HTC returns with a sleek aluminum design, re-imagined software and a bold new camera experience
Were all out of poetic ways to describe HTCs current situation. A frustrating 2012 saw some of the years best mobile hardware being met with declining sales and market presence for the Taiwanese manufacturer. Once the leader of the Android pack, HTC is increasingly seen as an also-ran.
That, in part, was down to the confused marketing strategy around last years HTC One series. The One X and One S were soon joined by Ones V, VX, XL, XT, XC, SU, SV, SC, and X+, further diluting the value of an already watery brand.
In 2013, however, there is only one One. The new HTC One is, as the name suggests, the singular focus of HTCs high-end efforts. The companys best build quality, software, screen and optics are to be brought to bear in a kitchen sink product that aims to leave no holds barred.
Its also a device that seeks to achieve differentiation at every point on the spec sheet. As other smartphones are increasingly faceless, monolithic black slabs, HTC sandwiches its screen between two bassy front-facing speakers. BoomSound. As competitors crank out 13-megapixel shooters, HTC bucks the trend with a much lower megapixel count, but larger pixels and improved optics. UltraPixels. Add to that a new way to shoot and share images and video. Zoe Share. Plus, a new home screen experience that brings the world to you. BlinkFeed.
And lets not forget how rare it is to come across a decent aluminum smartphone these days.
If HTC is to recover, itll be through a combination of intelligent marketing and great products. We cant review the former, but you can bet were going to get stuck into the latter. In fact, well do it right after the break, in our definitive review of the new HTC One.
  Stunning design, and some of the best build quality weveseen in an Android smartphone. Near-perfect screen with excellent colors and viewing angles. Incredibly speedy performance, completely lag-free interface and an attractive, streamlined Sense UI. Excellent audio quality from the front speakers (and bundledearbuds). TheUltraPixelcamera performs really well in low light ... |  but the the overall camera experience doesn't quite live up toHTCshype. Certain features like Video Highlights could be better implemented. Thewonkybutton setup takes some getting used to.BlinkFeedis useful but underdeveloped. |
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TheHTCOne is an exquisite piece of design and engineering. From the hardware to the software,HTCsnew handset incorporates some of the very best design work in the industry. If theres something to be disappointed about, it might be the much-vauntedUltraPixelcamera. Which is not to say its bad per se -- in fact, its pretty good. But its a long way off being the silver bullet to cure all your mobile photography woes, and though its low-light performance is fantastic, it still lags behind the competition in some other areas. In spite of this, is itHTCsbest phone yet? Without question. And on balance, is it the best Android phone you can buy? For the moment, absolutely. | |
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HTC One unboxing video
More: HTC One video walkthrough
HTC One hardware review
Theres a certain futility about merely describing a device like the HTC One. We could fill paragraphs talking about each little nuance of its gorgeous brushed metal chassis, but to really understand and appreciate this phone you need to hold it in your hand. Neither renders nor photographs do it justice. What were trying to say here is that the HTC One is a very pretty piece of technology indeed.
The basic profile of the HTC One is a lot like the Droid DNA or its international cousin, the JButterfly, but the feel is strikingly different. HTCs recent history of polycarbonate designs makes way for a welcome return to the aluminum unibodies of old. This curved aluminum block is HTCs most precisely-crafted phone yet. Reflective, diamond-cut chamfers adorn the edges of the casing, and the back has a subtle, ergonomic curve to it. (On the inside, HTC sandwiches the battery between the screen and PCB to achieve this look.) In the hand, its light yet substantial, and the feel of the brushed aluminum leaves you in no doubt that youre holding a premium product.
An injected matte plastic trim can be found around the edge and back of the HTC One, and this houses part of the phones antenna assembly (on an all-metal phone, its got to go somewhere). It also breaks up the exposed metal areas quite nicely -- on the silver version were reviewing its white; on the black version its black. It houses the microSIM tray on the left edge, and on the right side its punctuated by a metal volume rocker. Up top is the power button, and theres a good reason for its being there -- it also doubles as an IR blaster for the Sense TV app.
