ET review: HTC One

NEW DELHI: The way a premium smartphone ‘feels’ in the hand is hard to describe. It’s also quite subjective. But there is no ambiguity about the design perfection of the HTC One. The way the buttons sit flush with the main surfaces, the way the curved back fits into your palm, how it’s cool to the touch, the precision of the tiny holes in the casing for the stereo speakers, the edge-to-edge screen – it all lines up to create a phone that is universally loved and instantly coveted.

The screen is a 4.7-inch LCD with an eye-popping resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. It has the highest pixel density (468 ppi or pixels per inch) of any handheld device. However, it’s a moot point because beyond about 350 ppi, the extra detail in indistinguishable to the human eye.
Price: Rs 42,990

Specifications

4.7-inch full HD touchscreen, 1.7Ghz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, 4MP Ultrapixel rear camera, 2.1MP front camera, Android 4.1.2, Beats Audio, 2,300mAh battery, 143 grams

Positive: Phenomenal design, build quality and attention to detail, gorgeous & high-res screen, 32GB built in storage, IR emitter, stereo sound.

Negetive: Non-removable battery, no micro SD card slot, reduced resolution 4MP camera, fingerprints show up easily on the black version.

HTC’s BlinkFeed is the newest addition to HTC Sense, part of the graphical customisation that HTC has done for their Android phones. As the default home screen, BlinkFeed aggregates feeds from your social networks and topics of interest into a scrolling, tiled interface. Useful, but that’s what most people have Flipboard for.

Other neat features include a wide-angle front camera (to get more people in the frame), great sounding and ‘actual’ stereo speakers (on either side of the screen when held in landscape mode), built in infrared emitter (to control your existing TV and set top box) and scintillating performance, thanks to the 1.7Ghz quad core Snapdragon processor.

The camera needs to be talked about in some detail. At just 4 Megapixels, HTC is making a bold statement that it’s not the number but the quality of pixels that counts. HTC claims that their ‘ultrapixel’ technology is far more efficient at capturing light as compared to other cameraphones and this is true in most cases. Shooting in low light with the HTC One is quite rewarding and there are lots of nice effects too.

A built in optical image stabiliser compensates for some amount of camera shake and a cool new feature called Zoe adds movement into your photos by merging HD video with photographs automatically (some may call it a gimmick, but it works). However, video quality is sub-par and the reduced resolution means you can’t really crop your photos.

Devices should be in stores by the end of April and it’s safe to say that the One should be at the top of your list if you’re shopping for a premium Android phone. However, if you’re the type who can’t live without a replaceable battery or if you like to swap micro SD cards with other devices, you should look at Samsung’s Galaxy S4, which is just around the corner. And for those who can spend slightly more, there’s always the much-loved iPhone 5.