Think back to the days of Windows Mobile, to when PDAs were a thing, to when HTC barely had enough clout to put its name on its own hardware. That was the last time the Taiwanese manufacturer reported a profit as measly as today’s. Despite Peter Chou’s recent bout of hopefulness, the Taiwanese manufacture says it took home just NT$1 billion ($34 million) in net income in Q4 of 2012 — which is less than a tenth of what it made in the same quarter of 2011. Revenue was at least in line with HTC’s pessimistic forecast of NT$60 billion, which equates to a 41 percent drop year-over-year, so the stock market won’t find any of this particularly shocking — even though history says it is.
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
In just about as bright a shade of red as is possible in a presentation of an image on the internet, the HTC One SV has appeared for Cricket Wireless. We reviewed a device rather similar to this by the name of HTC One VX carried by AT&T (or the SV in the UK), here we’ve got a contract-free HTC One device with many of the same benefits of its larger, more impressive cousins, with no obligation to pay for data each month.
This machine will cost you a cool $349.99 with no contract involved and will be rocking out with a 4.3-inch Super LCD-2 display up front and a lovely red back – we must imagine that this device will come in more than one color in the end, but for now, red is more than a beast! You’ll be working with a microSD card slot, NFC capabilities, and a 1.6 megapixel camera on the back.
The camera is, like the rest of the HTC One family, ever so slightly enhanced over the commoners of the smartphone universe. This device’s front facing camera has backside illumination as well as an f/2.2 lens, while the back-facing camera also has backside illumination with an f/2.0 lens. You’ve also got the ability to record up to 1080p video with the backside camera.
Inside you’ll be working with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0 over the top. This machine will be offered up by Cricket Wireless with its 4G LTE network, this not exactly being the most extensive network in the United States at the moment, but growing steadily nonetheless! You’ll find that every data plan you get with this machine comes with unlimited messaging and unlimited voice, staples in our forward-looking mobile universe.
It isn’t exactly a secret that HTC has been in something of a rut lately. The company, which was once the top Android manufacturer as recently as 2010, has fallen hard in recent years, thanks to the increased competition from the likes of Samsung and Apple. HTC is going to try to turn that around in 2013, with CEO Peter Chou telling the Wall Street Journal that he’s optimistic for the year ahead.
“The worst for HTC has probably passed. 2013 will not be too bad,” he said. Reflecting on why HTC lost ground in this fiercely competitive market, Chou said, “Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven’t done enough on the marketing front.” Chou admitted that HTC doesn’t have as much money as Samsung or Apple, but said that doesn’t matter as much as offering unique handsets that get consumers excited.
HTC seems to have succeeded in getting consumers excited with one of its latest handsets, the DROID DNA. The company has also put out a couple stellar Windows Phone 8 handsets, so slowly but surely, HTC is working its way back into the public eye. It seems that there are more than a few consumers out there who want to see HTC make a comeback as well, so the better year HTC is hoping for in 2013 might be more than just a pipe dream.
Chou didn’t specifically say how the company is planning to turn things around, but it sure does have its work cut out for it. 2012 was a great year for Samsung, with the company releasing the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II to critical acclaim and very strong sales. Samsung is going to be a tough one to beat going into 2013, as the oft-rumored Galaxy S IV and Galaxy Note III are said to be launching this year. HTC has been drawing some significant attention with its rumored M7 handset, though, and if it can keep putting out quality Windows Phone 8 handsets, then 2013 might just mark the comeback some have been waiting for.
Indeed, Chou said in the interview that in 2012, the company learned that it needs to act fast and adapt to market changes as quickly as possible. Moving forward, he says the company will be constantly fine-tuning its sales plan to better position itself in the smartphone market. We shall see if all of that work pays off for HTC in the end, so stay tuned.
This week one of the biggest points of interest in the leaked or otherwise tipped or rumored smartphone department has been the HTC M7, and today we’ve got a batch of new details for you straight from the anonymous barn. This machine is set to be working with an “all black design”, it’s being said today by a source speaking with HTC Source, and will be coming with a new version of HTC Sense that’s both clean and simple – not generally what Sense is all about (so to speak). This device will still not likely be appearing until at least after next week as next week is CES 2013, but you never know!