Thankfully, theres no protruding One X-style camera hump this time around -- in fact, the camera is slightly recessed into the chassis itself. This way it doesnt interfere with the flow of the curved back -- however, the lens may be more vulnerable to scratches when the the device is laid flat.
On the front sits a SuperLCD 3 panel at 1920x1080 resolution, and this has to be one of the best-looking screens weve ever seen. It uses the same display tech as the Droid DNA, but HTCs condensed this 1080p panel into a 4.7-inch space, making it sharper than ever, at 468 pixels per inch. Its colors are bright and vivid without being overblown, and theres no discoloration or wash-out when viewing at oblique angles. Being a modern LCD, the HTC Ones screen is expectedly excellent in outdoor performance.
The flattened business end of the HTC One is also home to its two front-facing speakers, forming part of HTCs BoomSound system. This combination of larger speakers, more advanced membranes and Beats Audio results in the loudest and bassiest sound experience weve heard on any smartphone, without sacrificing clarity. For music and video content, thats great. But on anything but the lowest volume setting, its almost too loud for regular notifications and ringtones. Powering on the HTC One for the first time, youre assaulted by the full force of BoomSound in HTC jingle form. And the first phone call you receive on the device will be equally terrifying if it strikes you unprepared.
More: Hear a comparison of BoomSound against the Galaxy Note 2, Nexus 4 and HTCOne X.
On the subject of audio, we should also mention the bundled HTC earphones. Theyre not Beats-branded, but theyre about as good as the urBeats in-ear cans offered with some HTC handsets last year, and a significant step up from the truly awful HTC earbuds included with earlier devices. Kudos to HTC for not skimping in this area.
Beneath the screen is the one seriously questionable design decision we almost don't have to point out -- HTCs unique button setup. Unlike about every other Android phone on the planet, youre limited to just a back and home key on the HTC One. No multitasking key, no menu key. To jump to the task-switcher, you have to double-tap the home button. Want Google Now? Long-press the home key. We adjusted to the new button setup pretty quickly, but it's one nasty holdover from HTCs 2012 phones. Moreover, it takes the home button out of the easiest part of the phone to reach -- the center.
Apps that require the menu key -- including the bundled Twitter application -- reclaim a lower portion of the screen to make way for a virtual menu button. The dreaded black bar. Whether HTC or app developers are to blame is debatable, but regardless its an ugly way of handling legacy apps, and one that detracts from the otherwise slick software experience.
On the inside, the HTC Ones hardware credentials mirror its impressive exterior. Its running the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 CPU -- a quad-core chip at 1.7GHz -- with 2GB of RAM and 32 or 64GB of storage. Qualcomms new chip is about as fast as it gets in the Android space right now, and that was reflected in our daily use of the HTC One, which has been a completely lag-free experience with no slow-down and lightning-fast app loading times.
Were using the European model here in the UK, which packs 32GB of internal storage; other territories, including some Asian countries, will get a 64GB option. Storage is arranged in a single partition for both apps and media, and the HTC One connects to PCs and Macs via MTP connection, in line with Googles guidelines. Theres no removable storage option -- unless you count HTC Senses ability to connect USB thumb drives -- but with a minimum of 32GB on-board, were not going to make too much fuss over this.
The version weve got also supports European 4G LTE frequencies -- 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz -- which are the main three in use in the UK and mainland Europe. In addition, youve got quad-band HSPA at speeds of up to 42Mbps. The HTC One is also one of the first phones to boast 802.11ac Wifi compatibility, so thats an added bonus for owners of the latest super-fast Wifi routers. Both Wifi and Bluetooth capabilities work as expected.
And yes, it makes phone calls, too. HTCs touting new software tweaks called VoiceSense, which automatically cranks up the call volume in loud environments. VoiceSense joins an array of other voice call features, including the ability to ring louder when the phones in a bag or pocket, and Senses automatic quieting of the ringer when the phone is picked up.
