The fine arts of the HTC One

The HTC One is a new flagship smart phone from HTC that features a sleek aluminium body, fast performance and good image quality, as well as a live “home screen” that streams your favourite content.

It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 running at 1.7GHz and is equipped with 2GB of RAM for working memory. It has 32GB onboard storage with no expansion slot. It uses 4.7-inch Full HD 1080p Super LCD 3 display with pixel density of 468ppi.

HTC One runs on the Android 4.1.2 operating system with HTC Sense 5.0 user-interface on top of it. The HTC Sense has HTC BlinkFeed interface for streaming you selected content to the home screen.

It supports HSPA 3G connection of 850/900/1900/2100MHz, and I tested its data connection on TrueMove H’s 850MHz 3G network. 

It performed impressively. The menus and touch screen were very responsive. Screen scrolling was fast and smooth. The phone played HD video clips smoothly and rendered web pages fast.

I managed to take snapshots and upload them to Facebook fast and without any stalling. My selected content streamed to the special home screen of HTC One without problem. Checking mail and checking into places on Foursquare app were problem-free.

The HTC BlinkFeed feature makes the HTC One a very smart phone. You can pick Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Flickr and LinkedIn, apps like Calendar and HTS Share, and new services to stream the update to the live home screen. The available news services include INN News, SiamPhone, AFP, Associated Press, the Huffington Post, Reuters, MTV, ESPN and CNET, to feed headlines to the home screen.

When you spot interesting headlines or interesting posts on Facebook, just tap on them to see more details.

The HTC One is a slim 9.3mm thick, but it sounds good as a music player, thanks to Beats Audio technology and the HTC BoomSound feature. Beats Audio enhances music quality while BoomSound provides dual front speakers powered by built-in amplifiers that reproduce bigger sound with less distortion and more detail. HTC One also comes with an in-ear headset that reproduces good-quality music.

The voice call has good quality, conversations coming across loud and clear thanks to the Sense Voice feature. Sense Voice includes dual built-in microphones that detect loud ambient noise and will then dynamically boost the in-call voice to compensate.

The UltraPixel camera is another highlight. It captures pleasing-quality photos in most lighting conditions.

Instead of boosting the pixels of its main camera, HTC reduced them to just four megapixels, compared to eight in previous models apparently because 4MP resolution is sufficient for most uses, especially for social networkers.

Instead of boosting pixel count, HTC turned to use larger image sensor to boost the image quality as larger image sensor means larger photo site that yields better image quality.

HTC UltraPixel Camera uses 1/3-inch BSI (backside illuminated) sensor and the camera function is powered by a dedicated HTC ImageChip 2. HTC calls its camera as Ultrapixel because of the larger image sensor.

The main camera uses f/2 aperture lens with 28mm focal length in 35mm photography equivalence and it comes with optical image stabilisation technology.

The camera has very good performance. It has no shutter lag and it is capable of shooting a sequence of photos. The test found that the camera captured good quality photos in most lighting conditions. Portrait shots were sharp and clean and scenery shots were beautiful with well saturated colours. The HDR shooting made ensured that most shots come clean and sharp even in complex lighting conditions. So, HTC One is one of smart phones that allow you to have fun shooting photos – albeit you are happy with 4 MP resolution.

A feature that comes with the camera is HTZ Zoe that will bring your photo gallery to life. When you are in the camera mode, you can tap Zoe function. When you use Zoe function and press the shutter, HTC One automatically captures up to 20 photos and record voice and present the series of photos like a 3-second video clip. You can review the sequence of photos by dragging the progress bar at the bottom and select the photo you want to share to your Facebook wall. You can also upload the photos to HTS Share service for sharing with your friends.

With HTC Zoe function, the camera starts capturing even before you press the shutter icon and the progress bar will display a white dot that shows the start of your recording.

This function is very useful for capturing a sequence of fast actions but you need to plan ahead and make an arrangement with your subject to move from one spot to another spot before the camera, which is needed to be hold still, not panning after the subject.

HTC One’s front camera has 2.1 MP resolution and comes with 88-degree wide-angle lens. Both front and main cameras are capable of capturing Full HDR video.

HTC One has a suggested retail price of Bt21,900.

 

 

      Key specs

_ Platform: Android 4.1.2 operating system with HTC Sense 5.0

_ Networks: GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; HSPA: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz

_ CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, quad-core, 1.7GHz

_ Camera: Main: 4MP 1/3-inch sensor with f/2, 28-mm lens; n Front: 2.1 MP with 88-degree-angle lens

_ DISPLAY: 4.7-inch Super LCD 3, Full HD 1080p, 468 PPI

_ Memory: 2GB DDR2 RAM

_ Storage: 32 GB onboard

_ CONNECTIVITY: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, NFC capable, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, DLNA, micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile high-definition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection

_ BATTERY: 2300 mAh embedded rechargeable Li-polymer battery

_ SIZE: 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm/4mm (max/min)

_ WEIGHT: 143 grams with battery