Hasta La Gadget!

Mophie may be best known for its Juice packs for the iPhone, but the company has made one of its rare Android detours with a battery case for the HTC One. Shipping now, in black at least, the Mophie Juice Pack for the HTC One squeezes a 2,500 mAh battery – 200 mAh more than the One itself has – into a bow-backed shell for the smartphone, that the company claims can boost runtime by 100-percent.

Given the HTC One’s battery is non-removable, the Mophie promises to answer one of the biggest criticisms potential owners have of the phone (we only wish it added a microSD card reader, too). Like other Juice Packs, the One variant has pass-through USB for charging both phone and case, as well as synchronizing your phone with your computer, and an LED indicator row on the lower back to show the case’s remaining charge.

There’s also a standby-switch which, if flicked on, saves the Mophie’s power until you specifically want it; otherwise, the phone will run on its own battery. You still get access to the camera and – thanks to pass-through keys – the buttons for volume, power, and such. Mophie has even considered the IR blaster HTC built into the power button, which still works even with the Juice Pack in place.

Of course, the downside of strapping an extra battery to your phone is added bulk, and the Juice Pack does indeed add some heft to the svelte One. Together, they measure in at 2.88 x 6.06 x 0.76 inches, and the Mophie adds 5.05oz, effectively doubling the weight of the phone.

That may be easy to overlook if it means you can keep using your One, however. We found that Zoe photography – HTC’s mixture of burst-stills and short HD video clips – was particularly power-hungry in our review of the phone, and as such keen shutterbugs hoping to get the most out of the phone’s UltraPixel camera may well be the obvious target for Mophie’s new accessory. It’s shipping now in black, priced at $99.95, while the silver version will follow on in mid-May.

[via Android Community]

Mophie Juice Pack for HTC One offers to double your Zoe-time is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the folks at HTC have made public a video which shows a few insights on the hardware build of their hero phone, the HTC One. With the launch of the HTC One already set or coming up soon for several of the top carriers in the United States (Verizon not included – yet), it appears that HTC is taking the opportunity to assure prospective users of the quality of the metal cuts they’ve made in their high-end handset.

What you’ll be seeing here is not just a few words from some of the designers and developers of the phone, but some up-close-and-personal looks at the creation of this device as well. It’s important to note the efforts HTC is making to promote this device as HTC jobs do, indeed, depend on its success. The CEO of HTC has – infamously, at this point – promised he’ll quit if the HTC One doesn’t succeed.

The HTC One is shown here to have been cut of single pieces of metal and fit with plastic rims and a glass front precise enough to be considered a seamless construction. The HTC One is heading to the market in an atmosphere where the Apple iPhone 5 continues to be praised for its fine watch-quality detail and the Samsung GALAXY S 4 (recently) found its way into some not-so-great breakability reviews. With those top-selling (or about to be top-selling) devices up as head contenders, HTC has decided to play up its hardware credibility.

In the grand scheme of things, you’ll find HTC’s efforts to not be dependent solely on the success of the HTC One. Instead products like the HTC 608t and the HTC First (aka the Facebook Phone) keep the hardware company’s efforts light. And of course there’s always legacy models like the HTC One S and HTC One X, both of which continue to be available from all manner of retailers – watch for additional oddities appearing through the rest of 2013 as well.

HTC One “hero” efforts continue with hardware video reinforcement is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

One of the many new features of the HTC One are the dual front-facing speakers, and it looks like HTC is continuing that trend with an upcoming phone which was leaked today. Known as the HTC 608t, the smartphone sports front-facing speakers on the top and bottom in a budget-friendly form factor that’s reminiscent of the HTC One SV.

However, there are obvious differences with this iteration. It comes with the same navigation soft-button layout as the HTC One, along with the dual speakers, although the design is certainly a step backward when compared to the aluminum unibody design of the HTC One. However, that’s typical for a budget device like this.

As for specs, it’s running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and it’s packing a quad-core processor, although the exact chip being used is unknown at this point. As far as the display goes, it’s your traditional budget selection: 4.5-inch LCD running at a resolution of 960 x 540. There’s also an 8MP camera on the back, with a 1.6MP front-facer.

You’re also looking at 1GB of RAM, and the amount of internal storage is unknown right now, although don’t expect a lot of space to store all those songs and videos. The leak is Chinese, suggesting that the phone will make its way to China at some point, with a US release highly unlikely, although a similar phone could release in the states at some point.

[via Blog of Mobile]

HTC One cut down to budget size in leaked model 608t is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As the HTC One was released in review unit form earlier this year, it became apparent that a cross-carrier release in the USA wasn’t as cut and dry as it first appeared. The largest carrier in the United States, Verizon Wireless, was tipped to be considering releasing the HTC One on their 4G LTE network not only breaking from their original passing on such a release, but with an unheard-of lack of additional branding. While the HTC-made DROID DNA still sits as Verizon’s hero device by that manufacturer, a deeply embedded code leak discovered this month may be an indicator of Verizon’s push to bring the HTC One to its ranks soon.

The HTC fan blog HTCSoku turned up a code associated with an international edition of the HTC DROID DNA recently that showed a new mystery device by this same manufacturer. While the device this code was intended for was the HTC Butterfly X920d, again, the original version of the DROID DNA, here we see the “DLXPLUS_WL”, or the DLX Plus. This code also showed two other HTC Butterfly 2 devices (HTC has made it clear that this device is, indeed, in the works) with U and UL on their tails.

An HTC Butterfly 2 would be an incremental update to the hardware associated with the HTC Butterfly, or DROID DNA, that being the slightly more massive HTC device released at the end of 2012. HTC-loving developer and anonymous insider LLabTooFeR has spoken up several times on the device which will replace the Butterfly, that being the DLX Plus (or DLX+, if you prefer). LLabTooFeR has strongly suggested that this device – not necessarily the HTC One for Verizon, will be announced “Somewhere in between” the second and third quarters of 2013.

The DLXPLUS_WL has also been suggested to be a variant – or upgrade – of the DROID DNA made for non-Verizon carriers in the USA. This device would be released with the following specifications:

Qualcomm S4 Pro APQ8064 quad-core processor at 1.7GHz
4.7-inch display 1080p resolution
13 megapixel camera back-facing
2.1 megapixel camera front-facing
Internal storage: 16GB
RAM 2GB
Bluetooth 4.0
MicroSD card port for memory expansion
Sense 5.0
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Have a peek at our DROID DNA review from back in November of 2012 to see how similar this setup is to the original. According to HTCSoku, The HTC-made DLXPLUS_WL will be released with the Snapdragon 600 processor, the same processor working on the HTC One in each of its already-revealed iterations.

Final assessment (for now): Verizon will get a DROID DNA+, an upgrade to the DROID DNA they revealed at the end of last year, this time coming with some software feature updates and the same processor as the HTC One.

Sound reasonable to you? Or do you believe HTC would rather keep that top-dog processor to their one true hero device?

HTC One variant appears in code: Verizon may be brewing is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Last month, we tested the best smartphone cameras out there and declared the HTC One’s ultrapixel camera the master of all. Now it’s time to see how the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z measure up. More »