So all the requisite boxes are checked for a high-end Android smartphone in 2013. But as well discover throughout this review, design is where the HTC One truly shines. As much as weve praised phones like the Nexus 4 in the past year -- and admired devices like the Windows Phone 8X from afar -- the HTC One is on another plane when it comes to build quality. Thats not hyperbole. With its latest handset, HTC leads everyone bar Apple in this area.
HTC One software, UI and apps
The HTC One runs the new HTC Sense 5 atop Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. That means youre not quite running the latest version of Android, but on a non-stock phone theres not a whole lot of user-facing stuff to miss.
In the latest version of its user interface, HTC has completely reinvented Sense, giving it its biggest makeover ever. The iconic flip clock has gone, swapped out for a new home screen dynamic based on the BlinkFeed news feed. And Senses cartoonish icons and menus are gone, replaced by sleeker, more geometric graphics. A new, condensedRoboto-based font is used in the menus and many of HTCs apps, and this looks great on the HTC Ones super-high resolution screen.
Sense 5 has also lost an awful lot of its visual noise, and thats a good thing. The excessive embossing around the edge of buttons and menus is gone, replaced with clean lines and a curved gradient towards the notification shade. Further evidence can be found in the new HTC wallpaper gallery, which is stocked with classy, minimalist backgrounds now a million miles away from Androids own Holo design language.
Its also fast as all hell. Sure, thats helped out by the speedy Snapdragon 600 CPU and Android 4.1s Project Butter performance tweaks and the 2GBof RAM, but HTC also deserves credit for making Sense 5 an entirely lag-free experience. Seriously. Not once did this thing stutter or stall.
BlinkFeed and the new launcher dynamic
Similar to Flipboard, BlinkFeed lies at the heart of Sense 5s home screen experience. Its a flowing grid of social updates, news feeds, calendar appointments, task list entries, TV schedules and upcoming deals. Its also customizable, to a degree, though youre limited in the ways in which you can add new stuff. News, for example, has to be selected from a list of built-in sources (HTC says theres more than 1,400). On the social site, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are supported, but not Google+. You can't currently add your own feeds. You can, however, add your favorite Android Central and Mobile Nations news. So there's that.
For serious news junkies (and bloggers), BlinkFeed isnt going to replace your RSS reader, nor is it meant to. BlinkFeed is clearly designed for "normal" people -- civilian smartphone users. Its a supposed to be a quick, easy way to snack on information.
How well it works for you will depend on how well its curated list of integrated services fits with your social and news habits. We suspect most smartphone users will find some use for it, even if it doesnt become their default home screen.
This is HTCs first iteration of BlinkFeed, and its very good for a first shot at this sort of thing. But its usefulness is hampered by its closed nature, and wed like to see it opened up in the same way DashClock Widget is. Thatd let the development community pick up where HTC left off and add even more capabilities into this flagship feature. With some more customizations, BlinkFeed could be a real asset for power users.
Theres also no way to turn it off entirely -- thoughyou don't have to useBlinkFeedif you don't want to. Swipe to the right and youve got a standard Android home screen arrangement -- a four-by-four grid of icons and a selection of surprisingly stylish Sense widgets with which to customize it. Up to five home screens can be added, and you can set any one as the default home screen.
The app drawer has been redesigned too. Its a lot more customizable, which is good because the default arrangement isnt particularly easy to navigate. HTC seems to expect many users to hop between BlinkFeed and the app drawer without using much of the traditional home, and so the app drawer can be re-arranged into folders. Thats not necessarily a bad idea, but it means youve got more hoops to jump through if you want to create app shortcuts on a home screen page. The process of moving stuff in and out of the app dock is a more convoluted than it needs to be.
More: BlinkFeed: Inside the HTC One's home screen reader
Task Switching
As we mentioned, you can access the task switcher on the HTC One by double-tapping the home key. This brings up a grid of the nine most recently used apps. That places a hard limit on the number of apps you can switch between, but we figure nine is probably enough for most people. You can see all nine immediately without scrolling, which is good. However, the lack of app icons on this page means it can take a little longer to spot the app youre after. A good many of them look the same -- black text on a white background.
