I got the HTC One yesterday from ATT, and it has blown me away. As background, I have been an Android fan and my wife is an iPhone fan. I currently have the S3 and my wife has an iPhone 5. I was waiting for the S4, but upon researching HTC One (CNet has a good review and comparison), I did not want to wait for the S4, and I am very happy with the decision. Ironically, I came upon the HTC name because I was researching the S4, and saw that Samsung pled guilty to hiring students in Taiwan to write negative reviews about HTC One. Strange but true.
Anyway, I am a tech junkie and wanted to provide some background to my thinking. In my opinion, an iPhone tries to combine high end components and squeezes out the best user experience possible from a limited, boring (and now aging) system-in short I think an iPhone is a very efficient design despite its limitations. Samsungs are the oppositepowerful, almost garish (TouchWiz and the plastic body, cheesy software) and full of software without regard to how it would actually workuser experience is pretty bad as I can attest to using S Voice. S4 sounds cool but in my experience Samsung flings all they can at a wall and hope that something sticks (and it has worked for them). It's the opposite of an iPhone. In my opinion, HTC falls in the middle and combines the best attributes from the two. Power and flexibility of Android, gorgeous beautiful design (the best I have EVER seen on a phone), and software features that are useful and sensibly implemented. I love HTC Sense on this phoneit is light and responsive, and I really like Blinkfeed(seems to be a Flipboard/Windows 8 copy but it works). Camera software has been updated, and Zoe (short 3 second "films") is geniusI never thought how cool it was till I tried it.
In terms of performance, the phone was very snappy and blazing fast with no lag whatsoever. Sound quality for calls was good and I particularly liked the speakerphones. Additionally, the sound from the stereo speakers was surprisingly loud, so much so that I could crank the phone up in a room and play music without needing external speakers. The highlight of the phone to me was the camera which excels in low light. HTC has halved the number of pixels (hopefully this will end the pixel arms race as it was getting ridiculous) but doubled the size of the sensor. So images in low light are outstanding and beats my S3 and iPhone 5 hands down.
I'll update the review as I spend more time with the phone (I'll also be posting this on CNet). This may be my "honeymoon" period with a new phone and maybe I am over-hyping this, but honestly I feel this is by far the best phone I've ever used, and it is an order of magnitude better than anything in the market today. Frankly, I think this is better than anything that has been announcedincluding the S4. I'm a very happy user.
UPDATE: It's only been a day so I did not put battery numbers but since someone asked me, I'll put my answer here as well. I went through a "normal" day today with regular calling, continuous push email from my work outlook email and personal yahoo email, some camera Zoe use and general "playing around" and had 50% left by the end of the day. I know that CNet's review had the continuous battery life at 9+ hours, equal to the vaunted iPhone battery life. Frankly, that is one of the reasons that I bought the phone as battery life is important to me. Given CNet review, and my limited experience today. I feel very comfortable about it. I'll update this in case my experience turns out to be different over the next couple weeks.
UPDATE 2: OK. The battery life rocks.It goes back to my statement of this phone being a very efficient systemlike the iPhone. I'm NOT a gamer, but I use the GPS/navigation a lot (in the excellent car mode for the phone that makes the display tailored for drivinglarge icons and less complicated and busy), emails all day for work, browsing/YouTube, making calls and camera. I also use the fantastic Google Now feature (not an HTC feature but an Android one)that figured out I was at the airport and automatically displayed my boarding pass on the screen-genius. Anyway, I digress :). During my normal use, the phone has about 50% of juice left after the day. It's very comforting. I don't understand why people complain about the non-removable batteryif they at least use it first before complaining they'd realize this thing can go on for a long time. The other thing I discovered was setting up my phone as an IR blaster remote to control my AV equipment. In this case, it was the HTC software that made what could be a passing novelty into a really useful function. Kudos to HTC. This is an amazing phone. Just wonderful.
