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Layman’s Review: Is the HTC One as good as advertised?

Welcome to the Layman’s Review, where we take a look at gadgets and gizmos from the eyes of the average guy, and share our views with you without the technical jargon found in professional reviews.

For the past year, it seems that the Android versus iPhone battle has turned into a Samsung versus Apple battle instead. The old giants of the smartphone industry such as HTC, LG, Sony and more seem to have lost the Android battle to Samsung’s Galaxy line. However, the balance of power just might tip a little with HTC’s new flagship, the One.


First impressions

The HTC One is an absolute BEAUTY. I mean, just look at it.

The One has an aluminum body, which makes it durable yet reasonably light. At 143gm, it’s a tad heavier than Samsung’s Galaxy S4, but I definitely prefer the solid feel of the One compared to the plasticky-flimsy feel I get with the S4.


Special mention goes to the design illusion of the screen. At first glance, you’d think that the One had a glass display that extended to the sides. Look again, and you’ll realize that it’s a clever illusion achieved with black plastic.
 

I have mixed feelings regarding the matte texture at the back though. It felt slippery to me, and every time I held the phone in my hands, I had to make a conscious effort not to accidentally drop it. At least I managed to get some grip from the plastic sides.

That said, different skin types respond differently to matte, plastic and rubber surfaces, so do hold the One in your hands before deciding if you like how it feels.

Or, you can get yourself a phone cover *shrugs*.

Display


The HTC One has a 4.7-inch, Full-HD Super LCD 3 IPS display. Minus the jargon, that simply translates into one helluva beautiful display. This screen completely blows Apple’s Retina Display out of the water – for the geeks, the One has a pixel density of 468 pixels per inch, as opposed to the iPhone 4’s 326ppi.


For the non-geeks, this basically means that the One’s screen is over 40% sharper than the iPhone 4. Retina Display is now officially “last generation” tech.

Camera quality

The HTC One takes absolutely beautiful pictures, better than any regular compact camera in the market. Unless you like fiddling around with camera modes, filters and the like, you really only need to know these three modes: Auto, Night and Landscape.

Instead of going on and on about camera specs and modes, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

Note: To view full-screen, please click here.

The front camera is not particularly shabby either, but you'll have to set expectations right - picture quality is significantly reduced, as it is intended for quick selfies and video calls.

Sound quality


This. Phone. Is. LOUD!

The HTC One has two front speakers with built-in amplifiers, powered by Beats Audio. This basically means that you can watch a movie in a crowded noisy area (a train station, for example), and still risk having people tell you that your phone is interrupting their conversation.

The supplied earphones are also a joy to use. The in-ear silicon tips are soft and comfortable, and block out external sound well. Turn up the volume and the thumping bass is enough to completely isolate you from the outside world.

Performance

Being a flagship phone (with a hefty price tag to boot), you’d expect nothing less than the very best from the One. There was no lag when swiping between windows. Apps opened and ran without a glitch. Your average apps like Candy Crush, Cut The Rope and Angry Birds will pose no challenge to the quad-core CPU.

That said, I did try to push the phone to its limits. The HTC One stuttered a little when I ran Real Racing 2 and Iron Man 3 on it. Those games are the most graphically demanding games I know, so I suppose it was killing off apps in the background to free up more memory to run these games properly. It’s a little disappointing that you need to wait for it to “warm up” before gameplay becomes smooth – but all things considered, it’s really not at all that bad.

A little extra for the geeks:

  • Quadrant : 12,393 points (Standard test)

  • Linpack : 268 MFLOPS (Single thread)

  • Stability test : 61 fps(CPU/GPU test)

  • Smartbench 2012: 6790 (Productivity), 2883 (Gaming)

  • Super Pi : 374 seconds (512k digits)

Note: Higher is better for all tests, except for Super Pi where lower is better

Battery life

The One comes with a non-removable 2,300mAh battery, which is more than enough for the average layman. The phone lasted me a good two days, taking about 450 pictures before passing out.

It’s a little disappointing that HTC didn’t manage to design it with a removable battery though. It seems that charger-free holidays are out of the question with the HTC One.

Final thoughts

All in all, I’d say the HTC One is a superb smartphone, a worthy challenger to the 2013 smartphone throne. Admittedly, it has a few minor flaws, but no phone is perfect and you can’t please everyone. Would I recommend it? Yes. Should you buy it? That’s up to you to decide. Is it worth your time to stop by a store and test it out?

Hell yes.

Wrap up

Pricing:

Malaysia: RM 2,299 (32GB), RM 2,499 (64GB)
Singapore: SGD 968 (32GB), SGD 1068 (64GB)
Phillipines: P 32,990 (32GB)

Build : 9/10
Display : 10/10
Camera : 9/10
Performance : 9/10
Sound : 10/10
Battery : 9/10

Layman/s Review Score: 9.3/10

Note: Points are given in relation to current technologies available. No product is perfect, and gadgets will always get better with time. A score of 10 simply means that the author feels the product has performed brilliantly with little room for improvement.