The HTC One: A Remarkable Device, Anand’s mini Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 21, 2013 4:49 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Mobile
- HTC One
Android/Sense
The One ships with Sense 5.0, and I have to say that the latest version of Sense is really the first custom Android skin that I don’t mind. I’m not sold on Blinkfeed, the default homescreen that allows you to aggregate content from multiple web sources as well as Twitter and Facebook, but thankfully you can easily change that default to something more traditionally Android.
With Sense 5.0 HTC dramatically reduced the presence of widgets on the default home screen. Other than the Blinkfeed screen, there’s only a single home screen by default and the only widget on that screen is a Google search box. You can obviously add all of the widgets you want, but this is a noticeable departure from HTC’s strategy in the past. To be honest, it’s a lot cleaner.
Sense 5.0 isn’t intrusive, and the work HTC has done in the gallery app sort of make the customizations worth it (more on this later). Even the default pre-load of apps is very sensible.
Thanks to the underlying use of Android 4.1.2 combined with the fast Snapdragon 600 SoC, UI frame rate is incredibly smooth. Some interactions are still not perfect (e.g. zooming in Google Maps) but the overall experience is very polished and very fast.
Performance & Battery Life
The One is the first Snapdragon 600 based smartphone that I’ve used regularly. For those who aren’t familiar with Qualcomm’s latest branding change, Snapdragon 600 refers to a quad-core Krait 300 based SoC with Adreno 320 graphics (APQ8064T). The SoC still uses the same 28nm LP process as the previous quad-core flagship (APQ8064), but clocks are a bit higher (1.7GHz in the One, 1.9GHz in the Galaxy S 4).
GPU clocks appear unchanged, which is contrary to what I was told at the launch of Krait 300 but it’s entirely possible that we’ll see implementation with higher GPU clocks.
Performance, as I mentioned before, is very good. Even the speed of the NAND HTC used in the device is among the best I’ve seen in Android devices. We’re still not yet at the point where I believe smartphone SoC performance is good enough, but at least we won’t see a huge jump in SoC performance (at similar power) until the move to 20nm in mid to late 2014.
The impact of all of this on battery life, as always, depends on your usage model. I’ve been using the international One on AT&T, and 3G battery life is comparable to the iPhone 5 on the same network (non-LTE) at identical brightness levels. I have yet to see what the difference will be like with LTE enabled.
Obviously with four cores and a larger, higher resolution display, the One definitely has the ability to draw more power than the iPhone 5. Keep the cores more active and/or drive the display at very high brightness levels and you’ll see worse battery life. For the past couple of years I’ve been talking about the increase in dynamic range when it comes to smartphone battery life, the One is no different in this regard. Brian will have a full rundown of battery life data on the One in his review.
Other Frills: Of Big Screens and Usability
For me, the iPhone 5’s display is a little too small, and the One is probably a little too big. I think I agree with Brian here in that the ideal display size is somewhere around 4.3”. That being said, I find both devices (the 5 and the One) to be comfortably usable. The 5 is better for one handed use, while the One is better for actually consuming web content. In pocket, the One is thin enough to not be a problem.
Although it’s probably a bit overkill, I am pleased with the move to 1080p across all of the high end Android smartphones. The One’s display looks excellent and lacks the oversaturated colors of the alternative AMOLED displays.
The One also features stereo speakers that get impressively loud (louder than any other smartphone I’ve used, by a considerable margin). I keep my phone on silent all the time but when showing others highlights reels, the One’s loud stereo speakers definitely come in handy.
The final element of the One that I’m really happy about is the integration of 802.11ac support. The One is good for WiFi speeds of up to 275Mbps (that’s actually tested, not theoretical).
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nerd1 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
Most people will prefer carrying one or two additional battery than carrying 6000mah battery every time.flyingpants1 - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
I agree. But why not at least have the option, a model with expanded battery like the MAXX? Most manufacturers don't let you swap batteries in the manner you mentionCeriseCogburn - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
That's why they give you the cheapo thin battery, you can't swap it.Take that thought back to the iphonetard rants on the prior pages that user replaceable battery is who wants it...
