Design, Performance, and Usability

We’ve already comprehensively covered the core proposition of the HTC One in our original review. Suffice to say, the appeal of the matte-finish metal handset hasn’t waned since then. Build quality keeps it at the top of the pile of Android devices in recent memory, for a start, and having weighed the One against the Galaxy S 4 at the Samsung phone’s launch, it’s clear that HTC has the edge in design and quality. One mild concern is the tendency of the white polycarbonate inset strip running the edge of the phone to pick up color smudges when we kept it in our jeans pocket, though these usually rubbed off.

Some of the details stand out after a longer period with the phone. BoomSound has a ridiculous name, but we can’t argue with the audio performance: we’ve found ourselves showing off more video, as well as reaching for the One in preference to other devices when it comes to consuming multimedia from services like Netflix, simply because the front-facing stereo speakers are simply that good. The power from the speakers is also incredibly useful when using the One as a navigation device in the car, while the screen they flank is no slouch either, with a combination of 1080p Full HD resolution and a color balance that’s refreshingly level rather than skewed to over-saturation.

HTC One walkthrough:

Sense 5 and the BlinkFeed homescreen – which pulls together news, Facebook, Twitter, calendar, and tips from the phone – continues to draw our attention, even with the gloss of newness taken off it. With its Flipboard-style feed of headlines and images, BlinkFeed makes for a great distraction, though we can’t help but wish HTC would hurry up and add offline caching of articles, the ability to add your own RSS feeds, and Google+/Google Now integration. The latter would arguably make the biggest difference; we like the low-noise way the One slots your upcoming appointments into the first page of BlinkFeed tiles each day, and it would make a perfect fit for Google Now suggestions.

Overall, Sense 5 combined with Android 4.1 performs well, and with the exception of Photosphere we’ve not really missed anything from the very latest version of Jelly Bean. AT&T’s version of the One includes a customized browser, but despite our initial concerns, performance actually improved over the stock phone. In SunSpider, the test of JavaScript performance, the European One scored 1,118.9ms versus the 1,035.1ms of the AT&T version (in SunSpider, faster is better). Overall, we had no issues with the One’s quadcore 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor pulling its weight running apps, and even AT&T’s preloaded software – which includes DriveMode, Family Map, Locker, Navigator, Ready2Go, Messages, myAT&T, Smart Wi-Fi, YPmobile, and Device Help – are neatly clustered into a folder rather than scattershot across the app launcher.

It’s not all perfect, though. A lingering frustration is the black menu bar that often appears in third-party apps, where HTC has followed Android guidelines and dropped a dedicated menu key, but apps aren’t yet putting the three-dot softkey where it should be, tucked out of the way in the corner. That means you lose a stripe of your 4.7-inch screen to a single control (the functionality of which varies widely) but, more annoyingly, the on-screen keyboard shifts up to accommodate it.

That has at times played havoc with our typing, our thumbs not extending sufficiently to avoid the menu key and thus interrupting text entry. Admittedly, it’s not HTC’s fault, but it’s an ongoing annoyance that apps not adhering to the latest Android UI guidelines continue to hit the Play store.

Camera and Multimedia

HTC’s UltraPixel strategy has proved divisive, with the company chasing more light instead of more megapixels. We’ve covered how the One uses its 4-megapixels extensively in our review, but we also gave the smartphone its chance to shine out in the wild, taking it to the New York Auto Show last month.

Your average tradeshow is tough going on a camera, whether it’s a DSLR, a point-and-shoot, or on a smartphone. The lighting ranges from ridiculously bright, meaning you get masses of reflections and glare, to moodily dark, making details difficult to pick out and the threat of noise a constant. In-between, there’s all manner of colored lights that can confuse a camera’s sensor.

The NY Auto Show was no different, but the HTC One held its own for the most part. All of the photos and video from our coverage of the new Chevrolet Camaro Z28 and the Corvette Stingray was taken using the One, for example, with us also using the Zoe “highlight” feature that creates summary videos based on 3.6s snippets of video and burst-stills.

For the photos, despite the mixed lighting conditions, the quality was surprisingly high. Blur is noticeably absent, the One being able to stick to faster shutter-speeds and lower ISOs thanks to its greater appetite for light, and photos which combine well-lit areas alongside much darker ones are impressively balanced. The phone is fast, too: back-to-back shots are roughly as swift as you can repeatedly tap the on-screen button.

Video, meanwhile, looks great at 1080p Full HD resolution, with the same impressive low-light and mixed-lighting performance as for stills. However, the noisy show floor proved a challenge for the One’s stereo microphones at times, however: you can certainly make out speech compared to background noise, but it lacks the pinpoint clarity you’d get with a directional microphone or a dedicated clip-on mic.

Nonetheless, for immediacy and convenience, the One certainly held its own. At full resolution and in perfect lighting, HTC’s choice of big pixels rather than lots of them struggles somewhat, but in more everyday situations the convenience of being able to take low-light situations in your stride wins out.

The downside with the One – and, specifically, with Zoe photography, which simultaneously grabs 20 stills and 3.6s of Full HD video – remains how multimedia is managed, particularly off the phone. We’ve already highlighted how poorly that plays with auto-upload services, such as those offered by Dropbox, Google+, and Facebook, which basically fill your cloud storage with dozens of nearly-identical shots. The AT&T version is no different in that respect, and HTC desperately needs to step up and address offloading media with its HTC Sync Manager app.

While it’s at it, we wouldn’t argue with more themes and flexibility for the Zoe highlights system: the One’s automatically curated showreels, which come complete with transitions, filters, and background music. We’re still impressed by how neatly the One knits these together, but the option for longer clips (currently it’s 30 seconds only) and the ability to use your own music would make the feature considerably more useful. We’ve found people are much more willing to watch our photos and video when they’re stitched into a highlight reel, and so a greater number of presets (out of the box there are six to choose between) would make it all the more engaging.

HTC Sense, Zoe, and Highlights demo:

One advantage those looking to AT&T for their One will have is capacity. The carrier has the US exclusive on the 64GB version, other networks making do with the 32GB model, and given the amount of data Zoe photography creates, and that there’s no microSD storage option, that makes a big difference. It’s not a cheap way to boost capacity, though: AT&T is asking $199.99 for the 32GB One, or $100 more to double the memory.

Phone, LTE, and Battery

HTC’s BoomSound speaker technology means the One has no problems pushing out in-call audio, and happily performance on AT&T’s network matched up with that. We had no problems keeping a signal, even though HTC squeezes the One’s antennas into the tiny polycarbonate notches in the unibody case, and hardly a dropped call, even in areas where coverage was patchy.

We tested LTE performance in multiple locations where AT&T currently offers service, including New York City, Denver, Wichita, and San Francisco. Speeds ranged from as much as 39Mbps downloads and nearly 19Mbps uploads, location depending, though averaged out at 15.95Mbps down and 7.06Mbps up. In contrast, we saw peeks of 37Mbps down and nearly 11Mbps up on an iPhone 5 using Verizon’s LTE network.

LTE has a reputation for being power hungry, and while the One’s 2,300 mAh battery isn’t small, the fact that it can’t be removed – unlike, say, the battery in Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 – has left some wary of the quadcore smartphone. In practice, we’ve found the One has sufficient legs to last through the day, particularly if its power management systems are turned on. These put data to sleep after periods of extended inactivity, waking them only occasionally to check for new messages and other updates, as well as reducing screen brightness and enabling other frugal systems.

Over the course of a sixteen hour day, then, with a mixture of cellular and WiFi connectivity, we saw roughly 30-percent of the battery left. More patchy use of WiFi saw LTE take a greater toll, with 20-percent left after just over twelve hours. However, even when we forgot to plug the charger in overnight, the One proved frugal, only dropping a few percentage points thanks to the data throttling.

Wrap-Up

Nothing about AT&T’s version of the HTC One has changed our positive impression of the smartphone. In fact, native LTE support for the US has only improved our takeaway opinion: the One is beautifully constructed, slickly designed, fast, has thoughtful software tweaks – a few third-party app UI glitches aside – and a great, flexible camera.

The road ahead for HTC isn’t going to be an easy one. Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 is the specter on the near horizon, and for however much it may offer an evolutionary step up from its Galaxy S III predecessor, it comes with the might of the South Korean company’s prodigious marketing machine (and its equally massive budget). In contrast, the One sees HTC take a far greater risk than it has in recent years – in investment in construction, camera strategy, and software – and, for the most part, that pays off in the quality of the overall device.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is, if last year’s model is anything to go by, likely to be the default choice for Android buyers in 2013. However, the HTC One is arguably the more thoughtful choice. In AT&T form, it’s our favorite Android handset of the moment.

Both devices work with Android Jelly Bean, though the HTC One’s update to 4.2 is coming soon (perhaps by launch time) while the GALAXY S 4 has its 4.2 version of the software ready on the device right here this week as it’s revealed. The HTC device has a user interface that’s extremely different from what they’ve offered before with a whole new app drawer for Android and a feature called BlinkFeed – learn more about HTC’s approach in our full HTC One review.

The Samsung GALAXY S 4, on the other hand, adds a collection of apps and features to its user interface with TouchWiz, leaving the UI in a more grand way pretty much the same as it’s been on the newest updates to both the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II. Have a peek at some specification comparisons here to see how the hardware differs, too:

Samsung GALAXY S 4
Display: 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED 1920 x 1080 pixel display at 441 PPI
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.9 GHz Quad-Core Processor / Samsung Exynos 1.6 GHz Octa-Core Processor – depending on market
Cameras: 2 megapixel front-facing, 13 megapixel back-facing
Dimensions: 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm, 130g
Storage: 16 / 32 / 64 GB internal storage, 64GB expansion microSD slot
Battery: 2600 mAh

HTC One
Display: 4.7-inch Full HD Super LCD3 1920 x 1080 pixel display at 469 PPI
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 1.7 GHz Quad-Core Processor
Cameras: 2.1 megapixel front-facing, 4 megapixel back-facing (Ultrapixels in both cases)
Dimensions: 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm, 143g
Storage: 32 / 64 GB internal storage
Battery: 2300 mAh

The Samsung GALAXY S 4 has been pushed with a set of four pillars of user experience excellence while the HTC One was given a similar push with more feature upgrades than you can shake a stick at. In the timeline below you’ll be given a tour of our hands-on experiences with the HTC One and its features as well as a tour of the GALAXY S 4′s four pillars. You’ll find both approaches to be rather interesting if not utterly confusing until you actually have the hardware in your hands.

And here’s one of the biggest key differentiators between the two of these devices: the Samsung GALAXY S 4 has a removable, replaceable battery as well as a microSD expansion slot. The HTC One has neither.

If one thing is true about both of these devices, its that their makers aren’t holding back when it comes to putting features in full-force. Now we’ve got to see if the public will accept a whirlwind of software and hardware upgrades at once, or if they’ll opt to stick with the simpler approaches on the market that are already available.

Design

Stunning. The HTC One makes a compelling argument for being the best-made Android phone we can recall, a design that both looks and feels premium (though photos don’t tend to do it justice, making it look flat and overly simplistic). Last year’s One X was a solid device, with its polycarbonate plastic casing, but the One is leagues ahead. HTC went back to basics – CNC-intensive manufacturing processes; clever rethinking of how to finesse the most out of minimal antennas – with its industrial design, and the end result is a phone that’s creak-free and somehow timeless in the same way that Apple’s MacBook Pro design has gracefully evolved.

On the front, HTC’s favorite micro-drilling process has spread from the earpiece to the slip of metal under the display, while the company continues to insist that Google’s on-screen buttons are a waste of valuable display space, and so includes touch-sensitive keys. We’re down to just two of them, however – Back and Home – flanking an HTC logo that doesn’t do anything if you tap it. We can’t help but wish the logo was the home button, since we kept stabbing at it out of habit.

A thin band of white polycarbonate runs the chamfered edge of the One, enclosing the power key (which doubles as an IR blaster) and headphone socket on the top edge, and the microUSB port on the bottom. A volume rocker is on the side, flush with the casing. On the back, the gently bowed metal has been carefully shot through with narrow strips of plastic which allow the antennas to do their magic; there’s a neat stylistic flourish with the upper band dipping to encircle the camera lens, but we could do without the Beats Audio logo which looks a little garish in comparison to the discretely metallic HTC branding.

All that metal and sturdiness comes with a compromise, and that’s the battery. HTC has opted for a non-removable Li-Poly pack, a healthy 2,300 mAh, which is fixed inside. Exactly how many people ever actually swap out their batteries is unclear, but it could prove an early deal-breaker for some. Similarly, there’s no microSD card slot, HTC unable to accommodate it in the 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm, 143g frame.

Hardware and Performance

HTC has thrown the works at the One, and pretty much all but wireless charging has stuck. So, you get a fast processor – Qualcomm’s 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 quadcore, to be exact – and 2GB of memory, along with a 4.7-inch Full HD display (more on which later). Connectivity includes LTE, HSPA/WCDMA, and GSM/EDGE, along with WiFi a/b/g/n/ac, MHL-HDMI with the right adapter, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX audio support, NFC, and Miracast wireless display, while there’s also a digital compass, GPS, GLONASS, gyroscope, accelerometer, and proximity/ambient light sensors.

Without a microSD card slot, internal storage becomes all the more important. HTC has sensibly bypassed the 16GB point and instead opted for 32GB and 64GB versions, though the latter will be only available in certain, limited locations. Our 32GB review unit had 25.49GB free out of the box. There’s a free 25GB chunk of Dropbox storage, too, though we’d still rather see expandable local memory if given the option.

It’s particularly topical since the One does so well with multimedia. For once, the Beats Audio doesn’t feel like a cynical marketing mention: the One really does exceed what other phones can do, both when it comes to recording and playing back sound. For the former, it’s down to two dual-membrane microphones, which HTC calls Sense Voice: in short, one half of each microphone handles high signal-to-noise ratio sound, such as regular speech, up to around the 75dB point, while above that there’s a high sound pressure level membrane that can cope with the more boisterous sounds you’d encounter at a concert or club.

Sample recording from a concert

Together they’re designed to handle every audio situation the phone might find itself in, whether that’s doing speakerphone duty in a quiet office, recording your kids on the swings at the park, or in the front row of a gig. Best of all, it actually works: the stereo pick-up is excellent in normal conditions, but as soon as things get loud and you’d expect a regular phone to get overwhelmed, the One just bulldozes ahead. We kept trying to identify the point where the membranes hand over, but in fact it’s more of a seamless blend; you simply can’t tell what the One is doing, which is really as it should be.

On the flip side are the speakers, which HTC is equally proud of. The One brings them up-front, flanking the display, and gives them significantly larger chambers to resonate in. Look beyond the awkward BoomSound branding and the result is impressive: loud but without distortion, and with bass that belies the fact you’re listening to a phone. The speakers get their own Beats Audio branded amplifier, too, with a second powering the headphone socket. Interestingly, HTC isn’t bundling any Beats Audio headphones in the box this time around, only a regular wired hands-free kit, though the One worked well with every aftermarket set we tried.

We can’t complain about the One’s overall performance, the Snapdragon 600 putting in a convincing show both in everyday use and in benchmarks. In Quadrant, the HTC scored 12,127, a huge step up from the 7,400 of the One X+, while in AnTuTu it managed 24,283, up from the 16,245 of the One X+. In Qualcomm’s Vellamo test, it scored 2,398 in the HTML5 category and 779 in the Metal category. In SunSpider, the browser test of JavaScript performance, the One scored 1118.9ms (faster is better. Overall, then, it’s clear that the One can handle anything you could throw at it today, and is likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Display

Point-three of an inch shouldn’t make a difference, but it does. HTC’s decision to go with a 4.7-inch screen, against the 5-inch panel of the DROID DNA and Butterfly J, is a welcome one: you still get the rich, creamy Full HD resolution, but that slightly condensed 1080p adds up to both 468ppi pixel density and a handset that’s easier to hold.