Like the old Sense task-switcher, you flick a card up to get rid of the app. Thankfully, We didn't notice any of the multi-tasking issues that some folks reported on devices like the One X.
Were not sure whether we prefer it to the stock Android task-switcher, but its an improvement on the old Sense 4 implementation to be sure.
Get Started
First introduced in Sense 4+, HTCs Get Started web service lets you take the first steps towards setting up your new device on your computer, before you even purchase it. Pre-loaded apps. Theres a limit to how much youre able to set up in advance -- Google accounts, for example, are out of the question. But allowing new users to set up their own wallpapers, ringtones, BlinkFeed services and a few common apps should go a long way towards making the smartphone setup process less painful.
Settings are saved to your HTC account, then, once youve signed into the HTC One with that same account, all your customizations are pulled down from HTCs servers.
Music, Gallery and Beats Audio
As the branding on the back of the phone will remind you, the HTC One comes with Beats Audio software enhancements, and these can be enabled or disabled via the main settings menu. Its possible were imagining this, but the Beats enhancements on the HTC One dont seem to quite as overblown and excessively bassy as theyve been in the past. Regardless, the effect is still noticeable -- theres a welcome boost in volume and bass thats clear whether youre using headphones or the excellent front-facing BoomSound speakers.
The new HTC Sense music app is relatively spartan when it comes to visuals, but its just as full-featured as as ever. The music app comes with access to the Gracenote lyrics database, and these lyrics pop up on-screen when you enable the new visualizer effects. Similarly, artist images and album art are pulled down from Gracenote when you download or transfer a new album across to the HTC One. And theres full DLNA support music app, too.
Naturally, DLNA support is also baked into the Gallery app. In addition to showing you your own photos -- and showing you animated previews of each event if youve been using Zoe mode. And as is becoming increasingly common, the Gallery apps hooks into Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn to populate itself with photos from friends, too.
Well have more on the Gallery app in the camera section of this review.
TV and Movies
The HTC One is one of the many new Android devices shipping with an integrated IR blaster, allowing it to control TVs, sound systems and cable boxes. The phones TV capabilities are rooted in the Sense TV app, which is based on Peel. The setup procedure is pretty simple. Starting with your TV off, youll be asked to confirm a few details about your location and equipment branding, before calibrating the remote to work with your TV and assorted boxes.
The TV app shows you a grid of shows that are currently on, with a blue bar beneath indicating how long theyve been running for. Tapping the show will trigger the TV app keys in the appropriate channel number. Its a neat alternative to the traditional TV guide layout were all familiar with. Whats also useful is the ability to tell the TV app your favorite shows and have messages pop up in BlinkFeed when theyre showing. When you're using the TV app, you'll also get a notification widget allowing you easy access to the universal remote.
HTC Watch, the companys own streaming service is also present, and the selection of movies and TV content available has been slowly expanding over the past year or so. Were not sure youll find anything there thats not on Netflix or Google Play, but having another source of streaming content certainly doesnt hurt.
While other built-in apps include DLNA support, wireless streaming from the Watch app is reserved for HTCs own Media Link HD peripheral.
HTC Sync Manager
HTCs own synchronization app is available for HTC One owners, and theres a Mac and PC version thatll help you transfer music
The latest version of the app seems to be a marked improvement on earlier builds. HTC Sync no longer chokes on larger music libraries, and its relatively easy to import albums or playlists from third-party players like iTunes.
Contacts and calendar appointments can be synced too if youre still using PC-centric clients for these.
Other bits
- As before, the HTC Sense contacts app can draw in contacts from multiple sources, including Google accounts, Twitter, Facebook and Skype and unify them into a single location. It also has the ability to import high-resolution photos from social networks too, which is nice.
