HTC Thunderbolt Review,Specs And More
At a quick glance, without any background information, your eyes might tell you that the HTC Thunderbolt is little more than a Verizon remake of Sprint's EVO 4G and AT&T's Inspire 4G. After all -- like its contemporaries -- the Thunderbolt features a spacious 4.3-inch WVGA display, 8 megapixel camera, and dual-LED flash. In reality, though, the Thunderbolt is something more: from the Inspire, it borrows a better, crisper display with a wider viewing angle and a newer-generation (though still single-core) Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. From the EVO 4G, meanwhile, it borrows a cool integrated kickstand and the addition of a second "4G" radio, making this a spec Frankenstein of sorts -- the best of both worlds. Of course, instead of Sprint's WiMAX for that 4G radio, the Thunderbolt grants you access to Verizon's LTE network -- a network so fresh, it still has that new-network smell. There's a lot of horsepower here.
In other words, the Thunderbolt has a very real opportunity to be the finest 4.3-inch device HTC has ever made -- for the moment, anyway. Let's see how it fares.
Photo Credit And Videos Goes To Engadget
HARDWARE
The Thunderbolt doesn't buck the trend of packaging high-end phones in high-end boxes -- put simply, it's an elegant, sturdy, matte black cube encased in a black sleeve. Lots of black here, actually, which means you can't see the name of the phone... but you can feel it. It's embossed! Nice touch, the kind of thing that'll make you want to put the packaging away in a closet or drawer somewhere rather than throwing it away. The black theme is broken in rather spectacular fashion when you crack open the box -- which is split down the middle -- to reveal gobs of bright Verizon red and your shiny, new purchase square in the middle. Underneath, you'll find some literature, a slim, glossy black USB wall charger, and a micro-USB cable -- sorry, no trashy earbuds here. As we've said in the past, that's just fine by us; odds are good that if you're spending $250 on a phone, you're going to be spending a few bucks on a decent headset, anyway -- the units that are bundled with phones are almost universally awful, which ends up unfairly tinting your opinion of the phone's audio quality. In our review unit, both the battery and 32GB microSD card came pre-installed.
Pulling the phone out of its cardboard cradle, you instantly recognize that this thing is a beast -- it's just big and heavy. There's no other way to put it. If you're acquainted and comfortable with the EVO 4G, you'll feel right at home -- the EVO's actually a few grams heavier, which took us by surprise when we looked it up -- but if you're coming from pretty much anything else, you'll probably mouth the word "whoa" the first time you take it into your hand. For comparison's sake, it's right around 20 percent heavier than an iPhone 4. We're not necessarily saying that's a bad thing; in general, phones have a tendency to feel higher-quality when they're more substantial and they've got a little more junk in the trunk, and that's certainly the case with the Thunderbolt -- but it's still something to consider. We're fairly certain there will be at least a few potential buyers who are off-put by the weight, so you should swing into a store and spend a little quality time with it before pulling the trigger.
Once you get past the heft, you start to notice the details of the design. It's typical HTC through and through, though we suspect they started working on it alongside Verizon quite some time ago because the design language feels somewhat last-gen -- more of a remixed EVO than anything else. The most direct, concrete proof of this might be AT&T's Inspire 4G -- also a 4.3-inch HTC device -- which shares a newer "unibody" metal design with the Desire HD. It's thinner, less plasticky, and more solid-feeling (which is really saying something) than the Thunderbolt, and it better represents where HTC has been going with its handset designs in the past six months. Obviously, as one of the first commercial LTE smartphones in the world, HTC has probably had this one baking in the oven for a good, long while.
That being said, "last-gen design" doesn't mean "bad design" -- far from it. There are many ways you could screw up the details of a phone this chunky, but the Thunderbolt is a legitimately handsome device. Unlike the EVO, the Thunderbolt's soft touch back cover only extends about three-quarters of the way down from the top, leaving the integrated brushed-metal kickstand permanently attached to the surface of the phone chassis (which is smooth plastic in this bottom area) rather than poking through the cover. Underneath the kickstand (which has "with Google" engraved on it, by the way), you'll find a metal grating that conceals the Thunderbolt's loudspeaker -- which is, in fact, quite loud. The only real problem here is that it's a bit muffled with the kickstand retracted, but we suppose HTC's logic is that you're going to want maximum volume in kickstand-deployed video mode.
The Thunderbolt's thickness and design details save it from a problem both the EVO and Inspire suffer from: the camera's rim is essentially flush with the back and the lens is actually recessed, meaning you're not going to scuff up your 8 megapixel shooter simply by setting the phone rear-down on a few too many hard surfaces. The dual-LED flash is arranged exactly as you find it on HTC's other 4.3-inch devices, and it suffers from an unusual (but now familiar) quirk: you can't use it when the Mobile Hotspot feature is enabled. Presumably, it's just too much simultaneous power draw between the giant display, the beefy processor, and the LTE, CDMA, and WiFi radios to add a pair of ultra-bright LEDs into the mix, though it's interesting that Mobile Hotspot uses no more components than you would in normal phone use -- we suppose the WiFi power output might be at a higher level.
It's a good thing that the 32GB microSD card comes pre-installed, because the battery cover is nigh impossible to get off. Actually, that's not fair -- it's nowhere near as difficult as the side-mounted cover on the Desire HD and Inspire 4G, but it's up there. It's difficult enough so that you're thinking "man, I hope I don't break or gouge something" as you're prying, red-faced, at the top-mounted notch. Underneath, you'll find a relatively measly 1400mAh battery (more on that later), the microSD slot underneath (which, again, thanks to the 32GB that comes with the phone, you'll probably never need to touch), an LTE SIM card tray, and an array of gold contacts that have us intrigued. At the top are four connection points in two locations that hook up to matching connections on the cover, which suggest that the cover probably plays an active role in signal reception. What had us more intrigued, though, were four pins near the camera lens that aren't hooked up to the cover, which had us wondering whether there might be NFC capability in the Thunderbolt's future -- or whether it was in the works and got spiked along the way. Hard to tell, but it's a thought.
