The best HTC smartphones according to consumer reviews. Best HTC Smartphones Performance and Software

The flagship HTC One is currently available in black and white

Not so long ago, about a month ago, I saw for the first time the new flagship of the Taiwanese company. The acquaintance was stormy, but fleeting, so I decided to fully update and publish the review, with closer communication with this very remarkable model.

Everything, absolutely everything, that struck me at the first glance at the model struck me again upon closer examination. Very high-quality assembly, aluminum unibody body(completely SOLID!!!), ultra-pixel camera, simply stunning design - this is what plunged me into a pleasant shock. The model appeared at the right time, in the right place and in the right quality.

In fact, since the time HTC Sensation And HTC Evo 3D I gained respect for a company I knew virtually nothing about before. Now the company has once again confirmed its level and set the bar.

The new shell, although it does not repeat that vaunted design HTC Sense 4, but nevertheless sets the tone in communication with the user. Everything is in the right place, nothing superfluous.

The design of the model is excellent. There is no other way to say it. An original model, without a hint of anything.

Very wide viewing angle of the HTC One screen / Photo by MobileReview

In terms of functionality, everything is at the top level:

operating system Android 4.1, proprietary interface HTC Sense 5.0

Full support for high-speed communications 3G and 4G (LTE), Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, and the model also has an NFC module.

It has 32 GB of its own memory, of which about 26 GB is free for the user; the model does not have a microSD slot.

And now we are gradually approaching the most piquant place of the flagship smartphone - the Main camera with a resolution of 4 MP. How do you like this figure? Discouraging? Don't worry, HTC engineers have everything in order with their imagination. Thanks to the use of technology UltraPixel Your pictures will be of simply cosmic quality + due to the increased pixel size (the size is 2 micrometers), pictures in low light conditions will be with a minimum of noise and discomfort. Of course, the camera has autofocus, optical stabilization, video FullHD-quality (1920×1080 pixels), and an amazing LED flash. How do you like this gentleman's set?;)

Non-removable, Li-Pol, with a capacity of 2300 mAh, will allow you to work and play comfortably for 1-2 days. The main consumer of this notorious charger is a 4.7” display with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels (the pixel density, however, is also high - 468 ppi). In terms of color reproduction, the screen, like practically the screens of all HTC models, has simply excellent brightness and natural reproduction of color shades. The eyes simply rejoice, contemplating the picture on the stunning screen, called by HTC nothing less than SoLux. To keep the screen safe, engineers installed the latest technology - glass Gorilla Glass 3, protecting against micro-scratches and cracks. The viewing angles of the screen are, as always, simply wide.

Technologies- this is what HTC has always been famous for, starting with the cult HTC Sensation. Not just one, but a whole complex of technical innovations in the field of photo processing under the general name HTC Zoe. With the help of these technologies, you can select the best ones from a series of frames that are created automatically for saving and further processing.

A separate sound chip is responsible for processing sound in the bowels of the flagship. HTC BoomSound+ availability of proprietary technologies developed jointly with Beats Audio turns into an ideal smartphone for music lovers. The model has two stereo speakers, one above the screen and the second below it, by the way, not only VERY LOUD, but also of amazing sound quality. Crystal clear sound without any hint of artificial embellishment, everything sounds as realistic as possible.

Another technology HTC BlinkFeed more software than hardware - responsible for displaying news from entertainment resources like an endless news feed. The technology is controversial, rather funny for the first 10 minutes, then you gradually forget about it, due to the fact that you can download much more functional ones on the Play Market RSS aggregators.

HTC One BlinkFeed / Photo by MobileReview

As a conclusion, I will say one thing - the new product did not disappoint me, it simply stunned me with its freshness, its quality and originality. Such positive emotions I haven’t experienced this in a very long time when communicating with a smartphone. Thank you all for your attention!!!

P.S. To the HTC One review compiled by the blog editors website we enclose video review of HTC One, filmed by the team of the online store Sotmarket.

– with Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 and 3 GB of RAM. There are performance differences, but most users won't notice them. But the price difference is serious. We'll tell you about the special version of the new flagship in detail.

The case is metal, the frame around the perimeter is polished, the back is matte and does not slip out of your hands, there are three plastic inserts - stripes near the ends and on the top end. By the way, HTC 10 Lifestyle has three antennas for one cellular module.

On the front panel above the screen there is a fairly large camera and speaker. There is no speaker under the screen, as well as stripes with a logo. Due to this, the HTC 10 Lifestyle screen frames have become much thinner, so that the smartphone seems sleeker. The screen is protected from damage by 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3.

The dimensions of the smartphone are 145.9 x 71.9 x 9.0 mm, weight – 161 g. The body of the HTC 10 Lifestyle narrows to 3 mm towards the edges.

Control

The Home button is traditionally located below the screen and includes a fingerprint scanner.

There are touch buttons to the right and left of the scanner. On the right side of the smartphone there is a ribbed power key. A little higher is the volume rocker.

HTC 10 Lifestyle supports Motion Launch gesture control and Ice View cases. When you pick up your smartphone, the sound is automatically muted, and when you flip it over, the call signal is muted.

The HTC 10 Lifestyle has a 5.2-inch screen with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels and a density of 546 ppi. Note that the human eye can distinguish about 400 dots per inch, so the picture is perceived as absolutely solid.

The display uses a fifth-generation Super LCD IPS matrix - the colors have become richer, the brightness margin has increased. Small print can be read without problems on a clear day. The screen has become more sensitive and responds 50% faster than its predecessors.

Performance

The basis of the HTC 10 Lifestyle is the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 chipset with a frequency of up to 1.8 GHz, which includes four ARM Cortex A72 cores and four more ARM Cortex A53 cores, as well as an X8 LTE modem and an Adreno 510 GPU graphics core. Compared to the top Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, the chip has slightly lower performance. But there is a Boost+ function that speeds up the smartphone. In addition, HTC 10 Lifestyle supports Cat.6 networks (300 Mbps, 50 Mbps), and HTC 10 supports Cat.9 networks (450 Mbps, 50 Mbps).

The smartphone has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage memory. There is also a slot for a microSD card with a capacity of up to 2 TB and a slot for a nanoSIM card.

HTC 10 Lifestyle runs on a 3000 mAh battery. In talk mode on 3G/4G networks it can last up to 27 hours, in standby mode – up to 19 days. With average usage, the battery capacity lasts for about two days. There are also two energy saving modes – standard and maximum. Quick Charge 3.0 is supported - the battery charges from 0 to 50% in half an hour.

Main camera

There has never been such a high-quality main camera in HTC smartphones. Its resolution is 12 MP, but it uses a proprietary BSI HTC UltraPixel 2 matrix, which receives more information about the image. Dot size – 1.55 microns, aperture – f/1.8.

The lens has an optical stabilization system. Its focal length is 26 mm, coverage angle is 80 degrees.

There is laser autofocus illumination. Double LED flash for better color reproduction.

On HTC 10 Lifestyle you can shoot 4K video with Hi-Res sound and take photos at the same time. The camera also allows you to create timelapse videos and videos at speeds of up to 120 frames per second in 720p resolution. In the professional mode of the camera, you can configure a wide range of parameters and save photos in RAW format (12 bit).

Front-camera

The camera on the front also uses UltraPixel technology, but its resolution is lower - 5 MP. But there is optical image stabilization. The viewing angle is 86 degrees, the aperture is ƒ/1.8, the focal length is 23 mm, and the dot size is 1.34 microns. HDR mode, voice control and Full HD 1080p video recording are supported.

Acoustics

HTC smartphones have always had excellent sound quality, and the HTC 10 Lifestyle is no exception. BoomSound Hi-Fi edition technology has been implemented, one speaker is located above the screen, the second has been moved to the bottom end of the smartphone.

The smartphone has a built-in 24-bit DAC and headphone amplifier. Each speaker has separate high- and low-frequency drivers.

A special feature of the new model is support for losless audio and Dolby Audio Surround. In addition, when you connect new headphones, the smartphone will offer to configure them: automatically, answering questions, or manually - set the desired values ​​for individual frequencies in each headphone.

The delivery set includes branded Hi-Res Audio headphones with membranes made of 8 micron thick polymer, which is used in the aerospace industry. The size of the drivers has been increased by 70% compared to previous standard models. By the way, you can create your own sound profile for each pair of headphones.

The sound reception system is also interesting. HTC 10 Lifestyle has three built-in microphones and active noise reduction. Hi-Res stereo audio recording is supported.