HTC has stuck with LCD rather than looking to AMOLED, and the result is a panel that’s beautifully balanced. Accurate colors, rich blacks, and viewing angles that are so broad as to look pasted on. It could arguably do with being a little brighter at its maximum setting – we’ve been spoiled with recent high-nit panels from LG and others, which do better at battling sunlight – but it’s a great all-rounder nonetheless.

Software

HTC Sense

HTC Sense has had a long and at-times tortured journey. What started as HTC’s attempt to tame the wild-west of raw Android back in the v1.5 days gradually became heavier, slower, and arguably less necessary as Google tightened up its own software. What were once HTC-exclusive features gradually became baked into Android-proper, and – despite a few little-developed additions, like OnLive gaming and HTC Watch – HTC seemed more interested in simply visually differentiating its phones than actually delivering a legitimately more usable UI.

That doesn’t fly in 2013, when pure Android has an increasing number of fans, and rivals like Samsung have gone tweak and enhancement crazy with their own software modifications. Happily HTC has taken a clean-slate approach with Sense 5.0 on the One, and much of its new strategy works.

For a start, the swollen icons and cartoony feel has been pared back dramatically, keeping little more than wire-frame outlines of HTC’s weather icons (some things, like zombies, refuse to die). Instead, you get some welcome use of Google’s Roboto font – in its condensed form, which makes it look both familiar and distinctive – and a crisper, more simplistic layout with flatter icons and a black/white/blue color scheme that’s reminiscent of Windows Phone in places.

The familiar homescreen is still present, though now limited to four panes of icons or widgets – HTC says its research indicates the vast majority of users settle on a screen or two of icons, and then never bother changing them – while the app launcher comes with several apps already organized away into folders, part of HTC’s encouragement to keep the layout (either 3×4 or 4×5) tidy. Our units direct from HTC have little in the way of bloatware preinstalled, and we know the company is working with carriers to try to minimize how many “added extras” get thrown in, with the goal being to have them at least corralled into a folder from the start.

Interestingly, you can treat the app launcher as a homescreen; jump from it into an app and then hit the Home key, and you’ll go straight back to the launcher rather than the traditional desktop. However, HTC has another part of its homescreen that it hopes will become your default.

HTC BlinkFeed

BlinkFeed is HTC’s latest try at pulling together social, something it started several years back in FriendFeed. However, the new system is far more comprehensive, featuring not only Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr content, but news from multiple online sources. Outwardly similar in appearance and functionality to newsreading-app Flipboard, BlinkFeed sits to a side-swipe of the desktop and fills the screen with page after page of mixed content from news and social.

In its first generation, you can only choose from HTC’s selection of news sources – future iterations will support general RSS feeds being added, HTC tells us – but it’s a pretty comprehensive selection from the outset, and tailored depending on your location. Those in the US will see sources like USA Today and the WSJ, while those in the UK will get the BBC and the Guardian, for instance. Subscriptions can be added on a category basis – technology, for instance, or sport – or from a specific provider. If you’re on a WiFi connection then the list is updated automatically every couple of hours by default, whereas out of the box it’s manual-only refreshes on a cellular data connection. A quick pull down on the BlinkFeed list triggers a check for new articles (as well as showing the options menu for managing subscriptions).

We’re generally wary of news reader apps, especially those preloaded by manufacturers, since they’re usually subpar compared to third-party options like Flipboard. BlinkFeed, though, is surprisingly capable. HTC describes its purpose as serving up “snackable” content, the sort of glanceable tidbit that might catch your attention when you instinctively reach for your phone in a moment of distraction, and in that respect it operates as a gateway rather than trying to be the be-all and end-all of news consumption.

Tap an article – small icons and text at the bottom of each thumbnail show whether its come from a news site or been shared from Twitter, Facebook, or another social source, along with who shared it – and it opens in the regular browser. Tweets open in the official Twitter app, Facebook links in the Facebook app; not some HTC version the company has cooked up. In the future, you’ll be able to choose alternative apps – so, for instance, you could use your third-party Twitter software of choice rather than the microblogging company’s own app – but that’s not supported at launch. If the flow of news gets too much for you, you can shut it off and use BlinkFeed solely as a social feed, or vice-versa. Other apps will also periodically inject their content into BlinkFeed too, so for instance the gallery might remind you of an old photo taken if you revisit a location, or HTC might slide in a pane with tips about an under-utilized feature. Sadly, despite its cards arguably making the most sense for inclusion, there’s currently no Google Now integration.

Despite our skepticism, we quickly grew to like BlinkFeed. Part of that’s down to speed: there’s very little lag in scrolling through the list – HTC has wisely kept the animations to a minimum, with just a small amount of tile-tilt when you flick through each page – and stories open up quickly. HTC’s content partner does a fair amount of server-side processing to keep data transfer time and overall traffic to a minimum: the One gets the headline and an image (news sources with photos get priority over text-only stories) and then only accesses a specially formatted article when you actually tap on it. There’s also a push to show the full article rather than just an excerpt, as sometimes find on Flipboard, though you can always open up the page on the original site, or share it via any of the usual Android methods. It’s perfect for the casual grazing smartphone addicts do in every moment of downtime.

BlinkFeed is obviously a first-generation product, but HTC has ambitious plans for its development. Our advice has always been to buy a device for what it does today, not what it might be updated to do tomorrow, though HTC has at least made changes to Sense in v.5 to address a key complaint: that software updates are frustratingly infrequent. Typically, that’s because a new firmware version demands considerable interaction between manufacturer and the carriers, and often only comes when Google pushes out a new version of Android.

To address that, HTC has divorced the update process for its own apps from the underlying OS. Rather than being forced to wait for a significant firmware change before it can tweak, patch, and generally improve BlinkFeed and other homegrown software, HTC will be able to update them piecemeal. So, when BlinkFeed finally gets third-party app support, or RSS subscription support, HTC will be able to deliver that functionality in the same manner as an app downloaded from the Google Play store can.

We’ve heard promises of more timely upgrades before, so the proof of HTC’s ambitious new system will be in the delivery. However, if it can do it, it will go a long way to drawing some of the venom many feel about OEM skins like Sense. That’s not to say HTC has turned over a new leaf entirely: the One launches running Android 4.1.2, rather than 4.2, with the company promising an update soon.

HTC Get Started

Once upon a time, HTC offered a web-based counterpart to Sense on its phones, with mobile content access, backup, find-my-phone security, and remote locking. That was quietly retired in early 2012, however, with HTC promising bright new things in its place. Those bright new things have taken until now, and the HTC One, to arrive.

HTC Get Started is, the company tells us, in part a reaction to the growing number of online sales of phones: now, buyers will be able to jump straight into their new phone experience, even while they’re waiting for the One to be physically delivered. In short, it’s a simple way to set up a new device. After choosing your model (and carrier variant), you can personalize the applications, sounds, bookmarks, wallpapers, lock screen options, and even the feeds in BlinkFeed, all via a web interface on the desktop.

You can start from a blank slate, or pick from seven presets – family, games, music, photos, social, sports, or travel – which each populate the One with a set of feeds, apps, bookmarks, sounds, and other settings. So, if you opt for the games preset, you get Temple Run and Angry Birds Space automatically installed, along with gaming and sports content for BlinkFeed, and some of the popular gaming news and reviews sites bookmarked in the browser. Every choice is previewed on a mock-up of the One shown alongside.

If you’d rather craft your own setup, you can step through each content stage, picking ringtones, notifications, and alarms – or uploading your own audio to snip a sound from it – then choosing from either preloaded bookmarks or add your own, as well as from HTC’s wallpapers or one of your own images uploaded specially. All of the apps you choose come direct from the Google Play store, which means they update just as if you loaded them manually on the phone itself.

It’s the accounts section of Get Started that’s the most useful, however. Rather than punch in your email and Dropbox credentials during the on-device setup wizard – something which can be frustrating, pecking in passwords on a soft keyboard – you can register them in the browser interface. The whole thing is then finished off with either the creation of an HTC account or, alternatively, by logging in with your Facebook or Weibo username and password. When you start up the phone, you can punch those credentials in, and the One gets automagically set up just as you arranged it online.

Given how much time we spend setting up new devices, we’re unsurprisingly fans of HTC Get Started. You don’t have to be a phone reviewer to appreciate its simplicity, however; one of the most frustrating issues new smartphone owners can face is not being quite sure what to actually do with their powerful new gadget, and so HTC’s smorgasbord of curated apps is a great launching point. Unfortunately there’s no way, at present, to synchronize Sense in the other direction – you can’t back-up your exact phone layout to Get Started, edit it online, and then later restore that to the device – but HTC does at least offer a backup system that preserves most of the layout and settings of your handset.

TV

HTC’s clever integration of an IR blaster into the One’s power button gets a purpose right out of the box, with the company’s simply-named TV app. Built on Peel technology – which powers the universal remote system included on some Galaxy Tab tablets, for instance – the app basically replaces your usual home entertainment remotes and throws in a channel guide too.

First-time setup involves telling the app where you live and what content providers you have – cable, satellite, free-to-air digital, etc. – then selecting your TV model and any other A/V kit you might have. HTC has a long list of manufacturers to choose from, and we were up and running with our TVs simply by choosing the brand; testing basically involves firing off a power signal, and making sure the TV turns on as expected. Multiple devices can be set up and switched between, and if you’ve something not on the list then you can teach the TV app how to use it: the IR blaster also works as a remote reader, and so by pointing the controller for your mystery device at the One, you can step through all of the key controls. That way, we were able to set up an Apple TV, a preset for which was missing from HTC’s list.

When you open TV, you find a screen of currently-playing shows based on the channels you receive. Each gets a preview and a bar running along the bottom showing how far through the show is; tapping it automatically changes the channel, or you can open up an information page with an episode summary, a list of actors, and other details. It’s there you can also favorite shows: from that point, those you’ve favorited will show up higher in the “now playing” list, as well as have reminders of new episodes pushed into your BlinkFeed. A side-swipe from the main screen shows what’s coming up next, as well as allowing you to dig into the future schedule or break your planning down channel-by-channel. It’s also possible to permanently hide channels you’re not interested in.

Exit the TV app and a shortcut automatically appears in the notification bar, complete with quick access to the power, to the full remote page, and details of what you’re currently watching. Set the phone down with TV running and, if it goes to sleep, it’ll wake up automatically when you pick it up. You can pull the app up even if the phone is PIN-locked, too, though for security users won’t be able to jump from the TV app to other content on your phone if you’ve left it on the coffee table. It’s worth noting that the app only knows what’s on if you’ve been using it exclusively; if you switch between the One and your regular remote, there’s no way for the phone to figure out what channel is currently playing.

The other aspect of TV is streaming content, though here HTC’s provision is slightly less developed. You can stream video directly from the phone to a TV – it’s incredibly straightforward, too, as long as it supports DLNA or Miracast, and is basically a matter of choosing the screen of choice and then watching the content show up – or from third-party services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. Eventually, HTC aims to have the TV app control the native streaming apps on smart TVs, but for now it works best if you have HTC’s own MediaLink HD box plugged into your set via HDMI.

As with BlinkFeed, HTC has more in store for the TV app. Right now, it’s responsive but not predictive: it’ll remind you of an upcoming show if you’ve favorited it before, but it won’t make suggestions based on what it thinks you might like. That’s in the pipeline, though, and HTC will be able to iterate more regularly thanks to its streamlined update system. Meanwhile, HTC is pitching an API for the IR blaster around A/V app developers, hoping for broader adoption there, too. For the moment, it’s a handy system if you’re laden with remotes or often lose them, though it’s perhaps too early to be a must-have feature.

Kid Mode

Handing your offspring your phone – especially if it’s logged into an app or multimedia store, complete with a credit card registered – can be a recipe for disaster. To fix that, HTC equips the One with Kid Mode, powered by Zoodles, which offers a captive selection of games, age-appropriate multimedia, storybooks, and more, all with a child-friendly interface.

There’s support for time limits on how long games and the web are accessible, as well as ad-blocking and site whitelisting for controlling what kids will come across online. Each child has their own “Playground” user-account, with management from a centralized dashboard. It’s worth noting that Zoodles is already available for Android devices in general, in addition to Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Camera

The One’s camera is probably HTC’s biggest risk with its new flagship, a concerted decision to step off the megapixel bandwagon and instead reconsider smartphone photography from the perspective of how owners really use their phones. So, the One has a “mere” 4-megapixel camera – less than a third of the 13-megapixels Sony has equipped the Xperia Z with, for instance, or LG on the Optimus G Pro – but it’s a specially designed sensor exclusively for HTC’s use.

The key is light. HTC’s research suggests most users take photos indoors or in subpar lighting conditions, rather than outdoors where most phone cameras do their best work. Although ramping up the megapixels increases detail, it also makes each pixel smaller – assuming you want to keep a pocket-friendly phone unlike, say, Nokia with the capable but bloated sensor of the 808 PureView – and that means each gets less light and so the final image gets more noise and other glitches.

HTC’s approach is to use huge pixels – capable of grabbing over 300x the light of some rival cameras – so that, even though the final image may not be as large as from an 8- or 13-megapixel device, its overall quality is higher. More light means faster shutter speeds are possible, which helps cut down on phone shake; HTC also adds in two-axis optical image stabilization to assist with that. The resulting data is fed straight into the latest version of HTC’s ImageChip processing, which finesses things based on the RAW data rather than, as other phones tend to, on the converted JPEG.

Sample shots

The difference is quite literally night and day when it comes to low-light images. Scenes that, on a Galaxy S III or an iPhone 5 are so murky as to be all but useless, come out with significant amounts of detail on the One. The One has an LED flash – which will automatically choose between five degrees of brightness, depending on the distance between the phone and the subject – but you can comfortably leave it off more often than not. As well as greater detail, the One can do less post-processing to remove blur, since the bigger pixels allow for faster shutter speeds.

In more ideal conditions, the One’s shots suffer if you blow them up and compare them side-by-side with higher-megapixel images. The 4-megapixel sensor simply lacks the resolution to compete on that level. Nonetheless, at more typical levels of crop, we’re left impressed by the standard of stills from the One. Colors are accurate and there’s admirably little noise, HTC’s favored 28mm f/2.0 lens making its presence known once more.

Up front, meanwhile, there’s a 2.1-megapixel camera which also has an f/2.0 lens, and HTC has borrowed the One X+’s wide-angle optics so that you can fit more people in-frame at any one time. It’ll shoot 1080p Full HD video, too (though not Zoe shots; more on which in a moment), plus HDR stills, and there’s a useful timer which means you can tap the screen and still have time to post before the frame is captured.

As for video, the One can capture 1080p footage at 30fps, or 720p footage at 60fps; there’s support for HDR video, as well as simultaneously capturing a full-resolution still image while you’re recording video. The results for video are as impressive as those for still images, with excellent colors, balance, and brightness levels, and minimal judder or noise. The low-light performance isn’t quite as convincing as for still shots, though the One handles scenes with mixed high- and low-brightness well: in footage of a show, for instance, with bright lights on-stage and darkness elsewhere, both areas were cleanly visible.

HTC Zoe

If HTC has its way, though, we’ll not be taking just photos or video, but a hybrid of the two. Called Zoe, it’s HTC’s vision of the future of mobile photography: a 0.6s pre-capture of video, from before you hit the on-screen button, then three seconds of video along with twenty stills. There’s no quality compromise involved – stills are at full resolution, and video is at 1080p complete with audio.

