There is a spanking new flagship device from HTC this time around, and it would be the HTC One from the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer. It is said that the HTC One does not want to introduce minor increments in smartphone features, but rather, hopes to invigorate the entire smartphone industry by offering something new and truly exciting – and the Ultrapixel feature is definitely one of them.
First of all, let us go through the nitty gritty of the hardware, where the HTC One is the first Android-powered smartphone in the market that runs on a quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, where it will boast 2GB RAM, a 2,300mAh Li-polymer battery, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean as the operating system of choice, HTC’s Sense 5 user interface layer, a 4.7-inch Full HD Super LCD 3 display at 468 ppi pixel density and protected by Gorilla Glass 2, all beautifully thrown into carefully crafted a machined aluminum unibody. Oh yeah, there will also be a choice between 32GB or 64GB of internal memory, although the lack of a microSD memory card slot is certainly disturbing.
Saying that the HTC One has piqued our interest is an understatement. The handset, which was announced today in London and New York, combines ultra-refined design with a uniquely tweaked Android experience, something we’ve covered in our hardware and software posts. Still, it’s the UltraPixel camera that’s raising the most eyebrows. We briefly played with the shooter and witnessed the new Zoe functionality first hand. It’s clear that HTC is making a bold move with the imaging technology used on this phone, but what does it really mean in terms of specs and performance? Let’s dive into the nitty gritty after the break.
HTC picked the word UltraPixel to brand its latest camera, just like Nokia coined the term PureView for its devices last year. The idea behind UltraPixels is to combine a physically large sensor with big pixels capable of gathering more light. With the HTC One, the company chose a 1/3-inch BSI sensor with 2µm pixels which absorb 330 percent more photons than the 1.1µm pixels typically found in modern handsets. This is combined with a fast 28mm f/2.0 autofocus lens similar to what’s available on the One X, but slightly recessed for protection. Better yet, this shooter features optical image stabilization (OIS) just like the Lumia 920 — it’s able to compensate for motion in 2 axes (pitch and yaw) up to 2,000 times per second. With big 2µm pixels (that’s Fujifilm X10 territory), a fast f/2.0 lens (vs. f/2.4 on the iPhone 5 and f/2.6 on the Galaxy S III) and OIS, the HTC One is poised to excel at low-light photography. A single LED flash is provided for those extremely dark circumstances.
We’re pretty sure you’ve noticed the giant elephant in the room by now — the lack of any mention of pixel count. That large sensor packs just four megapixels (!) and while anyone who knows digital photography understands that’s plenty, it’s still a daring move in a market driven by the megapixel myth. We’ll take four million 2µm pixels over eight million 1.1µm pixels any day, but we think it’s going be an uphill battle for HTC to educate the average consumer. The HTC One packs a new image signal processor (ISP) called ImageChip 2, which enables continuous autofocus in less than 200ms, and provides real-time lens compensation plus noise reduction. It also supports 1080p HDR video recording at near 30fps and 720p at 60fps with a dynamic range of about 84dB. The ISP implements a buffered capture cycle with pre- and post-shutter recording, for functionality similar to Scalado’s Rewind / Remove, Nokia’s Smart Shot, Samsung’s Best Face and BlackBerry’s Time Shift.
All this camera technology culminates with one particularly cool feature: Zoe. Named after the Greek word “life” and hinting at old zoetropes, this feature captures a 3-second 1080p 30fps H.264 video clip along with a 16:9 2688×1520 JPEG picture each time the shutter button is pressed. In burst mode, the HTC One is capable of taking 4-5 full-size stills per second while recording 1080p video. The resulting 3-second clips become animated thumbnails for your photos in the gallery. When you’re ready to share your memories, smart content editing, cutting and sequencing software is used to create and upload a Zoe — a professional-like highlight reel with images, clips, effects and music that remixes your content on the fly, complete with theme and music track synchronization. There are six themes and six music tracks to choose from, and you’re given the option to deselect photos or videos. Once uploaded, the result can be shared via Zoe Share, which generates a standard URL that’s valid for 30 days — think of it as Vine on steroids, but less permanent.
