HTC One Hands-On: This Is How You’re Supposed To Build A Phone

HTC One Hands-On: This Is How You’re Supposed To Build A Phone


It’s funny. For as much as Android phones have been known as ground zero for the spec wars for years now, they might finally be at a breaking point. Big screens, fast processors, 1080p everything — what matters now is thoughtfulness and execution. At a glance, HTC’s One is on the money.

The aluminium body is damn beautiful. It’s got a curve to its back piece, but its edges have more of a hard line to them than the One X+ and One X. It’s more monochromatic too, with just a small beats logo on the bottom back. It’s lovely, light (considering there was a gigantic DON’T STEAL THIS lock on the back of the phone we touched) and altogether pleasant.

The screen is gorgeous, but you knew it would be since the HTC One X’s screen was basically the best phone screen available. The blacks on the new One, however, show a little light leakage around the edges of the screen. I’m not sure you’ll notice them without specifically looking for them, but that’s an imperfection not present on some other top-tier displays.

The new HTC Sense, BlinkFeed, is a nice design. Up close, it’s actually a little less Windows Phone-y that it seems at first glanc. It’s more like an RSS feed with just content on the tiles. You sort of wish the other features of Windows Phone, like messaging, email and weather widgets, were present, but it’s still a slick interface. The question is do people want their news and information in their face when they open their phone? Or would they rather have that off to the side so that functions are front and centre?

One thing to note is that there are only two haptic buttons on the phone — the home button, which is on the right side, and the back button. A non-centred home button will take some getting used to for some folks, but it’s not all that awkward and might be a benefit since it’s more accessible from the side. Of course, it will also be a pain in the butt to reach from the other side. Multitasking is accessed by double-tapping the home button.

The new Sense is also fluid, with the app drawer accessed from a software button in the centre of the screen. Icons can be arranged either by alphabetical order, most recently used or a custom arrangement. The traditional home screen for Android is accessed by a swipe to the right, and you can longpress to add widgets directly from there (they’re not in the app drawer). It’s all very smooth (built on Android 4.1 — staying current with Android has always been a huge problem for HTC), and looks nice, but its general aesthetic and especially its icon design still look a little sloppy compared to default Android.

The camera was pretty fast from what we saw. It blurred when taking a photo of a man doing a flip off a pillar in a dark room (don’t ask), but you could make out that it was a human being, and that’s at the upward end of what you’re going to be asking your camera to do. The image also not grainy at all, which was pretty impressive given the lighting circumstances.








Pictures: Nick Stango


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