Each cluster of content can then be used in interesting ways. At the most basic, it brings the gallery alive: as you look at albums and thumbnails, the 3.6s video clips cycle through as if you’re looking at a magical Harry Potter newspaper. However, open up a Zoe and you can scroll through the clip with a timeline bar, picking out individual frames to keep. HTC has baked in some editing features too, so you can pick out faces from different frames and combine them into one, ensuring everyone has their eyes open and are smiling, or remove objects from the picture. The One can identify faces, too, and allow per-face tweaks like eye-whitening, anime-style enlarging, and skin smoothing.

Each event – a group of recent Zoe clusters, either automatically created by the One or manually merged or split off – gets a thirty second “highlight reel” that the phone produces itself. That sits at the top of the event view, and is basically an automatically curated overview of the themed content. There are six themes to choose from – ranging from “Eifel” with its quirky Parisian style, to the more hipster “Vega” with fast chops and cool color tones – and you can switch between them at will, the reel changing on-the-fly. Hit the remix button, meanwhile, and you instantly get another edit, the speed at which it’s created a testament to HTC’s processing power.

The technology behind the highlight reel is surprisingly complex, too. The cuts aren’t solely random; instead, the One is analyzing each clip and photo for the most interesting parts, such as those which include action, or faces, or even how often you’ve looked at specific photos in the gallery. What you can’t do is manually tweak the reels – only have the phone cook up a new remix itself – or use your own music; HTC tells us the latter is likely to come in a future update, as well as more themes to choose from, but for now you’re limited to the six preloaded.

We’ll admit, it seemed like a gimmick at first. Yet after a short while – and the fact that shooting a Zoe basically has no downside compared to a photo; there’s no processing lag after it finishes, for instance, you simple tap the button and watch the little red highlight slide across the icon – we found ourselves sticking in Zoe mode altogether. Being able to step back through the array of stills, even to before the point we actually took the photo, and pick out the best frame was useful for portrait and action shots, while the highlight reel is the perfect length for Facebook sharing (without boring friends and family with minute after minute of the same mundane thing).

That sharing can be done directly to YouTube, Facebook, or something similar, with the reel exported as an MP4. However, there’s also Zoe Share, HTC’s own social system. A free online gallery, it allows you to choose a reel and an accompanying ten photos or Zoes to upload to a special gallery, with the One automatically pinging you a link in the notification bar which can then be shared via email, Twitter, Facebook, or somewhere else.

Zoe Share isn’t ideal, however. For a start there’s a time limit on how long HTC will host the collections – currently three months – after which they get deleted. Individual stills can be downloaded from Zoe Share, but not individual Zoe clips nor the thirty second highlight reel. Links are entirely public, too; you can’t have a private Zoe Share, with a password in case someone forwards the URL, for instance. There’s also no way to change the video resolution – it defaults to 1080p – which can mean slow uploads unless you’re lucky enough to have a decent connection.

Again, HTC tells us it’s working on a more comprehensive export system – perhaps integrated into the HTC Sync Manager app, which is used to synchronize audio and other content from your PC or Mac to the phone and back, as well as doing file browsing duties – but there’s no timescale for when it might arrive. Meanwhile, if you use an auto-upload service, whether Dropbox (as is prompted during the initial One setup) or something like Google+, every one of the twenty Zoe frames gets automatically uploaded, and there’s no way (aside from manually deleting the shots) to have it only upload one or two of them. Storage – whether on-device or cloud – could quickly become an issue, with each cluster of Zoe content coming in at around 32MB (the 30s video along is 4MB).

That said, we still think it’s a great feature. Zoe injects the fun back into being a mobile shutterbug, producing multimedia that others would actually want to look at. In fact, the biggest drawback of the One isn’t its photo quality, or its overall usability, but trying to educate potential buyers as to what makes the camera special. HTC does itself few favors by turning the full force of its branding machine on the One’s camera system, with confusing results. Instead of megapixels you get UltraPixels; the video/snapshot clusters are called Zoe; but there are also Zoe Highlights, the longer videos that pull in content from multiple Zoes for the ad-hoc, curated 30 second clip complete with music and filters. It’s enough to confuse even the professionals, and that doesn’t bode well for how easy a sale it might be.

Phone and Battery

Given the quality of the HTC One’s music playback performance, we had high hopes for in-call audio. Interestingly, though, the phone was pretty average: the earpiece has a somewhat hollow sound to it, with callers certainly audible but not quite as clear as on some other devices. We had no complaints about microphone performance, though, with the One’s noise cancellation doing a capable job, and the speakerphone was suitably loud.

HTC quotes up to 18hrs 3G talktime (27hrs 2G) from the One, or 500hrs 3G standby (479hrs 2G); that’s based on our European-spec review units, since US-spec versions aren’t available yet. Given the size of the display (and the amount we’ve been playing with the One, particularly the camera) it comes as little surprise that it falls in line with other recent smartphones in terms of real-world longevity.

With all of the usual accounts doing their work in the background – push email, Facebook and/or Google+ multimedia uploads, periodic checking of social networks, etc. – and with regular use, we took the phone down from 88-percent to around 20-percent in the space of just over 7.5hrs. That’s predominantly on WiFi, though with some AT&T HSPA+ use. From a full charge to flat, then, with heavy use you could expect in excess of nine hours of runtime.

Unsurprisingly, once you notch back on some of the background activity, things start to improve significantly, and in fact HTC offers a Power Saver option – readily accessed from the notifications pull-down – which optionally throttles the CPU, lowers screen brightness, turns off vibration alerts, and shuts off off data when the phone is locked. Unfortunately there’s no way to prioritize certain apps to maintain their connection with Power Saver is turned on, which means you won’t get the benefits of push-email and similar. Instead, the One wakes the radio periodically to check what’s new, with no user control over how frequently that happens.

Display and camera are the biggest battery hogs, really. The impact of the screen isn’t much of a shock, since it’s a common culprit, but camera users might be surprised by how much in the way of resources significant use of Zoe photography can cause. After all, the One is constantly buffering video and photos whenever Zoe mode is active in the camera app.

There are two ways of looking at the One’s battery showing – and bear in mind we’ll be running ongoing battery testing over the coming days, including on LTE networks. You could be disappointed, frustrated by the fact that big screens and lots of data use take their toll on a battery, even if it’s a reasonably sized 2,300 mAh pack; you could also decry HTC’s decision to chase solid form over replaceable battery flexibility. Or, you might accept the regular recharging as a fact of life with any modern smartphone; we’re yet to find one – barring perhaps the DROID RAZR MAXX and Galaxy Note II, each of which have simply huge batteries and the oversized form-factors to accommodate them – which doesn’t demand such compromises.

Wrap-up

It doesn’t take genius to realize that the One is HTC’s best phone in a long time. The build quality and crisp, minimalistic design is a step above any other Android phone, and comfortably sits alongside the iPhone 5 for premium feel in the hand. The display is beautiful, the UltraPixel camera technology and Zoe system both ambitious but capable of hugely engaging results, and the performance superlative. Meanwhile, HTC Sense has finally rediscovered its roots, and evolved with BlinkFeed into a legitimately useful and compelling interface – one which didn’t instantly leave us pining for unmodified Android.

Nor is the One perfect, however. The battery life is merely average, and while the UltraPixel system pays dividends in low-light performance, it’s not the solution to every photographic need that HTC might have billed it as. HTC may not be the first to eschew removable storage and a replaceable battery, but we still don’t like it when they’re omitted.

Nonetheless, there’s a sense that HTC’s challenge isn’t in the device – after all, it had good phones in 2012 – but in the market. Samsung’s risen star in the Android ecosystem has left little room for rivals, and HTC simply lacks the marketing heft to build the same brand-recognition that “Galaxy” has achieved. That’s notwithstanding the fact that HTC’s phone looks better, is built better, takes generally better photos, and has arguably better software than the Galaxy S III; we’ll have to wait and see how it holds up to the new Galaxy, but Samsung will need to pull out all the stops if it hopes to even get close to rivalling the One for its perfect quality feel.

Just as it took becoming the underdog to force Nokia to adopt an innovative “challenger” attitude, so its taken a rough year to provoke HTC into raising its game. The end result is a phone that’s beautiful, solid, and cleverly, thoughtfully equipped – one which makes bold challenges to our expectations of hardware specifications and software. Now, HTC has to find a way to educate consumers as to why they should care about it.

Chris Davies contributed to this review

This is great news for consumers who love the new features of the HTC One, but do not have the money to opt for such a high-end device. This also follows last week’s good news when HTC announced that owners of the HTC One X+, HTC One X, HTC One S, and the HTC Butterfly (HTC DROID DNA on Verizon Wireless) will be upgraded to Sense 5 in the future. HTC is doing a great job at making all of its customers feel included.

Blinkfeed, a beautiful RSS news feed available right from the screen of your phone, is most likely to be available for most HTC smartphones because its all software based. Getting Ultrapixel, HTC’s own branded camera technology, into mid-ranged devices may be a bit trickier however. Roberson stated, “There will be certain technical challenges, but the tech does support the other elements of it which we can take to other parts of the portfolio.”

The HTC One is HTC’s last shot at launching itself out of the financial hole that its currently in. It features impressive specs, like a 4.7-inch HD display and a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor. It’s flagship features like Blinkfeed, Ultrapixel, and Sense 5 should also help make it stand out in the market. It’s also good to know that even though it’ll be focusing all of its marketing efforts on the HTC One, HTC won’t be neglecting its future mid-tier devices.

[via Android Community]

HTC says that they’ll be “offering upgrades to some of its existing devices in the next few months,” so it looks like we may see older HTC devices running the new software before summer hits, although HTC mentions “global variants” of its devices, which could be a little confusing since HTC has international versions of its phones, and then there are US versions. It could end up that US gets the shaft with Sense 5 upgrades.

Then again, we’ll just have to wait and see what HTC ends up doing. Overall, this is certainly good news for HTC device owners, including those with the newer One series devices. However, Sense 5 may not come to every One series handset, so don’t get your hopes up if you’re rocking a mid-ranger like the One VX — HTC may not be focusing on lower-tier devices. The company also notes that some software features of the HTC One definitely won’t be making their way to older HTC devices.

HTC’s newest handset, the One, comes with a 4.7-inch full HD 1080p display with a 4MP “UltraPixel” camera. The device also packs an impressive 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor with 2GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage space. The phone will be making its way to the market sometime next month, so save up your pennies if you’re eligible for an upgrade.

First the good news. The One feels excellent in the hand, and while people have commented that – in the leaked shots at least – it bears a resemblance to the iPhone 5, in the metal it’s very different. It’s one of the sturdiest, most premium-feeling Android devices we can recall, and that effort will hopefully pay dividends when it comes to distinguishing itself against other phones in-store.

It takes us back to the days of the HTC Hero, which was an incredibly exciting device, one that encapsulated the idea that Android was tremendously liberating in some way. That Google pushed out this platform which gave manufacturers great breadth of freedom to innovate on top of it. Android at the time looked relatively basic, and things like HTC Sense weren’t just reskins for the sake of differentiation but a completely new environment in which to operate.

Since then, of course, Google hasn’t been standing still. Most of the key elements that HTC introduced with Sense – the social networking integration, for instance – got gradually integrated into the core OS, and over time HTC’s software felt more like visual change for the sake of it. New UIs aren’t a bad thing in and of themselves – one of Android’s strengths is its flexibility, after all – but when they delay firmware updates then users unsurprisingly sour on them.

HTC One overview:

HTC has moved to address that, building in support for incremental updates into Sense 5, and giving its engineers the ability to tweak preloaded apps like BlinkFeed and the Zoe photography system without having to wait for a full ROM to be carrier tested and distributed. Meanwhile, the apps themselves are the most compelling we’ve seen on an HTC device for some time: BlinkFeed, and its “snackable” approach to news and social consumption does make some sense considering how people use their phones today, while Zoe – though initially confusing – gets more fun the longer you interact with it.

HTC could still shoot itself in the foot, if it doesn’t make good on its promise to develop what its shown us in fledgling status today. I’ve criticized the company in the past for introducing with solid ideas but then failing to capitalize on them – OnLive gaming, for instance, or Sense Online – and so while Sense 5 is a welcome revamp, only time will tell whether HTC has the sticking power to give it the refinement it deserves and the longevity users demand.

That’s not the big problem, though; that has a Samsung logo. The Korean company’s marketing spend around the Galaxy S III has been vast, and shows little sign of abating as the much-rumored Galaxy S4 approaches. No matter how good last year’s HTC One X and One X+ might have been – and we were pretty impressed at the time – they were simply buried by the Galaxy hype, to the point where the smartphone market became in effect a two-horse race: do you go iPhone or do you go Galaxy S III?

HTC undoubtedly recognises that marketing and promotion is its weak link; unfortunately, the knowledge you have a problem doesn’t put any more cash in the war-chest, and HTC simply can’t afford to match Samsung’s huge campaigns. That’s bad enough when you have devices, like the One X, which directly compete on specifications with rivals, but it’s a potential kiss of death when, in the case of the HTC One, you’re having to explain complex and confusing decisions you’ve made, such as UltraPixels and the whole Zoe system.

Specifications may “be dead” as we’re regularly told, but consumers still play spec-sheet bingo in stores, comparing the raw numbers of one to the numbers of another. Will they spend the time to figure out why HTC’s 4-megapixels might, in fact, be better than the 8- or 13-megapixels of another device? Or will HTC’s phone simply earn a spot at the bottom of the table?

The only way to compete on that front is education: teaching customer services reps how to teach would-be buyers why they should care about one thing and not just take numbers at face value. That’s not something HTC’s “Quietly Brilliant’ marketing strategy of old has proved particularly good at, and there’re expensive lessons to give, when few sales people will ever be criticized for recommending Apple or Samsung.

If all things were equal, the HTC One would be an inescapable contender in 2013. The hardware is incredible, the software a promising return to old form, and for once there’s a sense that a manufacturer has stopped to consider what users actually do, not what might sound best in “mine is bigger” advertising. Equality is a pipe-dream, though, and the HTC One will have to fight tooth and nail – and HTC make the very most of its limited marketing budget – if it wants to raise its head above the rest of the smartphone noise.

Find out more on the HTC One in our hardware hands-on, plus our rundown of Zoe and UltraPixels, and the new Sense 5 and BlinkFeed technology.

BlinkFeed works like Flipboard, collating content from online news sources, social networks, and apps on the phone into a single timeline. At first we were concerned that it would be just another FriendStream – which was an interesting attempt to bring together Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr updates, but inevitably lost out to the native apps – but HTC is keen to stress that it’s merely a launching point: news stories open in the browser (though HTC tells us it’s working with content providers to enable opening links in their native Android apps, where available); Facebook links in the Facebook app; Twitter links in the Twitter client. So far there’s no way to change from the default apps – annoying if you’re one of the many unimpressed with Twitter’s own software for Android – though, again, that’s in the pipeline.

There’s a combination of local and server-side processing going on to make BlinkFeed work smoothly. HTC is sifting through 1,000s of content providers in each geographical region – One owners will be able to pick either which categories they want to see, or which providers, or both – with display order using a mixture of chronology and an algorithm that spots interesting or important stories to include. Only the image and the headline is downloaded initially, to save data (BlinkFeed also favors against articles with no image), though HTC is working on offline caching for those times you’re in the mood for a data snack but don’t currently have service.

Like Zoe photography, BlinkFeed has some glaring gaps in its launch version. Google+ content isn’t included – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Flick are – and neither are Google Now cards and suggestions. HTC is working on the former and says it “would like [BlinkFeed] to” feature Google Now eventually, though it’s not clear how quickly that might happen. There’ll be an SDK for third-party apps to push their content into BlinkFeed, though no way for the user to add their own RSS subscriptions, at least at first. HTC has built a special landscape orientation layout of BlinkFeed, for when the One is wirelessly streaming content to a TV through an HTC MediaLink, but on the phone itself it only shows up in portrait orientation.