In addition the the main shooter, the HTC One comes equipped with a 2.1 megapixel front-facing module with f/2.0 wide-angle (88-degree) optics that supports 1080p video capture. Dual HDR microphones provide distortion-free stereo audio recording in a wide variety of conditions, including loud venues. Unfortunately, our time with the UltraPixel camera was too short to formulate a solid opinion, but based on our experience so far, HTC’s latest shooter is poised to delight both shutterbugs and casual users alike. On thing’s for sure: we can’t wait to take the company’s latest imaging flagship for a spin.
Now that you’re done drooling over the HTC One‘s shiny body, let’s take a look at the phone’s generous bundle of software features. Sense 5 on Android 4.1.2 is quite possibly the boldest step HTC’s ever taken in terms of Android interface, in the hopes of offering a radically simple experience out of the box. First off, the phone comes with just two soft keys: Back and Home. You can still access the app-switching page by double-tapping the Home key, but instead of the old 3D interface with dozens of app cards, you’ll now only get a grid of nine app cards to keep things simple. And like before, simply flick the cards up to dismiss the corresponding apps. Read on for more and our hands-on video.
By default, there will only be two home screen panels out of the box: a “BlinkFeed” page and a classic Android home screen on the right. Yes, just two panels, as HTC found out that 80 percent of users have three panels or less, and surprisingly, 35 percent of the same group use just one panel! But fret not, as power users can always add more. Similarly, the app tray is set to a leaner 3 x 4 grid by default (which we found to be rather pleasing to the eye), but you can also switch back to the usual 4 x 5 version for nostalgia’s sake.
Now, BlinkFeed. This is simply a Flipboard-like tile interface that sits permanently on the main home page. Created in collaboration with Mobiles Republic, this tool pulls in content from various publications and social networks (Twitter, Plurk, LinkedIn, Flickr, Zoe Share and more), as well as your calendar and TV shows from the TV app (more on that later). You won’t be seeing emails here, as HTC positions BlinkFeed as a place for more ambient info rather than critical updates. Regardless, the feed can be customized to suit your needs, though the first version won’t let you add custom RSS feeds just yet. On a related note, an SDK will be provided for developers to let their apps publish to the BlinkFeed. As you’d expect, fresh content automatically comes in from the top, and it does so every two hours over mobile data, but more frequently over WiFi. Either way, HTC’s conducted many tests and is pretty confident that battery life won’t be a big issue here. The good news is that should you eventually find this feature slightly stale, you can disable BlinkFeed altogether and just have the plain old Android home screens.
Visually, Sense 5 benefits from a new choice of font — Roboto, in a specific weight — along with a simpler keyboard with little gap between keys (but performance unaffected, of course) and cleaner widgets (though the classic HTC flip clock widget is still available). Likewise, the new music player has received an interface redesign, as well as a visualizer and automatic lyrics scroller. Here’s hoping that HTC will eventually add a vocal suppressing feature to satisfy the karaoke freak inside you.
Continuing the multimedia theme we have the Sense TV app on the HTC One, which is actually a Peel-powered universal remote software that combines a good-looking electronic program guide with the IR blaster embedded within the phone’s power button. At launch, the app will support all major US cable services along with Hulu integration, whereas the UK will get some love from the likes of Virgin Media, Sky, Freesat and Freeview. We’ve heard that other regions will provide similar EPG support for the One’s Sense TV app, so keep an eye out for your local announcements. Alas, there’s no Netflix support at launch, but we assume HTC is still working on that end.
The TV app’s interface needs little explanation, and it’ll come with a huge library of remote control IR codes to ensure maximum compatibility with your TV or set-top box. Once the app is activated, you can access the basic controls and recent channels in the notification tray, and you can even use the controls on the lock screen. The best part of this is that you can set to have upcoming episodes of your favorite TV shows to show up in BlinkFeed as a reminder. Pretty neat for couch potatoes, huh?