- To expand notifications in Sense, youll need to pinch horizontally rather than dragging down. Unfortunately thats not a particularly obvious gesture, nor is it easy to perform.
- The data usage control panel -- the bar chart showing mobile data consumption -- is hidden Settings > Wireless and Networks > More > Usage in Sense 5. Thats a shame, as its one of Androids most useful features.
- HTC's stock keyboard is fast and responsive, and we were able to type pretty quickly on it thanks to its accurate auto-correction. If you're a fan of Swype-style keyboards, the "trace" option can be enabled in the keyboard settings.
- Theres a variety of lock screen templates available, just like earlier versions of Sense. The Weather lock screen, with its assortment 3D of animations, has been culled, however.
Considered alongside all HTCs earlier software suites, Sense 5 is easily the fastest, the best designed and the easiest to use. If you werent a fan of Senses tendency towards 3D animations and pompous visual flair in the past, then youll welcome the refined look HTCs brought to the table on the HTC One. Sense 5 also stacks up pretty well against vanilla Android. Theres still more going on in Sense, and its nowhere near as minimalist as what youll find on a Nexus, but its just as quick and just as stylish.
HTC One battery life
The HTC One is fitted with a 2300 mAh internal battery, which in numbers alone is about average for a high-end Android smartphone. Theres no way inside that aluminum unibody, so as you mightve guessed, the battery is not removable.
We found the phones battery performance to be decent, but not outstanding. Itd easily last us a full day, just as the Sony Xperia Z and LG Nexus 4 have in the past. Some of that will depend on network connectivity, of course.
With moderate to heavy usage patterns consisting of browsing and social networking over LTE, HSPA and Wifi, music playback, photography and video recording, we clocked just under 14 hours of use before reaching the warning level of fifteen percent. With more conservative use, mostly restricted to Wifi, we reached the end of the day with around 30 percent left after 18 or so hours on battery. With all day spent on Wifi, we reached around 50 percent in the same timespan. We used the HTC One on DC-HSDPA on Three UK and LTE on EE, and we didnt notice any significant additional battery drain when using 4G data services as opposed to good old HSPA. (Thats in line with other modern 4G devices weve reviewed, including the Xperia Z and Galaxy S3 LTE.)
HTC Sense doesnt allow users to measure screen-on time directly -- or battery used by the screen -- but we suspect that gorgeous 1080p display is a responsible for much of the phones battery consumption, particularly outside where auto-brightness cranks the backlight all the way up. In fact, on its automatic setting, the screen was consistently brighter than most other Android phones. So there might be some battery savings to be made by manually controlling this setting.
Another predictable battery-guzzler is the UltraPixel camera and associated software set. Though straight-up still shots didnt seem to drain our battery too badly, video recording and Zoe shots took a greater toll. Because of the way Zoe shots work -- recording 20 separate JPEGs and one MP4 video file, having any automatic upload services enabled (e.g. Dropbox) will further cut into your battery life. (To say nothing of mucking up your folder with dozens and dozens of images.)
HTC includes a prominent Power Saver widget in the notification shade at all times, allowing users to switch to a low-power mode to conserve power. Power Saver mode can slow the CPU, dim the display or shut off the data connection when the screens off. This is similar to the Stamina Mode found on the Sony Xperia Z, though theres no whitelist to allow apps through the bar on background data. In any case, wed avoid using this unless we were limping along with very little juice remaining, which is why wed welcome the ability to remove the widget from the notification area.
To summarize, we were more than happy with the battery performance of the HTC One. Its battery life was a marked improvement over both the (international) One X and One X+, which failed to impress us in this area. But if youre coming from a phone with really great battery life or greater battery capacity -- or expecting super-long battery life from HTCs latest -- you may come away disappointed.
HTC One 'UltraPixel' camera review
As HTC is keen to tell anyone wholl ask, the HTC Ones rear shooter is no ordinary smartphone camera. Eschewing the traditional megapixel race, the phone includes a 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera with much larger pixels -- 2 microns -- on the sensor itself. This, together with the f/2.0 aperture lens, is designed to make the device suited to low-light and indoor photography, where HTC believes smartphone photography goes on.