Of course, BlinkFeed isn’t the only change to Sense in version five. While it’s the new default homescreen, you can also set a more traditional Android desktop as your point of origin, though HTC tells us its research suggests the widget-filled span of panels it thought people were using isn’t actually so common. In fact, 35-percent of people apparently only use a single home panel, while 80-percent customize their homescreen during the first month and then never subsequently change it. The weather, clock, and a music control are the only really commonly used widgets, HTC discovered.

So, the One has two desktop panels by default (though you can add more) and HTC envisages users spending equally as much time in the app launcher, which now includes a weather widget and a choice of 3×3 or 4×5 grid layout. Folders are included, and indeed HTC’s pre-configuration of the One will organize all the preloaded apps into just two app launcher panes. There’s also been some behind-the-scenes work with carriers, to try to limit how much bloatware they add to the One; if HTC’s negotiations go as intended, all the carrier apps will be at least corralled into a single folder out of the box.

Everything else has been given a refresh too. The old tabbed interface language has gone, replaced by side-swiped panes that fit in with Google’s own pivot guidelines, and HTC has sliced away some of the less-used buttons so as to keep the UI cleaner. Interestingly, if you haven’t tried one of the new headline features – such as Zoe photography – the One will be able to suggest you give it a go, by sliding a notification into BlinkFeed. The keyboard still uses XT9 prediction, but the layout is tidier, with less space between the keys; there’s also a new lock screen which can by unlocked by either sliding up the lock icon itself or the time masthead. You can still jump directly into one of four apps by pulling up the shortcut icons along the bottom row.

What the lock screen doesn’t get is BlinkFeed content, though HTC hinted to us that it might make an appearance there one day. Nor can you get to Google Now without unlocking the phone, though access is allowed to the camera (to take photos, not review them or do anything else). Pressing and holding the power button allows you to switch into “kid mode” powered by HTC acquisition Zoodles. For drivers, there’s a new Car Mode with a more intuitive, finger-friendly UI, simplified dialler, and stripped-back music player. HTC will offer a passive car cradle for the One, which clings via suction to the windshield (and has a simple hole to give access to the phone’s microUSB port).

HTC is also particularly proud of its new online setup system, replacing the original – and under-utilized – Sense Online service. The company’s thinking is simple: an increasing number of phones are bought online, and so now new customers will be able to begin setting up their handset straight after clicking “purchase” rather than having to wait for the delivery to show up.

It’s a comprehensive system from the outset, with the ability to set up feeds for BlinkFeed, bookmarks for sites, pick different apps and games (all of which download through Google Play, so that future updates will work as normal), and other settings. Since that could be overwhelming to some, HTC has bundled select packages of apps and content into “Starting Points” such as if you’re planning to use your phone for work, or with your family. There are instant previews of what the BlinkFeed will look like with those particular settings, and you can even set ringtones or make your own, uploading an MP3 and then clipping out the section you want.

Rather than demand an HTC account be specially created (though you can do that, if you prefer), HTC is using Facebook Connect so that owners can log in via their existing social network credentials. When your new One finally arrives, you simply punch in that username and password during the wizard, and everything is installed as per your web arrangements. It works in tandem with a new version of HTC Sync Manager, which can now pull in contacts, calendar entries, photos & video, non-DRM music, and bookmarks from your most recent iPhone backup in iTunes; for Android devices, it can suck out contacts, calendar, SMS, photos & video, non-DRM music, bookmarks, and (select settings). HTC is struggling to get the same access with Windows Phone, however, and right now – just as with feature-phones – you can only transfer your contacts via a Bluetooth connection.

The flip side of the new setup system is backup, which HTC says can be set to run daily (over a WiFi connection) automatically, or alternatively manually when the user prefers. Rather than store photos and video – which, HTC told us, are generally well catered for with online gallery services – the new backup system focuses on the rest of the customizations owners tend to make. So, all of your BlinkFeed settings are stored, as well as the app grid layout (complete with folders), alarms, wallpaper, native and third-party widgets, the user dictionary, apps, and over 150 settings (more than 80-percent of which are HTC-specific).

They all get encrypted on the One before being pushed to either Dropbox – you get 25GB of free space for two years when you activate the phone – or, if you’re in China, Sina web storage. HTC is still looking at ways to backup individual app data and Zoe content, which are currently left out.

Then there’s the TV app, which uses the deeply clever hidden IR blaster discretely integrated into the power button on the top edge. The app itself is powered by Peel, which we’ve also seen preloaded on select Samsung tablets: after you run through a setup wizard, telling the app which area you live in, what type of TV service you get – DirecTV, cable, free-to-air, etc. – and what TV you have, you get a BlinkFeed-style page of currently-playing shows, a single tap on which switches to that channel.

If you leave the app running, picking up the phone automatically unlocks it so you can flip channels again (rather than demanding you manually unlock it and punch in your PIN; if you have a PIN set up, as with the camera app, you only get access to the TV app in that case). A shortcut is added to the Android notifications bar, too, with buttons to flip to what shows you’ve been watching recently, plus quick access to mute, power, opening the full remote, and more.

As universal remotes go, it’s pretty flexible, certainly for the basics. The tutorial section – if your TV is recognized – is swift, but programming non-default sets is a case of a few button presses, since the IR blaster can also learn from your existing remote. Each of the show thumbnails has a discrete progress bar along the bottom, indicating how much is left, and you can either tap in and see more information, or swipe to the next pane and see what’s coming up next. Search is supported, too, and you can dig into the settings and optionally choose which channels show up and which are hidden; if you favorite a show, the TV app will push a notification into BlinkFeed next time a new episode is coming up, and those shows and channels are automatically prioritized in the lists.

Nonetheless, it’s still early days. The TV app doesn’t know what’s on your TiVo or other DVR, so you can’t see recorded options alongside live shows, and for the moment – though HTC tells us it’s working on it – there’s no intelligence around the placement of shows and channels. They only get prioritized if you manually favorite them: the app won’t learn from your viewing habits, and it won’t make Netflix-style suggestions based on your viewing history.

Speaking of Netflix, the on-demand integration could also do with some work. In fact, Netflix isn’t even supported at present – HTC is still working with the company to include it – but you do get Hulu, Crackle, and HTC Watch, among some others. It’s all a bit more klutzy than changing channels on your cable box, however: if you have an HTC MediaLink, you can have the TV app switch you automatically to whatever on-demand show you’ve selected, but otherwise tapping it opens playback locally on the One itself. HTC tells us that select media boxes will also switch over, but it’s not entirely clear which will support the system and which won’t.

HTC has high ambitions for TV, however, and has said it will be pushing out updates to refine the experience. It’ll also be opening up the hardware to third-party developers: Android lacks a standard IR blaster API, so HTC is cooking up an SDK of its own instead. The company will also be contacting select developers to try to promote that SDK when it’s available.

Overall, though, this is undoubtedly the best version of Sense we’ve seen on an HTC device, and in a way it takes us some way back to the original premise of the software. Not just a reskin of Android, as it had become in its more recent iterations, but delivering new apps and features, and actually attempting to streamline elements of the phone experience into something that delivers more everyday usability.

Whether it succeeds at that will depend on how committed HTC is to progressively refining the software. That’s where the company has fallen flat before – remember OnLive integration, or the old Sense Online? – though the ability to make piecemeal app upgrades should help there, assuming the engineers do their job. If HTC can be as responsive as third-party developers then the native apps on the HTC One could end up staying the course.

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.

Gone is the faux-depth HTC lavished onto its 2012 version of Sense, replaced with flat icons for the browser, camera, messaging, and other features. They sit nicely with the narrower fonts, which look better suited to the sort of high-definition displays we’re increasingly seeing on smartphones.

Of course, Sense wouldn’t be Sense without a liberal splashing of the weather, but HTC has pared back its icons there too. Monochrome wire-art is used, rather than the eye-catching but unnecessary 3D animations of before.

We’re still a long way from seeing Sense 5 in full, though it’s already clear HTC isn’t relying on a simple patch-job to keep the interface competitive. Users – at least the tech-savvy among them – arguably increasingly prefer stock Android, however, so HTC’s refinement is particularly necessary if it wants to keep differentiating its handsets without perversely frustrating owners in the process.

We’re expecting to see HTC Sense 5 – and the HTC M7 – be officially unveiled at Mobile World Congress at the end of February.

[via Gizmodo]

This is technically the first actual photo of what may possibly be the HTC M7. However, it doesn’t show off much, other than the display and a little bit of the bezel. Then again, it looks like HTC will be bringing their polycarbonate design over from Windows Phone 8, so we’ll know what to expect slightly, given those circumstances.

The screenshots show a little bit of what to expect out of Sense 5, and it’s definitely been given a slight redesign. However, for those wishing that the new HTC Sense UI will someday be closer to stock Android, we can’t see that happening anytime soon, since the company loves its Sense interface and many users love it right back.

However, the screenshots hint at a little bit of details on the hardware of the M7. We still see the legacy menu button in the screenshots, which suggest that the M7 will come with the same three capacitive touch buttons just like the HTC One series, with a dedicated on-screen menu button when needed. Overall, though, the Sense 5 UI looks bit a cleaner and simpler than Sense 4.x.

As far as other rumors go for the M7, we’re looking at a 4.7-inch 1080p display with a 1.7GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. There’s also supposedly going to be 32GB of internal storage, a 13MP f/2.0 rear camera, 2MP front-facing camera, and a 2300mAh battery to power it all.

[via Android Community]

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.

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!

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.

Hardware

To answer that last question, the answer is simply, yes, it can. It doesn’t necessarily stand alone, but it should make the shortlist for anyone narrowing down what top-of-the-line smartphone to get themselves or their loved one this holiday season. The unibody design that we saw on the One X is the same as what we’re seeing on the One X+. Thanks to the polycarbonate housing, the handset is pretty light and also really thin, and the soft-touch finish allows for a firm grip on the device, but our black version was quite a finger smudge magnet. However, despite the large 4.7-inch Super LCD 2 720p display, the entire device doesn’t feel overwhelming to hold at all, unlike other 4.7-inch handsets that I’ve played around with.

Since it’s a unibody device, there’s not a lot of things that you can take apart easily. There’s no battery cover, which means you can’t replace the battery with a bigger one or use a spare, but that also means it’s a lot sleeker than non-unibody handsets. On the top, there’s a headphone jack along with the ambient noise sensor, with the power button on the right. On the left side, there’s the microUSB port, with the volume rocker sitting on the right side. On the bottom, there’s just the microphone. And finally, on the front, you have the three capacitive soft buttons — Back, Home, and Recent Apps — as well as the typical elongated earpiece that HTC is known for, with a notification light hidden within.

There’s a bit more happening on the back of the One X+, though. The 8MP camera protrudes just a tad from the surface, and there’s a single LED flash to accompany the camera. Also on the back is the microSIM card slot. It’s not necessarily situated on the back of the phone, but it’s also not really situated at the top — it’s mostly located in between on the curve, which is almost an odd place for it, but it actually works. The speaker is also located on the back towards the bottom, as well as the five small gold contacts for docking purposes.

On the inside is where all the real changes occur, though. The HTC One X+ trades in the dual-core Qualcomm S4 Snapdragon processor of the One X for a NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset that pairs a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.7GHz with GeForce ULP graphics. The device also comes with 1GB of RAM and a whopping 64GB of internal storage. While there’s no microSD card slot, we think the 64GB of storage is plenty of space for any user.

The 4.7-inch display has a resolution of 1280×720, giving it a pixel density of 312ppi, which pegs it right up against the Samsung Galaxy S III and the LG Optimus G. It’s the same display in the One X, which arguably has one of the best displays on the smartphone market (before the DROID DNA came along). It’s super crisp and clear, and it provides an excellent viewing experience with text and images showing up extremely sharp and bright.

Software

The HTC One X+ runs Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box, with HTC’s Sense 4+ UI running on top. If you’re already familiar with HTC’s user interface, you won’t see many surprises in Sense 4+ other than the new Jelly Bean features like Google Now and Project Butter. Of course, if you’re looking for a device that offers a pure Android experience, you may not like HTC’s excessive skinning, but it adds a lot of nice features that many users will take advantage of. While HTC is sometimes accused of over-skinning, they actually left a couple of Jelly Bean features alone. For instance, they didn’t implement their own speech recognition tool over Google’s own solution. Instead, you’ll be greeted with pure Google Now and Voice Search on the One X+.

A lot of the differences between Sense 4.1 (on the One X) and 4+ are mostly behind the scenes and very subtle. The update claims smoother navigation, improved performance, and better battery life. HTC also seemed to remove shadows and embossments from text and replaced them with sharper effects in order to make text easier to read, although that may just be my mind playing tricks on me, but I did notice that text seemed a little crisper compared to other HTC devices I’ve played around with. Infinite scrolling has made a return as well, after being removed on the One X. This allows you to jump from the furthest left home screen to the furthest right, and vice versa.

As far as a possible update to Android 4.2, we wouldn’t be surprised if the One X+ eventually received it. It’s a new-enough device and a powerhouse of a smartphone for HTC and AT&T to definitely consider giving one of its best handsets an update to the latest Android version. Plus, an update to Android 4.2 would make the handset just that much more appealing to buyers who are wanting a future-proof device.

Benchmarks & Performance

With the HTC One X being an excellent smartphone, we knew going into it that the One X+ would only be an improvement, and that benchmarks would be a little better. However, the benchmarks showed that the One X+ provides quite the performance boost over the One X. In AnTuTu, the One X+ scored just over 16,200, which is right on par with Samsung’s Galaxy S III, but not quite up to snuff with the LG Optimus G or the Nexus 4. Of course, though, the difference is most likely negligible. Compared to the One X, which scores as high as 11,000, the One X+ is certainly quite a bit faster.

In Quadrant, the One X+ scored a 7,400, which is over double of what our scores were with the One X (3,400). It also does better than the Galaxy S III, which scored 6,000 during our testing, and performed just slightly better than the Optimus G. Of course, benchmarks aren’t everything, and what truly matters is if users will be happy with the performance of the phone and its user interface. Thanks to Project Butter that was introduced in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the One X+ is both snappy and smooth. Navigating through different screens and switching between apps was really quick. Surprisingly, playing a little bit of Asphalt 7 was a less-than-stellar experience, though — it was really laggy and framerates were disgustingly low. However, Mass Effect: Infiltrator played much smoother and provided better performance all around, which makes us think that Asphalt 7 may be an isolated issue.

Camera

The One X+ has an 8MP rear camera with a 1.6MP front-facing shooter. It’s essentially the same camera found in the One X, but with a slightly improved sensor that’s capable of recording 1080p video at 30fps instead of 24fps in the One X. The front-facing camera has also been upgraded to 1.6MP from the 1.3MP on the One X.

Overall, I really like the camera app’s user interface. It’s really easy to access all of the settings, and there’s even two shutter buttons, one for taking photos and the other for taking videos. This is extremely handy, since there’s no need to have to wait a few seconds in order to switch between the two.

Photo quality varies depending on the situation. With enough lighting, images can appear really crisp and sharp, but low-light conditions offer a different experience. Taking pictures in low light adds a ton of noise, almost to the point where images appear blotchy. Of course, you can manually adjust the ISO in the settings, but lowering it when you want to take a picture of a night scene opens the door for blurry photos, which is arguably worse than just having a lot of noise. Contrast and saturation is a bit too high as well, and sometimes exposure isn’t perfect at times, but with HDR mode turned on, photos get exposed a lot better. However, a lot of users won’t even bother with HDR mode anyway, since it’s a lot slower than just the automatic setting.

As far as different features, there’s Panorama mode and the aforementioned HDR mode, as well as a built-in Slow Motion mode. These aren’t anything new, as we’re already used to seeing these in the HTC One series. There are also a handful of color effects that you can choose from and apply them to photos and videos in real time — sort of like Instagram, but not quite as comprehensive.