Now, here are a couple of software features that help new owners set up their HTC devices. The first one is HTC Get Started which, if you haven’t seen it work with the One X+ already, lets you set up your phone from the web on your desktop. After all, it’s probably easier to type out your credentials for your various email and social network accounts using the desktop keyboard and display. Additionally, the service also lets you configure your feeds, apps, sounds (including an MP3 ringtone trimmer), bookmarks, wallpapers and lock screens; so this is quite a nice improvement from the existing version of Get Started.
The second feature to support new users is a beefed up version of the HTC Sync Manager. Where previously you could only transfer iOS contacts to an HTC device over Bluetooth, now you can use the new Sync Manager to grab your various types of iOS content: contacts, calendar, pictures, DRM-free videos and DRM-free music. The trick? This is actually done via iTunes, so you’ll need to make sure it has the latest backup of your iOS device before you start the migration. Sadly, there’s no way to sync text messages and matching apps across the two rival platforms just yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time.
Things are more straightforward with Android-to-Android migration: with phones as old as HTC devices carrying Sense 3.6, you can directly transfer the same set of data plus text messages, bookmarks and a bunch of Android settings directly from one to another, all done without going through the Sync Manager; whereas older Android devices can still only transfer contacts over Bluetooth like the good old days.
Once you get the ball rolling, you can use the cloud backup feature in Sense 5 to dump an encrypted backup on either Dropbox or Sina Vdisk (in China, where Dropbox is blocked), and these are tied to either a Facebook account or a Sina account (since Facebook is also blocked in China), so in the future you can restore by simply logging in using either credentials. Here’s what you can back up: BlinkFeed, TV, home screen layout (including folders), accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Exchange and Hotmail), user dictionary, alarm clocks, widgets, apps (sans data) and over 150 system settings. Pictures and videos aren’t included, as HTC believes that many users already use other methods to back them up, which is fair enough.
To summarize, this is certainly a generous and much improved package HTC is offering with the One, but in case you missed it, do also check out Zoe in our HTC One camera post. That’s the real wow factor of the show.
The HTC One made quite an entrance in London and New York today with a slick-looking design and re-imagined Android user experience. It’s a significant departure from last year’s One X — our favorite handset of 2012 — and represents the company’s most important product to date. The HTC One is positioned to become a true global flagship, a phone that’s available unmolested on all carriers worldwide, a device that really competes with the Galaxies and iPhones of the world. We spent some time with the HTC One to understand the direction the company is taking with this handset. Join us after the break for our hands-on video and detailed hardware impressions, then go read our software and camera posts as well.
There’s no doubt about it — the HTC One is a fine piece of kit. It’s particularly beautiful when viewed from the back and sides, with a semi-pyramidal shape reminiscent of HTC’s own J Butterfly and phones like the Xperia Ion. The front is more staid and channels the BlackBerry Z10. Look a little closer and the attention to detail is staggering — this is a product that stands shoulder to shoulder with the iPhone 5 in terms of materials and build quality.
The unibody polycarbonate design of the One X gives way to a machined aluminum shell that seamlessly incorporates polycarbonate accents. Basically the aluminum is etched to create channels into which the polycarbonate is inset using zero-gap injection molding. It takes 200 minutes to machine one shell, and the result is absolutely stunning — a solid block of anodized aluminum, white polycarbonate and glass with chamfered, polished edges. HTC even sourced custom-grade aluminum that’s harder than what’s found on the iPhone 5. The polycarbonate forms a ring around the edge of the device, covers the top and bottom ends and bisects the back with two lines, one of which flows around the camera lens below — it reminds us of circuit-board traces. Since aluminum can be anodized in different colors and polycarbonate comes in many hues, we’ll leave you to imagine the combinations possible beyond the silver and white handset we played with.
