HTC One
Samsung and Apple better beware – the HTC ONE combines stunning design, a supreme screen and explosive power to offer one of the best smartphones around.
It's
got a full HD screen crammed into 4.7-inches, which brings a 468ppi –
well above what's needed for the eye to discern, and it does definitely
bring sumptuous sharpness throughout the use of the phone.
On
top of that there's a CPU and RAM combo that is barely bettered, a
more-than-enough 32GB of storage and top-end Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G /
4G connections, all topped off by a completely re-imagined version of
HTC Sense. What's not to like?
It's at the sharp end of the
smartphone price scale, although can be had for around £34 per month on a
two year deal in the UK, which isn't too bad at all compared to the
competition.
The design of the HTC One is something that you simply have to experience in the hand. Where those that pick up the samsung galaxy s4 will go ' Oh, it's a bit plastic, isn't it? But ooh, it's quite light' and those who encounter the iphone 5
will, to a person, say 'Ooh, it's very light isn't it? You don't expect
it to be that light!' those that try the HTC One will simply intone:
'Oh, that's really nice. Really, really nice.'
And
do you know why? Simple: the HTC One is one of the best-designed phones
on the planet. Not content with inventing a new machining process to
allow the body to be all aluminium, the Taiwanese firm has extended the
screen to the edges of the chassis further than ever before, meaning
you're getting a 4.7-inch Full HD display without the additional heft
you'd probably expect.
It's even thinner than its predecessor, the htc
(we know, that naming strategy leaves a lot to be desired) and as such
slides nicely in the pocket. It's not light either, weighing more than
most of the competition, but rather than feeling overweight, combined
with the metallic chassis is oozes a premium build. Samsung is probably
hoping not a lot of people hold this phone side-by-side with the new s4 as otherwise the buying choice is going to be a lot more of a worry for the Koreans.
On top of that, there's a whole host of little design wins that delight when you first try the HTC ONE
For instance, the machined holes that allow sound toe emanate from the
dual front-facing speakers (can you say BOOMSOUND?) looks amazing, and
the lines on the back of the phone give a nice textured movement to
things, helping to break up the constant greyness of the aluminium.
You
could argue that straight on it looks far too much like either an
iPhone 5, with its chamfered edges, or a BlackBerry Z10 front on, and
you'd have a good point as this phone doesn't reinvent the
rectangle-with-rounded-edges formula that we're so used to, but in the
hand the curved back brings a whole new dimension to things.
There's
a zero-gap construction at work here as well, which means that you
won't find any gaps, holes or light leakages to make you feel like
you've not spent your hard-earned cash on something wonderful.
The
volume control on the right-hand side of the phone is in the same
dazzling metal, and contrasts nicely with the rubber/plastic that makes
up the sides. Our sample actually showed a fair amount of wiggle in this
area, and slightly detracted from the overall premium feel.
The
power button resides on the top, and doubles as the infra-red blaster -
however, this is one of the poorer points as it doesn't have a whole
lot of travel.
Similarly,
the placement of this button, even on a phone that's been shrunk down
while accommodating a larger screen, is still a bit inconvenient. We had
to shuffle the phone around in the palm to turn it on and off on many
occasions, and a lot of the time we couldn't use our thumb to hit the
whole of the screen without jiggling the phone up and down.
That's
another problem with the design: it's pretty slippery thanks to the
metallic chassis. We thankfully only ever suffered two serious drops
when we were about a foot off the carpet (basically scrabbling for it to
turn off the alarm in the morning) and a more alarming one stepping out
of a cab, but there have been a few near misses when trying to
manoeuvre around the screen.
If only
that power button was on the side, or a physical home button unlocked
the phone, this whole issue would be negated for a large part.
But
as we mentioned, HTC has wandered away from the physical buttons -
where once it put a trackpad in the Nexus One, now it's stripped the
capacitive buttons down from three to two, with the multi-tasking option
going the way of the dodo. You can still get the same functionality by
double tapping the home button, but it's not the same.
Overall
though, you can guess we're impressed with the construction and design
of the HTC One. We're not even looking at final hardware here - although
we appear to have got lucky with our sample, as there are few design
flaws in sight - so the chances of metallic chipping ('because that's
just what it does....' OK, Apple) are slight to say the least -
providing you don't fling it on tarmac. Seriously, we tried that...
don't do it.
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