As well as an impressive set of optics, the HTC One includes a second-generation ImageSense chip. The successor to the chip that debuted in the One X last year is responsible for the HTC Ones fast capture speeds and general image-crunching duties.
So how do all those technical specs and buzzwords translate into real-world performance? Its a mixed bag.
The HTC One records still images at 2688x1520 resolution at 16:9 aspect ratio -- thats the maximum resolution, and as such if you want to shoot in 4:3, the phone does so by chopping off the sides of the image. That means you get the full benefit of the cameras wide-angle lens in widescreen shots, and a narrower view in 4:3 mode. Just like last years One X, the HTC One is incredibly quick to capture shots, and theres a burst shooting mode that can be activated by long-pressing the shutter key.
The main camera view is made up of the photo and video shutter keys, zoom controls, filter options, a flash control and the Zoe toggle key (more on that later.) All other settings are accessed via a slightly cumbersome list of options, some of which are expandable. And as the HTC One doesnt automatically flip into macro mode or backlight mode as required, youll have to deal with this menu more often than you might like. (Thats a point in favor of competitors like Sony, which has an excellent Superior Auto mode to switch between relevant scene settings.)
HTCs grand plan with its UltraPixel sensor is that the reduction in overall megapixels should be made up for by the overall increase in image quality. Thats true in many images, and especially noticeable in night photography, but its by no means the case across the board.
Lets start off with strengths -- the HTC One is probably the best low-light smartphone camera weve tested. Indoors or at night, the benefits of the UltraPixel sensor and f/2.0 lens are clear to see. HTCs camera produces sharper, clearer low-light images than other Android competitors. Even shots from Sonys Xperia Z, which has pretty good low-light performance, appear a blurry, noisy mess by comparison.
Similarly, the HTC One is an excellent macro performer -- though youll need to enable macro mode manually under Scenes. The same goes for HDR mode, which can produce some stunning landscape shots when used correctly.
In daylight, though, things get a bit more complicated. In conditions where theres plenty of light to go around, the HTC Ones low megapixel count becomes a bottleneck.
Generally speaking, the HTC One is able to capture shots that look good when viewed on a laptop, tablet, monitor or TV with all the downsampling that that involves. But when blown up to full 4MP size its clear to see theres some quite aggressive noise reduction and sharpening going on. Telltale signs like graininess and artifacting around dark areas in daylight images (e.g. branches of trees) demonstrate that even with this new sensor tech, photographic aberrations persist in full-sized images. Thats not true of every image, but its something youll notice if you inspect your photos close-up.
The HTC Ones dynamic range is pretty narrow, and the camera struggles in outdoor scenes with dark and very bright areas. This is aggravated further by the phones inability to automatically toggle into backlight mode where necessary. If youre shooting landscapes or anything with bright sky in the background, this can quickly become a major bugbear, as youre forced to navigate the sprawling camera menu and select either Backlight or HDR mode. To HTCs credit, though, its HDR mode is among the best out there -- extremely quick and ghost-free, and capable of producing seriously impressive images.
HTC probably isnt aiming this camera at people wholl use their smartphone photos at full resolution. In fact, we wouldnt even include ourselves in that group. If you share images to the web, chances are the image you end up seeing will be 1- to 2-megapixels anyway. But we cant help feeling that the UltraPixel camera just doesnt live up to all of the pre-release hype. In the right conditions its impressive for sure, but its not the holy grail of smartphone photography.
Nor is it the savior of smartphone video recording, even with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) onboard. The HTC Ones video performance is generally decent -- and footage shot at 1080p looks good most of the time -- but there are too many niggling issues for our liking. The cameras comparatively poor dynamic range takes a heavy toll on daylight footage in some instances, resulting in stuttering as it attempts to adjust to the changes in light level. There is an HDR video mode -- a feature weve seen before on the Sony Xperia Z -- though this falls victim to the same occasional frame rate reductions.
