HTC has officially pulled the curtains back on its flagship smartphone for 2013, the HTC One. Previously known as the HTC M7, or ‘the worst kept secret in the mobile industry’ if you prefer, the phone supersedes the One X+ as the new flagship but sticks to the One naming system.
Revealed at a New York event and streamed across to good old London town, the HTC One is a smartphone rocking the very latest in mobile technology – it’s packed out. For starters the phone rocks the latest trend in screen technology; Full HD. Unlike Sony’s Xperia Z and other Full HD phones we’ve seen launch recently, the One uses a slightly smaller 4.7-inch display, the same size as the One X.
As we thought, HTC has ditched its plastic and polycarbonate ways and taken to Apple’s strategy, crafting the One out of sleek aluminium. The chamfered edges have a chrome effect to give a premium feel, with micro-drilled holes either side of the display housing stereo speakers with Beats Audio backing for extra oomph.
Those dual speakers have their own digital amps, which HTC says will produce much louder and sharper sound quality. HTC is calling this whole affair ‘Boom Sound’.
Inside there’s plenty of raw power, too, with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip paired up with a decent 2GB of RAM. That 600 chip is making its debut in the HTC One, with plenty of power promised whilst being extra kind to your battery, which is a rather larger 2,300 mAh cell.
As was predicted before the event, the handset uses a unique camera that HTC is referring to as an ‘UltraPixel camera’. It uses several image sensors stacked on top of each other to create an overall sharper and crisper image. It technically uses a 4-megapixel backside illuminated sensor and a wide f/2.0 lens, with a brand new ImageChip 2 that can process HDR images and Full HD 1080p videos at 60fps.
On the front HTC has used a similar – if not the same – sensor as on its Windows Phone 8X; a 2.1-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide 88-degree lens, capable of capturing Full HD video, just as the rear camera can do.
Android Jelly Bean 4.1 is the operating system of choice for the HTC One, along with Sense 5; the company’s latest user interface. An intriguing new feature that the company calls ‘Zoe’ allows users to shoot and upload short GIF-like video clips, much like Vine. As we saw on leaked images, HTC’s new version of Sense changes the way the Android homescreen looks. You can have constant feeds from news sources, social sites and your friends as Windows Phone-style tiles – this system is called BlinkFeed.
As you might expect, all the usual connectivity suspects are there; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS, 4G LTE, NFC, and either 32GB or 64GB storage – there’s no slot for a micro SD card, however.
The HTC One will be globally available in March, with all major UK networks and retailers confirmed to be stocking it from March 15th.
Stay tuned for our hands-on with phone itself!