Saturday, March 2, 2013

HTC One

The HTC One

Best Android Smartphone of 2013?

The HTC One is widely hailed as the the best Android or otherwise smartphone displayed this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. HTC is desperately hoping that this phone could put them back into the spotlight. HTC has fallen into the shadow of Samsung. HTC own a meager portion of the market share dropping 60% in just 5 months. Trouble was first announced with a 70% year on year drop in profits for Q1 2012 and a 35% year on year decline in revenues. After losing most of its One series profit shortly after the debut of the Samsung Galaxy S3; HTC is extremely cautious of a similar scenario this year. HTC has put all it has into its 'aluminum-clad savior' which releases this March. Timing and marketing is extremely important for this Taiwanese company to survive the next few years.

On paper this phone is amazing. It launches with Android 4.1.2 with Sense 5.0 overlay. It has an Android 4.2 upgrade ready right after launch. There should be no worry about not getting Key Lime Pie this May (Android 5.0) because the HTC One has the tech to handle at least a few more evolutions of Android. Sporting a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600 quad-core 1.7GHz Krait 300 processor this beast is plenty fast. It comes with 2GB of on board RAM with either 32GB or 64GB of non-expandable storage. This lack of a expandable storage may be a deal-breaker for some, but HTC does offer 25 GB of free Dropbox Cloud storage for up to 2 years. This total of 89GB of total storage should be plenty for most users. This phone is also equipped with a 2,300mAh battery which should break HTC's trend for short battery life which has driven away potential customers.

HTC is also known, along with Nokia, for excellent camera performance. HTC has backed away from the MegaPixel war and has decided to opt for Ultra Pixels. This technology increases the pixel size and allows for up to 300% more light exposure. This reveals photos that are just as quality as cameras that have 13MP. This risky move by HTC could be dangerous but initial camera images have surfaced and initial tests to prove that its camera is an exceptional snapper that also takes 1080p video. The One's secondary camera is a 2.1 megapixel beauty and this number is now seen across the board as most MWC 2013 smartphones are equipped similarly (e.g. Sony Xperia Z). It also is equipped with the dedicated HTC ImageChip™ 2 for excellent pictures and video. Some other Camera goodies HTC has provided us with include a BSI sensor, 2.0 μm Pixel size, 1/3 'Sensor, F2.0 aperture, 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.

Looking at hardware this device boasts a full aluminum block casing; the first of its kind. The device is 137.4 x 68.2 and 9.3mm at its thickest and 4mm at its thinnest. It is on the heavier side but it isn't too bulky, weighing in at 143g. The display is a magnificent 4.7in with 1080p LCD3 technology. The display is the sharpest available on paper with a never-before-seen 468ppi.The device has no physical home button, with HTC opting for 2 capacitative buttons instead of the standard 3. HTC has removed the multitasking button, replacing this feature by allowing a double-press of the home button to open multitasking. It is NFC capable and also equipped with Bluetooth 4.0. One of the more showcased features of this phone is the IR blaster located within the power button. This allows the phone to be used as a remote for many objects including TV's and cameras. HTC has also unleashed 'BoomSound'. This feature encompasses the new noise cancellation feature (Sense Voice), the dual frontal speakers,  and of course HTC's signature BeatsAudio.

This phone is packing all the top specifications of 2013. HTC is definitely placing the fate of its company into this smartphone. Definitely this phone has what it takes to be the top smartphone of 2013, but it may be overshadowed by the Samsung Galaxy S4 on March 14. HTC must really play their cards right to win this one.


How excited are you for the HTC One? Can it beat the Samsung Galaxy S4 this March? What do you like best about this phone?



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