We are, of course, picking nits here. The phones video performance isnt universally bad by any means, as youll see in our sample reel. But we cant avoid the fact that weve seen better daylight performance from the competition. The HTC One does excel in low light video, delivering near-unmatched clarity in night-time footage. Its just a shame this isnt the case across the board.
On the front-facing camera side, HTC brings to bear a 2-megapixel shooter with a BSI sensor and a wide angle lens. This means you can fit more people in each shot, and it holds up pretty well in low light too.
Zoes, Highlights and sharing
The HTC One debuts a new type of photo in HTC Zoe. Zoe mode, enabled by tapping the Zoe icon in the camera app, records 19 or 20 still frames at 4MP and three seconds of 1080p video at the same time, resulting in a slice of time being recorded rather than a single frame. At a practical level, this can help you catch time-sensitive shots, as each Zoe records five frames before the shutter is pressed, and 15 afterwards. And its also fun to view Vine-like snapshots of each photo.
But another main reason to shoot in Zoe mode is the phones automatic video highlight capability. The gallery app automatically arranges photos into events based on location and date, and the HTC One conjures up 30-second highlight reels for these events -- complete with background music and filters -- based on Zoes, videos and stills. Video highlights are generated on-the-fly, and theres no way to disable this feature, though you can ignore it by viewing photos in a traditional folder arrangement.
In each event, pictures, videos or Zoes can be tagged as Highlights, which is supposed to tell the app to use them in the reel. This feature wasnt working correctly in the firmware version we were using, though, and the gallery app continued to pick out shots at random for highlight reels. HTC says its aware of this bug and is working on a fix.
Videos, stills, Zoes and highlights can be shared through HTCs (somewhat confusingly-named) Zoe Share service, which is essentially a web-based sharing system tweaked to handle the HTC Ones unique imaging output. Using Zoe Share on the HTC One is quick and easy -- a few taps to select the content you want to upload, and youre done. Zoe Share then gives you a URL you can share using Android sharing intents via email, social networks and so on.
The interplay between Zoes, Highlights and Zoe Share is probably the most unique and interesting part of HTCs new photographic equation. The implementation isnt quite perfect, but we can see how these features will be both enjoyable and useful to most smartphone photographers.
More: HTC One: Zoes and video highlights
In summary, HTCs UltraPixel experiment shows promise, but on the HTC One it isnt a resounding success. Nevertheless, at the very least wed call the HTC Ones camera satisfactory, and theres no denying that it excels in certain areas. Whats more, features like Zoes, highlights and Zoe Share are examples of real innovation in mobile imaging.
The bottom line
To pull itself back from the brink, HTC knows it has to produce something special. And the HTC One is exactly that. Its an exquisite piece of design and engineering. From the hardware to the software, HTCs new handset incorporates some of the very finest design work in the industry. Its the best-looking, best-feeling phone weve used -- nothing beats the feel of HTCs curved brushed aluminum chassis. The new Sense has been pared back, sped up and redesigned in ways that make it a huge improvement on earlier iterations.
The majority of HTCs buzzword features also deliver. The BoomSound speakers offer unparalleled bass and clarity for smartphone speakers. Sense TV is a really useful app for dual-screen viewing. BlinkFeed isnt perfect, but the implementation is good for a version 1.0 feature.
Were not overly keen on HTCs two-button setup, though weve learned to live with it over the past week. On a related note, wed still like the on-screen menu bar that occasionally pops up to die in a fire, though not all the blame for this crime against user experience design lies with HTC.
If theres something to be disappointed about, it might be the much-vaunted UltraPixel camera. Which is not to say its bad per se -- in fact, its pretty good. But its a long way off being the silver bullet to cure all your mobile photography woes, and though its low-light performance is fantastic, it lags behind the competition in some other areas.
In spite of this, is it HTCs best phone yet? Without question. And on balance, is it the best Android phone you can buy? For the moment, absolutely.
Via: HTC One review
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