In front are two aluminum bands (top and bottom) separated by a vast sheet of Gorilla Glass 2 covering a gorgeous 4.7-inch 1080p (468 dpi) Super LCD 3 display. This layout is similar to the Z10 and the chamfered, polished edges remind us of the iPhone 5. Both of these bands feature a matching set of perforations that conceal a speaker (and likely a mic in the bottom piece) — that’s right, the HTC One boast stereo speakers, each with a dedicated proprietary amp design that minimizes distortion and maximizes volume. The top piece also incorporates the proximity / light sensors, a notification LED and a 2.1 megapixel with f/2.0 wide-angle (88-degree) front-facing camera capable of recording 1080p video. You’ll find HTC’s brand under the glass just below the screen, flanked by two — yes, just two — capacitive buttons: back on the left and home on the right. How does this work? Holding the home button brings up Google Now and double-tapping shows the recent apps. There’s no menu option.
Other than the aforementioned polycarbonate accents and prominent HTC and Beats logos, the back of the device is home to the main UltraPixel camera and a single LED flash (to the left of the lens). Basically you’re looking at a 1/3-inch 4 megapixel BSI sensor with large 2µm pixels capable of gathering 330 percent more light than the 1.1µm pixels usually found in phones. This sensor is mated with a 28mm f/2.0 autofocus lens which is slightly recessed for protection and equipped with optical image stabilization (OIS), just like Nokia’s Lumia 920. HTC’s ImageChip 2 handles image processing and enables a bunch of new tricks like 1080p, 60fps and HDR video capture plus an interesting new feature called Zoe Share. Our very limited time with the camera confirms that performance is top-notch — after all, photography isn’t just about megapixels, and the HTC One checks all the important boxes.
Along the edges of the HTC One you’ll find a power / lock key (left) and standard headphone jack (right) at the top, a machined aluminum volume rocker on the right side, a micro-USB / MHL port on at the bottom (right) and the micro-SIM holder and matching pin hole on the left side (near the top). The power / lock key is black and doubles as a bidirectional IR blaster for the handset’s TV remote software (powered by Peel). Just like with the One X, the battery (rated at 2300mAh) is sealed and there’s no microSD card slot. At 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm and 143g, the new phone is slightly taller, thicker and heavier than its predecessor — it feels solid yet comfortable in hand and just exudes quality. This, combined with the premium looks, make for a very desirable product indeed.
The HTC One is powered by Qualcomm’s newly minted quad-core 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 paired with 2GB of LP-DDR2 RAM and 32 or 64GB of built-in storage (depending on the version). Wireless functionality includes WiFi a/ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, GPS / aGPS, NFC and DLNA — sadly there’s no wireless charging support. Two devices will be available, a U model which includes GSM and WCDMA radios (HSDPA 42Mbps / HSUPA 5.67Mbps) and a UL model which adds LTE (100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload). It’s still unclear exactly which bands are supported for which regions — we know it’s coming to most carriers in the US (and indeed, the world), except Verizon. The handset incorporates the Droid DNA‘s delightfully loud and clear 2.55V headphone amp (it operates with or without Beats audio enabled, but we much prefer it without). HTC’s also outfitted the device with HDR microphones which can handle wide range of sound levels without clipping.
In the end, we walked away tremendously impressed with what the HTC One has to offer, especially in terms of hardware. Be sure to take a look at our software and camera posts (spoiler: Sense 5 runs on top of Android 4.1.2). With this phone, HTC’s crafted something truly special — it’s now critical that the company follow through with strong marketing and prevent the carriers from fragmenting its vision. Will this be the one? We sure hope so.
The HTC One is here, a new Android flagship wrapping the innovation we’ve known HTC for up in a sleek all-metal chassis with no compromise on specifications. A 4.7-inch Full HD smartphone packing a 1.7GHz quadcore Snapdragon 600 processor, beautiful crafting, and a slick new version of HTC Sense, it’ll begin its global roll-out in March 2013. There are some quirks on the spec-sheet, though, not least the “UltraPixel” camera with its 4-megapixel-equivalent resolution but which, HTC insists, is far more suited to the sort of everyday photography common among most users, and the “Zoe” system which blends stills and videos. In short, it’s the super-phone HTC is counting on to turn around its fortunes in 2013.