The edges of the Thunderbolt are clean and simple; notably missing, of course, is an HDMI-out -- a big deal for some and a complete non-issue for others. The power button is perfect: correct location and correct level of flushness with the surface of the phone. The volume rocker is also perfectly shaped, sized, and in the best possible location along the right edge, but for some reason, it feels really mushy. Not only that, but it feels mushy in distinctly different ways on the top and bottom -- it's just poorly engineered or assembled, as far as we can tell. While you're on a call, it can be difficult to tell whether you're actuating the rocker without proper detents.
As for the display, it's pretty fantastic -- definitely an upgrade from the EVO's component thanks to a superior viewing angle that never washes out or inverts. Admittedly, WVGA starts to look just a tad pixellated once you get past 4 inches into the 4.3-inch category, but we're spoiled these days -- and if they Pyramidrumors are true, HTC is hard at work on qHD solutions for its next-gen devices anyway. One characteristic that we've noticed on a number of other phones in the past year that we miss here is the gapless display, a display so close to the glass that it appears to be on the surface of the phone itself (in fact, it's so cool that Sony Ericsson actively markets it as a feature of the Xperia Arc). Well, there's definitely a noticeable gap on the Thunderbolt, but it's a purely aesthetic complaint -- there's zero effect on capability or usability whatsoever -- it's just fun to hold your phone at an angle once in a while and say, "wow."
Audio quality ranges from "good" to "great," with two caveats: one, the aforementioned problem with loudspeaker muffling when the kickstand is closed (not severe, but something to take note of), and two, the earpiece could use another level or two of volume. It's plenty clear, but in noisy environments, we found ourselves wishing we could eke a little more out of it on a couple occasions. Callers told us we sounded a little "staticky" but were still totally audible -- we were never asked to speak up or repeat something we'd said.
In the amount of time since we received the Thunderbolt, we've only had time to run one proper battery test, which consisted of roughly 50 minutes of voice calls and two hours, 25 minutes of heavy LTE data / screen usage (a live Ustream feed). That test yielded five hours, 47 minutes of run time from full to automatic shutdown -- certainly not enough to make it through a full day, but then again, we're talking about some pretty extreme data consumption. Standby seems fine; we let the phone sit for about fourteen hours with a loss of around 20 percent of the battery.
Interestingly -- unlike the EVO -- we weren't able to find a way to disable the Thunderbolt's 4G radio and stay on on CDMA / EV-DO alone in an effort to conserve the battery. The phone seems to be doing some intelligent radio management, automatically switching between the two when necessary (and, presumably, staying pegged on LTE whenever it can find an LTE signal). From a pure consumer-friendliness perspective, that makes sense... but from a power-user perspective, it's annoying at best. When using this as a primary device, we'd probably consider carrying a portable battery-powered micro-USB charger or a spare internal battery for peace of mind.
CAMERA
HTC has a spotty track record of delivering fantastic picture and video quality -- but as 8 megapixel models go, we're happy to report that the Thunderbolt is markedly improved from the EVO 4G. It's unclear whether the changes are in software alone or if HTC has moved to a different combination of sensor and optics, but whatever they're doing, they've moved in the right direction. That said, the system isn't without its flaws. The touch-to-focus works quickly and consistently, though we were a bit disappointed at the lack of a macro mode. It really shows, too -- we couldn't focus extreme closeups at all. We also noticed some problems with light metering -- it seems that HTC has elected to go with a permanent full-frame metering mode, which makes it extremely difficult to get the proper exposure on certain backlit shots (see the gallery below). And of course, we always prefer a physical shutter key -- something the Thunderbolt lacks.
The 720p video was remarkably free of artifacts or distortion -- it doesn't do continuous autofocus, but you can refocus on the fly with a tap on the screen. Likewise, sound quality was quite good; we were surprised at how clearly our voice cut through the ambient noise when narrating.
SOFTWARE
The Thunderbolt is, of course, running HTC Sense. In this case, it's on top of Android 2.2.1, but it's a bit of a hybrid -- it lacks support for the cloud features introduced with the launch of the Desire HD / Desire Z and HTCSense.com last year, but does include support for HTC's unusual "Fast Boot" option (which was introduced at the same time). It comes disabled by default, but can be found in the Power menu in Settings with the ominous warning, "Turn off to use some Market apps." Which ones? Well, that's for you to guess, and HTC to know, apparently. The feature basically puts the phone into an ultra-low power mode (akin to standby or sleep on a laptop) rather than turning it off altogether, and we'll admit, the results speak for themselves: with Fast Boot on, we were seeing boot times of roughly 9 seconds, as opposed to 58 seconds with it off. If you frequently turn your phone off (say, on airplanes, when they tell you to power down your gadgets rather than simply using airplane mode), that's a notable difference.
From a UI perspective, Sense looks exactly the same here as it has on any other Sense device from the past year or so: same colorful menus, custom soft keyboard, home screen elements, and so on, so we won't spend much time talking about it. We're not huge fans -- we prefer almost everything about the stock experience -- but we know that it's largely a matter of personal opinion (and Sense certainly has its share of fans). So instead, let's take a look at the non-standard apps that HTC and Verizon have included, along with descriptions of the less-obvious ones:
- Adobe Reader
- Bitbop: A subscription service that offers a variety of movies and television shows streamed to your phone, along the lines of Hulu Plus.
- Blockbuster
- City ID: A service that displays the city and state of incoming calls -- handy, admittedly, but probably not for the $1.99 they charge after your 15-day free trial expires. Too bad you can't uninstall it if you don't want to subscribe!