As far as video quality goes, it was slightly above average, but it wasn’t without its faults. The increase to 30fps is certainly something that we don’t mind, but the difference from 24fps is negligible. Most videophiles will be able to tell the difference, of course, but casual videographers won’t care too much. Exposure changes going from dimly-lit areas to well-lit areas and vice versa is quick, and continuous autofocus works fairly well too, although there were times when it took a bit of time to refocus.

Battery

The HTC One X+ now comes with a larger 2100mAh battery compared to the One X’s 1800mAh battery. This is always a good thing, of course, but with the internal hardware enhancements, the 300 extra mAhs may have been required rather than just an amenity for picky users. Plus, the unibody design means that you won’t be able crack open the device in order to change out the battery for a spare or larger alternative.

However, we couldn’t find anything to complain about as far as battery life is concerned. HTC has certainly improved on the battery life of devices of yesteryear, and it seems the company is even advocating longer battery life in the software as well, with a permanent and easy-to-get-to “power saver” toggle in the notification tray. I ended up going all day long and well into the evening before I had to plug the One X+ into the wall. This was after I started the day on a full charge and with moderate to heavy usage, such as running benchmarks, playing games, and streaming Netflix at various times throughout the day.

With typical usage, I ended up getting well over a day and a half out of the battery, doing things like checking email, surfing social media, browsing the web, and keeping up with sports scores throughout the day. However, any hardcore gaming for an extended amount of time, as well as GPS navigation will certainly drain the battery faster than a water pipe can drain water, but that’s obviously to be expected, and we would hope that anyone who ended up playing mobile games on the One X+, or even have navigation up for an hour or two at a time would most likely have an outlet or car charger nearby.

Wrap-Up

The design and looks of the One X+ haven’t changed a whole lot since the One X, so if you were hoping for a cosmetic change of some sort with this updated model, you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, the real upgrades are on the inside, and while they may not be extremely significant (think Apple upgrading from 3G to 3GS, or 4 to 4S), they’re compelling enough that we’d easily recommend the One X+ if you don’t already have a HTC One device.

The presence of LTE alone can make this phone a viable competitor against the Nexus 4, even if it is just a slightly faster handset than the One X+. Other devices, like the Galaxy S III and the Optimus G are powerhouses, but if you’re not a big fan of their user interfaces, you wouldn’t be sacrificing a lot performance-wise if you ended up going with the One X+, except maybe the removable battery if that’s a concern for you. Other than the company’s flagship DROID DNA, the One X+ is certainly one of HTC’s best devices on the market right now.

This update has the HTC DLX launching in China on December 6th, less than a month away – and with it will be coming a body that’s not unlike the USA version of the device as well. While the J Butterfly had some different configuration points than the DROID DNA has here near its Verizon launch, the DLX appears to follow the 4G LTE stateside version’s design cues.

This device will quite likely be launched alongside the HTC Windows Phone 8S and Windows Phone 8X, two device that are also headed to the USA on several carriers. These devices will certainly be counted upon by HTC to keep the flame burning bright through the end of the year while their HTC One series is updated and re-issued with greater powers than they initially had as well, lead by the HTC One X+.

The HTC DLX is said to be coming in black, brown, and white, this breaking with the look of the USA edition which comes in black only, with a red trim. Have a peek at the timeline below to get all the information you could possibly desire on the HTC DLX, DROID DNA, and J Butterfly, three HTC devices cut from the same cloth!

[ IntoMobile]

440ppi on a mobile device display is just plain crazy, but it’s the sort of crazy we could fast get used to. The DROID DNA’s 1920 x 1080 screen is not only incredibly smooth, crisp, and bright, but has incredibly broad viewing angles and minimal bezel. That helps keep the DNA relatively compact, though of course with a 5-inch panel it’s hardly going to be a small device. Still, the curved edges help blend the front with the sides, and mask some of the bulk. The “microgrill” edges are meant to remind you of a Lamborghini grille, but more importantly they’re easily gripped, as is the soft-touch rubberized back.

Under the hood there’s the 1.5GHz quadcore Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 processor and 2GB of RAM, just as we saw on the HTC J Butterfly in Japan. Android 4.1 moves incredibly smoothly, with no lag evident, and while we’ll be waiting on benchmarks, we’ve a feeling the HTC will be near the top of its game. HTC also equips the DROID DNA with a 2,020 mAh battery, though with a Full HD display we’re not entirely sure how long that will last, despite HTC and Verizon’s confidence.

All of the headline stuff from HTC’s latest devices gets wrapped up in the DNA. There’s a wide-angle front facing camera which, thanks to an 88-degree lens, means more people can fit in frame at once, perfect for those at-arms-length shots. Not one but two Beats Audio amplifiers are included – separately powering the headphone jack and the DNA’s speaker – and there’s simultaneous video and photo capture too. New to the DROID line is wireless charging (though the wireless charging plate itself is optional, at $59.99), which should help keep the DNA’s battery topped up while it’s sitting idle on your desk.

It’s not a clean sweep, however. As with other recent handsets, both Android and Windows Phone, HTC has opted for fixed internal storage only: there’s no microSD card slot to expand it. That means you’re stuck with the 16GB HTC deems sufficient, and which – after apps and the rest – there’s only 11GB free for the user. Yes, the cloud is increasingly delivering our media and sweeping the content we create off our phones and into the ether, but it’s still a short-sighted decision considering the segment positioning. HTC tells us there’s no current plan for a 32GB model or larger.

Whether HTC Sense 4+ is a positive or a negative depends on your comfort level with the company’s customized interface. It’s certainly cohesive in its well-matured state, and it pulls the DROID DNA in line with HTC’s other phones, but there are plenty of people who prefer pure Android (and the timely updates that usually promises).

HTC has had a tough few quarters, struggling to raise itself above the mass of Samsung Android devices and Apple’s perpetually popular iPhone, and the company needs a stand-out product that it can legitimately describe as a flagship. It certainly has that in the DROID DNA, with hardware that has beaten Samsung’s AMOLEDs to the Full HD punch, and wrapped up in a sleek, high-quality design.

What HTC needs to convince us is that the aftersales support is just as impressive as the out-of-the-box experience. If it insists on using Sense, then it has an obligation to deliver timely Android updates rather than let existing users languish on older versions as it struggles to balance the custom interface with the pace of Google’s innovation.

Still, there’s plenty to like about the DROID DNA, and we’ll be putting the new Verizon smartphone through its paces for the full SlashGear review. The DROID DNA itself will go on sale at $200 with a new, two-year agreement on November 21.

This machine has a curved black soft-touch plastic back that gets down to 4mm at its thinnest point and has cool “microgrill” sidewalls in a bright red to accentuate your DROID experience. Inside is 2GB of RAM for perfect next-generation power teamed with your S4 Pro processor and Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box with HTC Sense 4+ user interface for a real HTC experience as well.

Inside you’ll also find the same HTC ImageSense chip present in the HTC One series, this being separate from the main quad-core processor from Qualcomm. This device works with HTC ImageSense technology and a new camera interface made with several new features to bring on a camera experience like no other. One of these features is a “Sightseeing” mode that allows you to get to your camera by pressing the device’s power button.

The camera on the front of the DROID DNA provides a quality not often seen in front-facing cameras on smartphones. Normally you’ll find the front-facing camera getting a TINY bit of quality only good enough for basic video chat. Instead what you’re getting here is what HTC calls a “best-in-class” experience with a lovely 2.1MP, f/2.0 aperture, and 88-degree ultra-wide angle front-facing camera made for not just video chat, but relatively high quality photos as well.

The front-facing camera works with a new mode called Auto Portrait – touch to begin an automatic countdown timer and snap a nice one. This device also works with HTC VideoPic, allowing you to take high quality photos while you’re shooting 1080p HD video. It also has Continuous Shooting mode with a cool 4 frames per second by just holding the shutter button. You’ve also got Map and Event Views in your photo gallery showing when and where the photos were taken.

Oddly, it appears that this device will be coming with just 16GB of internal storage and no microSD expansion slot. This means HTC is relying heavily on the idea that cloud storage is the way of the future – or the now, as it were. The battery inside this device is 2020mAh – this might also be a big downfall of the device unless the Qualcomm processor ends up being very, very good at battery conservation.

This device continues HTC’s audio adventure with Beats Audio for “studio-quality sound” across your “entire multimedia experience.” In this case, that means you’ve got a 2.55v built-in headset amplifier as well as a dedicated rear-speaker amp for high-quality sound any way you swing it. Get pumped up for the release of this monster – Autumn’s largest in HTC power!

With the DROID DNA we’re likely going to be seeing essentially the same specifications as we saw with the Butterfly, that being 5-inches of display with full HD Super LCD 3 technology busting up your eyeballs. This device’s 440PPI resolution far exceeds the rest of the smartphone, tablet, notebook, and essentially any other kind of mobile devices you can think of’s best and brightest. That’s 1920×1080 pixels for those of you wondering.

This device has a relatively thin bezel not unlike what we’ve seen recently with the Motorola DROID RAZR M and, like that device as well, you’ve got 2GB of RAM inside. Inside you’ll see 16GB of storage expandable with a microSD card slot and an 8 megapixel camera on the back. This device has a lovely 2,020 mAh battery inside and you’ve got the most beastly processor on the block as well: the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core present in the LG Optimus G and the LG Nexus 4.

Of course these specifications exist on the HTC J Butterfly and have not yet been confirmed on the DROID DNA, but we’d put money on most of them. Expect full 4G LTE connectivity along with this lovely black and red body as well as Verizon’s own additions to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Don’t set your hopes too high for Android 4.2 just yet. Stick around as we learn more rather imminently!

I’ve been a vocal critic of HTC’s cloud strategy in the past. The company had a head-start on mobile device sync, on remotely accessing a smartphone from the browser, of streaming video, of cloud gaming; it frittered each advantage away, either leaving them to wallow with little promotion and even less love, or seemingly forgot it had them altogether. “Quietly blundering” was the HTC strategy, culminating in the bizarrely handled axing of HTCSense.com services altogether.

But it’s not vitriol for vitriol’s own sake. In a market where Apple and Samsung have so definitively raised their game – and aren’t averse to combining competition on the shelves with some back-stabbing in the courtroom – any company that squanders any potential advantage deserves to be scolded.

HTC is now taking tentative steps back into the cloud. HTC Sense 4+, which debuts on the new One X+ flagship, reboots Sense online with “Get Started” – a way to easily configure your phone without having to actually paw and swipe at it. It’s front and center in the initial setup wizard and – as one of the few obvious changes in Sense 4+ – something HTC appears to be focusing on.

It’s very early days. Right now, “Get Started” is just that: a starting point for new Android users. You can set up your new device online – choose wallpaper, homescreen layout, and apps to download from Google Play – but you can’t then backup any changes you make on the phone itself. The sync is all one-way, a starting point (and a reset point) though there’s no real ongoing reason to keep visiting the online tool.

Nonetheless, I’m cautiously admiring of the new strategy. From what we’ve seen so far it’s being built out in recognition of HTC’s target audience: fresh smartphone users excited about their first device. The “set it up while you wait for it” approach could be a strong marketing point, playing on the geeky anticipation people feel when they’re waiting for a new toy. “Don’t just watch out the window for the mailman,” HTC should be telling people, “make your phone your own before it’s even in your hands.”

Sense online, in its old form, could’ve been a sticking point for HTC users. The value-add it brought should’ve been something HTC played on: don’t jump ship to iPhone, or another Android OEM, because then you lose out on contacts sync, on remote backup, on phone tracking and remote control in the comfort of your browser. Given the success of iCloud (and the persistent rumors that Samsung is developing its own, ahem, homage with S Cloud), HTC would be foolish not to revisit that strategy with Sense online 2.0.

HTC needs to be careful as it’s being expansive. Just as it needs to maintain sight of its “Hero Device” strategy, it also needs to deliver pitch-perfect cloud services. A 25GB DropBox bundle isn’t enough any more; users want holistic, integrated experiences they can’t get elsewhere. Apple has shown us that you needn’t throw the world at your audience, that it’s enough to give them a few core gems that are easily grasped and have clear value. Now, HTC needs to start looking at more than just one device after the next, and frame its line-up with a portfolio of cloud services that bring context and value users understand.

More on the HTC One X+ and Sense 4+ in our full hands-on

It’s not hard to see that it’s an HTC phone. The company’s rather sober styling has stayed a constant in recent years, and the Desire X owes much of its two-tone curves to the One X. It’s a successful design, though whether it will stand out on store shelves amid more eye-catching phones remains to be seen. The white does better there than the black, with its matte silver around the bezel and the matte white backing.

In the hand, it’s solid if not entirely inspiring, though we can see the compact 4-inch screen being an advantage to those who aren’t persuaded by big-display handsets and phablets. Unfortunately that comes at a price – namely resolution – and at WVGA 800 x 480 the Desire X’s pixels are visible. It’s a shame, as the Super LCD itself has decent viewing angles and bright colors, and the laminated screen means there’s no gap between glass and display, so we wish HTC had opted for at least a qHD panel.

HTC Desire X hands-on video:

As for the camera, it’s a good example of why megapixels aren’t everything. HTC’s own research continues to suggest that photographic performance is one of the key factors buyers make when they pick a new phone, and so while the Desire X may only have a 5-megapixel sensor, it’s backside-illuminated for improved low light performance, and paired with an f/2.0, 28mm wide angle lens. We’ll have to wait until review units are available to see how well the Desire X actually uses all that, but based on the track record with the One series devices we’re quietly confident.

Also like the One series is HTC Connect, the company’s media streaming system. That hooks up to certified speakers or receivers over WiFi or WiFi Direct, and can currently squirt across audio from the phone’s music apps. However, HTC plans to expand that to support video streaming in the future, and while so far only Pioneer has signed up, the expectation is that more manufacturers will jump on board soon.

UI is the Sense 4.1 we’re familiar with from the One series, running on top of Ice Cream Sandwich with a 1GHz dualcore Snapdragon S4 keeping things churning with 768MB of RAM. That’s less than we usually like to see in an Android smartphone – 1GB has generally become the standard, with more devices showing up at 2GB in recent months – but we didn’t notice any immediate stuttering or lag. The Desire X is, of course, a phone built with a semi-budget price in mind, so HTC had to save somewhere; the same is visible in internal storage, of which around 2GB of the total 4GB is available to the user. A microSD card slot can be used to add more.

Unlocked, HTC expects the Desire X to come in at under €300 ($377), though contract pricing isn’t finalized. If HTC can work with carriers to significantly undercut other midrange models from Sony, LG, and Samsung when the Desire X hits shelves in Europe and Asia come mid-September 2012, then it could grab a slice of first-time smartphone buyers. So far Phones 4U has revealed one free-on-contract deal, in the UK, from £20.50 per month; that sounds a little high to us, though if you opt for a £26 tariff you get a free set of Beats Solo headphones. Nonetheless the risk, as always, is that bigger and more capable phones are often available for just a little more.

This device comes with HTC’s own ImageSense software to make sure your 5 megapixel camera does some fabulous work. You’ve also got a 28mm wide angle lens and smart LED flash along with a BSI sensor and the HTC ImageChip – formerly known as the HTC ImageSense Chip – which is its own separate processor made specifically to handle your photo-taking adventures. Have a peek at our full review of the HTC One V and make sure you’re ready to rock when Cricket brings theirs quite soon.

You’ll be working with 4GB of memory, 512 MB of RAM, and a 1500 mAh battery – non-removable, by the way. This device weighs in at 4.06 ounces and will be coming out of the box with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The HTC One series also all comes with HTC Sense version 4, the newest version of HTC’s vision for Android. The display on this device is a 3.7-inch super LCD, and under the hood you’ve got a Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 1GHz single-core processor.