UPDATE 3: I'm not sure if it is proper to do this or not but I'm feeling pretty good I did not wait for the S4. Here is a good review from Bloomberg that echoes the feelings I had about S3 I shared above. Looks like the S4 is no different. Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-24/samsung-stumbles-with-galaxy-s4-phone-rich-jaroslovsky.html
Earlier this year, I jumped ship from Apple (the iPhone 5, specifically) to Samsung's Galaxy Note II. In the process, I also went from AT&T to a rival carrier offering unlimited data and slightly lower monthly bills. While I liked the Note II very much, the data speeds on the other carrier were so poor that, only four months later, I found myself willing to eat the very large early termination fee and switch back to AT&T (who I knew firsthand to have LTE in this market). Since I was switching carriers and had the option to get a new phone, I figured I might as well pick up the latest and greatest on the Android front. Plus it just happened to be release day.
So, I now find myself in possession of the HTC One, and I can say without hesitation that it's the best smartphone I've ever owned (and that includes the Note II, the iPhone 5 and the previous generation iPhones I've had in the past).
As I said, I really liked the Samsung Note II. The display size, for me, was not completely absurd, though the display quality wasn't entirely to my liking -not crisp enough, and it had the slightly blue cast I notice on Samsung's Super AMOLED displays. The plastic build on the Samsung was also disappointing. I recognize that most people put their phones in cases, but I do not. I'm not careless with phones, and I've never been a fan of needlessly bulking up a device. Finally, Samsung seems to have a knack for stuffing in a lot of "gee whiz" features that seem impressive at first blush, but then get ignored completely because they're simply not very useful.
Those issues are all completely absent from the HTC One. While going from a 5.5" display to a 4.7" one was a bit uncomfortable initially, I've gotten used to it... and, yes, the smaller device is a bit easier to handle with one hand. But the HTC's display is spectacular. It currently has the highest pixel density of any smartphone on the market (and some that haven't hit yet -like the Galaxy S4), and text is amazingly crisp and smooth. It's bright enough that I usually keep it at half brightness comfortably. And the colors look natural, unlike the hyper-saturated look from Samsung.
The phone as a whole feels solid, but not heavy. It's heavier than the iPhone 5 (which honestly feels almost hollow), but it conveys a sense of substance, which is appealing. The HTC One is the first phone that matches the iPhone 5 in fit and finish, but takes it a step further by incorporating an industrial design that is more beautiful than the stark simplicity of the iPhone 5 without straying into "over-designed" territory. It's simple, but interesting and thoughtful... and it feels wonderful in the hand.
Having gotten used to Samsung's UI overlay, there was a little bit of a learning curve when switching to the HTC device, but in the end, I find it a much more elegant experience. Samsung tends to needlessly complicate things in a very ham-fisted way. HTC's Sense UI is much more subtle, and one gets the sense that every decision that was made in its creation was done thoughtfully and purposefully, instead of "just because we can." There are fewer bells and whistles, perhaps, but the ones that exist are genuinely useful and polished.
The front-facing, stereo speakers are great. The device can pump out some serious sound, and once you experience a stereo sound source, you'll wonder how you were ever satisfied with the sound quality on other smartphones. I'm not entirely convinced that Beats Audio is much more than a marketing gimmick, but there's no denying that having two front-facing speakers on opposite ends of the device make for a great listening experience.
The built-in IR blaster is an interesting addition. Its functionality is wrapped up in a pre-installed app that asks for your cable provider and location, lets you set up remote control functions for TV, cable box and A/V receiver... and then ties it all together. There's a handy feature that displays shows that are currently broadcasting (there's even a handy progress bar at the bottom so you can see how much of the show is remaining) and allows you to jump straight to them with a push of a button. You can also store multiple remote setups for different locations/TVs.