- FM Radio: Yes, that's right -- the Thunderbolt's got an FM radio tuner. Nothing fancy in the app, which -- like most phones -- requires a headset be plugged in to use (it doubles as the antenna).
- Kindle
- Let's Golf 2: A trial of a 3D golf game with a silly name. $4.99 to buy the full version.
- Quickoffice: Many Android phones have one version or another of Quickoffice in ROM, but the Thunderbolt's got full Word and Excel editing capabilities at no extra charge -- a nice touch.
- Rhapsody
- Rock Band: This is actually nothing more than a shortcut to download a trial version of Rock Band from EA. That's already uncool, but what's even moreuncool is that when we tried, it just went to a black screen and hung. The only thing worse than crapware is broken crapware.
- Slacker
- TuneWiki
- V CAST Apps
- V CAST Media
- VZ Navigator
Interestingly, as far as we can tell, none of these can be uninstalled, which is an unfortunate decision on Verizon's part -- especially considering the fact that we found most of the crapware on AT&T's Atrix 4G can be removed without any hacking or trickery. Sure, some of these -- Reader, Kindle, and Slacker, for example -- are Android staples that you'll probably want installed anyway, but it should always be your choice, not Verizon's.
Notably absent, though, are Skype and Netflix. Skype video calling on Android was introduced by Verizon at CES (alongside the Thunderbolt) to great fanfare, but recent rumors prior to the Thunderbolt's release had suggested that the carrier elected late in the game to pull the app from ROM. What we don't know, though, iswhy that happened; we've heard rumors that Skype's partnership with Verizon is souring (there have been AT&T talks, after all), but it could just be a bout of last-minute bugs that Verizon didn't want to hold up the phone's release. Video calling aside, you'd think Verizon would've at least put its standard Skype build on here that allows calling outside WiFi networks, but no dice -- you're stuck with the standard Android app in the Market that locks you out on 3G.
Netflix was more of a wildcard, but we thought it might be loaded -- it's got a Qualcomm processor that can handle Netflix's DRM scheme, after all, and that 4.3-inch display and kickstand would be a solid way to get the Watch Instantly functionality off on the right foot. Alas, we gave the leaked APK a whirl, and it wasn't working, either. That's not to say it definitely won't work by the time it's released, but it's a no-go so far.
BENCHMARKS
End to end, the phone feels quite fast. Actually, "quite fast" isn't doing the LTE radio justice: it's by far the fastest data in a handset that we've ever experienced. In downtown Chicago, Ookla's Speedtest app for Android was clocking downlink speeds ranging from 5Mbps to roughly 20Mbps, while uplinks went from about 15Mbps up to a positively face-melting 40Mbps -- a rare situation where uplink speeds consistently outpace the downlink. Of course, you have to assume these speeds aren't here to stay: up until the release of the Thunderbolt, the only commercial devices using Verizon's LTE network were a pair of USB modems, so the cells are far from saturated -- we'd expect this all to descend from the stratosphere a bit over the course of 2011 as more and more LTE phones (and mobile hotspots) come online. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the effects of signal strength on throughput are far more pronounced and predictable here than on any other device we've ever seen: with a single bar of LTE strength, we'd typically get 5 to 7Mbps down; with two, 10 to 12; and with three, 15 and up. In any event, you're in good shape compared to competing technologies.
[Update: We've been told by Ookla that the Thunderbolt's massive send buffer is responsible for the erroneously high uplink speeds -- they've got a fix in the works and it'll be available as an update to the Speedtest.net app soon.]
Using the Thunderbolt with its mobile hotspot mode enabled was a breeze, too, and yielded blazing cable modem-like speeds (the first time we used it, the phone started acting erratically and kept switching between EV-DO and LTE, rendering the connection basically useless, but we haven't been able to reproduce it since). Interestingly, upstream speeds are far more down-to-earth when using the hotspot, but we're not sure why. As Verizon has said in the past, low latency makes a big difference in your perception of how fast a connection really is -- and with multiplayer gaming, it becomes even more critical. For comparison, the Thunderbolt yielded ping times consistently south of 100ms, while our Inspire 4G -- in an HSPA+ area with four to five bars of reception -- was getting ping times typically ranging from 120ms to 280ms (and throughput was lower by an order of magnitude).
Turning our attention to processor speed and the user experience, the phone feels smooth and fast out of the box, a testament to the 1GHz MSM8655 core and, presumably, Verizon's testing and HTC's careful tuning of Sense atop Android 2.2.1. That said, it's not going to outperform a Tegra 2 device. In our full Quadrant tests, we got scores ranging from the high 1600s (pictured above) up to about 1900, considerably lower than the mid-2000s seen on stock Optimus 2Xs, Droid Bionics, and Atrix 4Gs. Of course, the Thunderbolt has one thing going for it: it'll probably be a lot more hackable than Motorolas tend to be, and we're sure we'll see some absolutely blazing custom kernels eventually.
Here are a few other benchmarks we ran on our Thunderbolt that you might be interested in:
- Nenamark: 33.9fps
- Linpack: 38.263 MFLOPS
- Sunspider 0.9.1: 6213ms (+/- 1.2 percent)
- GLBenchmark Egypt FSAA: 15.4fps
- GLBenchmark Egypt non-FSAA: 17.9fps
- GLBenchmark Pro FSAA: 14.6fps
- GLBenchmark Pro non-FSAA: 18.9fps
WRAP-UP
First-generation devices are often, if not usually, a little rickety -- proofs of concept that are more about the manufacturer (or carrier) being able to say that they're first to launch a particular feature than they are about delivering a solid, all-around winner. Fortunately, that's not the case with the Thunderbolt: HTC's managed to put together a handset here that we can honestly recommend with a straight face, owing in no small part to the fact that it borrows heavily from the company's existing parts bin. If you're looking for the sexiest 4.3-inch phone of the bunch, the Inspire still beats it -- you can't go wrong with the thinner, metal, unibody shell -- but the Thunderbolt is easily one of the best Android devices in Verizon's expansive lineup even before you take the LTE capability into account. And if you're lucky enough to live or work in an LTE market (or one that's going live this year), it's the best choice by a country mile.
