HTC One Review

[Barfnargle]

I'm just gonna cover a few points because I could write a 18-post long entry.

First Impressions:

WOW! This phone is fast as hell, sounds f*cking amazing, is built extremely well, the interface looks awesome and works great, the reception is a solid improvement over the iPhone 5, and just over all is a extraordinary example of what HTC should have done all along to capture the market.

Display:

It looks sharp, accurate, just very very nice. It gets very bright and very dim when needed, and auto-brightness is pretty spot-on for needed situations. I saw no problems with bleeding or tints, just one stuck pixel, but honestly I can live with it because I'd really rather not take it back and have to re-set-up everything.

Sound:

As I said before, WOW! The marketing of the "BoomSound" speakers is not crap, it really is as amazing as they make it seem. The stereo experience is something we take for granted on a desktop or most laptops, so on a phone, it really blows you away and makes you appreciate it so much more. As much as Beats Audio seems like a scam, it really does make music sound better, at least over the built in-speakers. Voices sound clearer and more rich, and music generally has more range and tends to be a bit bass heavy, but for me at least, it's fine considering most of what I listen to is EDM and hip hop. Worst case scenario you could disable Beats all together and download another EQ from the Play Store. Over headphones audio also tends to be bass heavy from Beats Audio, but it I were to listen to pro-grade headphones more I'd probably download another EQ.

Performance:

Very snappy and fast, not a single complaint to report. With my iPhone I'd get frustrated pretty frequently at how slow things could be, but I've yet to run into that issue on the One. There's virtually no lag besides your finger and the touch controller, but that is something you can't avoid on any phone. I have run into some apps being slow such as older games, but that is mainly because they are either ports from iOS or not optimized for the newer generation of Android phones.

Build:

The phone feels very sturdy and I'm sure it would fair up just fine to frequent small drops, throwing / sliding around, you know, pretty average wear and tear. Me being the paranoid person I am about my electronics until I've have them for about 9 months, I almost immediately bought a case for the phone, although only being a slim snap on case. It at least gave me a sense of security.

Cameras:

They seem just as awesome as my iPhone 5's maybe just a little bit better for experiencing the content taken from them because of the larger screen. The wide front camera is a really nice upgrade from the 5 though.

Battery Life:

It seems to last a good bit longer than my iPhone (1440maH vs 2300maH), and if I am uncomfortable with how low the battery is getting I can just flip the notification tray down and hit the "Power Saver" button. I use my phone pretty hard from about 9am to 11pm, and I usually have to plug it in by then.

Things I Changed:

Nothing really. Just downloaded "Battery Widget Reborn" so I could see my battery percentage, and "Notification Toggle" to quickly toggle WiFi, rotation, etc from the notification tray.

-- Overall Impression --

I love this phone. I have no regrets buying it or extending my contract to do so. It does everything I wanted a phone to do and more. Like Steve Jobs has said in the past "the customer doesn't know what they want, you have to tell them what they want." Although I could be called an Apple fanboy by many of friends because I favor my MacBook over anyone else's PC laptop, or reccommending an iPhone to anyone wanting a smartphone, having an Apple TV, following all the Apple events, etc., I gave my iPhone 5 to my girlfriend. Yup. I could have easily kept it to default on in case I don't like my One anymore, I don't think I'll ever be doing that. Worst comes to worst I'd probably want to try a new OS or app out on the iPhone, I can just ask her to borrow her phone.

Thanks for reading! Just wanted to share my experience with the HTC One. It's definitely a lot for me to say all that I did. I've owned an HTC Desire HD twice, Samsung Captivate, Galaxy S II Skyrocket with a sh*t load of ROMs, and every iPhone since the 3GS, so trust me when I say as much as I have ;)

Oh, and BlinkFeed is awesome

[SSOB]

Nice to see another bro joining the android side

[bacosta1993]

The HTC one is the best phone I have ever used. The only draw back is the lack of a physical menu button but you can easily install a mod or a ROM like android revolution hd which let's you long press either the home or back button to act as a menu button. Also you failed to mention blink feed which I personally enjoy. 

All in all this was a great review and I am happy to say that the htc one was my first android device and I loved it. Unfortunately I had to trade it for a Samsung galaxy s4 because I couldn't access t mobiles AWS bands. 

[Barfnargle]

Also you failed to mention blink feed which I personally enjoy.

Added a note on that

[rustikles]

Maybe I'm strange, but I would prefer blinkfeed to go and die on my One  :P. I understand why people love/use it, but it just bothers me that I can't delete that page.

[GIJew]

I got my One a month ago and the thing rocks, I've never seen regret in someones eyes until my friend who just chose an S4 over the One, held my One in her hand. 

 

Also to the notification tray and battery percentage: Both have been added in 4.2.2!

[wkronbaek]

Nice to hear you like your new phone, Wouldn't call you an apple fanboy lol (Apart from gaming Macbook's are the best)