Communications and sensors

HTC 10 Lifestyle includes a set of sensors and ports that are included in almost all top smartphones. In addition to the latest Bluetooth 4.2 and dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz), there is an NFC contactless sensor. In addition, HTC 10 Lifestyle has a Display port for connecting external screens, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetic sensor, a digital compass, proximity and light sensors. There is also a traditional 3.5 mm jack for a stereo headset, as well as USB 2.1 Gen 1, Type-C (note that

Introduction

I usually start reviews of flagships with a story about what happened to the company shortly before the release of the model in question. This time there will also be such a story, but in a short version, because we have already looked at HTC One from several different angles and the site had materials from Eldar Murtazin and me about this device even before the release of the new product. I suggest you read them if the topic is interesting.

For HTC, the previous year, and also partly 2011, turned out to be a crisis. At first, the company, along with the growing popularity of the Android platform, stood on par with brands like Samsung, Apple and Nokia, and then over the course of several years lost a significant part of its loyal audience. Enthusiastic reviews from the IT press and individual users for some HTC products did not give anything in terms of improving the brand's position in the market and sales. All this time, the situation did not change much, despite various statements from HTC that the company would focus on top products, everything continued in the same spirit. The release of a new smartphone, and then many of its variations, relatively speaking, then middle-class devices one after another without any differences. At the same time, HTC has never been a large company and did not become one overnight after the success of its first Android smartphones, but within HTC a decision was made to expand the model range and since then we have all witnessed this process.

With the announcement of the HTC One X, it seemed that the situation began to change and the company would again concentrate all its forces around one, top-end device without any compromises, but the release of this model and the subsequent flurry of simpler devices and variations of the HTC One X itself showed that the situation is not changing. The company's release of the HTC One X+ smartphone looked especially strange just six months after the start of sales of the original HTC One X. Both flagships were unsuccessful in the market and the difficulties within the company only worsened.

And now, the beginning of another year, the Taiwanese manufacturer presents another flagship - HTC One. Again there is a lot of hope, a lot of joy and some surprise, all this happened after the release of HTC One X and is happening again. The only difference is that HTC One actually looks more interesting than its predecessor in terms of design and body materials, and this model actually takes into account some of the mistakes of the previous one. But there are also new controversial and incomprehensible points. In this review, I will not answer your question whether the HTC One will become a globally successful and popular “people's smartphone,” but I will try to answer whether I will buy it for myself when I have a choice between the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z?

Design

Over the past few years, HTC has been growing in terms of design, in my opinion. This can be clearly seen in the example of the flagships HTC Desire HD, HTC Sensation, and then HTC One and HTC Butterfly. The manufacturer is not afraid to experiment with materials and the shape of the case; this is not always successful, for example, for some reason the glossy Butterfly was brought to Russia, but in general it is difficult not to notice the progress.

Despite its large dimensions and boring colors, the HTC One is available in silver and black (in the future, perhaps in red), the device looks beautiful and interesting. This is achieved through various details - the shape of the case, the curved back, and the speakers, which are unusual for a smartphone and symmetrical relative to the screen. You can talk about the similarities between HTC One and Blackberry Z10, but this can only be done by a person who has not held both smartphones in his hands. In reality, there are no similarities between these models.

It seems to me that HTC One perfectly demonstrates the modern capabilities of companies in terms of the design of their smartphones. On the one hand, we hear universal phrases that every smartphone with a large touch screen is certainly a display and a body in the form of an appendage and that nothing new can be invented here; on the other hand, there are vivid examples of the opposite - Sony Xperia Z and HTC One. However, if with the Xperia Z everything is not so simple, because the glass used in the smartphone is far from universal and, more importantly, not quite familiar for smartphones, then in the HTC One the combination of design and materials is simply a win-win - a lot of metal, familiar classic colors and no bling.

Housing materials

The main body material is aluminum. The base of the smartphone is an all-aluminum “tub”, cut from a single piece of metal, electronics, display and other elements are placed in it, above and below the screen there are aluminum inserts, they are attached to the main part (in the picture there are elements with slots for speakers).

The smartphone is black – painted aluminum. After two weeks of active use, my black HTC One has not lost its presentation at all, no scratches or chips have appeared on it, and I also cannot yet find any areas with peeling paint. On the other hand, two weeks is not too long, so I won’t speak confidently about slight wear and tear on the case.

Below you can watch a video that briefly shows the process of making the aluminum base of the HTC One case:

A separate task for HTC engineers and developers was the issue of placing antennas in the smartphone, since the case is all-metal, and the only pair of holes in it are for the camera and a slot for a microSIM card. As a result, the best solution was considered to be placing the antennas outside the housing. They were placed in small grooves on the outside of the back of the smartphone and filled with plastic. Thus, those two decorative plastic inserts that we see on the smartphone are precisely the antennas hidden here for the operation of wireless interfaces.

The side edges of the device are also filled with plastic; here it is painted in the color of the body. The screen is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass 2, there are practically no fingerprints left on it, and those that do exist are invisible. In order to take a photo with prints on the display, I had to try pretty hard.

As for possible scratches, everything is as usual. On paper, glass is very resistant and can be scratched with a knife, scissors and other objects - there will be no scratches. However, after a month of use, small scratches may still appear on the device. So it’s worth remembering that even Gorilla Glass or its equivalent is not a 100% guarantee that the screen will be like new throughout the entire time you use the smartphone.

Another pressing issue is the soiling of the case as a whole. I don’t know how things are with the silver HTC One, but the black device gets dirty surprisingly quickly and marks and stains on the back of the device are clearly visible. Especially oily fingerprints. You can wipe it or put up with a constantly stained smartphone - everyone decides for themselves. From time to time I wipe the body of the HTC One on whatever happens (on my sweatshirt, for example).

Assembly

From the fact that the HTC One uses a unibody case without removable elements (except for a slot for a microSIM card), it follows that the device’s build is excellent. Yes, I understand that this rule does not always work, just remember the HTC One X with peel-off glass in a “monolithic” assembly, but in the HTC One there seems to be no such problem (pah-pah-pah), and it’s hard to come up with others. The case looks very reliable and solid.

Dimensions

Unlike its main competitors, which are equipped with 5" screens, HTC One has at least somewhat retained the "humanity" towards users; it has a 4.7" screen and this is good in terms of the size of the device.

Dimensions of HTC One – 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm, weight – 143 grams. This is smaller than the dimensions of the HTC Butterfly. Below are the sizes of other popular smartphones for comparison:

• Apple iPhone 5– 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm, 112 grams
• HTC Butterfly– 143 x 70.5 x 9.1 mm, 140 grams
• – 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm, 143 grams
• Nokia Lumia 920– 130.3 x 70.8 x 10.7 mm, 185 grams
• Samsung Galaxy Note II– 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm, 183 grams
• Samsung Galaxy S4– 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm, 130 grams
• Sony Xperia Z– 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm, 146 grams

It should be noted here that, despite the 0.3” smaller diagonal compared to the SGS 4, the HTC smartphone still has comparable dimensions, but the Sony Xperia Z is already larger.

By modern standards and compared to some other smartphones (SGS 4, Meizu MX2, LG Optimus G Pro), the HTC One has a thick frame between the screen and the edge of the body, it is almost half a centimeter, while for the above models it is about 3-3.5 mm. In practice, I don’t think that reducing the thickness by a couple of millimeters would give a noticeable gain in size, but the smartphone would definitely look more impressive. Although in terms of design everything is fine.

Carrying the HTC One in your trouser pocket is quite convenient; it is still a smartphone that fits in one hand and you just need to get used to it. More precisely, to its dimensions.

Controls

Once again, HTC is redesigning the control system. This time there are two buttons below the screen, to the left and right of the HTC logo. The button on the left is “Back”, the button on the right is “Home”. If you hold the Home key for a couple of seconds, the Google Now application launches; if you quickly press it twice, the utility of recently opened applications is launched in the form of a matrix of mini-images.

Both buttons are comfortable, they vibrate when touched and are backlit, but the main question is this: who is the smartest “designer” inside HTC who was able to push the idea that the HTC logo between two keys instead of a third is cool and beautiful ? Honestly, I really want to see at least some logical explanation for this decision, because so far it seems absolutely useless to me. And not only me, xda-developers is already actively discussing this problem and searching for solutions.

At first, they decided that the area on which the logo was located would not turn into a full-fledged key, and the topic even included a picture of one of the smartphone spare parts:

Screen

HTC One has a Super LCD3 display. The screen characteristics look like this: 4.7” diagonal, resolution 1920x1080 pixels (FullHD), pixel density – 469 ppi, which is higher than any other smartphone on the market.

