How has HTC's latest flagship fared after two months in the hands of an AC editor?
Its been just over two months since I first got my hands on the HTC One -- first, a pre-production demo unit, then a final European retail model. For most of that time, HTCs impressive 2013 flagship has been my daily driver -- the phone I use every day, and take with me just about everywhere I go. In that time its seen plenty of normal use, and ten days or so of not-so-normal use in New York City for our Galaxy S4 and TM13 coverage
But the HTC One was in in short supply when it first launched in Europe and its only recently hit the U.S. market, so were in a bit of a unique position to have used the phone for this long. With that in mind, now seems like the right moment to reflect on our time with the device.
Just as we did for the Nexus 4 in January, its time for our long-term, two-month retrospective feature on the HTC One. Weve already brought you a full review of the phone, and a casual review of the Sprint version, of course. So consider this article a chance for us to share the kind of details that dont come to light in the course of our normal review process, and an opportunityto let you know what to expect in the months ahead if you pick up an HTC One today.
Check past the break to learn how the HTC One has coped with 61 days in the hands of an Android Central editor.
The aluminum unibody is beautiful and sturdy, but not indestructible
Take a glance through our review and youll see that the HTC Ones build quality in general -- and its metal chassis in particular -- were among our favorite things about the device. The brushed aluminum looks fantastic, feels great in the hand, and leaves you in no doubt that youre holding a premium product. Its the antithesis of most of the plastic slabs that make their way across our desks.
And my HTC One is mostly pristine after two months of regular use. Mostly.
No material is indestructible, and aluminum will scratch and dent if presented with the opportunity. So if you examine my handset very closely youll see its picked up a few scrapes here and there. The first two occurred relatively early on, and I have no idea what caused them. There are a couple of indentations around the top speaker -- one between two of the speaker holes, another further down. An advantage of having tiny dents here is that theyre almost impossible to see -- in fact, I didnt even spot the second one until I took a macro shot of the area for this article.
Theres also a slight ding in the side of the left side of the injected plastic trim -- the origin of that one is a mystery, too. (The phone hasnt been dropped at all.) On the other hand, the trim itself hasnt picked up any dirt or discoloration. Some slight wearing can be seen around the chamfers on the top and bottom of the device, too. These details are difficult to pick out, even on camera, but theyre there. Had I been using the black HTC One, chances are they'd stand out a good deal more.
Bottom line -- a metal phone can pick up signs of wear just like a plastic or glass gadget, so youll want to take care of it as you would any other device. The HTC One sure looks better than most phones out there, but its not guaranteed to wear any better. (In fact, Samsung's Galaxy S3 probably fared better than the HTC One during the couple of months that I was using it last year.)
As an aside, if you do manage to put any serious dents in the corners of the HTC One, theres one unique option open to you, as our own Phil Nickinson discovered. You can file down the affected area to make it less noticeable. (Do so at your own risk, of course.)
Ive learned to live with HTCs wonky button setup
I was no fan of HTCs unorthodox two-button setup when I reviewed the HTC One, but Ive quickly learned to live with it. Holding the phone in my right hand, both are easy to reach both, and double-tapping to jump to the task switcher was a fairly easy adjustment to make. Would I prefer a multi-tasking button? Yes, and thats the reason I still feel somewhat quicker multi-tasking on a phone like the Nexus 4.
Ive never had to worry about storage space
The European HTC One Ive been using comes with 32GB of storage. In some markets, theres a 64GB version available. Coming from an 8GB Nexus 4, its refreshing for storage space to simply not be an issue. Theres 25GB and change available, and Ive never had to ration my storage use in any way.
By contrast, the internal storage on my 16GB Galaxy S4, which has 9GB or so remaining for media, apps and other stuff, is already half full. Thats with music, photos and videos siphoned off onto a 32GB microSD card.
BoomSound has spoiled me
As we pointed out in our review, the Ones front-facing BoomSound speakers are loud. Really loud. Sometimes too loud for regular notifications and ringtones. So we should mention that as of the 1.29 update, the lower volume levels for regular bleeps and bloops seems to have gotten quieter. Thats a good thing. (And dont worry, things are just as bombastic at the higher volume levels.)