The camera. Ahhh, the camera. HTC very wisely eschews megapixels in favor of larger pixels on the sensor. Anyone who knows anything about digital cameras knows that devices touting extremely high megapixel counts are usually just pandering to an ill-informed consumer. Today's smartphones, with very few exceptions, all have the same camera sensor size. By stuffing in a greater megapixel count, the manufacturer is simply shrinking the size of the individual pixel... to fit more of them on the sensor. This results in very large photos, but at the cost of low-light performance. A tiny pixel on a sensor is capable of capturing far less light than a large pixel. The HTC One's rear-facing camera is a 4MP camera. Compared to the iPhone 5's 8MP camera, that sounds like a huge step backward. The reality is, unless you're planning to print out poster-sized photos, 4MP is more than sufficient. (And, no joke, if you're doing poster-sized prints, you should be using a real DSLR -not a phone.) The physical size of the sensors in the One and the iPhone 5, however, are very close -though, in fact, the HTC One's sensor is actually a bit LARGER than that of the iPhone 5. But it has half as many pixels. The pixels on the HTC One's sensor, however, are twice as large. Why does this matter? It allows the camera to capture more light much faster, which means superior low-light performance. For me, that's a big deal, since 90% of the time I use my phone to take a photo, it's indoors -frequently in a dim environment. The One's better innate low-light performance combined with the fact that it has optical image stabilization (as opposed to the inferior *electronic* image stabilization that most smartphones use) means more detail and better shots in darker situations.
In addition to the camera hardware, the software is excellent. I didn't realize how pedestrian Samsung's camera app was until I used this one. The settings make more sense, offering a nice level of control without being completely overwhelming, and it's all very intuitive.
One of my absolute favorite features of the HTC One is the Zoe feature (short for zoetrope). Instead of just capturing a still frame, Zoe mode captures a 3-second movie clip. You can pull out a full-size frame from the clip if you want, but far more interesting is to let the phone create an event highlight reel. Within the gallery app, photos and Zoes are organized into events (by date, as a default, though they can be reorganized as needed) and a highlight video is dynamically generated, which can be shared. These highlight videos are incredible. They seem to make even the most mundane subjects look interesting and exciting. They're only around 30 seconds each, but they give a much more rich and vibrant sense of the event. You can select one of six different "themes" for the highlight video, and you have the option of specifying which Zoe clips are included, but it literally takes seconds to create a polished, compelling video that would be a thousand times more interesting for others to see than flipping through a series of flat photos. Zoe and the highlight videos I think make one of the most promising new vehicles for sharing experiences I've seen in recent memory.
The downsides are well documented in other reviews, the two biggest being the lack of a micro-SD slot and a battery that is not user-replaceable. For me, these are a non-issue, but their importance will vary from user to user. The HTC One is available with either 32GB or 64GB of storage at this time. On my Note II, I had 16GB internal and a 64GB micro SD. After four months, I was using well below 16GB of storage space -my storage needs simply aren't that demanding. The HTC One, meanwhile, has twice that much space. And to upgrade to the 64GB model is only $100 more. Honestly, since I'm still within my 14 day return window, I *may* end up trading mine for the 64GB model, just so that I never have to think twice about it -I will definitely be using the camera more than I was on the Note II.
Some folks like to be able to add aftermarket, higher-capacity batteries. That would not be possible on the HTC One, but those high capacity batteries also add significant bulk and weight, which does not appeal to me. The micro-USB charging cable is easily available, and it's not a big deal to plug it in once in a while. That being said, the HTC One should have no trouble making it through a full day of fairly heavy use without needing a charge, but this will vary wildly from user to user. I'm also not concerned about the battery going bad. In several years and several smartphones, I've NEVER experienced it with any manufacturer or device, and I don't expect it to suddenly become a problem.
Really the only thing I might change on the HTC One is the position of the power button. I tend to hold the phone in my left hand and use the touchscreen with my right. Since the power button is on the top left corner, it requires quite a stretch with my left index finger to turn on (for checking the time, for instance, since I don't wear a watch). The power button, meanwhile, on the Note II was placed exactly where my left index finger rested when holding it, so I considered that placement ideal. I'm sure I'll get used to it.
If that seems like a minor thing to quibble over, that should give an indication of how satisfied I am with the device.
Android has finally caught up with iOS in terms of polish and performance. iOS, in fact, is getting a bit long in the tooth, whereas Android is very aggressively improving and evolving. So the software on the HTC One is great and eminently usable... and the hardware design is *at least* as good as the iPhone 5.
I repeat: this is the best smartphone I've ever owned.
