HTC One after a week of heavy use

There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of reviews of the HTC One on the web – but that’s not what you’re looking at here. What I’m hoping to do is give those of you who are on the fence about the HTC One a shove in one direction or another.

So, what were my concerns BEFORE I bought my HTC One?

• Will the battery be good enough? This was the main reason I sold my Nexus 4. I just don’t ever get on with a device where I have that battery concern niggling in the back of my mind. The fact that the battery is sealed in on the One was NOT a concern. I’ve never carried spare batteries, and wouldn’t want to start.
• What’s the camera really going to be like? Never mind the hype, never mind the figures – will it take a nice picture? I take a LOT of pictures with my phone – mainly of my children and grandchildren, who don’t stay still for long. I liked the prospect of high quality, but smaller image size. I like efficiency.
• Will it be fast enough? Now, I don’t mean chips, ram, gaming, benchmarks….that’s all irrelevant in my experience. What I mean is, how quickly will the phone flip-flop between the dialler, messaging app, browser, Twitter app, Gmail etc etc? You know – the stuff you actually need. My S3 had the horsepower, but Touchwizz made flying around the menus a bit like running through treacle.
• Will it be as easy to hold as a bar of soap? I love that the One is made of Aluminium, but my Macbook Air is too, as it my Apple TV remote. They are both very slippery. Power button placement also seemed to be complete madness!
• What will the sound quality be like through headphones? I listen to quite a lot of music, and I have been described as an audiophile before. In truth, I think I just know what I like and how to set up the EQ for my taste.

So, a week at work using the actual ‘phone’ functions pretty hard would test the battery and the speed of the device. A long weekend with the kids in Scarborough would test the camera and the ‘grippability’. Unfortunately, I’m not able to show many images as most of them have my kids in them – but I have a few to illustrate my points. I also played around with Ingress to test the GPS.

OK. Lets address the items in the bullet points above, one by one:

• Battery. Well, this is an area that really impressed me. Even on the first few charges, the HTC One was still reporting a good 25% where my iPhone 5 or S3 would be floundering in the red zone. This made me very happy. I charge my phone every night regardless of it’s current charge percentage – it’s just habit. So long as my phone lasts until mid-late evening, it’s one less thing to worry about or consider. Well done HTC, have a biscuit.
• Camera. VERY hit and miss here. I will add two images to the bottom of this article – both of the same scene, both with the same settings. One is mushy, the other is pin-sharp and detailed. You really have to guide the focus on the HTC One to make sure you’re getting the best results – unlike the iPhone 5, which seems to take great shots in an instant. A friend of mine who also has the HTC One says he’s happy enough as he applies filters and effects to his images anyway. I can appreciate that I guess, but for me, the HTC One camera is weak, and doesn’t take reliably consistent shots across the board. That said, I REALLY LOVED Zoe, and also the ‘events’ feature that creates a short video montage of your day’s shots and movies (and Zoes). My only niggle with Zoe is that if you have an instant upload feature on your phone with Dropbox, G+, or whatever, you’re going to get a short movie and about 21 stills for each Zoe.
• Speed. When I went to pick up the HTC One, I also saw a Galaxy S4 on display. I wandered over and did my ‘quick test’ to check the real-life speed. From a standing start, I pressed the dialler button to see how quickly it offered it up. My S3 was always poor here, and the S4 was (if anything) even worse! A good 3-4  seconds passed on the S4 before I could use the dialler. I’m happy to say, the HTC One is stellar in this regard. Everything is pretty much instantaneous, and they have a lovely feature also found on vanilla Android: You can swipe between Call Log, Dialler, Phone book, Groups etc – you don’t have to reach up to the top of the screen to press tabs. Thanks HTC! For me, the HTC One is fast where I need it to be. VERY fast. iPhone fast.
• How is it to hold? It’s average to be honest. It IS slippery (unless you’re a clammy deviant), but a slight change of grip goes a long way to assuring it’s secure in your hand. I’d probably add a Zagg Invisible shield on front, back, or both – just to add some extra purchase. The home button is a revelation! It’s so natural to use, I’m surprised it isn’t the standard on larger phones (although I think Samsung still use the best method on the side of the device).
• Sound quality. After hunting high and low (no pun intended) I could not locate a Graphic Equaliser in the Google Play Music App. All you get is: Beats on or off. OK, it sounds better with it on, but still not good enough. The least HTC could have done was to add a few generic settings for pop, rock, vocal etc. I’ve no doubt the HTC One could deliver in the audio department, but it doesn’t need to be dumbed down to this level. I tried a range of headphones with the One, but couldn’t get the richness I wanted. I tried Klipsch S4, Beats Solo HD’s, Senheiser HD228, Bose Gym buds…….disappointing.

So, all in all I have been reassured and deflated in equal measure. I would certainly rather own the HTC One over the Galaxy S4 – but that’s not great feat. I don’t think the HTC One will be with me as a daily driver for very long – I value my camera and music too much for that. It’s easily the fastest and most consistent Android phone I’ve ever used. – for ‘real life’ speed, it’s up there with the Nexus 4.

So if you’re on the fence, I say “Go for it!”

Images: Nice – well focused and sharp.

Same scene: Yuck!