Traditionally, I can describe my impressions of the screen of the next HTC smartphone in one succinct word - amazing. The display has maximum viewing angles, no matter what angle you tilt it at: diagonally, edges or edges - the picture is not distorted. There is a good reserve of brightness and the screen remains readable in the sun. Color rendering is close to natural, the colors are moderately saturated and rich, but not overly contrasting or acidic.

Viewing Angles

Automatic brightness adjustment does not work correctly in all situations, but in general I have no particular complaints about its operation. In the screen settings you can select the font size for menus and programs.

The only criticism may be that the black color is not quite deep when comparing the display with AMOLED screens, but personally I am ready to forgive this moment with the HTC One display, because in return I get calm colors and a picture on the screen that does not tire my eyes and does not bleed on the floor after half an hour of working with the device.

Camera

The main camera is perhaps the weakest point of HTC's new flagship. There is hardly a person who has not yet joked about the 4 MP module in the 2013 flagship. Of course, now we need to take into account that the smartphone software has not been perfected, and in terms of the camera, as HTC notes, there will be significant improvements in future firmware, but for now we are working with what we have. The main series of pictures below were taken on HTC One with the penultimate stable firmware - 1.28.401.7; most of the reviews on the network, both foreign and in other languages, were carried out on it. I also ended up with another sample with more recent software - 1.29.401.5. You will find examples of pictures from HTC One on this firmware in the comparison section with HTC Butterfly. Looking ahead, I will say that there is no particular difference in quality (or rather, no difference) between the pictures, so we continue to wait together for the final firmware, with which the smartphone will go on sale.

Let's take a look at the characteristics of the main camera module, available on the official HTC website.

HTC UltraPixel Camera:

• Pixel size 2.0 micrometers, sensor size 1/3", back-illuminated matrix
• Dedicated HTC ImageChip™ 2 processor
• F2.0 aperture and 28mm lenses
• Built-in multi-axis optical stabilizer for smooth, professional video
• Smart Flash: Automatically selects one of five flash levels based on distance to subject
• Front camera: 88° lens with HDR
• Full HD 1080p video recording from both the main and front cameras
• HDR Video
• VideoPic function: shoot videos and take photos at the same time
• Record and playback video in Slow motion format with speed control
• HTC Zoe™ with recording of memorable events and a service for publishing them HTC Zoe™ Share

First, I will briefly describe the camera's software innovations, and then I will give the floor to Roman Belykh, who will comment on the quality of the pictures taken on the HTC One.

One of the main features of the camera in HTC One, in addition to the use of “ultrapixels”, is HTC Zoe technology. This is a set of tools for shooting and subsequent editing of images. By turning on Zoe, you'll get frames a few seconds before and after the moment you took it, so if the shot itself doesn't work out, you can choose from images that are stored in memory thanks to Zoe. Another interesting possibility is photo editing, in particular, if you take a series of frames where, for example, there is a person who is present in each frame, then using a special tool you can completely remove the person from the frame. That is, the system glues together different sections from different images.

There are other editing tools: in portraits or just pictures where there are faces, you can change the geometry of faces, make them a little plumper or a little longer, and so on. The most important thing about this is that these tools really work and with their help you can edit pictures on your smartphone. Yes, this will be basic editing, but nevertheless, it is possible and it will not spoil the photos.

The camera interface is as similar as possible to that of the HTC Butterfly; all settings are available from a special pop-up menu, the more important ones are located at the top, the minor ones are located below. The maximum image resolution is 2688x1520 pixels for widescreen mode.

The following settings are available:

Plot

• Ordinary
• Portrait
• Scenery
• Backlight
• Text
• Macro

Modes

• Ordinary
• Expanded panorama

By the way, HTC One does expanded panoramas very well, in my opinion. Look at this example of such a shot:

You can also adjust the ISO value (Auto, 100-1600), white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation and image sharpness. There is serial shooting with a very high rate of fire, up to 20 frames can be taken at a time.

Just in case, I remind you that you can look at our comparison of the cameras of HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Apple iPhone 5.

And now I give the floor to Roman Belykh.

Comparison of cameras (Roman Belykh)

Before we briefly describe the quality characteristics of the HTC One photo and video camera, it is necessary to note an important thing: HTC says that the smartphone software will still be updated (before or after the start of sales is unknown), so we will prepare material on the One camera now and we will try to update it immediately after the update is released.

UltraPixel technology

Naturally, this technology also has a minus, and a significant one. The fact is that the sensor was so physically large that the Nokia 808 smartphone had a camera module on the back side: the thickness at its thickest point was as much as 14 mm. Yes, and this affected the weight (169 grams).

The next experimenters in the field of mobile “saving moments” were the HTC people. A few days before the Mobile World Congres (MWC 2013), traditionally held in Barcelona, ​​the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer introduced the HTC One. It became the first device to receive a new technology with the loud name UltraPixel. At the presentation they tried to convince us that “happiness is not in the number of megapixels,” so the pictures from the One camera are only 4 MP in size, but what a size! In part, the developers are right: the user does not always need a huge frame resolution, especially if the pictures were taken using cell phones, and even, often, of mediocre quality.

The main feature of the technology is the large pixel size on the matrix: it is 2 micrometers. For comparison, the average pixel size of a 13 MP camera is 1.1 micrometer.

Thus, each pixel of the matrix captures 300 times more light. In theory, using UltraPixel technology coupled with high-aperture optics (F/2.0) and a special second-generation ImageChip processor, HTC One should produce excellent images in low-light conditions.

In addition, do not forget that the new camera has a multi-axis optical stabilizer (slightly different from the stabilization in the Nokia Lumia 920). Other characteristics of the One camera include sensor size (1/3") and wide-angle optics (28 mm).

Photo quality

Good level of lighting

Positive points: correct determination of white balance and high sharpness. Negative: despite the excellent lighting level, specific color noise is still noticeable (more like artifacts of their suppression), a rather narrow dynamic range, and often excessive contrast.

Separately, it is worth mentioning that before taking photographs, it is necessary to wipe the camera eye, since the surface of the protective glass of the lens quickly becomes covered with fingerprints, and the frames at the edges turn out to be a little blurry.

Digital zoom operation:

Insufficient lighting level

Taking pictures in such lighting conditions is the strength of the HTC One camera. It does an excellent job of suppressing noise thanks to UltraPixel technology, long shutter speed, image stabilization and a cool fast lens (F/2.0). Focusing is fast and accurate, color reproduction is natural, and white balance is almost always correct.

If we talk about operating modes, it is worth noting “night mode”. In it, the frames come out a little lighter, with the correct BB and even sharper.

Normal and night modes

Ordinary	Night

Portrait and macro photography

Shooting portraits and small objects is always interesting. This device produces simply excellent results: pleasant bokeh, fast focus, good sharpness.

HTC cameras have recently begun to have a “cool” HDR (High Dynamic Range) shooting mode: shadows are brightened and bright areas are darkened. No other device can boast of such results. It’s difficult to describe in words, so it’s better to take pictures yourself once and appreciate the beauty of the HDR mode.

Ordinary	HDR

Comparison of photos taken on HTC Butterfly and HTC One

Judging by the photographs received, HTC Butterfly does a good job of automatically selecting white balance, which cannot be said about the Van. The detail is about the same, with the only difference being that the Butterfly has a higher resolution, so, sad as it is for the One, some small details are better visible on the Butterfly. If I were HTC, I wouldn’t be too clever: I would use a camera from Butterfly and tinker with the image processing algorithms.

Night shots of HTC Butterfly (Auto mode) and HTC One (Auto/Night mode):

Photos in home lighting of HTC Butterfly and HTC One:

Macro HTC Butterfly and HTC One:

HTC Butterfly and HTC One text:

Comparison of pictures taken on Nokia 920 and HTC One

The first thing worth noting is the different viewing angles: Nokia has 26 mm, while HTC has 28 mm. “Nokiev” optics are of slightly lower quality, so slight blurring of details is easily noticeable at the edges. The second is saturation: Nokia “embellishes” the image a little, HTC, on the contrary, tries to adjust the camera settings to more natural shades, but somehow it doesn’t work out very well: the image lacks color, and therefore looks somewhat dull.

As for detail, it was about the same if HTC had an 8 MP camera. In this case, the footage from the Nokia Lumia 920 comes out a little more detailed: if you zoom in on the photo to 100%, you can see the smallest details.

In general, frames taken on the HTC look as if an 8 MP or 13 PM image was “resized” to 4 MP and contour sharpening was applied.