You’ll be able to pick this device up nationwide on the 2nd of September at your favorite Cricket Wireless-carrying store or outlet. Have a peek at the timeline below to see the rest of our HTC One V hands-on posts to get up to date on this fabulous HTC One device!

This device works with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and has HTC’s own newest user interface on top, that being Sense 4.0 as well. This device looks and feels rather similar to the HTC Rezound, aka the highest definition smartphone on the market, and comes with its own lovely egg-like shape as well. Have a peek at our full review of the HTC Rezound and come back for a much more compact version of said device here.

Above you’ll see our newest hands-on with the device, our first look having been back earlier this year at CTIA 2012 in New Orleans. Things having changed much since then, this device still looking the same on the inside and outside, with what appears to be no significant software modifications inside either. On another note, the only difference between this and an HTC One device – HTC One S, HTC EVO 4G LTE, HTC One X, is the HTC ImageSense chip.

What you’ve got here is the next in a line of rather successful “Incredible” devices from Verizon’s DROID lineup. With HTC’s addition of the fantastic Snapdragon S4 – the same processor also sitting in the rest of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S III line, mind you, HTC and Verizon likely have another winner on their hands. Have a peek at the hands-on photos above and below and prepare for a full review this week!

This device is the first HTC smartphone on the market outside the HTC One series to feature the HTC ImageSense chip. If you’ll remember back to launch of the HTC One S and HTC One X, this chip is its own separate chipset outside the main processor in the device, here dedicated to the camera exclusively. The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor is the chipset that powers the majority of this smartphone’s functions, but it also has architecture dedicated to the processing of photos as well.

With the HTC ImageSense chip in combination with the Snapdragon S4, you’ve got a powerhouse for photography as well as video that’s as strong as any other smartphone on the market. Aside from that, you’ve got a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 pixel resolution display, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and HTC Sense 4.0 over the top. Have a peek at all the hands-on photos we’ve got with this device here and in our HTC EVO 4G LTE hands-on from earlier this week and follow the gallery below as well!

NOTE: This post is live – we will continue to add photos taken with the HTC EVO 4G LTE as we continue on our tour through the night – stay tuned!

Once again, note: the bus we’re being taken on tour with is moving at high speed in the above shot. The majority of the rest of the photos you’ll see are still shots. Gotta catch em all!

Also feel free to enjoy the rest of the hands-on experiences and reviews we’ve got of the HTC One series so you’ve got a full understanding of the power of HTC here in 2012, and check out our CTIA 2012 portal as well to see all the CTIA action all week long!

Video update!

Hardware

The majority of the AT&T One X is just as we’ve seen before: a 4.7-inch 720p HD Super LCD display, squeezed into a carved polycarbonate casing, and accompanied by an 8-megapixel camera. Rather than retread old ground, we’ll point you to our original review for our glowing impressions of the One X’s photographic skills, Beats Audio, and other core abilities.

We may have seen the design before, but the One X is definitely a grower. There’s something about the sturdiness of the casing and the curve as the screen glass reaches the bowed side-profile that feels great in the hand, and while it may be plastic rather than glass, the matte finish keeps things feeling premium.

Hands-on video:

4G LTE

AT&T is keen to show off its 4G network, and so the One X went in for some LTE surgery while it made the trip across the Atlantic. We’ve seen strong performance from the carrier’s network before, and the One X is no different.

In our tests against the European model, which tops out at HSPA+, the AT&T model is roughly twice as fast. We’ve seen download peaks of up to 5.22 Mbps and upload peaks of 1.57 Mbps, while averages settled at 3.15 Mbps down and 1.22 Mbps up.

Performance

The impressive turn of speed the HTC One S delivered using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 tipped us to the fact that a dualcore wouldn’t necessarily be behind compared to a quadcore, and so that AT&T’s One X swaps the Tegra 3 for the S4 didn’t give us too much cause for concern. In side-by-side testing, there’s an obvious advantage for the NVIDIA but a less predicable bonus for the Snapdragon.

In Android benchmarking tool Quadrant Pro, the Tegra 3 One X scored 4850, slightly ahead of the Snapdragon S4 One X at 4835. What’s interesting is the breakdown of those overall scores. The Tegra 3 model has significantly stronger CPU performance, unsurprisingly, almost double what the S4 can manage; however, the Snapdragon delivers roughly twice the memory I/O. That’s in no small part down to its dual memory channels, and means data read/write is faster.

Actually in the hand, and in day to day use there was no discernible difference between the two variants. Neither suffers any noticeable lag or stuttering, and in the real-world the absent cores don’t feel like a disadvantage.

Phone and Battery

AT&T’s voice network proved rock solid during our testing, with no dropped calls or distracting static. The One X is capable of great in-call audio, too, with the dual microphones being used for active noise cancellation, and the earpiece cranking up to compete even with loud background noise.

LTE has a tendency to consume battery in short order, though on the flip side there are fewer cores in the AT&T One X to power. Overall, then, runtimes for the Tegra 3 and S4 versions are roughly on a par, we found.

With the display set to be permanently on, along with GPS, and with mixed use of WiFi and cellular data, playing videos and browsing the internet, both versions of the One X managed to run for over eight hours with 26-percent power left. Bear in mind this is an extreme case: with more typical – though still heavy – use, we went for nearly a full day on a single charge.

Wrap-Up

We fell hard for the European HTC One X, and with the addition of LTE the AT&T version is even stronger. The slick physical design, excellent display – visible indoors and out, even when wearing polarized sunglasses – and solid audio quality, when paired with 4G data speeds, add up to a fantastic smartphone and a fitting flagship for HTC’s 2012 range.

Our one remaining quibble is HTC Sense, covering up what – after a fair few Android iterations – is in Ice Cream Sandwich a highly usable platform in its raw form. Sense is much improved, yes, but so is Android 4.0 and we’re still not convinced that HTC’s customizations are necessary any longer. Still, Android’s flexibility means there are plenty of third-party launchers to choose from – we’re particularly keen on APEX and Novo – without demanding that you root your phone.

Is the HTC One X the best phone on AT&T’s network? It undoubtedly has some very strong competition from Apple’s iPhone 4S, though with the two handsets targeting different extremes in terms of screen size we’d think there’s room in the line-up for both to coexist. If you’re an Android fan and you live in an area with LTE coverage then the AT&T One X is a no-brainer.

This dongle works with wi-fi, and connects to your HTC One X or HTC One S – or any other HTC Sense 4.0 or higher device equipped with wi-fi capabilities. The connection itself, syncing between the dongle and your HTC smartphone or otherwise mobile device takes only a moment, and using it is easy as pie. Once you’ve got this device connected to your TV (or any other monitor with HDMI input) you’ll be using your HTC smartphone to “fling” images, video, and more to the larger display.

NOTE: This is an upgraded version of a device that HTC released back in 2010, a device known as the HTC Media Link (without the HD). Check that link for our hands-on back in the days when it was silvery.

Your HTC device will be able to work as normal (though using some of its processing power on the media display of course) as this device allows for dual-screen action. Dual-screen mode means you’ll have the media in front of you on your phone, you fling it up and out with a simple gesture with three fingers toward your larger display with the Link, and there the media will play while you keep your smartphone open for web browsing, texting, whatever else you need to do.

We’ll be giving this device a full review sometime in the very near future. For now you’ll have to check out the demonstration we’ve got coming your way via video. It works just like you think it does – connect and go!

Hardware

HTC One V video review:

In a refreshing change of pace, HTC has decided to grace us with a smaller handset as opposed to the behemoths we’re so used to seeing. The company hasn’t neglected build quality either, with the One V bearing a unibody aluminium chassis, along with a rubberized texture surrounding the camera lens and on the bottom cover. The feel is, in a word, excellent. Not only that, but the size plays an important role, and the 3.7-inch handset fits snugly in the palm of your hand. It’s not too big, and it’s not too small: it’s just right.

It’s not a chubby device either, coming in at 9.2mm thick. That’s 0.1mm thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S, and we’d argue that the One V is by far the nicer device to hold, not to mention more durable. We left it in the same pocket as some coins and a set of keys, and the aluminum seemed fairly resistant to scratches and markings. Despite the large use of metal on the device, it’s relatively light at 115 grams, and the weight distribution feels about right to us, unlike other devices often slathered in plastic.

The display on the One V has a resolution of 800×480, and HTC has used the same Super LCD 2 technology found on the HTC One X. Colors are bold and vibrant, brightness is extremely high, and viewing angles are very good. Naturally, pixel density isn’t as high as on high-end devices like the One X and iPhone 4S, but it’s good enough for everyday use, with very few instances of pixelation. The resolution does prevent you from reading web pages zoomed out, but in terms of overall quality, the One V’s display puts other phones in this category to shame.

Unlike its distant cousin, the HTC Legend, the One V doesn’t have the optical trackpad, instead sticking with the three capacitive Android buttons that you’ll also find on the One X and One S. We didn’t run into any issues with them when using the phone in everyday scenarios: they were easy to press and responsive when called upon. On top of the device is the power button, which we found difficult to press at first, since it lays at an angle unlike other phones. After repeated use over the course of an hour or two, we eventually got used to the feeling. Next to the power button is the 3.5mm headphone jack, along with the notification LED.

On the left side of the device you’ll find the microUSB port, and on the right side the volume rocker. The five megapixel camera with f/2.0 lens and LED flash sits on the back of the device, along with the Beats Audio branding and speaker grill towards the bottom. Down there, a cover pops out which gives you access to the full-size SIM card slot, along with microSD expansion. The battery, rated at 1,500mAh, is non-removable.

The beating heart of the One V is a 1GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor and 512MB of RAM. One thing you should take note of is the storage of the device: you’ve only got 1GB to play with, and there’s only 95MB available for phone storage. You definitely need a microSD card installed in the phone if you’re going to be doing… well, anything. Radios include WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, with tri-band HSPA (850/900/2100) and quad-band GSM.

Software and Performance

HTC has reigned in the custom interface after criticism that Sense was out of control and becoming bloated. The One V jumps aboard the Sense 4.0 bandwagon just like the One X and One V, but on the entry-level device, it’s really about what you won’t find included. HTC has disabled some of the fancy 3D animations and overall graphical slickness because of the modest single-core processor found in the phone.

For instance, you only get five home screens to play with as opposed to seven on the One X and One S. If you try to pinch to get a zoomed out view of all your home screens, you’ll be greeted with absolutely nothing, with HTC opting to disable the feature. Even the transition while swiping between the home screens is a basic affair, with the 3D effects having been disabled.

The keyboard has also been tweaked: compare what’s found on the One V with the One X, and you’ll see that the directional keys have been removed to preserve precious screen real estate. Speaking of the keyboard, we weren’t fans at all. It feels cramped, and trying to type out even basic messages or search queries resulted in frequent misspellings and errors. At first we put it down to the resolution of the display, with only 480 lines of width to play with in portrait mode, but upon installing the stock Ice Cream Sandwich keyboard, we quickly found ourselves back up to typing speed.

Even though Sense 4.0 isn’t as bad as the versions of old, we still found it intrusive and annoying rather than helpful. Admittedly, there are nice touches, such as being able to drag apps into the ring on the lock screen for quick access, but otherwise it can be a frustrating endeavor. It’s made all the worse by the fact that stock Ice Cream Sandwich elements can occasionally be found lurking underneath the customizations, making us long for the experience that Google intended.

As for performance of the handset, it can be a mixed bag. You’ll often find yourself smoothly flicking between home screens and apps opening fast enough, but on the flip side, we managed to make the phone grind to a halt in certain scenarios. The browser is the main culprit, and even with Flash and other plug-ins disabled, heavy sites can bring the single-core processor to its knees. On SlashGear, we found pinch-to-zoom sluggish, and scrolling wasn’t as smooth as it could have been. There was even one instance upon loading the site where the phone locked up and refused to respond for around thirty seconds. That’s an isolated incident, but it’s an indication of the limited horsepower at your disposal. On other occasions, we found the keyboard took just a second too long to open when tapping on text fields, and downloading multiple apps while others were still installing would cause some slowdown. Even realtime search results while typing in the browser bar led to momentary pauses.

In terms of benchmarks, we managed a score of 2060 in Quadrant, and the browser achieved 3314ms with SunSpider 0.9.1. We downloaded Angry Birds Space to give it a quick spin, with the game serving up smooth framerates, although it would occasionally drop a frame or two during more frantic moments.

Camera

The HTC One X and S both came with eight megapixel cameras with f/2.0 lenses and 1080p video recording. One the One V, you’ll have to make do with a five megapixel camera and 720p recording instead. The software and features that you’ll find in the camera app are pretty much identical to the more powerful devices though.

You don’t have to switch between photo and video modes, with both buttons offered upon starting the camera app, so you’re just one tap away from whichever function you want. You get the same Instragram-esque filters, so you can play with distortion, depth-of-field, and more artistic variations to your heart’s content. Burst mode is also present and accounted for, taking 20 photos in a row and allowing you to choose the best one to keep. Not only that, but you can take photos while video is recording.

The photos taken by the One V don’t measure up to the One X or One S, with colors sometimes appearing off-base. The camera can shine in good lighting conditions, with solid detail and little noise to speak of with close to medium subjects, but distance shots have us scratching our heads. The problem mainly comes down to poor compression, where detail is replaced with images full of unnecessary blocking and ringing. Shots were regularly coming in between 650-800KB, which seems rather stingy on HTC’s part. The One V has a good camera overall, and we’d say it’s better than the vast majority of other phones in this price bracket, but it’s ultimately let down by overzealous compression.

As for video recording, it’s generally solid: panning is smooth, transitions between different lighting situations are quick, and the microphone is surprisingly good at picking up the surrounding audio environment. Our complaint about recordings again comes back to compression, with videos filled with blocking artifacts and any clarity and sharpness being sapped from the resulting footage.

Phone and Battery

The earpiece on the One V produced better than average results compared to other phones, although we wished it were just a smidgen louder. During phone calls, we were perplexed by what we imagine is HTC’s noise cancellation implementation. When callers were speaking to us, there was the all too familiar hiss in the background that you get with GSM calls; but when they stopped speaking, the audio went completely silent, making us wonder if the call had dropped. It’s a little disconcerting at first, especially if you’re coming from an iPhone as a daily driver, which has a consistent (yet small) amount of noise regardless of whether or not the caller is speaking.

Otherwise, the One V held a call without any issues, and 3G speeds were good as well. We were connected to Three’s network in Central London, and saw speeds between 1.1Mbit/s and 6Mbit/s down, with uploads sitting between 300Kbit/s and 3.1Mbit/s.

As for battery performance, we used the phone as a daily driver for a couple of days, and performed a video rundown test. While everyone’s usage (and thus battery life) is different, our light usage consisting of occasional browsing, messaging, and camera usage easily got us through the day, and well into the next too. When we played a 720p video on loop with screen brightness at 100% and WiFi/3G left on, we squeezed five hours and five minutes out of the phone before it automatically turned off.

Wrap-Up

So, is the HTC One V worthy of consideration given its features? It’s a good all-rounder, and we’d go as far to say that the build quality is best in class, not to mention better than some more expensive phones thanks to the high quality materials and construction. You’re also getting the latest software in Ice Cream Sandwich, and while Sense 4.0 might still be a love/hate situation, we imagine those jumping into the smartphone world for the first time will get along with it swimmingly.

The problem, then, comes down to overall performance. The single-core processor found within the One V is now 18 months old, and it definitely rears its ugly head in certain situations, most notably in the browser. It’s a frustrating issue that’s simply unavoidable. The HTC One V really needed a slight boost in the processor department that would have cemented its position as one of the best entry-level Android smartphones. As it stands, it’s merely a decent one, and we wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending it at the prices that have been announced by the Carphone Warehouse (£20.50 a month), or the unlocked price for that matter (£225). If you’re lucky enough to find one a little bit cheaper than those prices, definitely consider picking one up.