Measuring in at 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm (tapering to 5mm at the edges) and 143g, the HTC One is hewn from a solid block of aluminum and built around a magnesium core: there’s just enough plastic – such as the two narrow injected strips across the back panel, white on the brushed silver One; black on the matte black One – to allow the radios to do their thing. The metal itself is specially created for HTC, and the focus on a quality hand-feel does mean that one feature – wireless charging – isn’t supported. Instead, you’ll have to hook up a regular microUSB charger, to a port which also supports MHL-HDMI output for your TV.
Otherwise, all the boxes are ticked. There’s LTE support (800/1800/2600) as well as HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, GPS/AGPS/GLONASS, and the usual array of sensors: motion, digital compass, gyroscope, and ambient light detection. The quadcore processor is paired with 2GB of memory and either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage (though, in the UK and Europe for instance, HTC doesn’t have immediate plans to offer the larger-capacity version); no microSD port, however, and the 2,300 mAh battery is non-removeable.
So far so good, but the HTC One X+ had all the specs you’d demand, and still struggled to differentiate itself against Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Apple’s iPhone 5. So, HTC has stepped up its game elsewhere, finessing other elements of the phone experience. There’s Beats Audio with individual amplifiers for headphones and speaker, just as on the 8X, but the HTC One gets front-facing 16 x 9 mm stereo speakers behind its broad, micro-drilled grilles. The drivers use a floating-membrane system, rather than piezo-electric as is more common, and sit in chambers that are roughly twice the size of typical rivals: that means more room to move, and so more volume. The amps use dynamic monitoring, too, constantly adjusting the power so as to maximize the output without straying into distortion: in all, HTC claims, it’s 4x louder than some rival phones.
Audio input gets renewed attention too, with a dual-microphone system that is suited both to regular volumes – such as normal conversation – and high-volume environments like concerts. The high sound pressure microphone automatically switches on in the 70dB to 120dB range, while the high signal-to-noise microphone, the more sensitive of the two, works in the 10dB to 70dB range; both support stereo recording and HDR sound.
In a world where 13-megapixel cameras are becoming the new commonplace, HTC has taken a wildly different tack with the HTC One. In pure equivalence terms, the One tops out at 4-megapixel resolution (half that of 2012′s One X); however, that’s really just a side effect of HTC’s “UltraPixel” technology.
The focus is on individual pixel size, not how many pixels can be packed into an increasingly dense sensor. The latter strategy, HTC points out, results in pixels that struggle to capture sufficient light unless you’re outdoors in perfect conditions; everywhere else you get images that are both high in resolution and noise. The HTC One works differently: its custom sensor uses 2.0 micrometer pixels (4um square) almost double the size of the pixels in an 8-megapixel phone camera, and with more than 313-percent the light-gathering potential of a 13-megapixel sensor. Large pixels mean more data, HTC says, which means you can do more with that data.
There’s also 2-axis optical image stabilization, an f/2.0 aperture lens, HDR audio for the Full HD video recording – which is also supported by the 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera, that has HTC’s favorite 88-degree wide angle lens for more accommodating group shots – and a new ImageChip, HTC’s proprietary camera DSP. That can handle real-time HDR video, for instance, at 60fps in 720p resolution (or 30fps at 1080p).
Simultaneous photo and video capture is used in one of HTC’s key software introductions in the One: Zoe photography. The One will allow you to fire off stills or video separately, as always, but you can also shoot Zoes: a combination of a 3.6s video clip (0.6s kept from just before you hit the record button, then 3s from that point on) in 1080p resolution, and twenty burst stills (five before the button is pressed; fifteen after), again at full resolution. The cluster of frames can be used to do face replacing pulling an expression from one frame into another, to piece together a shot where everyone is smiling, for instance – or object-removal, or you can pull out different stills from the video to keep.