Buy HTC One 4G Android Phone, Glacial Silver (AT&T) Now
******05/01/13 UPDATE*******
Ten days now and no problems to speak of, but I did find that some intensive games will make the phone heat up, not to the point you can't hold it, but it gets pretty warm. Simpler games have no effect. Everything else is great, I am really getting into Blinkfeed; my music sounds great through the speakers and even better through headphones. My next project is to explore the camera.
As I said before, I like to keep up on tech stuff. There is an article published on 04/30 that indicated the 16GB Galaxy S4 actually has only 8.8GB free for the consumer to use! And, that is not because of carrier bloat-ware, the test was done on an unlocked, sim-free device. A carrier-specific phone was also tested and guess what? 8.8GB too! That means Samsung has locked away 7.2GB for its own OS and features, as well as any carrier's installations, and none of that is accessible to the user, even if, say, only 5GB are actually needed. The ONE uses about 5GB for the OS, HTC's features, and the carrier's "stuff." So the pricing difference mentioned in the original post is even more dramatic: Samsung must really expect its customers will just bend over and say "Thank you Sir! May I have another?"
There are other recent articles providing more in-depth comparisons of the ONE vs the S4; see if you can guess the outcome of the majority of the tests. I found it interesting that the only time the S4 seems to come out ahead is when there are a number of "ties" and the author chooses the Samsung as the winner.
ORIGINAL POST:
I like to keep up on tech developments, so I was intrigued about the "M7" from HTC I began reading about in December. We all know that phone is now the ONE. I pre-ordered a 64GB ONE and have had it for just over a week now. There are some really great personal reviews here on Amazon that discuss all of the features of the phone, as well as dozens of professional reviews out there (and an amazing thesis by Brian Klug that HTC should adopt as its owners manual; look for the pull-down at the end of the first page then make a sandwich and sit back, the entire review is literally 93 pages including photos and charts. EVERYTHING you want to know about this phone is contained in his article at www.anandtech.com/show/6747/htc-one-review). I agree with them 100% and there is really nothing I can add that has not already been said. So, I am not going to address all of the features and capabilities of the ONE, as that would be redundant in light of all the other reviews. Instead I want to focus on why you should buy this phone over all the others available, and on the differences in the specs. (I will add to this review over the next few days so check back.)
First and foremost is the appearance; in a sea of bland sameness, the ONE can be spotted a mile away. Some argue it looks like the iPhone, the Z10, or any other rectangular phone. Well, there are only so many useable shapes, so, yeah, I guess it is geometrically similar. The real test then would be to lay down a dozen similarly shaped phones, devoid of any labeling, in a grid pattern and see how long it would take to pick it out from the rest. Once anyone has seen this phone in person, it would be a matter of seconds before your eyes would spot it in the crowd. It is simply that beautiful and unique.
The feel of the phone in your hand is also something so different it is really hard to explain. It is almost sensual (not to be confused with sexual, I am making a point here). It is like gripping a very well designed steering wheel in a sports car (think BMW M3) as opposed to an everyday driver; or holding a well balanced carving knife with an ergonomic handle, compared to something you might buy on sale at Wal Mart; or putting your hand into a seasoned baseball glove, compared to a new, stiff, vinyl glove. The shape, the texture, the heft, the coolness of the metal..it all just FEELS right. It is something you can't put on paper, you have to experience it for yourself. Other phones feel like a cheap kid's toy whereas the ONE feels expensive. It feels special in comparison.
The features of the ONE are actually very well thought out and I understand HTC spent quite some time learning how people use their phones. Take Blinkfeed, for example. Many reviewers have stated they see no need for it and I was skeptical at first, but after a week I find it very useful. If your home computer has Yahoo or MSN homepage and you watch it for news, sports, business updates, you will absolutely love Blinkfeed. Unlike your computer homepage, HTC allows you to choose the sources of your information so you get the updates you are interested in and nothing else. How useful is that?