This machine is being tipped as having a lovely 4.7-inch 1080p display, a fabulous Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked in at 1.7GHz, and a 13 megapixel camera on the back. The big deal with this phone is not that it’s got the most gigantic display nor the most powerful processor though, but that it may be coming without capacitive buttons under the display. This would put it in with the rumors for a similar device coming from Samsung this year in the Galaxy S IV.
At the moment, HTC is still working with their HTC One family of devices, a lower-powered HTC One device appearing just today on Cricket Wireless. The M7 is set to work with 2GB of RAM and a set of specifications inside and out that would suggest that it’s set for the top of the heap, on the other hand, and very possibly headed to more than one carrier all at once.
Stick around SlashGear to see exactly what this new device is going to bring to the HTC family of devices for Android in our HTC tag, and don’t for get CES and MWC! Hit the CES 2013 tag portal first to follow SlashGear first, starting Sunday (or today if you like), then hit up the MWC 2013 tag right afterward to follow us to Barcelona!
There’s really no other way to slice it — Taiwanese smartphone OEM HTC has had a difficult 2012. More than a few people have already weighed in on the company’s spotty 2012, but CEO Peter Chou recently spoke to the Wall Street Journal to offer his take on the company’s rough patch.
So what the hell happened this year? According to Chou, failures in marketing were a big part of its weak year.
“Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven’t done enough on the marketing front.” This is hardly the first time HTC has blamed its rivals for its lackluster annual performance, but HTC’s weaknesses when it comes to cultivating an image (any image, really) can’t be understated.
Meanwhile, larger rivals like Samsung have shown no qualms when it comes to throwing their marketing weight around — the company surely paid a premium crafting commercials for the London Olympics and the Super Bowl, and often got feisty by jabbing at Apple line-sitters (sorry Romain). Apple has arguably lost some of its luster with some of its recent ads, but really — people are going to buy Apple gewgaws no matter what. HTC has already started to work on its marketing and perception issues — it snagged itself a new CMO who previously led Motorola Asia’s marketing efforts,
It feels like an excuse from Chou has become something of an annual tradition. Going into 2012, HTC pegged some of its woes on its product line – the company pointedly revealed its intention to pare down the number of phones it would produce in favor of a smaller number of “hero devices.” A quick look at the company’s phone portfolio shows that they’ve done nicely on that front. The original One series devices raised plenty of eyebrows when they were officially unveiled at MWC 2012 while more recent releases like the J Butterfly/Droid DNA prove rather nicely that HTC is still capable of pushing the envelopes of design and performance.
It’s precisely that ability to push envelopes that Chou is banking on to turn things around, noting that “the most important thing is to have unique products that appeal to consumers.” Easier said than done, of course.
What seems most curious to me here is Chou’s tone — he sounds pragmatic almost to the point of being defeatist. Longtime readers may know that I’m generally very bullish on HTC and its hardware, but CEO Chou was very careful to couch himself when it came to his outlook on the new year. According to him, 2013 “will not be too bad,” and that the worst “has probably passed” — is it just me, or are these pretty chilling words coming from HTC’s head honcho? I see the benefits of cautious optimism, but surely a teensy bit of hubris couldn’t hurt to whip his employees into a innovation-centric frenzy?
HTC’s mid-range One VX just recently made its debut on AT&T, and we now have some official word on the US debut of its slightly smaller counterpart, the LTE-equipped One SV. It will be available solely on Cricket Wireless starting January 16th, where it will set you back $349.99 off-contract. That will buy you a 4.3-inch WVGA display (of the Super LCD 2 variety), a 1.2GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, front and rear-facing cameras (5 megapixel, f/2.0 and 1.6 megapixel, f/2.2, respectively), a microSD card slot and Android 4.0 with HTC’s Sense 4 interface. As you can see, it also comes in a bright Flame red color, which is the only option for the time being.