Night shots on Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC One

White balance is cheated by one device or another, but a little more often by HTC. The Nokia smartphone in night mode increases the shutter speed regardless of the lighting level, so the frames often come out overexposed.

Sharpness is slightly better in shots taken with the HTC because it doesn't try to turn night into day by increasing the shutter speed. Therefore, pictures taken on the Lumia 920 are more likely to be blurred by hand shake.

Video quality

Traditionally, flagship smartphones shoot video in a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels at 30 frames per second (maximum 20 Mbit/s). There is an additional HD mode at 60 PFS (maximum 12 Mbps). Below specifications:

• Format: MP4
• Video bitrate: AVC, 20.0 Mbps
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (1.778), 30 fps
• Audio bitrate: AAC, 192 Kbps
• Channels: 2 channels, 48.0 KHz

The most interesting thing is that the image stabilizer also works in video mode. The picture is quite smooth. But we must not forget that it was difficult to create a stabilization mechanism in a miniature body, so the video has imperfect quality: at the edges, during strong camera shaking, the image is slightly blurred.

The sound is recorded very clearly, but the volume is low. The stereo base is expanded, i.e. You can clearly hear which direction the sound is coming from.

Comparison of video recorded on Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC One

The image on Nokia looks much sharper, the focus does not float as much as on HTC. However, the choice of automatic exposure is depressing: the picture looks much darker than on the HTC.

The stabilizer, let’s say, works more pleasantly on the Lumia 920, since the One, as I said earlier, slightly blurs the picture on the sides.

The sound is definitely better on the HTC One: it is louder, stereo is clearly audible (mono sound on the Nokia 920), automatic recording level adjustment works well, i.e. harsh sounds are muffled.

It is worth remembering that the firmware on HTC One is not final, but the latest. So, there remains hope that the developers will still do everything possible to improve the final result as much as possible.

Sound

Beats Audio. In addition to the traditional Beats Audio logo on the back of the smartphone, the company offers users several more improvements in HTC One. But I'll start with Beats. On the first HTC smartphones, where the so-called “improvers” from Beats Audio were also responsible for the sound, the situation was like this. When you plugged in headphones and listened to music with Beats turned off, the sound was normal. Just like on the company's previous smartphones. That is, it was a good sound and, for example, I used to listen to music with Beats turned off. Turning this thing on made musical compositions more bassy, ​​or, I don’t know how best to describe it. In general, with the inclusion of Beats, the music was dominated by low frequencies and this was noticeable.

Gradually, the situation changed so that it was impossible to listen to music on a standard HTC player without Beats turned off - the sound was simply strange and incomprehensible. The clearest example of this situation is the HTC One. When you listen to music with Beats turned on (which is turned on by default), everything is fine. As soon as you turn it off, the sound becomes simply terrible, as if when you turn off Beats you are activating the most clumsily configured equalizer “preset.” I don’t know how things really are, but even my poor hearing allows me to hear this difference. It seems that HTC simply left the normal playback mode and called it Beats, and then seriously corrupted the player in software and made it so that when you turn off Beats, you hear some kind of porridge in your ears. I’d like to think that I’m wrong, but I don’t know how else to explain that with Beats turned off, the sound in the smartphone is so terrible. I repeat, this was not the case before.

By the way, with Beats turned on, the smartphone sounds great to my simple village ears.

BoomSound. Above and below the screen on the front side there are two very high-quality speakers for a smartphone. Together they produce a smooth, deep and pleasant sound, as if you were listening not to a smartphone, but to some compact, but still separate and real speaker. Both the stereo effect and depth are felt. The speakers sound especially great if you listen to instrumental music or tracks with pronounced vocals on your smartphone.

I would like to note that the volume level of the HTC One ringing speakers cannot be called excessively loud. Yes, they do have a volume reserve, but not excessive, and the most important point is not the volume, but the quality of the sound produced by the speakers.

SenseVoice. Another feature related to sound implemented in HTC One is the SenseVoice noise reduction system and two microphones for voice recording. In practice, the work of these two technologies is clearly visible if you use your smartphone as a voice recorder. The device records voice very high quality and clearly, without extraneous noise, even if it is present close to the source of the voice. At the same time, the voice is clearly distinguishable in the voice recorder, even if the interlocutor was at a distance of 2-3 meters from the smartphone during the recording. This is if you listen to the recording on the smartphone itself, when listening on a PC, it seemed to me that the recording does not sound so loud, although maybe I’m just so deaf.

Music player. The HTC audio player traditionally has good functionality and is beautifully designed in terms of interface. Music can be presented as a library with albums, artists and genres, or you can choose a simpler view - folders. Using the Gracenote service, the player loads album covers and artist photos for the library.

When the player is turned on, it appears in the notification panel with album art and control buttons.

If you choose a lock screen with a player, you can not only scroll through tracks and pause music without unlocking your smartphone, but also select one of several albums to play.

Autonomous operation

The smartphone uses a non-removable Li-Pol battery with a capacity of 2300 mAh. Compared to the HTC Butterfly, we see another step forward; the battery capacity has increased slightly, but there are no significant differences in real-time operating time between these two smartphones.

If the HTC Butterfly in video mode (playing a video in a circle in 720p quality) worked for me for 6 hours 49 minutes, then the HTC One lasted 8 hours. Yes, the difference is more than an hour, but in real use there are almost no differences in operating time between HTC Butterfly and HTC One.

My HTC One sample worked on average until 19-20 pm with the following load: 40-60 minutes of calls, 10-20 text messages, Gmail in push-mail mode, 3-4 hours of listening to music and about 1-2 hours of active using the mobile Internet (photos on Instagram, reading your feed on Twitter, Facebook, browser). In a similar mode, the HTC One X ran out of charge in the middle of the day, that is, at about 16-17 hours, so the progress is huge, at least in my mode of using the smartphone.

The smartphone has a power saving mode, by turning it on you can significantly save battery power. This mode reduces screen brightness, turns off data transmission when the display goes dark, and turns off vibration.

Platform, memory

The smartphone is built on the latest Qualcomm APQ8064T platform (Snapdragon 600) with a 1.7 GHz quad-core processor, Adreno 320 graphics subsystem (GPU). HTC One has 2 GB of RAM and 32/64 GB of internal memory for storing user data. In Russia, only a model with 32 GB will be sold, of which approximately 25 GB is available for downloading data, the rest of the space is occupied by service files, the system and Sense. So we can talk about the 25 GB version of the smartphone; there is no memory card slot in the HTC One.

If in the case of HTC One X and HTC Butterfly the lack of a memory card slot could still be perceived like this:

I only have this reaction to the lack of a slot in the next flagship, HTC One:

In my opinion, 25 GB for an Android flagship is not enough. Nowadays, many popular games on Google Play take up 1-3 GB of space on a smartphone after installation, the size of each photo taken with the HTC One camera is approximately 1.5 MB, and a video in 1080p quality lasting about 5 minutes is 1 gigabyte. And this is if you don’t take into account the fact that many people download their favorite music to their smartphone and watch movies and TV series on it. Needless to say, a two-hour movie in 1080p quality is rarely less than 5-10 GB in size?

Performance, tests

The overall speed of the HTC One is excellent: desktops flip through instantly, there are no delays or stutters when launching applications or switching between them. With a large number of programs running, the smartphone does not start to work slower or hesitate. Below are the results of testing HTC One in various benchmarks.

To evaluate performance in games, I ran GTA: Vice City, Nova 3, Dead Trigger and a couple of other games on HTC One. All games on the smartphone run smoothly, without stuttering or freezing. When downloading games to your smartphone, you need to be prepared for the fact that some of them (I think many of them are still) are not optimized for such a high resolution and the image in them will simply be stretched by the system to fill the entire screen.

Now a little about video playback. I ran several movies in 1080p quality on the HTC One to see which videos it could handle. As a result, the picture is as follows - films with a resolution of 1920x800 or 1920x1080 pixels, a bitrate of 10-12 Mbps and weighing about 10-15 GB are played by the smartphone generally smoothly, there are some delays in very dynamic scenes, but in general, videos in this quality can be watched comfortably. Accordingly, the device also plays any video of lower quality (bitrate or resolution) without any problems. The standard video player in HTC One is very simple and you shouldn't use it if you are going to watch video on the device. It does not support track selection or subtitles; it is better to install something like Dice Player or MX Player.

