, but again you don't have complete choice as to where feeds are pulled from.

 

[freddyttt]

Love that on a sunny day I can actually use my phone...