Peter Chou has gone on the record with the Wall Street Journal blaming his company’s rough financial performance last year on insufficient marketing. Speaking about HTC’s competitors, and presumably about Samsung in particular, he described them as “too strong and very resourceful, pouring lots of money into marketing.” He was candid about the fact that, relatively speaking, he doesn’t have a great deal of cash at hand to counter rival publicity, but instead puts his faith in having more “unique products” — possibly referring to phones like the 1080p Droid DNA. Overall, he said that the “the worst for HTC has probably passed” and that 2013 will be “not too bad.” Which is about as cautious as optimism can get.
Smartphone launches sometimes have to build up steam before they can go full speed ahead. Apple might be learning this first-hand, based on ComScore’s figures. After a lackluster October, the company’s just-reported November smartphone market share in the US was up sharply, to 35 percent; while the spike isn’t directly credited to the iPhone 5, rapidly growing availability of the company’s newest smartphone certainly didn’t hurt. Android was still comfortably ruling the roost at 53.7 percent, although its share was only a slight increase over October. As such, most of Apple’s gain during the month came from smaller rivals’ pain.
It was a more familiar story among individual phone makers. Samsung had a comfortable lead at 26.9 percent of the larger American cellphone market in November, while Apple padded its advantage over a sinking LG to hit 18.5 percent. With Motorola and HTC also on the downward slide, the US market this fall was increasingly mirroring its global counterpart, where it was really Apple and Samsung’s game to play — others might have to be content watching from the sidelines in the future.
HTC recently made their case for a top-tier handset back in November, with the DROID DNA boasting the highest-resolution display of any smartphone. However, in order to balance out its offerings, HTC has a new budget-friendly handset in town. The One VX is the company’s latest mid-range smartphone added on to their One series of devices, and priced at only $49 on AT&T’s network (after signing a two-year contract, of course), we simply had to get our grubby little hands on this device to see what it’s capable of. Does it provide value to entry-level minded customers without sacrificing a lot in terms of features and performance? Let’s find out.
Hardware
The One VX sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz with 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card slot). Overall, this is pretty typical of a budget-friendly device, and while we would’ve liked to see at least 16GB of built-in storage, we can’t really complain about the fact that it comes with a microSD card slot, a feature that a lot of other phones are neglecting.
The display of the One VX is a 4.5-inch Super LCD 2 screen with a qHD resolution of 960×540. The combination of the screen size and resolution makes the display less sharp than more premium 720p devices such as the One X+ — the One VX has a pixel density of 245 PPI, compared to 312 PPI on the One X+. Regardless, text showed up fairly crisp, and images and videos were sharp as well. So, while the display may not boast HD status, it’s certainly something that you can write home about.
The overall design of the phone is reminiscent of HTC’s other devices in the One series. It is a One device, after all, but its budget status doesn’t show through with its design. It sports an elegant shape, with rounded edges and a smooth and sturdy band of silver-painted plastic trim that surrounds the outer edge. The AT&T logo above the screen is subtle, and three capacitive buttons (Back, Home, and Recent Apps) line the bottom of the bezel just like HTC’s other One handsets.
On the top, there’s the usual headphone jack and power button, while the volume buttons are situated on the right side, and the microUSB is centered on the bottom, right where we like it. Flipping the phone over will reveal the matte white battery cover with the HTC logo in the center and the Beats Audio logo towards the bottom, right above the speaker. However, while the back cover is removable, allowing you access inside the phone, the 1,800mAh battery is irreplaceable — taking the back cover off only gives you access to the SIM card slot and the microSD card slot.
There’s definitely not a lot to complain about as far as the design goes. It certainly doesn’t look like a budget-minded device, and its build quality feels really solid. Smaller hands might have a bit of trouble holding the device — as with any 4.5-inch-and-higher device — but we can’t see that has too much of a hindrance on the overall experience.
Software
The One VX runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.1 running on top (surprise, surprise). Therefore, there’s nothing terribly new, but it still packs all of the lovable personalization options and polished widgets that are typically found with HTC’s custom user experience. Beyond that, it’s a little unfortunate to find the One VX running ICS out of the box, as opposed to Jelly Bean, but we should be seeing an update roll out sooner or later for the device.
