HTC One Review

HTC’s premium phone for 2013 is a dazzler. In a world where Samsung was dominating the Android phone category, creating something better was a challenge and HTC delivered to perfection. HTC has been struggling financially and this new phone launch was going to make or break the company.

The most striking feature of the HTC one is its look and design. It can easily be put in the same league as the iPhone with its look and feel and finish. Its body is made of aluminum with rounded corners. Overall when one holds it it appears sleek and thin.

Design
The most distinguishing feature of the HTC One is the phone’s design and physical construction. Saying that the phone is a beautiful piece of hardware would be an understatement. You’d be able to appreciate its finer design nuances when you experience the phone in person. As far the design and attention to detail is concerned, we see the HTC One in the top league along with the iPhone 5.

Software

The HTC One uses the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and Sense 5. Navigation on the phone is done via the touch buttons for going “Back” and to “Home”. The “Home” button if clicked twice leads to the app switcher and if held for long opens “Google Now”. Going into the settings can change this. The ring-like lock screen is gone and now one can go directly to the Phone, Camera, Messages or Mail apps.The phone enables us to set alerts with simple gestures. For example, you can flip the phone for turning on speakerphone.

The HTC One’s default browser is Chrome and it allows users to turn on Adobe flash for viewing Flash content. a reader mode  is also available for long reading.

Display
The 1080p display of the HTC One is among the best displays amongst phones in this category. The HTC One has a 4.7-inch Super LCD 3 display.  The Corning Gorilla Glass 2 offers a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels making reading text and browsing the web is extremely pleasant. It had great visibility in the sun as well.

Battery

The HTC One has a 2300mAh battery and even with heavy usage it can easily last eleven to twelve hours.

Camera
The HTC One camera introduces the concept of the Ultrapixels. Instead of going for a camera that focuses on more megapixels, the One has a four-mega pixels camera with pixels that are of bigger size. The HTC One’s camera offers a pixel size of 2 microns while most other manufacturers offer pixels of size 1.1 microns.

The camera has a 1/3-inch BSI sensor as well. The combination of bigger pixel size and a large sensor makes each pixel absorbs more light. According to HTC each pixel captures up to 300% more light.

The HTC One also features a 2.1-megapixel front camera that can take wide-angle shots; camera is great for HD video chats and even for self-clicks. HTC One allows users to select different settings like Normal, Portrait, Backlight, Night, and Macro, put a self-timer, and shoots still videos. Face detection, geo tagging and sightseeing mode are also available. The phone also allows users to click photos while they are shooting a video.

Verdict
HTC One is by far the best android phone that one has used. It really matches the best that is out there in terms of design and features. The interface is new, no doubt and will take time to get used to, but the experience is worth it.