Sense 5 has changed the look of typical Android a bit, but nothing that won't become second nature to you in the first couple of days using the ONE. Those of you new to Android, there is nothing to worry about as you won't know the difference anyway. And we are talking minor changes, nothing quite as drastic as, say, going from Windows 7 to 8. Other companies will try to point out that these changes ruined the phone. To them I say, get over it! Things and people change every day and we all survive; swiping up in the app tray instead of sideways is not life-changing, I think I'll live through it.
Speaking of Android, the ONE uses 4.1, the most recent version is 4.2. The only difference is about a half dozen features that I won't go into here. You can search 4.1 vs 4.2 for an exact understanding. However, I will say that every reviewer that has commented on the fact the the ONE ships with 4.1 and the GS4 ships with 4.2 has said that the difference in the OS is so small that is doesen't matter, in addition to which Sense 5 itself makes up for some of the differences. Other reviewers have stated they actually like 4.1 better and will not upgrade their personal devices until KLP is released. Google was expected to release KLP in May but now apparently it is going to be held back a couple of months. The reason is irrelevant to this discussion; but the point is there is a very good likelihood HTC will skip the 4.2 upgrade for the ONE and go directly to KLP. When will that happen; who knows?
The camera is perhaps the most controversial feature. If you don't already know, the megapixal race is a sham, more just means more, and it doesn't really cost the manufacturers that much to jam more in for bragging rights. I love to hear owners, especially the smug ones, talk about their 8, 13, 21...MP cameraphones; they wouldn't know an MP from an M&M. Any photographer will tell you that all multiple MPs are really good for is enlarging a photo for the purpose of either cropping or a poster sized print, without losing detail. I am willing to wager the vast majority (90+%) of you reading this have never done either with a picture taken from your phones.
Most of us use the camera on our phone because it is convenient, not because of the great shots they produce. How many wedding photographers use a cell phone as their camera? Would you hire one that did? Most of the shots we take are indoors and all of the comparison tests have shown the ONE is the best camera for that purpose. Outdoor shots are just fine as well, but admittedly, there are some phones that are better suited for outdoors, but only in daylight. For night shots, the ONE is again the winner. The bottom line here is to remember you are buying a smartphone that by its very nature has many, many purposes. If you are buying a smartphone because you need a great camera, your priorities are screwed up: go buy a DSLR.
Next is the sound quality, specifically, Boomsound; great feature, lousy name. The sound this device puts out will rival any personal speaker system on the market. The only thing it won't do is replace a speaker system designed for parties (think Beats Box portable bluetooth speaker). In a room with just a few people, the phone is all you need and even then you may need to turn it down. The sound quality is simply great, not tinny, weak or buzzy, like the sound coming from every other phone on the market, bar none. In fact, I like to play the live version of U2's "God Part II", or Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" just to see the expession on the face of my friends. Try that with whatever you are currently using or any of the competition and you will just get laughs, not an "Oh, WOW!"
And speaking of "Oh, wow," Samsung has added some really interesting "gee-wiz" features, that I don't see anyone ever using after the first week. Waving at the screen instead of touching it, tilting the phone up or down to scroll...I mean, really? You have to hold the thing in your hand, how hard would it be to do it the "old-fashioned" way and actually put your finger on the screen and swipe? Your movements cannot be subtle or they won't be read. Do you really want to look like some fool nodding and gesturing at your phone in public? In addition, some of the features only work on Samsung apps. For example, looking away pauses videos, but not on You Tube, so even if you wanted to buy the GS4 for that purpose, it won't work! Samsung loaded the GS4 with features because it could, not because they are something anyone wants, needs, or would use; and yet they are some of the major selling points. Features for the sake of features means nothing; make them useful.
Two other points that should be set straight are events in the news. Most recently, Nokia announced they had won an injunction against HTC selling the ONE in Holland, over the use of microphones designed by Nokia (which, by the way are fantastic in making the phone calls clear as can be in very noisy environments and also allow for recording songs at live concerts so you can play them back and hear the song clearly thank you Nokia). The truth, however, is the injunction was against the company that manufactured the microphones for Nokia, and is not to sell them to any other company for six months. The manufacture and sale of the ONE are not affected by the injunction outside of Holland, except that HTC will have to get another supplier for the microphones after their current stockpile runs out.