OF COURSE EVERYONE WANTS IT.
On Samsung, just buy the thicker mod back cover and the huge battery. Add the 64GB sd for $50.
Now the all day with monster movie storage and music to spare, and personal HDR video up the wazz is ready to go.
There are many reasons Samsung now dominates
acky2lum - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
Not really, we are not talking about power banks VS extra battery. We are talking about no need to carry around an extra piece, no plug in and use at the same time, no turning off and on the phone to switch battery. Besides, how much could that extra weight be? Barely noticable.TrackSmart - Thursday, March 21, 2013 - link
I was playing devil's advocate to your rant by stating the obvious (and the *very relevant* if you are a phone manufacturer): Many users are finding it easy to get through the day on a single charge with today's more power-efficient smartphones. The 3-5 hours of screen time you mention, plus long standby time, is 'adequate' for many people. Hence the design tradeoffs we are seeing from manufacturers. In a world where manufacturers are trying to have only a single flagship phone, they are looking to hit the middle 90% of users. That stinks for the 10% whose needs are not being met.As I stated, I'd also like the option of a bigger battery to be available. But there is an obvious reason why manufacturers are making the tradeoffs they are making.
flyingpants1 - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
There are other good reasons to make a phone that works for longer than 4 hours. Battery life can be a selling point for the mainstream as well. Most smartphone users do complain about it. There is a huge third party market for external/extended batteries. Every manufacturer now makes the same phone with the same specs (Snapdragon, 5"), and only two, Apple and Samsung, make money (slight exaggeration). It's not like they have anything to lose by trying something different. If you took a poll asking "would you make your 2mm thicker if it gave you 1.5x battery?" I think the response would be overwhelmingly "Yes".Razr MAXX had a very positive response. If you actually sit down and look at a Maxx - it would be possible to build one with a 5050mah battery and have it fit into a slightly modified otterbox commuter case (the smaller 15mm version). Everything fits with no increase in dimensions. t
That's just a first attempt by me, and I'm no engineer.
In the very near future (3-4 years) our phones will have IVB-like performance and hundreds of gigs of storage, they'll slowly replace laptops for many people. When that time comes I'd rather be able to use my device for more than 4 hours.
CeriseCogburn - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
The umm RETARDS in this area are suffering from the childhood trauma, which they never outgrew, where their led text flipphone was a bulky wad that hurt their sidie side and tum tum and butty butt when they laid down or sat down or rolled over... the forever scarring just can't be shaken... some of them ever had to wear a belt and use a leather belt holder or their first pants bulge ever ruined their press line.So ever since they got a boo boo with the formerly thick as a golf ball original palm helds, they've been on a rage...
Now 9mm is way too thin to complain about, but the forever scarred can't get a grip - often literally because the phones are too thin already to grip them... now that it matters, their nanny nanny boo boo matters, and that's about it.
flyingpants1 - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - link
I'm extremely proud and honored that a well-known troll supports my position. Thank you.You're right, 9mm should be just fine. Did anyone complain about the 12.7mm HTC EVO 4G (original)? But instead of incrementally increasing capacity, they make it thinner. It's important to note that the market didn't choose this, because there were no alternative options.
CeriseCogburn - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
You should be since I'm correct nearly 100% of the time, and have to correct the true children trolls who do not think with their borg acquired estrogen hispter spewlaid that has been crammed down their throats, did a 180 and sucked up into the tiny spongegourd they wield ineffectively.Let's face it, with the focus group the retards win saying thin thin thin.
Like I said they will continue in that clueless vein until the phone slices one of their digits off.
At that point they will consider some options and perhaps make their way toward being reasonable instead of spewing hipster lines.
CeriseCogburn - Friday, March 22, 2013 - link
I wholly expect "them" to demand thinness until the sharp alu metal edges of their "feeeel" mobile phone slices a few of their fingers off.At that point, they will reconsider "thinness". Until then expect them to remain utterly insane.