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Phone Reviews
HTC One Reviews,Specification And More
HTC One Reviews Specification And More
HTC returns with a sleek aluminum design, re-imagined software and a bold new camera experience
We’re all out of poetic ways to describe HTC’s current situation. A frustrating 2012 saw some of the year’s best mobile hardware being met with declining sales and market presence for the Taiwanese manufacturer. Once the leader of the Android pack, HTC is increasingly seen as an also-ran.
That, in part, was down to the confused marketing strategy around last year’s HTC One series. The One X and One S were soon joined by Ones V, VX, XL, XT, XC, SU, SV, SC, and X+, further diluting the value of an already watery brand.
In 2013, however, there is only one One. The new HTC One is, as the name suggests, the singular focus of HTC’s high-end efforts. The company’s best build quality, software, screen and optics are to be brought to bear in a “kitchen sink” product that aims to leave no holds barred.
It’s also a device that seeks to achieve differentiation at every point on the spec sheet. As other smartphones are increasingly faceless, monolithic black slabs, HTC sandwiches its screen between two bassy front-facing speakers. BoomSound. As competitors crank out 13-megapixel shooters, HTC bucks the trend with a much lower megapixel count, but larger pixels and improved optics. UltraPixels. Add to that a new way to shoot and share images and video. Zoe Share. Plus, a new home screen experience that brings the world to you. BlinkFeed.
And let’s not forget how rare it is to come across a decent aluminum smartphone these days.
If HTC is to recover, it’ll be through a combination of intelligent marketing and great products. We can’t review the former, but you can bet we’re going to get stuck into the latter. In fact, we’ll do it right after the break, in our definitive review of the new HTC One.
 
Stunning design, and some of the best build quality we’ve seen in an Android smartphone. Near-perfect screen with excellent colors and viewing angles. Incredibly speedy performance, completely lag-free interface and an attractive, streamlined Sense UI. Excellent audio quality from the front speakers (and bundled earbuds). The “UltraPixel” camera performs really well in low light ...
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… but the the overall camera experience doesn't quite live up to HTC’s hype. Certain features like “Video Highlights” could be better implemented. The wonky button setup takes some getting used to. BlinkFeed is useful but underdeveloped.
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The HTC One is an exquisite piece of design and engineering. From the hardware to the software, HTC’s new handset incorporates some of the very best design work in the industry. If there’s something to be disappointed about, it might be the much-vaunted “UltraPixel” camera. Which is not to say it’s bad per se -- in fact, it’s pretty good. But it’s a long way off being the silver bullet to cure all your mobile photography woes, and though its low-light performance is fantastic, it still lags behind the competition in some other areas.
In spite of this, is it HTC’s best phone yet? Without question. And on balance, is it the best Android phone you can buy? For the moment, absolutely.
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HTC One unboxing video
HTC One hardware review
There’s a certain futility about merely describing a device like the HTC One. We could fill paragraphs talking about each little nuance of its gorgeous brushed metal chassis, but to really understand and appreciate this phone you need to hold it in your hand. Neither renders nor photographs do it justice. What we’re trying to say here is that the HTC One is a very pretty piece of technology indeed.
The basic profile of the HTC One is a lot like the Droid DNA or its international cousin, the J Butterfly, but the feel is strikingly different. HTC’s recent history of polycarbonate designs makes way for a welcome return to the aluminum unibodies of old. This curved aluminum block is HTC’s most precisely-crafted phone yet. Reflective, diamond-cut chamfers adorn the edges of the casing, and the back has a subtle, ergonomic curve to it. (On the inside, HTC sandwiches the battery between the screen and PCB to achieve this look.) In the hand, it’s light yet substantial, and the feel of the brushed aluminum leaves you in no doubt that you’re holding a premium product.
An injected matte plastic trim can be found around the edge and back of the HTC One, and this houses part of the phone’s antenna assembly (on an all-metal phone, it’s got to go somewhere). It also breaks up the exposed metal areas quite nicely -- on the silver version we’re reviewing it’s white; on the black version it’s black. It houses the microSIM tray on the left edge, and on the right side it’s punctuated by a metal volume rocker. Up top is the power button, and there’s a good reason for its being there -- it also doubles as an IR blaster for the Sense TV app.
Thankfully, there’s no protruding One X-style camera hump this time around -- in fact, the camera is slightly recessed into the chassis itself. This way it doesn’t interfere with the flow of the curved back -- however, the lens may be more vulnerable to scratches when the the device is laid flat.
On the front sits a SuperLCD 3 panel at 1920x1080 resolution, and this has to be one of the best-looking screens we’ve ever seen. It uses the same display tech as the Droid DNA, but HTC’s condensed this 1080p panel into a 4.7-inch space, making it sharper than ever, at 468 pixels per inch. Its colors are bright and vivid without being overblown, and there’s no discoloration or wash-out when viewing at oblique angles. Being a modern LCD, the HTC One’s screen is expectedly excellent in outdoor performance.
The flattened business end of the HTC One is also home to its two front-facing speakers, forming part of HTC’s “BoomSound” system. This combination of larger speakers, more advanced membranes and Beats Audio results in the loudest and bassiest sound experience we’ve heard on any smartphone, without sacrificing clarity. For music and video content, that’s great. But on anything but the lowest volume setting, it’s almost too loud for regular notifications and ringtones. Powering on the HTC One for the first time, you’re assaulted by the full force of BoomSound in HTC jingle form. And the first phone call you receive on the device will be equally terrifying if it strikes you unprepared.