The other point has to do with the predatory marketing by Samsung of the GS4. It is a fact that Samsung was caught indirectly paying students in Taiwan (home of HTC) to write false blogs and negative comments slamming the ONE and HTC, and at the same time promoting the qualities of the GS4 and Samsung. They did not even try to deny it, they just apologised like it was nothing. Samsung is now the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world; it makes me wonder exactly how they got that way. So let's see: their products are good, but not world beating; their advertising budget is larger than the GNP of some nations; they have an immense customer base which is very loyal, and will close-mindedly shout down any challenger that dares to produce a superior product. Wait a minute, why would people do that? What Samsung did in Taiwan couldn't happen here...could it? Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice...
HTC went above and beyond to design and engineer a fantastic phone and it definitely deserves your consideration. The GS4, however, is just a reiteration of the GS3, improved yes, but really just more of the same. The ONE and the GS4 have excellent and similar/same specs, so the real difference is the physical appearance and two characteristics: expandable memory and removable batteries. As you know, Apple has neither, and yet there are millions of iPhones out there so it evidently is a matter of choice, not necessity. The ONE is $199 for 32GB and the GS4 is $249 with 32GB (add a 32GB SDXC micro card and you are up to $299). For that price you can have a 64GB ONE [all pricing is per AT&T; Amazon pricing is definitely better and can vary day-to-day].
As for the battery life, in the week I have owned my ONE I have recharged it four out of seven nights, the lowest the battery ever got was to 18% after two days. Normally I don't charge every night unless I am going to be out running around in the morning. I have/use a charger at home, in the office and in my car; I also have a 3000mAh portable battery bank that can dump 50% of its charge into another device in well less than an hour and fully charge an 1850mAh battery in about 90 minutes. I wonder about those who post comments about their swapping out batteries midday. Just what are they doing with their phones, and if they really need that much battery life why don't they already own a Razor MAXX?
Let's break this down: demanding a replaceable battery means you have already resigned yourself to buying a second battery for your brand new phone (at least $45 because we know you aren't going to buy generic) and a seperate battery charger (at least another $45 because someone like you doesn't have the time to recharge both batteries in-phone). With tax, we'll call it an even $100. So, no matter what replaceable-battery-phone you buy, EVERY time you buy, you can count on paying an additional $100 over the price of the phone itself, because God knows, no manufacturer of a replaceable-battery-phone is going to use the battery/charging system from the previous model. The obvious financial solution to this particular problem would be the one-tme purchase of a portable battery bank that plugs into any device with a micro-USB charging port. You are already planning on carrying that extra batery, a battery bank isn't that much larger. But, you say, "my way I can swap the batteries and forget it." Ok, so you are saying your phone never sits in your pocket, purse, briefcase, desk drawer, etc, for 45-90 minutes untouched (and even then, I can use my phone with the bank plugged in or unplug it if I absolutly need to)? You don't use a bluetooth device? You have to handle your phone on a constant basis, LITERALLY? Well, then I guess I can't help you. But if I made my point, then a replaceable battery is not really a deal breaker. Pick up the ONE.
The ONE is without a doubt the best smartphone that has ever been built. I cannot recommend it highly enough. You really don't need to look any further or at any other phone. This is the ONE!!
Read Best Reviews of HTC One 4G Android Phone, Glacial Silver (AT&T) Here
This phone is phenomenal, I've had it for about two days now and let me tell you, the reviewers were not lying about this phone; it's fantastic! I've posted some pictures so you can see the phone up close and have an idea of what you're getting. For my review, I'll split it up into multiple paragraphs that relate to features of the phone.
Build Quality:
Simply amazing, right out of the box it feels like I am wielding Thor's hammer in my hand, the aluminum back really makes a difference, oils don't catch on it, it doesn't heat up (even with extensive use), friends that own iPhones have been asking to see this phone and everyone else has been blown away by it, the 200+ minutes that they spent making this phone really shows, from the drilled speakers to the comfortably curved backside.
