HTC may have had a slight fall from grace of late, but that won't deter them as we head into 2013. With the main competition coming from Sony's Xperia Z, until the other big players kick off their releases in a weeks time at MWC, what will HTC's new flagship, the One, offer tech lovers?
Stand-Out Features:
Well lets start with the most important thing, the part of the phone which you'll be engaging with all the time. HTC have got a fantastic screen on this beast; it's a 4.7-inch SuperLCD3 display, The Verge have described it as 'bright, crisp, and beautiful, no matter what angle you look at it from,' so it's obviously a worthy upgrade to the fantastic screen on the HTC One X! The screen is also optically bonded and naturally it's Full HD, so that's 1920 x 1080p resolution and that works out at a whopping 468ppi and it takes the crown in the pixel density stakes for the moment!
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| Also available in red! |
If that wasn't enough camera goodness for you then there's also HDR video mode, a brand new photo editing suite, and the new HTC Zoe! HTC Zoe essentially takes five frames before you press the take picture button and then an extra 15 when you do which gives you a grand total of 20 pictures to pick the best from and this will all let make your own stop-motion animation. This also records a cheeky 3-second video clip while taking the pictures, so we have a feeling taking pictures with this device will use a fair chuck of your battery!
Another thing about this phone which caught our eye was HTC's new implementation of sound. The company has been asking people over on their community channel, HTC Elevate, what they wanted when it came to their phones and it seems HTC has listened and they've decided to offer "the best audio experience of any mobile phone" and the company came up with HTC 'BoomSound'. Yes, OK the name is shocking, but the idea is fantastic. BoomSound offers your two front-facing stereo speakers, both of which feature huge sound chambers for a mobile phone, Beats Audio and dual-microphone HDR recording!
It doesn't end there either, HTC have given their traditional Sense interface a rather nice new nip and tuck. The style has changed a fair bit, it's all more LG Prada-esque, not that that's a bad thing, but there's also a new feature called BlinkFeed. This is basically a news feature, much like Flipboard, but it brings together all of the news, information and social updates that you want, right onto your homescreen. But, don't worry you can turn it off, if you're not feeling it!
The rest of the phone:
So we know that HTC has gone all out on imaging, sounds and that screen, but there's a lot more than that to this phone too. The whole thing is actually clad in aluminium and it's great to see HTC continuing their insanely high quality build in the new device. The internals aren't too shabby either; there's a Snapdragon 600, clocked at 1.7Ghz, powering the whole device, LTE compatibility, 2GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, annoyingly this isn't MicroSD expandable! All of this is running Android 4.1 initially, but an update to Android 4.2 is already in the works!
There's an enormous range of sensors and connectivity options too. HTC has thrown in GPS and GLONASS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The power and lock button will act as an IR emitter, which works nicely with the new HTC Sense TV app that offers interactive programs guides from broadcasters and naturally there's Bluetooth 4.0!
As far as we can see there are only two downsides and they're the lack of a micro-SD card slot, which we've come to accept with HTC handsets and the other thing is something which HTC have a reputation for and that's small batteries. Now this one isn't too bad, it's a 2300mAh battery, it's non-replaceable because of the unibody design and we really hope that this will be enough to get you through the day!
The HTC One will be available in a choice of silver, red or black and you can pick one up half way through March! If you want to know where it will be available then there is a huge list of carriers just here! And don't forget to check HTC's official site!
The full list of specs is embedded below, as is the launch video, a nice launch tweet from HTC USA and the press release is just below that:
- Android 4.1.2 (Android 4.2 upgrade to follow shortly after launch)
- HTC Sense™ 5 with Android™
- HTC BlinkFeed™
- Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600, quad-core 1.7GHz
- 32GB/64GB ROM
- 2GB DDR2 RAM
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz / WCDMA: 1900/2100 (B2/B1) MHz / CDMA: 800/1900 (BC0/BC1/BC10, Sprint) / LTE: 1900 (B25, SPCS)
- 4.7", Full HD 1080p, 468 PPI display
- Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX™ enabled
- WiFi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n
- HTC ULTRAPIXEL CAMERA with BSI sensor, Pixel size 2.0 µm, Sensor size 1/3'
- Dedicated HTC ImageChip™ 2
- F2.0 aperture and 28 mm lens
- Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
- Smart Flash: Five levels of flash automatically set by distance to subject
- Front Camera: 88 wide angle lens with HDR capability
- 1080p Full HD video recording for both front and back cameras
- HDR Video
- Continuous shooting and VideoPic
- Slow motion video recording with variable speed playback
- HTC Zoe™ with highlights and HTC Zoe™ Share
- Retouch with Object Removal, Always Smile, and Sequence Shot
- Gyro sensor
- Accelerometer
- Proximity sensor
- Ambient light sensor
- 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
- NFC capable
- DLNA® for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer
- Support consumer infrared remote control
- micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile highdefinition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection (Special cable required for HDMI connection.)
- HTC BOOMSOUND™ - Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers
- HDR Microphone
- Sense Voice
- Audio Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9)
- Audio Recording: .amr
- Video playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3)
- Video Recording: .mp4
- Internal GPS antenna + GLONASS
- Digital compass
- microSIM
- 2300 mAh battery
- 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm/4mm (max/min)
- 143g
Today we are proud to introduce to you, the new HTC One! twitpic.com/c5455wVia DroidDog, TheVerge, AndroidCentral, PhoneArena and MoDaCo,
— HTC USA (@HTCUSA) February 19, 2013