On the subject of audio, we should also mention the bundled HTC earphones. They’re not Beats-branded, but they’re about as good as the urBeats in-ear cans offered with some HTC handsets last year, and a significant step up from the truly awful HTC earbuds included with earlier devices. Kudos to HTC for not skimping in this area.
Beneath the screen is the one seriously questionable design decision we almost don't have to point out -- HTC’s unique button setup. Unlike about every other Android phone on the planet, you’re limited to just a back and home key on the HTC One. No multitasking key, no menu key. To jump to the task-switcher, you have to double-tap the home button. Want Google Now? Long-press the home key. We adjusted to the new button setup pretty quickly, but it's one nasty holdover from HTC’s 2012 phones. Moreover, it takes the home button out of the easiest part of the phone to reach -- the center.
Apps that require the menu key -- including the bundled Twitter application -- reclaim a lower portion of the screen to make way for a virtual menu button. The dreaded black bar. Whether HTC or app developers are to blame is debatable, but regardless it’s an ugly way of handling legacy apps, and one that detracts from the otherwise slick software experience.
On the inside, the HTC One’s hardware credentials mirror its impressive exterior. It’s running the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 CPU -- a quad-core chip at 1.7GHz -- with 2GB of RAM and 32 or 64GB of storage. Qualcomm’s new chip is about as fast as it gets in the Android space right now, and that was reflected in our daily use of the HTC One, which has been a completely lag-free experience with no slow-down and lightning-fast app loading times.
We’re using the European model here in the UK, which packs 32GB of internal storage; other territories, including some Asian countries, will get a 64GB option. Storage is arranged in a single partition for both apps and media, and the HTC One connects to PCs and Macs via MTP connection, in line with Google’s guidelines. There’s no removable storage option -- unless you count HTC Sense’s ability to connect USB thumb drives -- but with a minimum of 32GB on-board, we’re not going to make too much fuss over this.
The version we’ve got also supports European 4G LTE frequencies -- 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz -- which are the main three in use in the UK and mainland Europe. In addition, you’ve got quad-band HSPA at speeds of up to 42Mbps. The HTC One is also one of the first phones to boast 802.11ac Wifi compatibility, so that’s an added bonus for owners of the latest super-fast Wifi routers. Both Wifi and Bluetooth capabilities work as expected.
And yes, it makes phone calls, too. HTC’s touting new software tweaks called “VoiceSense,” which automatically cranks up the call volume in loud environments. VoiceSense joins an array of other voice call features, including the ability to ring louder when the phone’s in a bag or pocket, and Sense’s automatic quieting of the ringer when the phone is picked up.
So all the requisite boxes are checked for a high-end Android smartphone in 2013. But as we’ll discover throughout this review, design is where the HTC One truly shines. As much as we’ve praised phones like the Nexus 4 in the past year -- and admired devices like the Windows Phone 8X from afar -- the HTC One is on another plane when it comes to build quality. That’s not hyperbole. With its latest handset, HTC leads everyone bar Apple in this area.
HTC One software, UI and apps
The HTC One runs the new HTC Sense 5 atop Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. That means you’re not quite running the latest version of Android, but on a non-stock phone there’s not a whole lot of user-facing stuff to miss.
In the latest version of its user interface, HTC has completely reinvented Sense, giving it its biggest makeover ever. The iconic flip clock has gone, swapped out for a new home screen dynamic based on the “BlinkFeed” news feed. And Sense’s cartoonish icons and menus are out, replaced by sleeker, more geometric graphics. A new, condensed Roboto-based font is used in the menus and many of HTC’s apps, and this looks great on the HTC One’s super-high resolution screen.
Sense 5 has also lost an awful lot of its visual noise, and that’s a good thing. The excessive embossing around the edge of buttons and menus is no more, instead you get clean lines and a curved gradient towards the notification shade. Further evidence of this design shift can be found in the new HTC wallpaper gallery, which is stocked with classy, minimalist backgrounds not a million miles away from Android’s own “Holo” design language.
It’s also fast as all hell. Sure, that’s helped out by the speedy Snapdragon 600 CPU and Android 4.1’s “Project Butter” performance tweaks and the 2GB of RAM, but HTC also deserves credit for making Sense 5 an entirely lag-free experience. Seriously. Not once did this thing stutter or stall.
BlinkFeed and the new launcher dynamic
Similar to Flipboard, BlinkFeed lies at the heart of Sense 5’s home screen experience. It’s a flowing grid of social updates, news feeds, calendar appointments, task list entries, TV schedules and upcoming deals. It’s also customizable, to a degree, though you’re limited in the ways in which you can add new stuff. News, for example, has to be selected from a list of built-in sources (HTC says there’s more than 1,400). On the social site, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are supported, but not Google+. You can't currently add your own feeds. You can, however, add your favorite Android Central and Mobile Nations news. So there's that.
For serious news junkies (and bloggers), BlinkFeed isn’t going to replace your RSS reader, nor is it meant to. BlinkFeed is clearly designed for "normal" people -- civilian smartphone users. It’s a supposed to be a quick, easy way to “snack” on information.
How well it works for you will depend on how well its curated list of integrated services fits with your social and news habits. We suspect most smartphone users will find some use for it, even if it doesn’t become their default home screen.
This is HTC’s first iteration of BlinkFeed, and it’s very good for a first shot at this sort of thing. But its usefulness is hampered by its closed nature, and we’d like to see it opened up in the same way DashClock Widget is. That’d let the development community pick up where HTC left off and add even more capabilities into this flagship feature. With some more customizations, BlinkFeed could be a real asset for power users.