Combined with the official flip cover, which turns into a kickstand, the front speakers really comes into their own for portable music, movie and TV playback. Other phones speakers are plenty loud, but none offer the clarity and bass of HTCs BoomSound.
Its still the fastest Android phone around, and thats down to the software
Weve got to the stage where there are a few Snapdragon 600-powered phones on the market, and not all of them are as quick as the HTC One. The Galaxy S4, for example, falls victim to occasional bouts of lag, as we mentioned in our review. That would seem to suggest that the HTC One is so responsive because of the manufacturers software efforts.
Speaking of which, HTC Sense 5 is my new favorite Android skin. Its as fast and as beautiful as vanilla Android, and it does a whole lot more. Im a big fan of HTCs Calendar and Tasks apps, the latter being one of the only built-in apps on any Android phone that properly syncs with Google Tasks. Zoes and video highlights are also stand-out features.
I can take or leave HTC BlinkFeed. Its a nice little distraction to have, and it works well with the services it hooks into. But while Ill occasionally use it on the HTC One, its not something I miss when I switch to another phone. (And then there's some stuff you just don't want on your home screen.)
A few other things about Sense continue to bug me. After taking a screenshot theres no way to immediately share them through Android sharing intents. Theres little consistency to the way sharing intents behave between apps -- in HTC apps youll get a completely different sharing menu. And I still think the way the dock is considered part of the app drawer is completely insane and counter-intuitive, as is the default 3x3 grid in the app drawer. Theres room for improvement, as there always is.
A great camera for regular people, if not enthusiasts
The HTC Ones Ultrapixel camera has been the subject of much discussion, not least in our forums, comparison articles and our review, where we concluded that it falls short of the promised revolution in image quality. The recent 1.29 update introduced some camera tweaks, improving HDR performance and adjusting exposure settings for improved dynamic range. And yet we still have a few nits to pick when it comes to the HTC Ones camera.
Its low megapixel count -- just 4MP -- means certain areas of daylight images are affected by visible artefacts. This, it seems, is due to HTCs noise reduction and sharpening algorithms. When you only have four megapixels to work with, its easier for noise reduction and sharpening to produce these kinds of aberrations. Thats one of the reasons why the Galaxy S4s 13-megapixel camera runs rings around the HTC One in daylight.
Were not saying daylight images on the HTC One look terrible. Most of the time youll get decent-looking photos, but the competition has a much higher ceiling for image quality.
Now the other side of that equation. In low light, the HTC One annihilates every other smartphone camera out there, including the GS4. Thats part of what makes it a great camera for real people -- smartphone photographers who want clear, good-looking photos in all conditions, but not necessarily works of art they can display at full size on a 30-inch monitor.
What about Zoes, Zoe Share, Highlights and the mess of other gallery options?
The interplay between Zoes -- the little three-second video/photo hybrid things -- Zoe Share -- online sharing for images and/or videos and/or Zoes -- and Highlights -- videos made up of photos, videos and Zoes that can then be shared via Zoe Share -- can be slightly confusing. And were not alone in getting things a little muddled up. But after a couple of months with the HTC One, Highlights and Zoes are among my favorite Sense 5 features.
Take my recent jaunt to New York City to spearhead our GS4 coverage and spy on our editors recording TM13. The gallery app dutifully prepared little highlight reels of each day, and sharing these was as simple as tapping an icon and using an Android sharing intent.
However, the method for manually creating these events is still a little cumbersome. For example, if you want one big event and one highlight reel for a week-long event, thats way more work than it should be, and involves waiting while the phone juggles a bunch of files around on its internal storage. It's not a particularly elegant way to manage your memories.
But is it still the best Android phone you can buy?
For me, yes. I prefer HTCs hardware and software to anything else out there right now. I can live with an older version of Android and a quirky 4-megapixel camera in exchange for superlative build quality, fast performance and well-designed software.
The HTC Ones main rival is the Galaxy S4, a device we recently reviewed. Thats a fine phone too, with plenty going for it -- a bigger screen, lighter weight, better camera, a bunch of unique features -- and Samsungs going to sell a ton of them in the months ahead.
But in my opinion HTC has the better phone this year, and Id recommend it just as much after two months as I did after one week.
Fellow HTC One owners, how've you been finding the handset? Let us know in the comments!
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