You’ll be able to pre-order the HTC One V starting from today, with the handset being free on £20.50 a month tariffs. Carphone Warehouse will be offering the phone on O2, Orange, and Vodafone contracts, with tariffs naturally becoming more expensive if you want more minutes or data.

The One V is available for pre-order now, and Carphone Warehouse say that delivery of phones should begin in the week beginning Monday April 23rd. As for the unlocked price of the handset, Carphone Warehouse don’t have any information yet, although other retailers are offering it for around £250 (~$398).

We’ll be bringing you a full review of the HTC One V in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, check out our initial impressions of the device, or if you’re after a more premium handset, read our HTC One S and HTC One X reviews.

We took the device for a quick spin after receiving our review unit. The unibody aluminium body feels fantastic, especially at this size. The phone sits very comfortably in the hand, and so far we prefer it over the larger handsets that have been cropping up as of late. The high quality construction definitely helps in that area too.

The phone is running Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, with HTC’s Sense 4.0 on top. We won’t delve too deeply into Sense 4.0 here (check the HTC One X and One S reviews), but a couple of graphical features are missing on the One V. Normally you’d be able to pinch to reveal all your homescreens, but HTC has disabled that on this phone. Graphical transitions on opening folders aren’t the nice, fluid motion we’ve seen on the One X or One S either.

Just from the brief time we’ve played with it, the performance has generally been good. There have been a few instances where we’ve managed to make the phone crawl to a stop, most notably in the browser on Flash enabled pages, but other than that it’s relatively snappy and in line with what you’d expect of a budget device. Take a look at our hands-on video, as well as some pictures of the device. We’ll bring you a full review in the next couple of days.

For all the best deals on contract you’ll want to check out our UK price plan roundup. As for unlocked, SIM-free sales, the cheapest we’ve seen the One X is £492 (inc. tax) from Clove, while the same retailer has the One S in stock for £420 (inc. tax). Expansys has the One S for £5 less, though currently with no stock.

So what does your money get you? We’ve already comprehensively reviewed the One X and the One S, finding them both significant steps up for HTC after a less appealing 2011 line-up.

HTC One X review:

The camera performance is a particular stand-out, being something HTC has put special emphasis on in 2012. HTC’s optical abilities have traditionally lagged behind those of rivals like Apple and Samsung, but with the introduction of a dedicated HTC Imaging chip, better quality optics and a more intuitive, convenient UI, both the One X and One S do a whole lot better.

HTC Sense 4.0 also makes its debut on the new One Series, complete with pared-back graphics and 23GB of free DropBox storage. We’ve detailed all the key changes and improvements, and you can see some of them in our video overview:

HTC Sense 4.0 overview:

If you’re outside of Europe, you’ll have a little longer to wait. AT&T has confirmed it will be offering a dual-core version of the One X, ditching the Tegra 3 chipset in favor of a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 with LTE connectivity. That may not be such a big deal in terms of performance, however: as our comparative benchmarking shows, the S4 is surprisingly capable despite being a few cores down on its NVIDIA cousin.

T-Mobile USA, meanwhile, will offer the One S on its HSPA+ network. Pricing in the US is yet to be announced by either carrier, though we’re expecting it to be around the $199-299 with agreement mark.

So, has HTC convinced you or are you holding out to see what Apple and Samsung have prepared for the rest of 2012? Let us know in the poll and comments below!

First look at one half of this hands-on look of Sense 4.0 as it exists on the HTC One S. This video was filmed as part of an extended in-depth review of the HTC One S I did for Android Community – a site we associate with closely for Android-related content. This video will give you an extended hands-on idea of what it’ll mean for you to work with the HTC One S as well as the whole HTC One family. Don’t forget to check out our full review of the HTC One S as well.

As you can see, Sense has been both expanded with the abilities of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and parred back from previous versions of Sense, they having a bit more “thick” look than this iteration. Where previous versions of Sense have been called over-done and a bit “candy-coated”, HTC comes correct this time around with a silver-coated version of Android that looks and feels naturalistic as ever.

The second half of the video continues looking at the applications you get with the out-of-box experience on the HTC One series with Sense 4.0. You’ll be working with HTC’s extended family of music apps, media rental and purchase apps, and more!

HTC has kept the pieces of their user experience equation that make them great, those being widgets that are above and beyond what the competition brings the the table and an extended customization suite – and cuts the candy. Here we’ve got the best look at Android HTC has ever offered. Check out the rest of our hands-on posts with this lovely new hero series of phones in the timeline below!

Hardware

The One S’ slimline form-factor belies its 4.3-inch display, and indeed HTC tells us that – at 7.8mm thick – it’s the company’s thinnest phone to-date. That fact, paired with a narrow (65mm wide) and relatively long (130.9mm) body, makes for a phone that feels great in the hand, slim and sturdy thanks to the metal construction. Whereas HTC turned to polycarbonate to keep the One X‘s weight down, the 119.5g One S is clad in metal, and it feels every inch the premium product.

HTC is offering two finishes for the casing, either a graduated metallic green or, as is the case with our review unit, a so-called micro arc oxidized shell that has been heat-treated so as to be scratch resistant. Scrape up the rear panel with your fingernail and the marks just rub straight off, though our previous experience with a One S prototype suggests keys can still leave some noticeable marks if used in earnest against the phone.

HTC One S video review:

The display itself is an AMOLED panel running at qHD 540 x 960 resolution. As with other AMOLEDs we’ve seen, viewing angles are broad and even with the phone tilted at an extreme angle from you, on-screen graphics are still clearly visible and not color-inverted. Colors themselves are saturated and vivid, if a little pinkish when compared side-by-side with an LCD screen. While you’ve got it up next to the One X’s 720p display, meanwhile, there’s some noticeable pixel crunch around on-screen graphics, a compromise of resolution and price-point, but it’s not something that you particularly notice when faced with the phone on its own.

Underneath are three touch-sensitive buttons – back, home and app-switcher – since HTC refuses to get with the Ice Cream Sandwich program and go for on-screen virtual keys. On the top edge there’s a mildly tricky to locate power/lock key, along with a 3.5mm headphone socket; the volume rocker is on the right edge, and the microUSB port is on the left. An LED notification light is hidden behind the drilled speaker grille, next to the 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.

Like the One X, the One S uses a microSIM; that slots in behind a pull-off antenna panel surrounding the 8-megapixel main camera. HTC has finished the plastic underneath in bright red, a somewhat wasted effort since the only time you see it is when swapping SIMs. There’s also no microSD card, with just 16GB of onboard storage to keep you going; still, HTC throws in a two year, 25GB subscription to DropBox that’s activated when you first set up the phone.

Inside the One S there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor, paired with 1GB of RAM and a non-user-accessible 1,650 mAh battery. Connectivity includes triband WCDMA/HSPA (850/900/2100) and quadband GSM/EDGE, along with WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX high-quality audio streaming, microUSB with MHL-HDMI with a (not included) adapter cable and DLNA support. There are also the usual sensors: GPS and a digital compass, a gyro sensor and g-sensor, and finally proximity and ambient light sensors. Unfortunately there’s no NFC, however.

Software and Performance

Ice Cream Sandwich is the One S’ snack of choice, clad in HTC Sense in its latest iteration. Android 4.0 has its charms, some of which – like the stark, Tron-esque UI – are covered up by HTC’s efforts, and others of which are improved. The new widget manager is far better than Google’s native implementation of tagging homescreen gadgets on at the end of the app menu, for instance. However, HTC’s physical keys mean the Android contextual menu icon sometimes ends up floating on its own at the bottom of the screen, both wasting space and looking untidy.

The widgets themselves have been boosted, greater in number now and including some useful additions. There are several calculators – each of which occupy an entire homescreen pane – and the Social Clock first seen on the HTC ChaCha and Salsa Facebook phones appears here too. A new Music widget shows recently played tracks complete with album art, and there are useful Notes widgets for quickly jotting down and reviewing text and audio reminders.

If there’s a criticism to be made, it’s the size of most widgets; HTC errs on the side of “big and bold” for the most part, which may prove a turnoff for those who like to pack as much information into their homescreen as possible. Up to seven panes can be used – fewer if you prefer it – with a pinch-gesture showing an overview of them all.

The usual Google apps are joined by HTC’s own choice of preloads, including a modified Camera app, FM radio (relying on the headphones for an antenna), a Notes app that can sync with Evernote, SoundHound for identifying music, TuneIn Radio for streaming audio, the by-now traditional Teeter labyrinth game, and HTC Watch.

The Music app has been replaced by what’s now more of a hub, pulling in shortcuts to all of the preloaded music services – such as local tracks and TuneIn Radio – and allowing users to add their own, such as Spotify or Pandora. Unfortunately this is really a launcher rather than a true amalgamation of different services: you can’t, for instance, build a playlist of tracks from various sources, such as jumping between local content and streaming audio.

Performance from the dual-core processor is surprisingly good. We benchmarked Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 chipset using Quadrant Advanced, and it scored a hefty 4834. That’s well in excess of the mid-2000s we’ve come to expect from last-gen Snapdragon S3 chips, and gives the One S sufficient grunt for mobile gaming and HD video playback. Both look great pumped out via the MHL-HDMI port – HTC doesn’t include an adapter, mind – into an HDTV.

Camera

HTC’s market research apparently told the company that the camera is the first thing smartphone buyers look at when they’re picking a new device. The One Series should all look great on store shelf labels on that front, anyway, with the backside-illuminated sensor and wide-aperture lens, paired with HTC’s own ImageSense processing chip.

The One S shares the same camera specs as the One X, which means an 8-megapixel CMOS capable of 1080p video capture. In fact, thanks to persistent on-screen controls for video and stills, the One S can shoot Full HD video and take still images simultaneously. The UI has also gained a new photo effect control, with various Instagram-style filters of various degrees of mangling, while preset modes have new HDR, panorama and whiteboard settings, the latter useful for shots intended to be uploaded as Evernote notes. A slow-motion video mode is also on offer.

The end result is very strong, with bright and clean colors along with crisp detail and accurate brightness. Focusing is generally fast, though close-ups would sometimes prove blurry with the One S struggling to lock precisely. Rapid-fire shots are possible, keeping a finger pressed on the shutter release button grabbing frames as quickly as the phone can take them; when you’re done, you get a slideshow of each image and can pick your favorite, optionally deleting the rest.

Video, meanwhile, shows a little of the blurring and tearing we’ve come to expect from cellphone cameras, but the colors are accurate and contrast good. Sound is recorded in stereo, with microphones at each end of the handset. The digital zoom trades, as you’d expect, distance for quality, and has a tendency to jump to its maximum rather than progress smoothly.

HTC loads a Movie Editor app, though you can perform basic trims directly from the gallery. Unfortunately it’s not straightforward simply to link a few clips together: the Movie Editor insists on you choosing a theme and, while you can mute the background audio (or, indeed, choose your own alternative from local tracks) there’s no way to turn off the animation and transitions.

Hooking up the One S to a computer offers the option to mount it as an external drive, which worked with both Windows and OS X machines. Alternative there are the usual uploading options, including sending clips directly to a Dropbox folder.

Phone and Battery

The One S offers solid audio, with the earpiece sufficiently loud though the speaker could be stronger for our tastes. HTC uses the dual microphones for noise cancellation in calls, and it works well. The Beats Audio, meanwhile, does its usual trick of emphasizing the bass; HTC’s bundled headphones are mediocre, though we’re expecting to see some special editions that package Beats-branded headsets with the One S.

HTC has played surprisingly coy with battery expectations; the company’s spec sheet for the One S doesn’t even mention talktime or standby predictions. That’s perhaps in recognition of the fact that most users aren’t judging longevity solely on calls any more. With push email turned on, Google+ uploading photos automatically in the background, some browsing and Google Maps use, some media playback and photo/video recording, the One S lasted a full day with some room to spare. That’s with the display set to automatic brightness and a mixture of HSPA+ and WiFi connectivity.

Wrap-Up

It’s tough not to like the HTC One S’ physical feel. The design is subtle and discrete; it’s more how the smartphone feels in your hand that proves alluring. HTC’s metal-bodied phones have always felt sturdy, but the combination of sub-8mm thinness in a flex-free chassis add up to a device that feels more of a premium product than the true One X flagship manages.

That’s not to say there aren’t compromises to be made. The AMOLED screen is clear and highly usable, but HTC had the chance to push the One S well ahead of the pack by opting for 720p resolution, and in comparison the qHD that was settled upon feels just average. It’s a perfectly fine display, but nothing more than that. No NFC seems short-sighted, too, and what we find subtle about the design, others might consider simply dull.

Nonetheless, for the midrange, this is an excellent smartphone. The dual-core processor and 4.3-inch display toe a delicate balance between performance, usability and power consumption, and do so well, and there’s no escaping the high-quality hand feel. Sense 4.0 retires many of the elements HTC had gradually bolted on and left us feeling cold over, and the company apparently has big plans for HTCSense.com online by way of cloud services. The quadcore One X will gain the lion’s share of attention, yes, but the One S is the mainstream device that should go a long way to changing HTC’s fortunes in 2012.

Hardware

The One X is a big device, there’s no escaping it. Still, at 134.36 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm and 130g it’s surprisingly lightweight considering the fact you get a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 display. Build quality of the polycarbonate chassis feels slightly cheaper than the metal-bodied Sensation-series devices of last year, but the upshot is a more pocket-friendly device. It’s creak- and flex-free, too, though the downside to that is the non-user-accessible battery. Beyond a microSIM slot – complete with an HTC branded tray-opening pin, no less – the casing is a solid lump.

HTC has used a Super LCD panel on the One X, and it’s an excellent screen. Bright and crisp, with great viewing angles and escaping the sometimes over-saturated colors you find on AMOLED screens, it floats nicely in the inset Gorilla Glass panel. Our main complaint is the banding visible on graduated graphics, noticeable in Android’s many screens with shades of grey. The curved glass edges are reminiscent of Nokia’s Lumia 800, too, catching the light and leaving the handset feeling more organic and tactile.

HTC One X video review:

The polycarbonate itself – available in black or white – is bowed in cross-section though the glass itself is flat. That gives a little of the Galaxy Nexus’ profile, though it’s a fleeting optical illusion. Also unlike the Nexus are the dedicated buttons beneath the screen, HTC not following Google’s own Ice Cream Sandwich implementation and instead insisting on touch-sensitive back, home and app-switcher keys. Despite accommodating them, the HTC is actually roughly the same length – though broader – than the Samsung, thanks to a narrower earpiece section.

Still, there’s enough room for a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and a double-row of drilled speaker perforations; behind lurks a notification LED. On the left edge is the microUSB port while the volume rocker is on the right; the power/lock button is on the top edge, and thanks to the length of the One X can be tricky to reach at times. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack and a row of five pins on the lower right hand corner of the rear panel for use with the optional docking cradle.

The back also plays host to a Beats Audio logo above a small but reasonably loud speaker. The One X has two microphones, one on top and the other on the bottom edge, for noise-reduction during calls and stereo audio recording in video clips. Finally, there’s the camera, an 8-megapixel unit which protrudes slightly in a silver nub, and which packs autofocus, an F2.0 aperture, 28mm lens, a backside-illuminated sensor, “smart” LED flash and support for 1080p HD video recording.

Inside, this European One X packs NVIDIA’s 1.5GHz quadcore Tegra 3 chipset, paired with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of non-expandable storage. It’s an ambitious chip, especially given the non-accessible 1,800 mAh battery, though NVIDIA insists that its 4+1 core design means performance won’t outweigh longevity.