There’s also no way to turn it off entirely -- though you don't have to use BlinkFeed if you don't want to. Swipe to the right and you’ve got a standard Android home screen arrangement -- a four-by-four grid of icons and a selection of surprisingly stylish Sense widgets with which to customize it. Up to five home screens can be added, and you can set any one as the default home screen.
The app drawer has been redesigned too. It’s a lot more customizable, which is good because the default arrangement isn’t particularly easy to navigate. HTC seems to expect many users to hop between BlinkFeed and the app drawer without using much of the traditional home, and so the app drawer can be re-arranged into folders. That’s not necessarily a bad idea, but it means you’ve got more hoops to jump through if you want to create app shortcuts on a home screen page. The process of moving stuff in and out of the app dock is a more convoluted than it needs to be.
More: BlinkFeed: Inside the HTC One's home screen reader
Task Switching
As we mentioned, you can access the task switcher on the HTC One by double-tapping the home key. This brings up a grid of the nine most recently used apps. That places a hard limit on the number of apps you can switch between, but we figure nine is probably enough for most people. You can see all nine immediately without scrolling, which is good. However, the lack of app icons on this page means it can take a little longer to spot the app you’re after. A good many of them look the same -- black text on a white background.
Like the old Sense task-switcher, you flick a card up to get rid of the app. Thankfully, we didn't notice any of the multi-tasking issues that some folks reported on devices like the One X.
We’re not sure whether we prefer it to the stock Android task-switcher, but it’s an improvement on the old Sense 4 implementation to be sure.
Get Started
First introduced in Sense 4+, HTC’s “Get Started” web service lets you take the first steps towards setting up your new device on your computer, before you even purchase it. Pre-loaded apps. There’s a limit to how much you’re able to set up in advance -- Google accounts, for example, are out of the question. But allowing new users to set up their own wallpapers, ringtones, BlinkFeed services and a few common apps should go a long way towards making the smartphone setup process less painful.
Settings are saved to your HTC account, then, once you’ve signed into the HTC One with that same account, all your customizations are pulled down from HTC’s servers.
Music, Gallery and Beats Audio
As the branding on the back of the phone will remind you, the HTC One comes with Beats Audio software enhancements, and these can be enabled or disabled via the main settings menu. It’s possible we’re imagining this, but the Beats enhancements on the HTC One don’t seem to quite as overblown and excessively bassy as they’ve been in the past. Regardless, the effect is still noticeable -- there’s a welcome boost in volume and bass that’s clear whether you’re using headphones or the excellent front-facing BoomSound speakers.
The new HTC Sense music app is relatively spartan when it comes to visuals, but it’s just as full-featured as as ever. The music app comes with access to the Gracenote lyrics database, and these lyrics pop up on-screen when you enable the new visualizer effects. Similarly, artist images and album art are pulled down from Gracenote when you download or transfer a new album across to the HTC One. And there’s full DLNA support music app, too.
Naturally, DLNA support is also baked into the Gallery app. In addition to showing you your own photos -- and showing you animated previews of each event if you’ve been using Zoe mode. And as is becoming increasingly common, the Gallery apps hooks into Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn to populate itself with photos from friends, too.
We’ll have more on the Gallery app in the camera section of this review.
TV and Movies
The HTC One is one of the many new Android devices shipping with an integrated IR blaster, allowing it to control TVs, sound systems and cable boxes. The phone’s TV capabilities are rooted in the Sense TV app, which is based on Peel. The setup procedure is pretty simple. Starting with your TV off, you’ll be asked to confirm a few details about your location and equipment branding, before calibrating the remote to work with your TV and assorted boxes.
The TV app shows you a grid of shows that are currently on, with a blue bar beneath indicating how long they’ve been running for. Tapping the show will trigger the TV app keys in the appropriate channel number. It’s a neat alternative to the traditional TV guide layout we’re all familiar with. What’s also useful is the ability to tell the TV app your favorite shows and have messages pop up in BlinkFeed when they’re showing. When you're using the TV app, you'll also get a notification widget allowing you easy access to the universal remote.
HTC Watch, the company’s own streaming service is also present, and the selection of movies and TV content available has been slowly expanding over the past year or so. We’re not sure you’ll find anything there that’s not on Netflix or Google Play, but having another source of streaming content certainly doesn’t hurt.
While other built-in apps include DLNA support, wireless streaming from the Watch app is reserved for HTC’s own Media Link HD peripheral.
HTC Sync Manager
HTC’s own synchronization app is available for HTC One owners, and there’s a Mac and PC version that’ll help you transfer music
The latest version of the app seems to be a marked improvement on earlier builds. HTC Sync no longer chokes on larger music libraries, and it’s relatively easy to import albums or playlists from third-party players like iTunes.
Contacts and calendar appointments can be synced too if you’re still using PC-centric clients for these.
Other bits
- As before, the HTC Sense contacts app can draw in contacts from multiple sources, including Google accounts, Twitter, Facebook and Skype and unify them into a single location. It also has the ability to import high-resolution photos from social networks too, which is nice.
- To expand notifications in Sense, you’ll need to pinch horizontally rather than dragging down. Unfortunately that’s not a particularly obvious gesture, nor is it easy to perform.
- The data usage control panel -- the bar chart showing mobile data consumption -- is hidden Settings > Wireless and Networks > More > Usage in Sense 5. That’s a shame, as it’s one of Android’s most useful features.
- HTC's stock keyboard is fast and responsive, and we were able to type pretty quickly on it thanks to its accurate auto-correction. If you're a fan of swipe-style keyboards, the "trace" option can be enabled in the keyboard settings.
- There’s a variety of lock screen templates available, just like earlier versions of Sense. The Weather lock screen, with its assortment of 3D animations, has been culled, however.
