Living With an HTC One

I've spent some time lately with an HTC One, one of the best-looking high-end Android smartphones out there. While the Samsung Galaxy S 4 is the market leader, the HTC One is a worthy challenger. It's a solid phone with some interesting differentiating features, such as a social media-centric homepage and a different approach to the camera.

The phone itself measure 5.40-by-2.70-by-0.37 inches and weighs 5 ounces, which makes it about the same size as the Galaxy S 4 but slightly heavier. It looks different from most of today's phones in that while it is still mostly screen, it has two larger speakers quite distinctly placed on the top and bottom, giving it a bit of flair. One drawback is that while it comes with 32GB of flash storage, it isn't expandable. (AT&T also has a model with 64GB of fixed flash storage.) However, it has a metal case, which feels quite sturdy.

The screen is a 4.7-inch LCD display. This is smaller than the display on the Galaxy S 4 and other top-end Android phones now, but it is still a full HD 1,920-by-1,080 display and I found a lot to like. The text is excellent as are viewing angles and I think it is brighter and easier to read in bright light than the Galaxy S 4. Colors are good, if a bit oversaturated. The built-in speakers do make it sound notably better than most smartphones, even though I listen to audio mostly with headphones. It has the Beats Audio system, which enhances the bassperhaps too muchbut you can turn that off.

The HTC One doesn't have any physical buttons, just an electronic back button on the left and an electronic home button on the right of the HTC logo. I found myself wishing for a center home button, but that may just be a matter of being used to the more conventional layout.

The biggest thing you'll note with the phone is the default home screen interface called BlinkFeed, which essentially is an aggregate of your feeds from various social networks, including Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Twitter; plus optional headlines from multiple sources and/or categories of interest. You can post to your social networks from the feed, although when you actually click on something you go to the underlying application. The concept isn't completely newWindows Phone integrates social networks, for instance, and Facebook Home is a more Facebook-centric approachbut I really like BlinkFeed for giving me a quick overview of what is going on when I'm standing in line someplace. On the other hand, if you don't like BlinkFeed, there's really no way to get rid of it; you can easily swipe to another home screen, but you can't turn it off.

Otherwise, it's essentially an Android 4.1 phone with HTC Sense 5.0 as an overlay. The lock screen includes the time and the weather, and if you hit the home button twice quickly, you'll get a grid view of all your open applications. This is a bit different from the more standard scrolling list, but I think it's a nice enhancement. HTC has also nicely redesigned the settings page and much of the setup screens, making it easier for novice users. It doesn't have nearly all the options that Samsung offers, but that's OK. Still, I miss the quick settings to turn things like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off from the notifications screen. 

The other big difference between the HTC One and most Android phones is the camera. Rather than compete with the megapixel count of the sensor, HTC is talking about using what it calls "ultrapixels" that are larger than standard pixels so more light hits each one. Specifically, this is using 2-micron pixels as opposed to the typical 1.1-micron pixels on camera phones. That sounds interesting and should theoretically produce better low-light pictures, but in practice, I didn't really see any improvements.  In fact, sometimes it appeared that the software was trying to sharpen the low-light photos in ways that didn't actually help the pictures.  

However, daylight pictures look very good and the camera seems quite fast. HDR pictures taken with bright light behind the subject were top-notch, maybe the best I've seen. On the other hand, the smaller number of pixels limits the amount of digital zoom you can do. In general, I think the photos are better than many phones, but not quite up to the iPhone or Galaxy S 4.

The camera modes are reasonable. It has the normal night, HDR, and Panorama modes, all of which work fine, and a number of more specific scenes. The camera has a variety of filters, similar to Instagram, which you can immediately apply. I haven't been a big fan of such filters but know plenty of people who like this. They seem to work well.  

Perhaps the most unusual feature is called a "Zoe," which combines a three-second video with a series of still shots. It's an interesting idea but I'm not quite sure when I wouldn't just want to be taking video or stills, especially because it's hard to share these since Zoe doesn't integrate with popular social networking or photo sharing sites.

HTC also includes its own TV application with recommended shows, which, as on the Samsung equivalent, I don't find particularly useful. It too can control a TV via IR and this seems to work fine. HTC also has its own video rental and purchase store called Watch, which seems redundant compared with Google Play.

I used an AT&T version of the phone, which came with a number of AT&T-specific applications and stubs, mostly for additional services, such as its own Navigator service and its Family Map. Phone calls seem fine and download speeds seem quite good.

In general, there's a lot to like about the HTC One. It's a solid phone with a very good screen and it seems easier to set up and get running than most of the competing phones in part because you have fewer choices. Some people will like BlinkFeed; others will wish you could remove it completely and install something like Flipboard instead. I like the concept of "Ultrapixels" and while the final results aren't quite as impressive as I'd hoped, the photos are generally still quite good. 

Both the HTC One and the Galaxy S 4 are impressive, fast, and modern Android phones. The One gives you a somewhat smaller screen, less expandability, and fewer applications although the applications it does have work well and it certainly offers better audio, an easier setup experience, and simply a more solid feel. If you like BlinkFeed, or simply prefer the more solid, aluminum design, then the HTC One is a great choice.

For more, read PCMag's full review.