Connectivity includes WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX high-quality audio support, NFC and, in the European model, quadband HSPA/WCDMA (850/900/1900/2100) and quadband GSM?EDGE. The microUSB port supports MHL-HDMI with the appropriate – and not included – adapter – while there’s the usual GPS, gyroscope, digital compass, proximity and ambient light sensors, and G-Sensor.

In the US, the One X will be sold on AT&T as an LTE version, ditching Tegra 3 in favor of a Qualcomm-supplied dualcore chipset but gaining high-speed 4G mobile connectivity.

Software and Performance

The One Series is the first of HTC’s devices to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, woven through with the latest iteration of Sense. HTC’s custom interface and apps suite had become over-stylized and unnecessarily hefty in its latter versions, and there’s been a conscious move to pare it back to basics which is obvious from the start.

Gone are the eye-catching but GPU-sapping 3D homescreen widgets of last year, replaced with cleaner range more in keeping with Ice Cream Sandwich. You wouldn’t necessarily realize Google’s newest version is under the hood, with the app launcher controls and other buttons redesigned, and even the app-switcher UI has been replaced, a CoverFlow-style carousel of running software instead of the basic thumbnail previews of the Galaxy Nexus.

Some of HTC’s changes work better than Google’s own design decisions. Tapping and holding on the homescreen opens up the widgets panel, a more common-sense placement than as an addendum to the app launcher. Up to nine homescreen panes can be live – shown in a scrolling bar across the top of the widgets organizer – with the various sizes of widget themselves underneath. You can either side-swipe to see each preview, or select from a drop-down list. Tabs along the bottom of the screen offer app icons and shortcuts, the latter for things like Direct Dial contacts, bookmarks, Gmail labels, Dropbox folders – the cloud storage service now being baked into HTC phones – and music playlists. A pinch-gesture shows all of the homescreen panes in thumbnails from the desktop.

The app menu itself is now split into three sections – all apps, those frequently accessed and those downloaded – with search and Play Shop shortcuts at the top. However you can also choose to remove and rearrange these tabs, though even if you get rid of all categories bar “all apps” the same number of icons are shown on-screen.

HTC has a number of new widgets, including radio apps – which require the headphones to be plugged in and act as the antenna – and a selection of useful calculators. They look great, though they’re all oversized: most of the widgets take up half or more of each homescreen pane, when even the calculators could be smaller and still usable.

The new HTC Music hub pulls together shortcuts for all of the audio services – though not the FM radio, at least by default – and more third-party options can be added in. It’s more like a launcher than a true unified media system, however. There’s no way to combine tracks from different services into a single playlist, for instance, so your local tracks will always be separate from your Spotify streaming.

HTC has made a few modifications to the standard browser, adding a Flash Player toggle to the contextual menu alongside the option to force the desktop version of sites. There’s also an incognito tab option next to the new tab button in the window switcher, making it more straightforward to browse without leaving a trail in the history. Panning, scrolling, pinch-zooming and Flash playback is all as smooth as you’d hope from a high-end phone.

NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 is a mainstay in recent Android tablets, but it’s a rarer thing in smartphones. With 4+1 cores – the latter responsible, so NVIDIA says, for low-level tasks that might otherwise demand the main cores light up and consume more power – there’s certainly no shortage of grunt for games and multimedia playback, both being smooth. However, the performance is also noticeable in day to day use, such as in the speed that a heavy Gmail inbox is ready for use. We ran Geekbench Advanced, and the One X scored an admirable 3399.

We’re had our eye on the aptX Bluetooth stereo audio profile for some years now, but it’s only now that the technology is turning up in more consumer hardware. Replacing the default audio codec – in devices that support it – it promises “true hi-fi quality”; in practice, with a set of Sennheiser PX-210 headphones, we found improved bass and treble clarity along with a reduction in background hiss. Of course, if you only have regular Bluetooth accessories then you won’t see the aptX improvement.

Camera

HTC is particularly proud of its camera technology in the One Series; according to the company’s research the camera is the number one deciding factor when a buyer eyes up their next phone. The One X gets an 8-megapixel CMOS with a backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor for improved low-light performance, along with an F2.0 aperture, 28mm lens and a dedicated imaging chip.

As well as 8-megapixel images, the One X can record Full HD 1080p video. In fact, the phone can shoot still images at the same time as recording footage: both the video recording and the shutter release button are on-screen at all times, along with a new effects control with a range of the image tweaking options.

There’s also an LED flash. We’ve generally been unimpressed with LED photo-lights on smartphones – they usually have a narrow sweet-spot outside of which images are either washed out or hopelessly under-illuminated – but HTC’s flash can automatically adjust between multiple levels of brightness according to the proximity of the subject.

The extent to which it works is tricky to see; low-light images are still something of a pot-luck. Supply decent lighting, however, and the One X is capable of some very good stills, with accurate colors rather than the over-exaggerated hues some phones err toward, and crispness in all but the closest macros. Hold down the camera button and the One X automatically goes into continuous shooting mode, capturing up to 99 shots in a row; let go, and you see a timeline of the images so as to pick out the best, optionally deleting the remainder.

1080p Full HD video, meanwhile, shows some jerking in fast pans, though the picture quality itself is relatively strong. We also noticed an occasional jitteriness during the first few seconds of recording at times, though that’s easy enough to trim out of the final clip. A camera button shown during playback allows 1920 x 1080 stills to be grabbed too.

Phone & Battery

The One X is a large phone, and making voice calls can be a little unwieldy; still, the end result is clear audio, thanks to the dual microphones and noise reduction system. The Beats Audio tuning is available to all media apps, not just HTC’s own as in 2011 Beats-branded phones, and does its usual job of boosting bass frequencies.

By opting for a unibody design, HTC has been forced to make the 1,800 mAh battery non-user-accessible. It’s larger than what’s inside many handsets, but with a quadcore processor that seems something of a necessity.

Still, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the One X’s runtimes. From a full charge, with push email turned on and a mixture of heavy browsing, messaging, Google Maps and some media playback, as well as use of the camera and a few voice calls, the One X lasted nearly 12 hours.

That’s under somewhat extreme conditions; with more typical use, we managed a day before recharging was needed, and that “+1″ Tegra 3 core seemed to justify its inclusion with low standby drain even with push services active. Turn to CPU- and GPU-intensive gaming and it’s possible to drain the One X in relatively short order, unsurprisingly, but it’s good to have the option of either hardcore performance or regular speed.

Wrap-Up

HTC has a lot to prove. Whether it was down to resting on its collective laurels, misreading the market, or simply getting its 2011 product line wrong, last year turned out to be something of an annus horribilis all round. Rivals accelerated past, Apple broadened its iPhone range across price points, and in contrast HTC phones looked derivative and lumpen.

They’re not accusations that could easily be levelled against the HTC One X. The new flagship is distinctively designed and well constructed, has an admirable camera and a solid screen. The Tegra 3 chipset is capable of both speed and endurance depending on what’s demanded of it, particularly gaming and HD video, though the non-expandable storage could prove limiting if your connection isn’t up to streaming from cloud storage such as Dropbox.

Is the One X enough to inure HTC against the incoming threat of the Galaxy S III or the iPhone 5? Both devices are shaping up to be worthy contenders, and HTC’s 2011 range struggled to compete with their predecessors, but the One X is leagues ahead of where the Sensation series left off. It’ll take more than good looks and a fast chip to make the One X an automatic success, but it’s is a capable phone and, perhaps more importantly, a sign that HTC has finally turned a corner in its strategy and products.

I’ve been a vocal advocate of HTCSense.com in the past, and an equally vocal critic. The cloud service should’ve been the jewel in the company’s crown, a potent value-add to lure in new customers and a compelling reason to upgrade to another HTC handset for existing owners. Instead, after a loud inception and a long fallow period, Sense online shudders to a halt with hardly a whimper.

HTC insiders have been telling me that the company was planning a change to HTCSense.com for some time now. My mentioning the service has become a sort of refrain at every device briefing and product launch: “when will you be doing something with Sense online?” has been my refrain, and their “officially, no comment; unofficially, there are changes afoot” the inevitable answer.

Well, here are the changes, and who would’ve guessed yanking the plug was the best option. With the rise of Apple’s iCloud and HTC’s own struggles to differentiate on hardware alone against the comprehensive component options of, say, Samsung, a decent cloud sync service seems like an obvious thing to have. In fact it’s an advantage we’ve highlighted again and again, but it’s one that HTC has obviously decided it can do without.

Even the way HTC is handling the shutdown rankles. Yes, there’s a download of user-data, but frankly that’s the bare minimum it should be doing. It’s the complete hand-washing of service responsibility that is gobsmackingly awful. “If you would like phone location or backup services for your device,” the open letter to users reads, “please visit Google Play (formerly Android Market) and download an application that best meets your needs.”

That’s it. No suggestions, no “why not try these links” or guidance to safe app choices. No prompted downloads from the on-device HTC appstore, something the company has previous championed as a great way for hand-picked developers to get extra attention. Did HTC decide there was no way it could pick between the range of apps out there or, more likely perhaps, did it simply give up without even searching the Play Market for location and backup services?

HTC promises new “services and value” in the pipeline, but exactly what they are is a poorly-handled mystery. Look at, for instance, the way Apple handled the MobileMe to iCloud transition: it didn’t spend time telling users about what was being taken away, but built enthusiasm about what was going to be added. HTC should’ve taken this opportunity to shout about its new, exciting functionality – especially on the eve of the One X and One S releases – but instead it merely told its loyal supporters that they were losing something.

Perhaps there’s magic ahead. Perhaps HTC has finally decided to do something Loudly Brilliant with OnLive, and Beats Audio, and HTC Watch. Perhaps there’s a MOG-powered cloud jukebox service coming, and user-created multimedia sharing, and more. We wouldn’t know, though, because HTC decided it was better to pull the plug on HTCSense.com before telling us how it was doing something so much better.

For those of you on HTC devices that have been using HTCSense.com, you’ll want to follow the instructions below to retain the data you’ve saved with the site any time in the past several months. HTCSense.com has until now been both a backup service for HTC devices and a phone location service for devices with HTC branding, and the site will be revamped in one way or another to re-up these services in the future. For now though, you’ll want to do the following:

• Visit http://htcsense.com

• Log in with your HTCSense.com username and password

• Click the ‘Download’ button in the Account Overview section

• A .zip file containing your data will download to your computer for easy viewing

HTC recommends that you visit Google Play (formerly Google Android Market) to pick up any new apps you might need to work with data backup and phone location services. This is a bit of an odd play by HTC and we’ll be following up on this post with a bit of analysis to see if we can dissect what it all means. Stay tuned!

[via HTC]

The ImageSense technology involves a whole new camera setup for the next-gen HTC devices that include a f/2.0 aperture, 28mm lens, BSI Sensors, and smart LED flash with five levels of brightness. There’s also now a dedicated HTC ImageChip that will make super-fast shooting possible with a 0.7-second shot time and a 0.2-second autofocus.

With the f/2.0 lens, HTC One smartphone cameras can capture 40% more light than the f/2.4 lenses on other high-end smartphones, providing improved image quality in low-light conditions. The HTC One also includes HDR, which will improve image qualify when in direct sunlight.

Additionally, the new camera setup allows you to take a still photo while you’re recording a video. Simply tap the shutter while your recording and a high-resolution still image will be taken while the camera continues to record video uninterrupted. Still frames can also be captured from previously recorded video.

[via TMoNews]

There’s also a Lockscreen API, allowing developers to integrate access to their apps from the Sense lockscreen, and a Mobile Device Management API. However, it’s the Beats and HDMI functionality that could hold the most potential; in the new HTC line-up, the One X, One S and One V, Beats Audio support has been extended to any native sound-related part of the system, and now third-party apps can have the same access to.

The HTC MediaLink HD API, meanwhile, will enable dual-screen support to be integrated into apps. HTC Watch is an example of the native dual-screen support, allowing users to stream video purchased or rented through the app to their big-screen TV while simultaneously using their phone to check email, browse the web or use other apps.

Apps that adopt the new APIs will stand a better chance of featuring in HTC’s own on-device app store, HTC Hub, developer evangelist Leigh Momil says. The OpenSense SDK should be updated to support the new APIs “in the coming weeks.”

There’s also quadband HSPA+ and quadband GSM/EDGE, along with Bluetooth 4.0 with apt-X, WiFi a/b/g/n, NFC and microUSB with MHL-HDMI. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack and a SIM slot – for a microSIM – though no microSD card slot. Sensors include gyro, g-sensor, a digital compass, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.

On the back is an 8-megapixel Backside-Illuminated sensor, with an f2.0 lens for better low-light performance and an LED flash. There’s also a custom HTC Image Chip to perform processing – like color correction – on the RAW image files from the sensor, rather than on the images after they’ve been converted to JPEGS.

The camera also loads faster – 0.7s – and takes shots on just 0.2s; Sense 4.0 includes support for burst-photography simply by holding down the still button, as well as simultaneous still photo and 1080p Full HD video capture. The LED flash can intelligently pick between seven brightness levels, depending on the closeness of the subject.

A front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera supports up to 720p, and there’s Beats Audio not only in HTC’s own Music app but across all audio functionality. The battery is a fixed, non-accessible 1800 mAh pack.

The HTC One X will hit Europe within sixty days of today’s announcement, the company says, though it tells us that the target is early April 2012.

This preview program will be expanded to other devices in the near future as well, each of them also being updated to the newest Android, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. We’ll likely be starting to see hands-on previews of the software working on the two Sensation models inside the next 48 hours. As HTC noted to us today:

“HTC is doing something new and pretty cool in the coming days: we’ll be releasing an “early access preview” of our ICS upgrade for the Sensation and Sensation XE. This will be limited in scope (just a few hundred users and only in Europe) because we’re still scaling up back-end resources for general availability worldwide, and our hope is people will play with it and enjoy getting used to the ICS experience with Sense. We’ll be doing similar previews for other devices in the future, too.” – HTC

We’ve not yet seen a full official preview of Android 4.0 on an HTC Sense-carrying smartphone, so it’s an exciting prospect for HTC users worldwide. Have a peek at our timeline below to see other HTC Sense with ICS updates as they will be appearing at Mobile World Congress 2012. Tasty treats galore!

As well as wallpapers, ringtones and other customizations exclusive to HTC devices, there are also signs that HTC has been tweaking its shortcuts system. The lockscreen now shows not only the four app shortcuts as in previous versions of Sense, but a choice of either individual contact shortcuts – as shown below – or notifications.

HTC refers to the two layouts as “productivity” and “contacts”. There are also new, squared-off widgets, losing the bubbly, over-designed stylings of HTC’s older UI and replacing them with cleaner lines to match native Ice Cream Sandwich graphics.

The wallpapers are higher-resolution, too, fitting in with talk that the Endeavor – among other new HTC phones – will have a 720p HD display. 1GB of RAM, a 1.3-megapixel front camera and Dropbox integration are all tipped too.

We’re expecting to see full details on the HTC Edge/Endeavor at Mobile World Congress later this month.

[Thanks ibolito!]

HTC also fits a VGA front-facing camera, and the Ville is running – in this prototype form, anyway – Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich. Aesthetically, it’s a lot like an ironed HTC Sensation, flatter than the 2011 flagship but still showing the traditional HTC unibody styling.

As for HTC Sense 4.0, details – though not photos – of the updated interface leaked earlier this month, and now we have a chance to see exactly what was being talked about. The updated interface has new screen transition animations and a tweaked shortcut bar on the homescreen, with the HTC widgets now somewhat pared down rather than the overly-stylized versions seen in previous iterations of Sense.

The HTC Ville is expected to make its official debut at MWC 2012 in late February, and then tipped to head to T-Mobile USA shortly after. We’ll know more from the show in Barcelona next month.

[via HTC Hub]