Considered alongside all HTC’s earlier software suites, Sense 5 is easily the fastest, the best designed and the easiest to use. If you weren’t a fan of Sense’s tendency towards 3D animations and pompous visual flair in the past, then you’ll welcome the refined look HTC’s brought to the table on the HTC One. Sense 5 also stacks up pretty well against vanilla Android. There’s still more going on in Sense, and it’s nowhere near as minimalist as what you’ll find on a Nexus, but it’s just as quick and just as stylish.
HTC One battery life
The HTC One is fitted with a 2300 mAh internal battery, which in numbers alone is about average for a high-end Android smartphone. There’s no way inside that aluminum unibody, so as you might’ve guessed, the battery is not removable.
We found the phone’s battery performance to be decent, but not outstanding. It’d easily last us a full day, just as the Sony Xperia Z and LG Nexus 4 have in the past. Some of that will depend on network connectivity, of course.
With moderate to heavy usage patterns consisting of browsing and social networking over LTE, HSPA and Wifi, music playback, photography and video recording, we clocked just under 14 hours of use before reaching the warning level of fifteen percent. With more conservative use, mostly restricted to Wifi, we reached the end of the day with around 30 percent left after 18 or so hours on battery. With all day spent on Wifi, we reached around 50 percent in the same timespan. We used the HTC One on DC-HSDPA on Three UK and LTE on EE, and we didn’t notice any significant additional battery drain when using 4G data services as opposed to good old HSPA. (That’s in line with other modern 4G devices we’ve reviewed, including the Xperia Z and Galaxy S3 LTE.)
HTC Sense doesn’t allow users to measure screen-on time directly -- or battery used by the screen -- but we suspect that gorgeous 1080p display is a responsible for much of the phone’s battery consumption, particularly outside where auto-brightness cranks the backlight all the way up. In fact, on its automatic setting, the screen was consistently brighter than most other Android phones. So there might be some battery savings to be made by manually controlling this setting.
Another predictable battery-guzzler is the “UltraPixel” camera and associated software set. Though straight-up still shots didn’t seem to drain our battery too badly, video recording and Zoe shots took a greater toll. Because of the way Zoe shots work -- recording 20 separate JPEGs and one MP4 video file, having any automatic upload services enabled (e.g. Dropbox) will further cut into your battery life. (To say nothing of mucking up your folder with dozens and dozens of images.)
HTC includes a prominent Power Saver widget in the notification shade at all times, allowing users to switch to a low-power mode to conserve power. Power Saver mode can slow the CPU, dim the display or shut off the data connection when the screen’s off. This is similar to the “Stamina Mode” found on the Sony Xperia Z, though there’s no whitelist to allow apps through the bar on background data. In any case, we’d avoid using this unless we were limping along with very little juice remaining, which is why we’d welcome the ability to remove the widget from the notification area.
To summarize, we were more than happy with the battery performance of the HTC One. Its battery life was a marked improvement over both the (international) One X and One X+, which failed to impress us in this area. But if you’re coming from a phone with really great battery life or greater battery capacity -- or expecting super-long battery life from HTC’s latest -- you may come away disappointed.
HTC One 'UltraPixel' camera review
As HTC is keen to tell anyone who’ll ask, the HTC One’s rear shooter is no ordinary smartphone camera. Eschewing the traditional megapixel race, the phone includes a 4-megapixel “UltraPixel” camera with much larger pixels -- 2 microns -- on the sensor itself. This, together with the f/2.0 aperture lens, is designed to make the device suited to low-light and indoor photography, where HTC believes smartphone photography goes on.
As well as an impressive set of optics, the HTC One includes a second-generation ImageSense chip. The successor to the chip that debuted in the One X last year is responsible for the HTC One’s fast capture speeds and general image-crunching duties.
So how do all those technical specs and buzzwords translate into real-world performance? It’s a mixed bag.
The HTC One records still images at 2688x1520 resolution at 16:9 aspect ratio -- that’s the maximum resolution, and as such if you want to shoot in 4:3, the phone does so by chopping off the sides of the image. That means you get the full benefit of the camera’s wide-angle lens in widescreen shots, and a narrower view in 4:3 mode. Just like last year’s One X, the HTC One is incredibly quick to capture shots, and there’s a burst shooting mode that can be activated by long-pressing the shutter key.
The main camera view is made up of the photo and video shutter keys, zoom controls, filter options, a flash control and the Zoe toggle key (more on that later.) All other settings are accessed via a slightly cumbersome list of options, some of which are expandable. And as the HTC One doesn’t automatically flip into macro mode or backlight mode as required, you’ll have to deal with this menu more often than you might like. (That’s a point in favor of competitors like Sony, which has an excellent “Superior Auto” mode to switch between relevant scene settings.)
HTC’s grand plan with its “UltraPixel” sensor is that the reduction in overall megapixels should be made up for by the overall increase in image quality. That’s true in many images, and especially noticeable in night photography, but it’s by no means the case across the board.
Let’s start off with strengths -- the HTC One is probably the best low-light smartphone camera we’ve tested. Indoors or at night, the benefits of the “UltraPixel” sensor and f/2.0 lens are clear to see. HTC’s camera produces sharper, clearer low-light images than other Android competitors. Even shots from Sony’s Xperia Z, which has pretty good low-light performance, appear a blurry, noisy mess by comparison.
Similarly, the HTC One is an excellent macro performer -- though you’ll need to enable macro mode manually under “Scenes.” The same goes for HDR mode, which can produce some stunning landscape shots when used correctly.
In daylight, though, things get a bit more complicated. In conditions where there’s plenty of light to go around, the HTC One’s low megapixel count becomes a bottleneck.