And one more point related to performance. If you play on your smartphone for a long time, 10 minutes or longer, the device gets very hot. Moreover, if you measure the battery temperature at the time of heavy load using the Stabilty Test program, it will be about 47-48 degrees, this is not much, an indicator comparable to Google Nexus 4 and other devices. For example, after 30 minutes of load using the Stability Test, the Google Nexus 4 battery heats up to 57 degrees, in the Sony Xperia Z up to 47 degrees, Meizu MX2 up to 52 degrees, in the Samsung Galaxy S3 up to 42 degrees (heating data taken from video portal Mobiltelefon.ru).

However, in my hand the smartphone feels very, very hot, I don’t even have anything to compare it with in this parameter. Holding the device in your hands becomes a little uncomfortable. I don’t know whether this point can be corrected or not and how, but for now the situation is exactly like this. The use of aluminum has an effect; when HTC One heats up, its entire lid acts as a heat sink (and not just the frame, as in the Meizu MX2, for example).

Interfaces

The smartphone operates in GSM (850/900/1800/1900), HSPA (850/900/1900/2100) and LTE (800/1800/2600) networks; the LTE network is also supported in the version of the smartphone for Russia. You can turn interfaces on and off through settings or by adding one of several widgets to the home screen. Unfortunately, the convenient tab with interface switches was removed from the latest versions of Sense, and who was it bothering?

To synchronize with a PC and transfer data, the included microUSB cable is used. USB 2.0 interface. A 1GB file is copied to HTC One's memory in about 55-60 seconds. In the connection settings, you can select the Internet modem mode (Internet access via a smartphone) or end-to-end Internet connection. There are no more “Disk Drive”, HTC Sync and other modes; when connected to a PC, the smartphone is defined as a portable device and you can work with its memory either through Explorer or any other file manager of the system, or using the HTC Sync program.

The microUSB connector in HTC One supports USB On-The-Go (USB OTG) – you can connect flash drives and other storage devices, for example, a camera, to the smartphone via an adapter to transfer pictures from it to the device’s memory. The system in HTC One allows you to read and copy information from flash drives formatted in FAT/FAT32/NTFS file systems (I have not tested other file systems).

There's a funny thing to note here. On the one hand, you can connect a flash drive to HTC One via an adapter, on the other hand, you cannot read data from it using standard means, because the smartphone does not have a file manager; it must be installed separately from Google Play. HTC is one of the last companies that still does not equip its smartphones with a conductor out of the box.

Bluetooth. Built-in Bluetooth 4.0 module with A2DP support. Information about bluetooth profiles supported by the smartphone could not be found.

Wi-Fi (802.11a/ac/b/g/n). HTC One uses a dual-band WI-FI module. You can leave it to work in automatic mode, or you can manually specify the operating frequency band for Wi-Fi - only 5 GHz or only 2.4 GHz.

The Wi-Fi module works flawlessly. In additional settings, you can set the maximum performance mode, and also enable or disable automatic connection to the last saved active network. When the module is operating, the device does not heat up.

Wi-Fi router. HTC One has the ability to “share” a 2G/3G/4G Internet connection via Wi-Fi. In the wireless interfaces menu, select the “Mobile Internet sharing” option and then “Wi-Fi router”. Here, when starting for the first time, you need to select the network name, password, and connection type (WEP, WPA, WPA2). You can also set the maximum number of connections to your smartphone (1-8) or separately prohibit or allow each new connection. When the utility is enabled, you can connect to the Internet, “distributed via Wi-Fi by your smartphone, from any device, be it a laptop, another smartphone or tablet, and so on.

DLNA, HDMI. The smartphone supports DLNA technology, so if you have a DLNA-compatible media server and other devices at home, you can use Butterfly with them. For example, output sound or video from the device directly to the TV. Also, the HTC One device has HDMI support; the connector is combined with microUSB (MHL), so in order to use HDMI, you will first need to buy a special cable.

NFC. Like the two previous models, HTC One supports NFC, but so far there are not many scenarios for using this module, and HTC does not equip its devices with special NFC tags. But with the help of this interface you can check on your smartphone the number of remaining trips on your metro pass!

Navigation

HTC One has GPS/Glonass support; searching for satellites takes a minimum amount of time, from 5 to 15 seconds. The device comes pre-installed with Google Maps and Google Navigation. Google Navigation is used as the main navigation program; the application with maps based on Route 66 data has been abandoned. This, on the one hand, is for the better - navigation from Google is now developing very actively, and besides, it is free. On the other hand, you can no longer use offline navigation, because Google Navigation requires a constant Internet connection to work. Therefore, if you decide to go somewhere and use HTC One as a navigator, it is better to look for navigation software in advance.

For convenient work with a smartphone when it is in a car mount, there is a special “In the car” mode. When you turn it on, you see large icons on the desktop; there are also special enlarged versions of the main applications: address book, music, settings, dialing. If desired, you can add shortcuts to other programs in this menu. In this mode, you can use a special assistant, a utility that performs voice commands like “Call + contact name”, “Play + track name” and some others. It's worth paying attention to this program if you're going to use the HTC One while driving; it really works and recognizes commands quite well if you speak them more or less loudly and clearly.

Text and voice input of text

HTC One uses HTC's traditional on-screen QWERTY keyboard. And it still remains one of the best keyboards available for Android, in my opinion. And it also has one important drawback that has persisted for many centuries... The fact is that when entering text in the Latin alphabet, you see on the keyboard not only the markings of the letters themselves, but also additional symbols. And to add a dog symbol, a hash mark, a percent sign or something else to the text while entering, you do not need to go to a special menu, just hold down one of the letter buttons for a couple of seconds.

In this case, as soon as you switch to the Cyrillic alphabet, the markings of additional keys on the keyboard disappear.

If you compare the sizes of the keys in both layouts, it turns out that the buttons on the English keyboard are slightly larger, but to the eye it seems that the markings of additional characters can easily fit on the buttons in the Russian layout. Judge for yourself:

Each time you press an on-screen button on the keyboard, the device vibrates slightly, this simplifies input, makes it more realistic, and helps you get used to the on-screen keyboard. Switching the language is done by pressing one key, quickly and easily. By holding down the key on the other side of the spacebar, you can call up voice dialing. Voice typing in Android works very well, if you pronounce the message clearly, coherently and with pauses between words, it will be typed almost without errors. The only drawback of the voice dialing system is the inability to add punctuation marks.

In order to move the cursor within the text, you just need to touch any letter, after which a small “toffee” appears to move within the text. There are also four directional keys at the bottom of the keyboard for moving around within text. Double-tapping an individual word in text will highlight it, and you can then select other parts of the text to copy or cut.

In the keyboard settings there is an option “Trace keyboard”. If you turn it on, you can enter words with one movement of your finger, without having to look up to enter the next letter, this is analogous to the Swype keyboard. In the settings you can change the line color for the Trace keyboard.

The keyboard has a personal dictionary, where the device saves new words that you often use. The dictionary can be edited and also synchronized with a backup copy on the memory card.

HTC BlinkFeed

The new flagship HTC One is the company's first device with the BlinkFeed service pre-installed. HTC is betting big on this service, judging by how much they talked about it; in addition, the screen with BlinkFeed is the main one in the system by default.

HTC BlinkFeed is a kind of aggregator of news from various sources: websites and social networks. Why peculiar? The fact is that the news that is shown in BlinkFeed first passes through the HTC server, is compressed, reformatted, and only then ends up on the smartphone screen. This was done to reduce the traffic costs of the service, as well as to increase the speed of its operation. News is displayed on the home screen in a tile format, much like on Windows Phone. The tile may be larger or smaller, depending on the image available for the news. The news feed as a whole looks beautiful and neat, provided that good sources are selected. But, if in words the capabilities of HTC BlinkFeed seem interesting, in practice this service is still of little use if you are going to read news with it. I'll try to justify my opinion.

Firstly, there are now some obvious shortcomings in HTC BlinkFeed that will probably be corrected, but they greatly spoil the first impression of it. When the screen with BlinkFeed is set as the main one in the system, you can return to the latest news on it by touching the “Home” key, this is convenient. But if you make any other screen the main screen, and move the screen with BlinkFeed, then the home key will return you exactly to the main screen, and not to the latest news in the feed. In practice, this means this: if you miss a day or even several hours of viewing BlinkFeed, then in order to return to the latest news in the service, you will have to scroll through the entire feed with your finger for this period of time (for a day, for example). It could be hundreds of news items and a minute or even more time when you just mechanically scroll through the news with your finger, from bottom to top, from bottom to top, from bottom to top...