Battery:
Great, simply the best. This battery has held it's own throughout my day, I can safely confirm that when I first got the phone it had an 80% battery life, and after 5 hours of screen on time, the phone was down to 5%. This was on Wifi however, but when I've tested it over a mobile network it has done a days work with a couple hours of screentime in addition to 18 hours of standby, and has around 30% left.
Speakers:
To Die For. I've never been a fan of listening to music on phones, or at least not blasting my music through the phones speakers; I would always use headphones. Let me tell you that I stand before you a changed man, the speakers on this phone eclipse my ASUS monitor's! They deliver thundering bass and tremendous treble, driving by a busy 5 lane main road I was able to hear my music perfectly fine.
Screen:
Bright, it's simply the best. Pixels? They don't exist with this phone, you'd need a microscope to find them, I couldn't detect and with my phone 4 inches from my eyes, it's amazing how this 4.7 inch LCD screen has the same pixel count as my 47 inch HDTV! The screen can stay visible a foot away from a lamp that is shining right at it (see pictures).
Camera:
The back and front camera's are great, the back one takes perfect pictures and video in low light conditions and the front camera detects my face very fast and unlocks. Zoe is... well, it's a good feature but it's not one that I feel is great, Zoes (for lack of a better term) take up a lot of space. For example: I can take roughly 800 Zoes (this is with about 24 gigabytes of data remaining) or I can take 10,000 regular pictures. I feel that an animated photo album is kind of a waste, but, to each his own. See the video review and pictures for examples.
Blinkfeed:
Great for news and updates, but tough on the battery, also it's very annoying how it cannot be removed, you can however change your homescreen to another home tab.
Call quality:
Very good, the person on the other end thinks I'm speaking on a landline, this is possible because of multiple noise cancelling headphones.
I'm somewhat limited on time so I have to end the review here, however I will update this review as time goes on and I use this phone more. Ultimately I can tell me and this phone are going places. This is a good, solid phone that deserves the praise it is getting. Is this phone for you? That I can't tell you, I can however tell you my experience with it. If you have any questions that I haven't answered, feel free to respond via a comment and I'll try to get back to you when I can.
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Yes I am that Apple fanboy who used to wait in every line when every iteration of the iPhone was released. I have owned every iPhone from the very first one and have loved the design and software of every phone. Only recently did I become seriously interested in Android based phones again because of the Galaxy S4 and all of its cool features like preview without touching the screen or eye tracking. I have tried Android phones in the past as well as Windows 7 phones, and I never thought I would give them a shot again but Samsung's big marketing push peaked my interest.
Most of you know of at least one person who is always getting the latest iPad, iPhone, Kindle, etc. and you think to yourselves, " why is such and such always wasting money on such frivolous things?'...well Im that guy. I am the one who buys into the latest and greatest because I see the value that these items bring to everyday life. When I got the first iPhone, my friends and family who owned Motorola Razrs told me they can check their email from home and there was no need to be connected to email 24/7. Well those people, all of them, now own iPhones (lol). I was just as excited as any Apple fan boy when the iPhone 5 came out and it was nice to have the larger screen, but ultimately the hardware is seeing diminishing returns on its coolness factor. Still without a doubt, the iPhone is a fantastic phone and I love it. Yet, those droid phones and their large HD screens with cool features...
So I went to a brick and mortar and picked up a Galaxy S4 because of all of the features that samsung developed that the iPhone lacked and it had a larger screen. First, hardware wise, the S4 is amazing thin and light. But it's made of plastic and it feels cheap. Most people would think to themselves, as did I, who cares about design and feel because it is all about function. Boy was I wrong...imagine a flat rectangular piece of plastic that is large so you must hold it with your fingers rather than let it sit in the palm of your hand. It is flat so it doesn't sit in your palm. One of the reasons Apple has stuck to small phones is because you can do everything with one hand. Because of the S4's shape you need to do everything with two hands. Yes I am a normal sized male with normal sized hands...it became rather frustrating when I could not text with one hand let alone do all of the other tasks with the phone I normally do with one hand. But most importantly, it is very uncomfortable to hold. It makes typing emails painful. Another super cool feature of the S4 I liked was that I could expand the memory with a micro sd card. Who would't want to add an extra 64gb of memory so you could store thousands of pictures without syncing the phone with your computer? Well that feature is fantastic, but when I removed the back, plastic, cover it was about the cheapest thing I have felt in ages. The back cover snaps off and cracks and creaks and you just wish Samsung would put a little effort into the design. Another downside to Samsing's screen is it's SUPER AMOLED screen. Colors are too saturated and are cartoonish which gets annoying rather quickly. It's almost as if they are the extreme opposite to Apple and think function over design...but in this day and age, you would expect everyone to realize people really want the best of both worlds.
