So the HTC London and New York Press events have blown past, and in their wake has left the mobile industry a-buzzin' over the announcement of the ever anticipated HTC One - the follow up to the first flagship title in the One line, the One X.
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| Source: DigitalTrends |
Along with the Xperia Z and its cousin, the Droid DNA/Butterfly, we consumers are now receiving an insight into the next generation of flagship smartphones, and the ever improving and constantly changing mobile world.
What are some of the hit and miss features I find with this new handset? Hit the break and find out!
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| The One's unibody aluminium design - Source: ITProPortal |
For starters, someone with a great eye for design, specifically, HTC Design Chief, Scott Croyle, has taken a keen interest this device, as the build and fine aesthetic touches hit the mark for a premium look and no doubt, feel. Whilst some of the clean white lines along the back, and front panels above and below the screen are akin to the iPhone 5, the unusual dual front speakers and large camera lenses and buttons make this handset stand out on its own. Just look at the aluminium unibody shell which encases the device, it's said to take a little over three hours to cut both the front and rear parts for each phone, which, I can imagine would be a breeze for HTC if this phone turns out huge demand.
To expand on the front dual speakers approach, I honestly can't see why OEMs hadn't considered this feature on more mainstream handsets earlier. We are constantly underwhelmed by the muffling and poor quality of speakers placed away from us on the back of the phone, particularly when the phone is put on a surface. The genius that finally realised speakers on the front that direct sound towards individuals instead of away, should be given praise and recognition - this feature on smartphones is long overdue.
Moving on to the camera, oh boy the camera. HTC have hyped up their new 'ultrapixel' shooter on their One, which despite its meagre 4 megapixels, with help from its f/2.0 aperture lens, is apparently capable of taking in 300 percent more light than an ordinary mobile phone camera sensor. HTC is taking a step back from the megapixel game in favour of better all round image detail. The pixels are also larger and comparable with technology on dedicated cameras, able to reproduce clear and detailed shots - up to its 4MP resolution.
The lack of additional megapixels may be a turn off to some, but I'm not phased, and maintain if people want a truly amazing camera, that they purchase a camera, instead of a phone.
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| A shot from the One - Source: GSMarena |
The lack of additional megapixels may be a turn off to some, but I'm not phased, and maintain if people want a truly amazing camera, that they purchase a camera, instead of a phone.
Whilst the One has made an impact on the hardware side, software has taken somewhat of a back seat in the scheme of things. The latest iteration of Sense, aptly titled Sense 5.0, incorporates an array of flat, minimalist icons and graphics, and whilst this appears cleaner than prior Sense flavours, underneath it lacks some of the mind blowing features we've seen from the likes of Samsung and to a lesser extent, LG.
Of course, services subscribed to by users are completely determined by the individual, but of the few tech sites I follow, I sure get a ton of stories delivered every hour, and even minutes. Integrating Facebook and Twitter will not do any of this justice, which is why appropriate settings to turn down the delivery of content from certain services would be ideal in order for this new homescreen to work.
HTC Zoe is new to both the camera and gallery. For gallery previews its purely a novelty way for artsy people to view their gallery, but that's not to say it won't become a norm in most all future handsets in some way, shape or form. Zoe mode on the camera is a good compliment to the effort they've put into their new sensors and f/2.0 aperture lens and while I can see the point in putting good use to the image sensor they have, by allowing auto capture during video record - its nothing we haven't heard about before, and it seems camera Zoe's sole purpose is to essentially make gallery Zoe look prettier.
It's all a little pretentious and gimmicky to me.
It appears HTC had stumbled upon a way to capture brilliant low-light shots that are on par with the Lumia 920 (albeit via fewer megapixels), and then ran out of ideas - so they threw in something that teenagers and people who spend in excess of an hour each day fixing their hair would love, and then called it a day.
Going back to design and build, I mentioned it's all good to manufacture something that's visually appealing and wonderful to hold, but that most would only end up putting their phone in a case anyway so the point is somewhat defeated. I can admire that HTC strayed from the polycarbonate of the One X, and an aluminium finish is far more appealing, but most of us only truly appreciate it in the first few moments the phone is out of its box before its ushered into a case shortly after. My point here is that HTC have decided to focus on the cosmetic and hardware components of the One. This is all good and nice when you have a UI that can live up to the glory that is the device itself, but like Apple with their iPhone 5, the One to me is for the most part, trying too hard to appeal to an audience that is gradually leaving it behind.