The new gallery, though, is split by default into “Events” – you can split and merge different stills, videos, and Zoes to create your own manually, too – and the Zoe clips are shown looping in the regular view, animated like a Harry Potter newspaper. There’s also a highlight reel topper, a 30s-long, automatically curated summary of the content in that Event; you can choose from six different themes (each with its own filters, musical backing track, and overall mood) and hit remix to instantly juggle the edit. Press the share button, and you can upload an MP4 to YouTube, Facebook, or any other sharing service Android supports.
There’s also Zoe Share, however, HTC’s new social network for publicly showing off Zoe content. As well as the highlight reel, this allows up to ten stills or 3.6s Zoe clips to be uploaded to an online gallery (either over 3G/4G or WiFi) and then, once it’s all uploaded, gives you a shareable URL in the Android notification bar. Viewers see first the 30s video and can then browse through the individual content, and each upload lasts for thirty days before being automatically deleted.
Zoe isn’t the only new aspect of Sense 5; in fact, the new software looks different from the outset. HTC’s consumer research revealed that, while user-customizable home screens have been a factor of Android since the outset, for most users it’s a set-and-forget arrangement, and so the initial default on the One isn’t the traditional desktop at all. Instead, it’s the BlinkFeed, a Flipboard-style endless scrolling list pulling content from online news providers, your own Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr feeds, news from local apps (such as timely Zoe clips from the gallery, if you’re revisiting a location you went to before and used the camera), and, first thing in the morning, an agenda summary for the day ahead.
BlinkFeed isn’t intended to replace standalone apps – such as your Twitter or Facebook client – but act as a gateway to them: tapping a story, which is laid out with dynamically adjusting thumbnail sizes, opens up the relevant app (the defaults at present, though user-customization preferences is likely in a future iteration. By default, BlinkFeed updates every 2hrs when there’s a WiFi connection, or manually – by pulling down the list – over cellular data, though those frequencies can be changed. HTC is working with thousands of service providers to inject geographically appropriate content, which can be selected either by category (e.g. Sport, Technology, Design) or by provider (e.g. CNN, BBC), or turned off altogether so that only local content appears; eventually there’ll be Google+ integration, through it’s not there in version one, and similarly you won’t be able to add your own RSS sources, at least initially.
The regular homescreen – two panes by default – is a left-swipe away, where you can have all the icons and widgets you want. Or, you can default to the all-apps view, with a choice of a 3×3 or 4×5 grid and folder support. Sense 5 pares back the iconography in keeping with the underlying Android 4.1.2 (4.2 is in the pipeline, HTC tells us, and should arrive “pretty quickly” though the only real difference One owners will probably notice is the Quick Settings feature) and does away with most of the unnecessary gradients and 3D effects of previous iterations; there’s also plentiful use of the Roboto font, particularly the condensed version in the BlinkFeed view. A long-press of the capacitive Home button opens Google Now, while a double-tap shows the “recent apps” switcher; there’s also a capacitive Back button and volume keys on the side, with the power/lock key on the top edge.
That power button does hide another secret, however: it looks like black plastic, but it’s actually an IR blaster. HTC uses it with the simply-named TV app, which turns the One into an intelligent universal remote of sorts. Powered by Peel, it shows all of the content available from whatever TV service you have – free-to-air, cable, DirecTV, satellite, Freeview, etc. – with a now-playing view (complete with a progress bar showing how far through each show is) and a full EPG a pivot away. Tap the show, and you can see a summary, as well as automatically switch to that channel; if you favorite a show, the TV app will push a reminder into the BlinkFeed when there’s a new episode coming up.
In addition to live TV, there’s also on-demand support. The One can pull in content from Hulu, Crackle, and HTC Watch (no Netflix at launch, though HTC is “working on it”); by default it opens on the device itself, but if you have an appropriate set-top box, such as HTC’s own MediaLink, you can have the content open on your TV instead.