Secondly, and this is the strangest flaw of the service, in my opinion, you cannot add your own news sources to HTC BlinkFeed. The company says that complex compression algorithms are used to operate the service, and in the future HTC itself will try to add the most popular resources to the feed so that they can be selected, but the possibility of adding its own sources is not even being considered. And this is in the 2013 flagship on Android 4.1, on a system for which there are a dozen good RSS aggregators, and people all over the world read a variety of sites, so you definitely can’t please everyone. In my opinion, the inability to add your sites to BlinkFeed makes the service uninteresting for many people.

Thirdly, BlinkFeed doesn’t even allow you to choose to display sites in multiple languages. That is, even if you are approached by sites about technology that BlinkFeed offers in Russian (nomobile, vesti, russia today), but you also want to read news from Engаdget, The Verge, and so on, you will not be able to add them to your feed. Either sites are in Russian from the Russian-language segment, or in English or some other language. We can only congratulate the developers who created HTC BlinkFeed; they invented the 2013 news ghetto for Android smartphones, no less.

Fourthly, even optimization and passing news through “special HTC servers” before being shown on the screen does not save them from having low-quality pictures. It’s hard to blame HTC for this, because on a screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, most images will seem of poor quality, but they clearly should have foreseen this. In the meantime, many news in HTC BlinkFeed are displayed with a mess of pixels instead of a clear image, simply because on the source site the news is published not with an image of 1000x1000 or higher, but with an image of something around 500x300, for example.

Fifthly, and this is the strangest thing, it seems to me that HTC BlinkFeed cannot be completely removed. Yes, you can uncheck all resources so that the service does not waste traffic, but even in this case you will be left with one screen occupied by BlinkFeed and there is no escape from this. For most, this is probably a trifle, but there are users who love minimalism and try to place all applications on one or two screens, and it seems to me that they will not like it.

HTC Sense 5

The smartphone runs Android 4.1.2, HTC promises to soon release an update to 4.2, but the fact that it is not using the latest version of the OS is a little upsetting. Traditionally for HTC, the Sense shell is used, here it is HTC Sense 5 - the latest version of the company's proprietary interface.

I'll start with a brief description of external changes in the interface. I, like many other HTC fans, at one time did not like the transition from the traditional Sense design, which we saw literally in the first version through the third, to something more “fresh” and airy in HTC Sense 4. Now the situation is the opposite - I personally really I like Sense 5 precisely in terms of design and graphics, with the exception of the font.

In HTC Sense 5, the base color scheme is dark gray with black elements, the standard combined clock and weather widget with sketchy weather status icons looks very cool, for my taste, it is well readable, but not too cluttered. Additional clock widgets are also a choice, beautiful and laconic, there are plenty to choose from.

Separately, I would like to mention the simply gorgeous desktop pictures from the standard set of HTC background pictures. For my taste, one image here is better than the other; personally, this is my first smartphone where I’ve been using only standard background images for a month now.

In HTC Sense 5, as in previous versions of the shell, you can choose one of several lock screen options: with a clock and weather, with a music control panel, with photo albums, with panels of recent events, or you can simply remove the lock screen. The disadvantage is that you cannot change the set of standard shortcuts on the lock screen, that is, the “Phone”, “Messages”, “Browser” and “Camera” shortcuts at the bottom will remain the same.

By the way, to change shortcuts in the fixed bottom panel in Sense 5, you need to go to the programs menu and drag icons into this panel from here; you can also remove icons from the panel only while in the “application menu” window. If you try to remove a shortcut from a fixed panel while on one of the shell screens, nothing will work - the shortcut will simply be duplicated on the desktop. Why the simple ability to change the set of shortcuts in this panel is made so unobvious - I don’t know.

The program menu has been changed, if in previous versions of Sense it was a classic window with a fixed matrix of icons, then in Sense 5 you can choose the grid size: 3 x 4 or 4 x 5. Also in this window there is a clock and weather widget at the top, remove it it is forbidden. In the program menu you can sort them alphabetically or by recently added. And also simply place it in the order convenient for you. Another innovation in the application menu is that you can now create folders here.

In my opinion, if before the menu was just a “warehouse” for all the shortcuts, now it is a full-fledged analogue of the desktop, only if a fixed number of elements fit on the desktop, here you can place as many of them as you like and move between them by scrolling up and down.

Standard Applications

Now let's take a quick look at the standard programs preinstalled on HTC One. I will try not to describe each application inside and out, but will only tell you about the interesting, in my opinion, capabilities of a particular program.

The address book. The changes are mainly cosmetic - the appearance of the tabs has changed, the list of contacts has become more strict and neat. In the contact card, half the screen is still occupied by a photo of a person. When making an incoming or outgoing call, the photo is also located on about half the screen.

By the way, HTC came up with a very elegant solution to the problem of low-resolution contact photos. If you have contacts with such “photos” in your address book, then when you open the contact card or start calling him (or he calls you), you see the photo also on half the screen, but with a special effect, as if you are looking at it through a grille (I don’t know how best to explain, see screenshots).

Latest running applications. Double-tapping the “Home” key launches the utility with the latest open programs, they are arranged in the form of mini-pictures in a 3 x 3 grid. Any application from here can be swiped up from the corresponding mini-picture.

Time, weather. These applications have undergone almost no changes, except that their appearance has changed slightly, and in the weather program more sketchy icons have appeared instead of the previous ones.

TV. We need to talk separately about the TV program. It combines several functions. The first is the TV schedule for the selected operator in the selected country. That is, you indicate your home TV provider and can view the schedule of all programs and films in the program. The second is the remote control for your TV, set-top box or video player. You select the type of equipment, its manufacturer, model, and then you can manage this equipment using HTC One. The infrared port is built into the power key.

HTC promises to soon add Russian television providers here, but so far they are not there. I would like to believe that these promises will come true, but we still need to keep in mind the fact that we have been promised support for HTC Watch for several years.

Kids mode. HTC One has a so-called children's mode, by turning it on you will limit the capabilities of the smartphone, reducing them to a certain minimum - you can launch selected programs and perform some other actions. The operation of this mode is implemented simply - HTC has the Zoodles service installed, which is the “children's mode”. Having enabled it, you first need to set up the rules and add allowed programs, as well as accounts (for several “children,” for example).

Then all that remains is to simply turn on the service every time you give the smartphone to your child for joy. In Zoodles, he will be able to run allowed programs, as well as draw, listen to audiobooks with pictures (information is downloaded from the Internet) and, of course, play games.

Flashlight and voice recorder. Two traditional programs in HTC - they are also available here and work great. Using a voice recorder, you can record conversations, but in this case you will only hear yourself well in the recording, but you will barely be able to hear your interlocutor (the voice recorder does not write from the line).

Service htcsense.com

Along with the release of HTC One, the company is relaunching the Sense web service. Or rather, it restarts, because not so long ago Sense already existed, but then was closed. The new Sense service should be more beautiful, better and more useful, although I personally don’t understand why HTC is launching it again. The main idea of ​​the service is the ability to quickly configure the device remotely via the website.

In addition, HTC Backup can also be called part of the service - with its help you can save your smartphone settings, account data, installed programs, bookmarks and a dictionary for the keyboard. An important point is that HTC Backup stores data from your smartphone in Dropbox, and not on its servers, so using HTC backup you will depend not only on HTC, but also on the stable operation of Dropbox. The second important point is that by turning on HTC Backup you automatically disable the data backup that was originally installed in Android and linked to your Google account. That is, you need to make a choice right away.

The third point is that now the official website htcsense.com in Russian looks something like this:

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t use a service that they couldn’t even properly translate (in its entirety, not in pieces, and by choosing the right fonts) into Russian before launching.

Conclusion

For almost a month of using the smartphone, I had no complaints about the quality of signal reception in HTC One. The device picks up the network well, and the sound in the conversational speaker is clear, without wheezing or extraneous noise. In addition, there is a good volume reserve and you can talk on the phone even while on the subway. The vibration alert in HTC One is powerful, it is felt well even when walking and the smartphone is in your trouser pocket. The volume of the ringing speaker is above average. I can’t say that it directly “screams”, but compared to the volume of previous smartphones from HTC, the difference is clearly noticeable with a plus sign.

The smartphone should go on sale in early April, the pre-order price will be 28,000 rubles (27,990), and at retail the device will initially cost 30,000 rubles (29,990). The start of sales has already been postponed several times and this, of course, slightly overshadows the impression of the launch of HTC One, because initially the smartphone should have been launched together with the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S 4.