Because the VX runs the older ICS software, you won’t be able to enjoy newer features such as Google Now and improved notifications, as well as some of the new performance enhancements, but for those who don’t mind not having the latest software versions, we can assure you that ICS on the One VX runs like a charm, and you’ll still have the same great features that come with HTC’s Sense UI, like custom widgets and social integration of all your contacts, if you’re into to that kind of thing.
Camera
While 5MP certainly isn’t anything special, some people may actually find that the camera suits them well, but a majority of users will probably want to stick to their dedicated cameras. Provided that there’s enough lighting, you’ll be able to get some decent shots. However, if you’re picky enough, you’ll be quick to point out its faults. Brighter areas seem to get washed out a lot, and darker areas don’t seem to get a lot of attention depending on where the light is coming from. HDR mode helps that a little, but it’s only good if you have time to spare, since snapping an HDR photo takes a little bit longer to pull off.
However, even with adequate lighting, there can still be a lot of noise that shows up in photos. It really depends on the circumstances, but I was quick to notice that even in broad daylight, ISO noise was still a problem, and it ruins an otherwise great photo.
Video recording at 1080p was fairly decent, although it had trouble with re-focusing, and the exposure took a little long to adjust when going from light areas to dark areas, and vice versa. It records macro fairly well, though, and doesn’t have too much of a problem with focusing in on small, detailed areas. In the end, the camera works in a pinch, but it’s probably not worthy to replace your main point-and-shoot camera at this point.
As for the camera app itself, it’s the same as HTC’s other offerings, and it’s easily one of my favorite camera interfaces of any device. The photo shutter button and the video shutter button are side-by-side so you don’t have to switch between the two. There’s also quick access to real-time filters and effects that you can apply to both photos and videos. The settings menu is also really intuitive and easy to navigate, and it lets you change settings that would otherwise be cumbersome to change on other handsets.
Benchmarks & Performance
In everyday use, the One VX offered mostly snappy performance. Apps opened quickly, and I was able to page through home screens without hesitation. It’s not as buttery smooth as, say, the One X+ running Jelly Bean, but the difference will be negligible to the layman, and most people wouldn’t notice a difference when using the VX by itself.
The 1.2GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU in the One VX turned in some respectable benchmarking results. For example, it scored a 9,600 in AnTuTu, right on par with the last-generation flagship Galaxy S II from Samsung, and beating the Galaxy Nexus by a good length. In Quadrant, it scored just over a 5,250, edging out the One X, but is way behind when compared to the One X+, which scored over 7,000. Putting the phone through some real-world graphics testing in the form of Asphalt 7 proved to be successful. Low framerates were practically nonexistent — something that I can’t say with many other budget handsets.
Battery
The One VX comes with a 1,800mAh battery, which is a bit less than the 2,000mAh that smartphones are currently moving up to, but thanks to the slower-clocked processor, the lower capacity wasn’t really a problem. In total, I easily went almost two full days before the battery dipped below warning levels, and this was from casual web browsing and surfing Facebook and Twitter, while also checking email on occasion. On the second day, however, I ended up doing quite a bit of gaming and watching TV shows on Netflix. The battery took a larger hit that time around.
One of the more interesting aspects, though, was how big of a hit the WiFi was on the battery. Usually the screen is the biggest culprit in most cases, and rightfully so, but WiFi laid the biggest smackdown on the battery, claiming 32% of resources. Then again, battery life didn’t suffer one bit, and not in a second would we consider this an issue. It took me a good couple of hours of continuous use before I noticed any kind of huge knock on the battery, so that’s definitely saying something.
Wrap-Up
The One VX offers a balanced ratio between price and performance, and while it’s classified as just a budget device for those cash-strapped consumers looking for a good deal, the One VX will provide the experience of a top-tier handset — it looks and feels like a top-of-the-line HTC device, and it performs about as great as you’d expect from a flagship smartphone, with only a few setbacks that few will grumble over. If you’re not willing to shell out money for the One X+ or Galaxy S III, the One VX will surely make you happy for only $50.
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