HTC One was one of the poster boys of Android smartphones back in 2011, having the largest market share in the lucrative US smartphone market. However, things have gone downhill for the company ever since as Samsung has taken over as the leader of the industry. The Taiwan based company is now trying to make a comeback of sorts with the launch of the HTC One, its latest flagship phone featuring a powerful set of hardware and a world class design. Let us find out more about this device in our detailed review.
HTC One Design
HTC One has an aluminum body which stands 137.4 millimeters tall by 68.2 millimeters wide by 9.3 millimeters thick and tips the weight scales at 143 grams. It has an exquisite design which is aesthetically appealing and luxurious in nature. In terms of handling, there are not many phones available in the market that can offer the same premium feel as the HTC One.
HTC One is easily portable, fits nicely into your hands and is tough enough to withstand damage from drops. As far as the controls are concerned, there are two touch-sensitive keys – Back and Home below the display. On the right, the phone accommodates a volume rocker whereas the power key and the 3.5 mm audio jack are available at the top. The microUSB port and the mouthpiece sit at the bottom edge. On the whole, the HTC One is one of the best phones till date in terms of design.
HTC One Display
The HTC One comes with a superb 4.7-inch 1920-by-1080 Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen display (468 ppi) which has extremely wide viewing angles and excellent contrast levels. The screen is laminated with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2 which provides damage resistance against scratches and bumps. This glass is bonded extremely close to the actual display to reduce reflections, thereby improving the sunlight legibility. The screen size is slightly less than the 5-inch models available on the Xperia Z and Galaxy S4, but in terms of image quality you won’t find much difference.
HTC One Camera
HTC has taken a unique approach to smartphone imaging with its latest flagship phone. Instead of using a higher resolution camera, the company has opted for a 4 megapixel sensor with photosites that are three times larger than the ones you would get on all other smartphones. This new design allows the camera to capture up to 300 more light, thereby improving the low-light performance. To market this particular aspect of the phone, HTC has termed it as the UltraPixel camera. The sensor is accompanied by optical image stabilization and HTC’s second generation ImageChip which helps in image processing. In addition, there are many innovative features like HTC Zoe, simultaneous HD video and image recording, face and smile detection and much available in the camera interface. For video calls, there is a front-facing 2.1 megapixel camera which supports 1080p HD video recording.
HTC One Hardware Specs:
The HTC One comes equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset which accommodates 2 GB of RAM, Adreno 320 graphics and a quad-core Krait 300 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz. This is currently one of the best hardware configurations available in the market, so the phone is guaranteed to deliver a fast, seamless performance. Though it lags behind the Galaxy S4 and LG Optimus G Pro by a small margin in all the major benchmark tests, there is no notable difference in real-life situations. The phone feels amazingly fast and smooth even while multi-tasking, video playback or running high-end applications from the App store. On the storage front, there is 32 GB or 64 GB of internal memory, but there is no way to increase the memory capacity as the phone lacks a microSD card slot. The battery is a non-removable Li-Po 2300 mAh unit which will last for up to two days with normal everyday usage.
Verdict On HTC One:
The HTC One is definitely the best smartphone from the company and will surely help the company win back customers. Its design is a notch above all the other flagship phones in the market and it also boasts of a powerful package of features and hardware. Unfortunately, the phone has to compete against the Samsung Galaxy S4, Apple iPhone 5 and Sony Xperia Z which are amazing phones. Nonetheless, HTC has done a great job to come up with a flagship phone that can start off the company’s recovery process.