It seems to me that there is no particular point in comparing HTC One with the company’s previous flagship – HTC Butterfly. Especially if we are talking about versions of smartphones for Russia, because HTC Butterfly came to us completely neutered - without a slot for a memory card (only 16 GB), and even with a glossy cover. This smartphone can now be called an intermediate link between HTC One X and HTC One.

Let's take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the HTC One.

pros:

• Excellent display in all respects (brightness, viewing angles, color rendition, contrast)
• Moderately large dimensions (the smartphone is comparable to HTC One X and more compact than HTC Butterfly)
• Excellent design and use of aluminum (all metal body and glass - what could be better?)
• High speed in various modes (when working with menus, in games, when watching videos)
• High-quality stereo sound in calling speakers
• Good sound in headphones
• Excellent camera in video recording mode
• Good operating time (compared to previous HTC smartphones)
• Beautiful shell of HTC Sense 5 (if you close your eyes to the strangely elongated fonts)

Minuses:

• Large sizes (it seems that modern flagships cannot escape the “shovel” form factor)
• Only 32 GB of internal memory without the possibility of increasing this volume (about 25 GB available to the user)
• Lack of a touch menu key (it would be forgiven if HTC simply removed the block of touch buttons, but it didn’t)
• Controversial 4 MP camera (yes, progress is visible and HTC’s desire to untie users from the race for megapixels is commendable, but the first pancake rather came out a little lumpy and the quality of the images is not particularly better than the average for the smartphone market, and in some situations - worse)
• Inconvenient power and volume keys (a small thing, but unpleasant)
• Non-removable battery (when traveling you will have to take an external battery with a cable instead of a pair of compact standard batteries)
• HTC BlinkFeed

As usual, HTC has produced an overall interesting smartphone and, as usual, it is a set of largely compromise solutions in different areas. If a non-removable battery or a 4 MP camera can easily be explained logically - in the first case we are dealing with a non-separable body, in the second - with the company’s desire to stand out and offer something new to the market, then the absence of a card slot is again surprising. How surprising is the decision to abandon the menu button and insert the “htc” logo instead. Yes, this is a small thing, but it’s the little things that add up that give us an idea of ​​a particular device, and it’s from these little things that we form opinions about products: “the HTC One doesn’t have a memory card, but the Samsung Galaxy S4 does.” Isn't this an argument?

Probably the most important question before buying an HTC One is: am I willing to put up with its shortcomings for the sake of its advantages? And the new HTC flagship has many positive qualities, although the main thing, in my opinion, is the excellent design and materials of the case. When you take this smartphone in your hand, you feel the real thing, a device with a capital letter U, which is simply a pleasure to use and which is pleasant to hold in your hands. With each passing year, this is becoming increasingly rare for smartphones; the world is already filled with plastic products of all sizes and textures, so the value of a high-quality aluminum case and a feeling of real quality is difficult to overestimate. And HTC One gives just such a feeling. Otherwise, this is a good, well-built flagship with its own positive qualities and disadvantages.

I don’t know about you, but I have already chosen a smartphone for myself for the next six months - it will be the HTC One.

Characteristics:

• Class: company flagship
• Form factor: monoblock
• Housing materials: aluminum unibody housing
• Operating system: Android 4.1.2, HTC Sense 5 proprietary interface
• Network: GSM/EDGE, WCDMA, LTE
• Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600
• Processor: Quad-core 1.7 GHz, GPU – Adreno 320
• RAM: 2 GB
• Memory for data storage: ~25 GB (32 GB stated) without expandability, there is also a 64 GB version, but they do not plan to sell it in Russia
• Interfaces: Wi-Fi (a/ac/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 (A2DP, aptX), microUSB connector (USB 2.0) for charging/synchronization, 3.5 mm for headset, HDMI (via microUSB), DLNA, NFC
• Screen: capacitive, Super LCD3, 4.7” with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels (FulldHD), 468 ppi, automatic backlight level adjustment
• Camera: 4 MP (maximum image resolution 2688 x 1520), using “ultrapixels” 2 micrometers in size, autofocus, BSI, f/2.0, optical multi-axis stabilization, video recorded in 1080p (1920x1080 pixels), LED flash (works like a flashlight)
• Front camera: 2.1 MP, f/2.0, wide-angle (88 degrees), video recording in 1080p
• Navigation: GPS/GLONASS (A-GPS support)
• Additionally: accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor, FM radio
• Battery: non-removable, Li-Pol, capacity 2300 mAh
• Dimensions: 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm/4mm (max/min)
• Weight: 143 grams with battery

Roman Belykh took part in the preparation of the material, for which many thanks to him!

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The 2015 HTC Desire 820G smartphone is a simplified version of the HTC Desire 820. Despite its more modest characteristics, the model has acquired the design of its predecessor. It is generally accepted that the 820G Plus is a more recent version of the regular 820G. In fact, no technical or visual differences were noticed between them. This is such a mess. However, why […]

HTC Desire 626G belongs to the middle price category among smartphones from HTC. The model went on sale in 2015. The cost of the device ranges from 190 to 260 USD, depending on the region and store. The prices indicated are approximate and current at the time of this review. Not to be confused with the HTC Desire 626 model without the G prefix: […]

The HTC Desire 326G smartphone was released in 2015. The device is one of the few budget smartphones from HTC. After all, as you know, previously this manufacturer purposefully produced devices aimed only at wealthy buyers. The Desire 326G retails in a price range of $111 to $125. Prices are current at the time of this review. By and large […]

The presence of two cameras in a smartphone today will not surprise anyone. Rather, on the contrary, a wave of indignation will be caused by a device without a front lens. However, as a rule, the front matrices of mobile devices have rather modest characteristics. Under the inconspicuous eye of the lens are hidden modest-sized 2-5 MP sensors, and many budget devices even have a VGA front camera. Only a few of [...]

The Taiwanese company HTC decided to please fans with a new product and launched its new flagship One M9 in early spring. The smartphone was announced at MWC 2015, which took place in February this year. Already on March 16, the device went on retail sale. The initial cost of the new product was about 800 US dollars, depending on the amount of memory and the country. Were […]

An interesting individual smartphone. The 5.5-inch display diagonal makes it truly sophisticated and sophisticated. The 13-megapixel main camera and the 8-megapixel front camera create magnificent pictures with amazing image quality. The front-facing stereo speakers produce clear, unique sound, making listening to music and watching movies the best experience. It is the 8-core Qualcomm Octa-Core processor that reproduces the most realistic picture, high-quality […]

The review of the smartphone from the company HTC One Mini should begin with a mention of the release date of the device - the world learned about it in the fall of 2013 and since then the popularity of the model has not left. It is important to note that the cost of the smaller version in the world averages about 350 USD, so HTC One Mini can safely be called a budget version, but retains all the main […]

The Nexus line of devices is a unique phenomenon in the world of mobile technology. Born in the head of the Google corporation, but assembled by other manufacturing companies, these devices are with the purest Android on board. Without any graphic changes or additions. The history of the appearance of Nexus models, or rather the reason for their appearance, is quite simple. Google didn't like it when manufacturers changed their operating system just to [...]

In October 2014, HTC announced the release of a new model, the HTC Desire Eye. The smartphone, as predicted, is a cross between flagship phones and budget counterparts. It is distinguished only by the presence of an original feature, which is indicated by the unusual name of the phone. But first you should pay attention to the main technical characteristics of the model. The design of the HTC Desire Eye smartphone […]

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Competition among smartphone manufacturers is becoming more serious every year, so buyers are often confused about who to trust more. Many people prefer not to experiment and purchase gadgets from trusted companies. One of these is the Taiwanese company HTC. Its model range is quite diverse, so it is quite difficult for buyers to decide which device to choose from the presented manufacturer for everyday use. However, our rating of HTC smartphones that are most worthy of attention will help make the difficult choice easier.

The best inexpensive HTC smartphones

The HTC company produces devices of all price ranges, so even lovers of budget electronics should pay attention to the model range of the Asian company. Smartphones in this segment attract attention with good build quality and reliability, while the cost of smartphones within 10,000 rubles sometimes becomes a pleasant surprise for buyers, since at first glance the gadgets seem much more expensive. In addition to the basic functionality, the phones are equipped with some additional functions that are often found only in higher-end models.

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1. HTC Desire 530

Among the “public sector” devices of the Taiwanese company, the inexpensive but good smartphone Desire 530 stands out qualitatively. The stylish and neat model in a polycarbonate case attracts, first of all, with its pleasant design and a bright 5-inch screen with Super LCD technology and HD resolution. Despite the fact that budget smartphones usually operate on short network coverage ranges, the phone in question works perfectly with 3G and 4G, as well as LTE-A up to Cat-4. The rear camera also performs well, which, with an 8 megapixel matrix, is equipped with an F/2.4 aperture, which allows you to take good photographs in daylight. The Desire 530 has quite a bit of internal memory - 16 GB, but an additional microSD slot allows you to use memory cards up to 2 TB.