Sure, the camera and speakers are phenomenal, especially with the addition of BoomSound, enabling 19dB of smartphone-deafening sound, but apart from that there's no true 'WOW' factor associated with this device. 2GBs of RAM and the quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor may put it ahead for the moment, but that'll be the norm in no time. The lack of 4.2.1 as a minimum for a flagship device is a major let down, and I can only hope the 4.2.2 upgrade will roll-out in the first few months of the release, but it's unlikely.
All in all, I'm not entirely sure what to make of this device. If we were to consider phones as dogs, the iPhone could be likened to a Chihuahua, barking at your feet and jumping for your attention, the Galaxy Note II would probably be your trusty Border Collie, and the One would fit somewhere in between. It has all the potential to be the greatest it can be, but the problem is, it thinks its the greatest, and will shout in the face of anyone who's opinions differ otherwise. I wouldn't buy a phone or a dog that emulates that trait.
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| BlinkFeed on Sense 5.0 - Source: PCMag |
Firstly and thankfully, Sense 5.0 is not all about the tiles. Whilst BlinkFeed is HTC's attempt to encourage users to move away from the conventional homescreen we've come to expect on Android, users are afforded the option if they so desire. BlinkFeed in my view is reminiscent of a Google+ feed more so than Windows Phone 8's Live Tiles, particularly in its scrolling animations and layout. This encouraged homescreen/feed may be designed to keep users occupied for a moment while they have time to kill, but to me, the concept is cluttered and would be a definite information overload. How many stories, updates and other useless information could you possibly need? A limit setting on this feature would be nice, as I often find myself forgetting about the time while reading through Google+ or Reader feeds. I can only imagine how crowded BlinkFeed could get as it appears to combine myriads of services.
Of course, services subscribed to by users are completely determined by the individual, but of the few tech sites I follow, I sure get a ton of stories delivered every hour, and even minutes. Integrating Facebook and Twitter will not do any of this justice, which is why appropriate settings to turn down the delivery of content from certain services would be ideal in order for this new homescreen to work.
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| HTC Zoe - Source: droid-life |
It's all a little pretentious and gimmicky to me.
It appears HTC had stumbled upon a way to capture brilliant low-light shots that are on par with the Lumia 920 (albeit via fewer megapixels), and then ran out of ideas - so they threw in something that teenagers and people who spend in excess of an hour each day fixing their hair would love, and then called it a day.
Going back to design and build, I mentioned it's all good to manufacture something that's visually appealing and wonderful to hold, but that most would only end up putting their phone in a case anyway so the point is somewhat defeated. I can admire that HTC strayed from the polycarbonate of the One X, and an aluminium finish is far more appealing, but most of us only truly appreciate it in the first few moments the phone is out of its box before its ushered into a case shortly after. My point here is that HTC have decided to focus on the cosmetic and hardware components of the One. This is all good and nice when you have a UI that can live up to the glory that is the device itself, but like Apple with their iPhone 5, the One to me is for the most part, trying too hard to appeal to an audience that is gradually leaving it behind.
Sure, the camera and speakers are phenomenal, especially with the addition of BoomSound, enabling 19dB of smartphone-deafening sound, but apart from that there's no true 'WOW' factor associated with this device. 2GBs of RAM and the quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor may put it ahead for the moment, but that'll be the norm in no time. The lack of 4.2.1 as a minimum for a flagship device is a major let down, and I can only hope the 4.2.2 upgrade will roll-out in the first few months of the release, but it's unlikely.
All in all, I'm not entirely sure what to make of this device. If we were to consider phones as dogs, the iPhone could be likened to a Chihuahua, barking at your feet and jumping for your attention, the Galaxy Note II would probably be your trusty Border Collie, and the One would fit somewhere in between. It has all the potential to be the greatest it can be, but the problem is, it thinks its the greatest, and will shout in the face of anyone who's opinions differ otherwise. I wouldn't buy a phone or a dog that emulates that trait.
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