Welcome to the HTC ONE...It has a bigger screen( than the iPhone but smaller than the S4), higher resolution screen, beautiful design, AWESOME SPEAKERS, and a very ergonomic design. The screen is better than both the iPhone 5 and Galxy s4 and it is noticeable to me rather easily. Almost every review will tell you that the resolution between all three phones is insignificant, which it absolutely is if you are looking for individual pixels. But for someone who used a Retina display since the iPhone 4s came out, I can tell you that the HTC One sets the new standard for the best phone screen available. The S4's screen isnt even worth comparing because it is so bad. I personally use my speaker on my phones quite often, mostly for speaker phone or movies and music. Every portable device I have ever owned I always wished that the sound didnt sound so tinny and weak. The HTC one is AMAZING when it comes to sound. Not only is it loud but it is really clear. I love using the speakers and on top of that I never have my ringer on full volume simply because it is too loud. I have missed my ringer on my iPhone countless times, but the HTC One is so loud I can hear the ringer in the loudest of situations in normal daily life. Now to ergonomics...I can use the phone with one hand and it sits in my palm. I couldn't appreciate that detail until the S4 made me realize how important it was to have. Ergonomics on a phone matter more than most give it credit for. Last but not least, the design; the phone is simply the best designed phone I have ever seen. When the iPhone 1 came out it was beautiful and stunning. That's what I think of the HTC One and now I think the iPhone 5 seems like the iPhone old...Also the iPhone 5 is made of aluminum but mine scratched rather easily and chipped as well. I was even accused by Apple of dropping my phone because it was so scratched up. I put a case on it to prevent further scratching...who expects aluminum to scratch? Well not HTC because the One is made from aluminum and it doesn't scratch. Think macbook pro, macbook air type aluminum. All around this is the best phone I have put my hands on in ages and Apple is playing catch up to this device.
Android This software isn't for everyone. Yes one of it's best qualities is that you can customize it to the way you want. But his is also one of its worst qualities. You can install lots of free apps that advertise bloat ware...that's a small example. It takes some time getting used to but those flaws are more of Google's problems rather than HTC.
Anyways, I never thought I would like a non Apple phone better than the iPhone, but the day has come. The HTC One is the best phone on the market. I am no programmer or hacker...I use my phone like the other 99% of the majority. For the majority of people this is the phone to get. You won't regret it.
5/14/2013 Battery life on all three phones is roughly the same in my opinion. I use my phone to text, talk maybe 10-30 minutes a day, play an hour of video games, browse the web and listen to Spotify for a good hour at the gym everyday. In terms of real world purposes, none of these phones really give us what we want in terms of battery life. They can all get us through one day of normal usage but still won't get us through two full days with normal usage. So for all three phones you can use them everyday and will need to charge them every night.
After a few days of usage, I am still loving the One more and more. The iPhone 5 after a few days of use was already picking up scratches whereas the One doesn't even show a hint of picking up scratches. I always carry my phones in my left pocket with no other items and somehow my iPhone managed to get scratched.
And one more thing, after using Apple for a few years now, I have become used to having many choices of accessories to chose from with the iPhone. As for the HTC one, it's almost laughable at how little attention the device gets from third party vendors. So if you like having a stylish case or other weird accessories likes lens attachments, don't keep your hopes up if you switch to a non Apple device.
I suggest that if you plan to invest in a decent recorder this is not the one. Make sure you look for alternatives (make a list of what you want out of a player.) I intended to record my class lectures and discussions and bought it without researching (bad idea). Now I'm in the process of looking for another player.