Advantages:

• excellent lithium-polymer battery with a capacity of 2200 mAh;
• clear high-quality sound from speakers and headphones;
• original design;
• bright and color-rich display;
• NFC support (the ability to make contactless payments via Android Pay);
• low price.

Flaws:

• rather weak hardware: Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 chip and 1.5 GB of RAM;
• Supports only one SIM card.

2. HTC Desire 650

The most popular budget mobile phone today, Desire 650, has received improved characteristics compared to the previous model: a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 4 cores and 2 GB of RAM. It works really fast, so when choosing an inexpensive model, it is better to buy this particular smartphone, spending a couple of thousand more, but at the same time getting a qualitatively new level of performance. Externally, the device is also very attractive due to its stylish body with rounded corners and a nice 5-inch HD screen covered with Gorilla Glass. The rear camera of the device performs much better: judging by the reviews of smartphone owners, 13-megapixel optics with an F/2.2 aperture are capable of excellent shooting not only during the day, but also at night. It’s also worth speaking highly of the device’s connection quality: support for 4G LTE-A Cat.4 networks allows you to always stay connected and use the mobile Internet at amazing speeds.

Advantages:

• excellent smooth operation of the system;
• microSD support up to 2 TB;
• original approach to design;
• 2200 mAh lithium polymer battery;
• excellent build quality.

Flaws:

• support only one SIM card;
• It gets noticeably hot under load.

The best HTC smartphones with a good camera

Decent optics on mobile devices in modern society are valued no less than long-term battery life. Not all manufacturers manage to equip smartphones with truly powerful cameras, since the number of megapixels in the matrix is ​​not the main indicator of shooting quality. Naturally, the price of phones with good optics is noticeably higher, but buying a separate camera will cost more, and carrying an additional device with you is not always practical. Fortunately, in the HTC smartphone rankings there are a couple of places for gadgets that give owners the best photography experience.

1. HTC Desire 10 Pro

The first TOP smartphone in the review is destined to be Desire 10 Pro. A year ago, when announcing the new product, the developers paid special attention to the phone’s detailed optics, which are capable of taking excellent photos in almost any conditions. Indeed, the main camera has a 20 megapixel matrix, laser autofocus and an F/2.2 aperture, due to which neither night time nor bad weather can prevent the user from taking a couple of excellent high-quality pictures. HTC engineers were also pleasantly surprised in terms of acoustics: both speakers of the smartphone stand out with good sound, and there is no complaining about the sound of audio and video files in headphones. Many IT forums praised the phone's performance: the 8-core Helio P10 chip from MediaTek and 4 GB of RAM made the gadget incredibly fast. Users are especially pleased with the fact that they can buy a smartphone with the characteristics of a flagship for less than 19,000 rubles.

Advantages:

• rich 5.5-inch Full HD screen;
• support for 2 SIM cards, 4G LTE-A Cat-6 communication standard;
• tempered Gorilla Glass;
• price-functionality ratio;
• ability to expand SD card memory;
• excellent 13 megapixel front camera.

2. HTC One M9 Plus

A couple of years ago, this gadget was considered one of the best phones from HTC, because a 5.2-inch Quad HD display, a metal body and a fingerprint scanner on the front panel in one bottle were a very non-trivial set. Now the cost of a smartphone has decreased by almost 2 times, thanks to which the price-quality ratio of a smartphone has become incredibly attractive. Indeed, it is almost impossible to purchase a top-end phone for 18,000 rubles. In addition to its interesting design, the device features fantastic dual optics with 20 MP (main sensor) and 2.1 MP (scene depth sensor) matrices. Such a phone can easily replace a real professional camera. It is worth noting a good 4 megapixel front camera with Ultrapixel technology, which captures every detail of the face.

Advantages:

• high performance: 8-core Helio X10 Turbo chip and 3 GB of RAM;
• microSD slot up to 2 TB;
• Gorilla Glass protective glass;
• reliability in operation;
• assembly at the highest level;
• Excellent performance of the 4G LTE communication module.

Flaws:

• relatively thick body;
• The battery is 2840 mAh, which is not enough for such a screen resolution.

The best HTC smartphones with dual SIM cards

If you analyze the market based on customer reviews of smartphones, you can create a unique model of the ideal device. In addition to top-end technical characteristics, excellent optics and an attractive design, a smartphone must have slots for two SIM cards, since in modern society every second person has at least two mobile numbers. For a long time, HTC was a little dismissive of the trend of switching to two SIM card slots, but in the end they succumbed to the “fashion”, resulting in excellent flagships that are not only pleasant to use, but also practical.

1. HTC U11

Currently, the best HTC phone model is the U11. This is a real grandee of the current smartphone market. The manufacturer offered a 5.5-inch display with Super LCD 5 technology and Quad HD resolution, thanks to which every pixel seems incredibly rich and bright. The latest model of tempered Gorilla Glass, IP67 protection and a reliable, durable body make the smartphone virtually invulnerable to all sorts of damage and malfunctions. The performance of this powerful smartphone seems limitless: the octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor and an incredible 6 GB of RAM leave no chance for even the most resource-demanding applications. And, of course, we cannot ignore the main innovation from HTC that made the U11 unique: Edge Sense technology allows you to control the phone through compression of the case, assigning different functions to each degree of pressure. No other gadget in the world can boast of this option.

Advantages:

• 12 MP camera with optical stabilization and F/1.7 aperture;
• 16 MP front optics;
• built-in memory 128 GB;
• two SIM cards with VoLTE support;
• fast charging function;
• Sensor Hub tracker module for tracking physical activity.

Flaws:

• are missing.

2. HTC U Ultra

The U Ultra smartphone with a large 5.7-inch screen is known not only for its performance and functionality, but also for the presence of an additional 2.05-inch display. Everything is clear with the main screen: Quad HD resolution, Super LCD 5 technology, amazing image. But what is the small screen at the top of the smartphone for? In fact, its purpose can be completely different: a notification bar, a quick access panel, a player, a weather widget and much more. Without taking away the useful space of the main screen, the additional one makes the smartphone more practical. But the advantages of the device lie not only in two displays. The phone has excellent 12 megapixel rear optics with laser autofocus and F/1.8 aperture and an equally decent 16 megapixel front camera. Both SIM cards can operate on VoLTE bands.

Advantages:

• good performance: Snapdragon 821 chip with 4 cores and 4 GB of RAM;
• mechanical button, fingerprint scanner;
• Sensor Hub tracker module;
• excellent sound;
• stylish modern design;
• system speed;
• USB Type-C port, supports fast charging.

Flaws:

• mediocre 3000 mAh battery;
• There is no classic headphone jack (wireless only).

3. HTC U Play

The next high-quality smartphone is somewhat inferior in characteristics to previous models, but this does not make it less attractive. On the contrary, reducing the price to 18,000-19,000 rubles attracts many more buyers, because flagships in the middle price range are rare guests. The design of the device has not become innovative, but the image quality has not suffered from this: the Full HD format and 5.2 inches with Super LCD demonstrate an excellent combination of brightness and saturation of the photo. The classic smartphone case has a mechanical button with a fingerprint scanner and tempered glass, so there are no questions about the appearance of the U Play. Performance has become almost imperceptibly lower: the 8-core Helio P10 chip can hardly be called weak or average, and 4 GB of RAM is enough for serious workload and multitasking. Both SIM card slots do not work with VoLTE, but support for LTE-A Cat-6 is more than enough for comfortable networking.

Advantages:

• 16 MP front optics;
• very fast operation of the fingerprint scanner;
• reliable strong case;
• USB Type-C port, supports fast charging;
• built-in memory 64 GB, slot for microSD up to 2 TB;

Flaws:

• weak 2500 mAh battery (autonomy for just under a day);
• There is no standard audio jack.

Which HTC smartphone to buy

Popular and highly promoted brands are by no means a guarantee that their lineup is replete with high-quality new products. Of course, the number of gadgets from the Taiwanese company cannot compete with those of Apple and Samsung. However, choosing the best smartphone from the HTC brand can be quite difficult, since the company has more than enough decent electronics. The buyer can be confident in the quality and reliability of the phones offered. The only thing you need to choose is the appropriate design and characteristics to suit your own needs.