It all makes for an ambitious device, and the HTC One is shaping up to be a strong performer from HTC – arguably its best handset to-date. HTC says the One’s global launch (see here for individual carriers, with HTC saying it has had “the best ever engagement from operators” on this device) will begin in mid-March, perfectly timed of course to take on Samsung’s Galaxy S 4.
We’ll have much, much more on the HTC One in our hands-on coverage today.
HTC’s new One flagship will launch on AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, EE, Vodafone, and O2 from mid-March, as part of a huge 185+ carrier roll-out, though Verizon is conspicuous by its absence from the list. The carrier launch partner roster – which covers more than 80 regions and countries – is already being described by HTC as its best-ever network engagement for a new phone, but Big Red being a hold-out in the US remains a mystery.
Of course, even if Verizon isn’t taking the One, that doesn’t rule out a variant of the phone for its network. The carrier has stuck to its DROID branding, for instance – including the well-esteemed DROID DNA by HTC – and it’s possible that is holding out for a specially named version that would fit with that.
However, the news is good if you’re on other carriers around the world. In North America, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Cincinnati Bell, and Best Buy will all be offering the One in the US, while Rogers, Bell, TELUS and Virgin Mobile Canada will offer it in Canada.
In Latin America, there’ll be support for the various América Movil regional networks, Movistar Venezuela, and Entel Chile, among others. China will also be getting the HTC One, with China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom all in line for the phone.
As for Europe, in the UK there’ll be availability across O2, EE, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Three, Carphone Warehouse, and Phones4U. EE has already confirmed that it will be offering the One for £69.99 ($108) on a £41 per month, 24 month package (1GB mobile data; unlimited UK calls and texts). Onto mainland Europe, and there’ll be support from Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange in various countries, and then further afield into Russia, the Middle East, and Africa.
We’ll update as we get more pricing information from other operators.
UPDATE: Straight from the carrier itself: “Vodafone will be offering the HTC One for sale from 15th March 2013, with pre-order opening two weeks before.”
UPDATE: Clove.co.uk lets us know: “The price is £425+VAT and the device is available in Silver or Black colours with 32GB of internal memory.” Shipping is “expected” to begin on the 15th of March – looks like a lock!
Carved out of a solid block of aluminum, HTC’s great white hype is the oft leaked One aka M7. It’s what the company is touting as its new flagship device today in New York. And in typical HTC style, the One has one or two new software features to help differentiate itself from the rest. More »
There’s little question that HTC wishes 2012 had gone just a little better — the beleaguered smartphone company posted awfully disappointing results quarter after quarter, while rivals like Samsung and Apple continued to hit milestone after milestone.
CEO Peter Chou firmly believes that the worst is over though, and that the company he helms can truly turn its fortunes around. Now, here in New York (as well as at a parallel event in London), HTC has just introduced the device it hopes will help do all that — the HTC One.
Frankly, there’s not a lot here that hasn’t already been spoiled by an insane number of leaks over the past few weeks, but the Jelly Bean-powered One is still a terribly pretty handset. The One sports a 4.7-inch 1080p display (pixel density: 468ppi) flanked on either side by white or black trim not entirely unlike the BlackBerry Z10. Naturally, the internals are nothing to scoff at either — inside its sleek, gently curved aluminum unibody chassis, are one of Qualcomm’s new quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipsets clocked at 1.6GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 32 or 64 GB of internal flash storage.
Here’s the thing about the One hardware though — it almost seems like an exercise in restraint. Its 4.7-inch 1080p display isn’t the largest they’ve put out (that distinction goes to the Droid DNA and its ilk), nor is the chipset powering the show the fastest that Qualcomm has to offer. These days companies like HTC and Samsung are downplaying the perceived strength of their devices’ spec sheets in favor of pushing differentiating features, and the One has no shortage of those.
