HTC has a wide range of smartphones, with
nine models available for Android alone, but the company is taking a more
minimalist approach with its flagship One phone – this will be the only launch
in 2013. It’s a bold move, especially as HTC hopes the One will revive its
flagging fortunes.
The phone’s smooth aluminum shell feels
robust and rigid. The beveled edges and aluminum construction bear a passing
resemblance to the iPhone 5. It also looks and feels classy much more so than
many of Samsung’s plastic, creaky phones.
HTC
One Review
There’s no memory card slot so the built-in
32GB of storage can’t be upgraded. And the volume and power buttons are flat,
making them a little tricky to find by touch alone.
You may think the One’s four-megapixel
camera won’t be as good as the 13-megapixel cameras found in other Android
smartphones. However, HTC claims it has achieved superior picture quality,
especially in dimly lit conditions, by packing fewer megapixels into a bigger
sensor. Photos we took in low light were great, with faces and other details
visible, and there was minimal blur or distortion. However, photos taken in
daylight were darker than we expected. The low megapixel count also meant finer
details in landscape shots were lost or blurred, especially when photos were
cropped.
HTC
One size
HTC has squeezed
1,920 x 1,080 pixels into the bright 4.7in screen. This makes on-screen text
sharp, while photos look rich and detailed. Our one complaint about the screen
is that it makes the phono too big for some people to use single-handed.
The Android interface and apps ran smoothly
thanks to the powerful 1.7GHz quad-core processor.
One of the phone’s most distinctive
features is the minimalist interface HTC has added on top of Android. The first
screen is called Blink Feed, which is similar to the Flip board app. A
scrolling list of tiles show the latest news headlines as well as your friends’
Twitter and Facebook updates, but we found most of the headlines to be
US-centric.
Another useful addition is the ability to
add shortcuts to the home screens, which link to specific details, such as
icons that dial a number or load Google Maps with directions to an address. This
is similar to Windows Phone 8’s ‘pinning’ feature.
HTC has squeezed 1,920 x 1,080 pixels into the
bright 4.7in screen
Call quality in central London on
Vodafone’s network was clear, with little distortion. Callers on the other end
could still hear a construction site near us, but the One reduced these noises
to a murmur.
The HTC One’s battery life was good,
lasting more than 10 hours when playing videos. When making calls, finding
directions in Google Maps and browsing the web, the battery lasted 30 hours
better than most similarly priced phones.
The HTC One is beautifully made and
well-equipped. It is better than our previous favorite, the Samsung S3, and
will become the standard by which all other Android smartphones are judged.
Our verdict: 5/5
The best Android smartphone yet
Key points: Classy metal build – Long
battery life – Fast performance – Slick interface additions – Good low-light
photos – Awkward for single-handed use
Best price online: $795 or $103 on a
two-year, $55 a-month Vodafone contract
Alternative: Samsung Galaxy S3: $563. A superb
Android smartphone
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Specifications
§ Software:
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
§ Processor:
Quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600
§ Memory
slot: No
§ Display:
4.7in 1080x1920 pixels
§ Connectivity:
Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
§ Ports:
micro USB, 3.5mm headphone jack
§ Camera:
4 megapixel with autofocus, LED flash 1080p HD video-recording; 2.1 megapixel
front-facing camera with 720p HD video-recoding
§ Video
playback: aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma
§ Radio:
No
§ Battery:
2300mAh
§ Size:
137x68x9 mm
§ Weight:
143g
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