Generally speaking, the HTC One is able to capture shots that look good when viewed on a laptop, tablet, monitor or TV with all the downsampling that that involves. But when blown up to full 4MP size it’s clear to see there’s some quite aggressive noise reduction and sharpening going on. Telltale signs like graininess and artifacting around dark areas in daylight images (e.g. branches of trees) demonstrate that even with this new sensor tech, photographic aberrations persist in full-sized images. That’s not true of every image, but it’s something you’ll notice if you inspect your photos close-up.
The HTC One’s dynamic range is pretty narrow, and the camera struggles in outdoor scenes with dark and very bright areas. This is aggravated further by the phone’s inability to automatically toggle into backlight mode where necessary. If you’re shooting landscapes or anything with bright sky in the background, this can quickly become a major bugbear, as you’re forced to navigate the sprawling camera menu and select either Backlight or HDR mode. To HTC’s credit, though, its HDR mode is among the best out there -- extremely quick and ghost-free, and capable of producing seriously impressive images.
HTC probably isn’t aiming this camera at people who’ll use their smartphone photos at full resolution. In fact, we wouldn’t even include ourselves in that group. If you share images to the web, chances are the image you end up seeing will be 1- to 2-megapixels anyway. But we can’t help feeling that the UltraPixel camera just doesn’t live up to all of the pre-release hype. In the right conditions it’s impressive for sure, but it’s not the holy grail of smartphone photography.
Nor is it the savior of smartphone video recording, even with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) onboard. The HTC One’s video performance is generally decent -- and footage shot at 1080p looks good most of the time -- but there are too many niggling issues for our liking. The camera’s comparatively poor dynamic range takes a heavy toll on daylight footage in some instances, resulting in stuttering as it attempts to adjust to the changes in light level. There is an HDR video mode -- a feature we’ve seen before on the Sony Xperia Z -- though this falls victim to the same occasional frame rate reductions.
We are, of course, picking nits here. The phone’s video performance isn’t universally bad by any means, as you‘ll see in our sample reel. But we can’t avoid the fact that we’ve seen better daylight performance from the competition. The HTC One does excel in low light video, delivering near-unmatched clarity in night-time footage. It’s just a shame this isn’t the case across the board.
On the front-facing camera side, HTC brings to bear a 2-megapixel shooter with a BSI sensor and a wide angle lens. This means you can fit more people in each shot, and it holds up pretty well in low light too.
Zoes, Highlights and sharing
The HTC One debuts a new type of photo in HTC Zoe. Zoe mode, enabled by tapping the Zoe icon in the camera app, records 19 or 20 still frames at 4MP and three seconds of 1080p video at the same time, resulting in a “slice” of time being recorded rather than a single frame. At a practical level, this can help you catch time-sensitive shots, as each Zoe records five frames before the shutter is pressed, and 15 afterwards. And it’s also fun to view Vine-like snapshots of each photo.
But another main reason to shoot in Zoe mode is the phone’s automatic video highlight capability. The gallery app automatically arranges photos into events based on location and date, and the HTC One conjures up 30-second highlight reels for these events -- complete with background music and filters -- based on Zoes, videos and stills. Video highlights are generated on-the-fly, and there’s no way to disable this feature, though you can ignore it by viewing photos in a traditional folder arrangement.
In each event, pictures, videos or Zoes can be tagged as “Highlights,” which is supposed to tell the app to use them in the reel. This feature wasn’t working correctly in the firmware version we were using, though, and the gallery app continued to pick out shots at random for highlight reels. HTC says it’s aware of this bug and is working on a fix.
Videos, stills, Zoes and highlights can be shared through HTC’s (somewhat confusingly-named) Zoe Share service, which is essentially a web-based sharing system tweaked to handle the HTC One’s unique imaging output. Using Zoe Share on the HTC One is quick and easy -- a few taps to select the content you want to upload, and you’re done. Zoe Share then gives you a URL you can share using Android sharing intents via email, social networks and so on.
The interplay between Zoes, Highlights and Zoe Share is probably the most unique and interesting part of HTC’s new photographic equation. The implementation isn’t quite perfect, but we can see how these features will be both enjoyable and useful to most smartphone photographers.
More: HTC One: Zoes and video highlights
In summary, HTC’s UltraPixel experiment shows promise, but on the HTC One it isn’t a resounding success. Nevertheless, at the very least we’d call the HTC One’s camera satisfactory, and there’s no denying that it excels in certain areas. What’s more, features like Zoes, highlights and Zoe Share are examples of real innovation in mobile imaging.
The bottom line
To pull itself back from the brink, HTC knows it has to produce something special. And the HTC One is exactly that. It’s an exquisite piece of design and engineering. From the hardware to the software, HTC’s new handset incorporates some of the very finest design work in the industry. It’s the best-looking, best-feeling phone we’ve used -- nothing beats the feel of HTC’s curved brushed aluminum chassis. The new Sense has been pared back, sped up and redesigned in ways that make it a huge improvement on earlier iterations.
The majority of HTC’s “buzzword” features also deliver. The BoomSound speakers offer unparalleled bass and clarity for smartphone speakers. Sense TV is a really useful app for dual-screen viewing. BlinkFeed isn’t perfect, but the implementation is good for a “version 1.0” feature.
We’re not overly keen on HTC’s two-button setup, though we’ve learned to live with it over the past week. On a related note, we’d still like the on-screen menu bar that occasionally pops up to die in a fire, though not all the blame for this crime against user experience design lies with HTC.
If there’s something to be disappointed about, it might be the much-vaunted “UltraPixel” camera. Which is not to say it’s bad per se -- in fact, it’s pretty good. But it’s a long way off being the silver bullet to cure all your mobile photography woes, and though its low-light performance is fantastic, it lags behind the competition in some other areas.
In spite of this, is it HTC’s best phone yet? Without question. And on balance, is it the best Android phone you can buy? For the moment, absolutely...
Photo credit : AndroidCentral
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