The company’s focus on improving mobile sound quality has led it to add a pair of front-facing speakers complete with their own amplifiers and obnoxious name (really? “BoomSound”?). As you’d expect, HTC has also gone to town with the One’s camera — with its so-called “Ultrapixel” sensor HTC is trying to transcend the megapixel race entirely. An f/2.0 lens helps the cause here, but the company insists that its newfangled sensor collects “300 percent more light” than those of its rivals. Through in a living room play in the form of an IR blaster and a HTC-branded remote control/guide app powered by Peel and you’ve got yourself a neat little package.
Of course, the hardware is but part of HTC’s vision for the One
Of course, the hardware is but part of HTC’s vision for the One — just as those leaked screenshots indicated, the new and improved Sense 5 UI is Sense 5 is easily the cleanest, least obtrusive version of HTC’s custom UI to date. It’s a drastic step away from the sorts of overly gaudy, overwrought interfaces the company used to be so fond of.
Google’s Roboto typeface is featured prominently throughout and Sense’s icons and widgets are flatter and more in line with Jelly Bean’s cold digital aesthetic. The biggest addition though is a new feature called BlinkFeed, which pulls in content from thousands of sources (think ESPN, AOL’s media properties, The Verge, Reuters, and more), and dumps them into an activity stream that acts as the device’s homescreen.
Meanwhile, a series of four (that’s a hard limit) more standard homescreens can be accessed by swiping to the left from BlinkFeed. For better or worse, there’s no way to turn the feature off — rather, users can pop into the settings and trim down the list of sources that BlinkFeed pulls its content from.
HTC has said that the One will ultimately be available from 185+ wireless carriers the world over starting in March, but here in the States, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile will be the ones to carry HTC’s latest flagship. Sorry, Verizon fans — there’s no official word on why Verizon turned down the One, but it’s not a huge shock considering that the Droid DNA is still relatively new to their lineup.
The big launch event is still underway here, so stay tuned — we’ll be hustling to get our hands on a One in short order for more detailed impressions of HTC’s would-be savior.
This morning we’ve had the opportunity to have the briefest of glimpses at the HTC One in the wild as what we must assume is an HTC employee took several photos of the line headed in to the official HTC One event in New York City. We’ll be live this morning in both NYC and London as the HTC event appears in just under an hour, but for now – here it is! This device has been showing up in bits over the past couple of weeks and we expect it to be pushed in full throughout the day.
This morning has also shown another full set of press images from a leak with both the silver and black models of the HTC One in-tact via NWE. This device is being shown with its Full HD display, two front-facing speakers, and massive camera on the back ready for action. We’ve also seen this machine being held by none other than HTC’s CEO Peter Chou earlier this month – and it all matches up!
Now we’ve only to see the final release – and it’s coming up quick! This device is ready to bring on more Beats Audio for a high fidelity music experience, a fully parred-down HTC Sense push, and what appears to be both front and back camera quality like we’ve never seen before. Given the NVIDIA Tegra 4i release this morning too, we’d not be surprised if one hooked up with the other.
You’ll be able to see the whole wave in the HTC tag portal and the SlashGear main news feed this morning and throughout the day – be there! The timeline below will also let you in on every bit of leak that’s come up to this point too. Sound like the phone for you?
No doubt we’ll be hearing more about it in the very near future (oh, in about an hour or so, in fact), but HTC just can’t seem to keep its newest handset under wraps.The HTC One was spotted in the line up to today’s big unveil in New York City. Apologies for the tiny size of the shot — we’ll surely be seeing much sharper pictures of the thing very soon.
Update: We’ve got another, better shot up at top. The original has been banished to the area just after the break.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
There is a spanking new flagship device from HTC this time around, and it would be the HTC One from the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer. It is said that the HTC One does not want to introduce minor increments in smartphone features, but rather, hopes to invigorate the entire smartphone industry by offering something new and truly exciting – and the Ultrapixel feature is definitely one of them.
