Review: HTC One For Sprint, Android Nearly-Perfected

It seems like just last May we were handling the One X and a lot has changed within the world of consumer technology in 365 days.  We are back with the company’s new knight in shining armor (literally) with the HTC One.  We attended the unveiling in NYC and have been itching to my hands on and that time has finally come.  HTC’s latest innovation is encased in aluminum, sporting a new type of camera, and a host of new features to compete for the top Android spot.  I will cover all of the bases to see if this could be your next smartphone.  My critique of HTC’s latest lies below.

Handling all of your visuals is a 4.7inch Super LCD display w/ 1080p HD resolution + 468ppi.   The One’s display provides crisp images, rich Blacks, accurate color reproduction, and great viewing angles –  especially in sunlight.  Just slightly above the Droid DNA which formerly held the top Android display crown in our eyes.  HTC continues to offer one of the best display in the market.  LG is the only manufacturer who has come close.  

The engine inside of the One is matches the impressive exterior as it is powered by the new Qualcomm CPUs.  Namely a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor accompanied by 2GB of RAM.  All this makes for a seamless Android device with stellar execution.  To make up for short-changing users with the DNA, HTC put 32GB of storage but still no microSD storage.  Doubling the physical combined with 25GB of cloud storage through Dropbox covers your needs a lot better.  

Through most of my time with the One I was on Sprint’s 3G service which was a bit slower than what I am used to but consistent.  I was able to find an area a few miles away that had access to their 4G network.  And LTE on Sprint is just as awesome as any other carrier.  I got peak download speeds of over 23Mbps and upload up to 7Mbps.  Pretty good thus far, now all I need is for LTE to be available  in more areas.  

Just as the DNA. HTC placed a non-removable 2300 mAh battery to keep the One going and how does it fare out?  Pretty good.  Not an all-day battery (up to 24 hours or more) but can give you anywhere between 8 to 10 hours of moderate usage.  Heavy streaming, push notifications, & long phone calls outside of Wi-Fi will warrant you to less juice.  

HTC continues to innovate with their newer 4MP ‘Ultrapixel’ camera.   Instead of going with a higher megapixel shooter, they decided to go with something different.  The concept behind ‘Ultrapixel’ is to utilize larger pixels to take in 3 times more light for your photos.  With using a small pixels shooter, you get faster photo processing, sharing, and editing.  The new type of camera does leave you with mixed results: great in low-light & regular photos w/ slight noise & grain.  HTC can fix some of this with a software update, hopefully.  Not to be blown up and framed but ideal for social media.  The Ultrapixel shooter really stands out in low-light situations.

More test photos here.

The front-facing shooter is the new HTC standard of 88-degree, ultra wide-angle 2.1MP lens.  Both front & rear-facing shooters are capable of 1080p video capture and work really well.

Zoe is the One’s secret weapon.  It allows you to take a 3-second video along with 20 photos in one setting.  The joy of the workings of Zoe allows for a variety of free-range editing and other options to make your photos/videos look amazing.  You can edit out unwanted objects + photo bombers, turns Zoes into action shots, add great effects, add frames, and retouch skin/eyes/face contour.  So instead of taking a photo, take a Zoe.

HTC’s Ultrapixel gamble pays off in my opinion.

HTC made sure to focus on media consumption with the One as they thought to place the audio output in front.  With not one but two front-facing stereo speakers coupled with built-in amps that use Beats Audio software dubbed BoomSound.  Easily one of the best-sounding speakers on a smartphone, not incredibly loud but definitely louder than your average.  Also for clear phone calls + less distorted audio when recording video, there is a built-in HDR microphone to improve all of that. It works pretty good too.

The One uses a newer version of HTC’s Sense 5 UI running on top of Android 4.1.2.  This is most assurely the best iteration of the skin as it is more minimized and streamlined.  Visually, HTC’s Sense easily gives Sense its own distinct identity within the world of many skins.  Icons are more flat, the Sense clock + weather widget is more simplified, and even the multitask screen is more of its own and I like it.  Along with the visuals, the company placed many new features inside of it as well.

BlinkFeed is HTC’s way to take in a variety of content on your homepage.  Giving you a feed of whatever kind of news you desire.  From business, sports, tech to even your Facebook &Twitter feeds.  You can actually post to the two social media networks from it as well.  Think of BlinkFeed as FriendStream reborn but with aggregated news being more so the focus.  If you don’t like it, you can’t get rid of it.  You can, however, replace it as being your main homescreen.

I think this year their flagship Android device won’t become a memory against Samsung’s efforts.  HTC truly stepped their game up and continues to push the envelope of standards with the One.  The One is hands-down their best device they have built yet.  The Ultrapixel camera and parts of the Sense 5 features (namely BlinkFeed) can be a bag of mixed feelings on them.  This will easily make the choice more difficult for consumers to who gets their $$$, HTC or Samsung?  But for me, this is my favorite go-to Android device.  

Having played with both the One and the Galaxy S4,  I would buy this in a heartbeat.  That’s my personal preference.  I, honestly, don’t think you can truly lose with either one.