HTC One Review: this One is clearly for multimedia buffs

HTC’s flagship smartphone, the HTC One is all set to launch today in Mumbai. The phone was initially announced to launch on 8 April for a price of Rs 42,900 but the smartphone never made it to Indian stores officially. HTC has been facing serious supply issues according to reports , which have resulted in delay of HTC One’s shipments.

The HTC One is a quad-core device with 2GB of RAM, 32GB space, a 4.7 inch screenwith a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution which comes to 468 pixels per inch (ppi). It has a 4 megapixel camera, (HTC calls these as Ultrapixels), since the imaging sensor which detects the pixels is much bigger it ensures that the pictures you take have much more clarity and are sharper. It also has Dual Frontal Stereo Speakers on phone.

Of course it ships with Android 4.2 but this smartphone has a generous over-layer of HTC’s Sense user interface.

We got our hands on the smartphone for a few days and here’s our first review. We take a look at the three features that HTC hopes will help the smartphone stand out against the crowd.  These are BlinkFeed, which is the official homescreen for the phone and aggregates news and social media content, the Camera, and the Sound.

For a more detailed tech specs review, read the one by tech2  here.

Blinkfeed: This is the official homescreen in the HTC One smartphone. You can choose what content you want from news websites by simply tapping BlinkFeed on the top right will give you the option for settings. Go in and choose the content you want. Also as soon as you log into your Facebook and Twitter app from the phone, HomeFeed will start pulling off the content from these two apps right on your homescreen.

You have the option of changing the Homescreen back to a regular Android Homescreen with just icons, but remember you can’t delete BlinkFeed.

Personally I’m not a big fan of BlinkFeed. Yes, it looks a lot like Flipboard but in terms of design and aesthetics it comes nowhere close to the kind of user experience that Flipboard offers. First and foremost not all of the content that I saw from news websites was formatted to suit BlinkFeed. Some stories were just jarring to read as the text appeared straight from an RSS feed. It is fair to say I’m not going to be leaving Flipboard for this.

The Facebook and Twitter addition is also unnecessary in my opinion. For instance when I click on a picture from Facebook that appears on BlinkFeed, it would take me back to the Facebook app. Same for Twitter. If  I have to do all the commenting, liking, sharing from the Facebook app itself, then why link it to my BlinkFeed.

With so much content that is constantly being pulled onto BlinkFeed, remember this is going to be a data hog. Also if somebody else opens your smartphone, your Facebook and Twitter updates will be on display. Personally not thrilled with either of these options.

BlinkFeed might appeal to those who want all their content in one place. No doubt it is a great idea, get all your news and social media in one place. But it is poorly executed.

Camera: HTC One has a 4 megapixel camera and the company is hoping that users will stop buying into the myth that more megapixels means a better smartphone camera. The HTC One camera comes with a bigger sensor, which allows more light, better pictures and less noise. According to HTC, Ultrapixels will let users will be able to quickly shoot true-to-life images with the best colours, even in low light conditions.

As a smartphone camera, the HTC One’s camera definitely delivers on the low light promise. In fact when I shot with the camera, without any flash at night on a road, the image was distinctly less grainy, less noise and even though I had street light support, the image is quite clear.  You can see the image on the right.

HTC’s Camera also comes with a host of inbuilt features called the HTC Zoe mode. In this mode you can click a picture with sound for about 10 seconds. You can edit pictures from the camera itself; the options include adding photo filters, remove people/photo bombers, add a smile, remove red eyes etc. You can also create a multi-exposure shot from the Zoe Mode itself.   Personally when I tried out the options for skin smoothening and making eyes bigger, the results were comical. A lot of this seems like Photoshop for amateurs, but tinkering with their photos will appeal to users.

In short, the 4-megapixel camera doesn’t disappoint you and HTC is offering users a host of options to edit pictures without going to any other app. If like to whip out your smartphone camera for everything, this is definitely a great option.

HTC’s Sound: The smartphone comes with dual-front speakers and according to HTC offers one of the best sound experiences as far as smartphones go. In terms of the sound experience, HTC One is definitely worth it.

One of the advantages of the dual-front speakers that I found out was that watching videos easily on this smartphone without having to plug in headphones. The dual-speakers add to the clarity and sound sharpness and I preferred the speakers on the device to using headphones.

Even with headphones, most smartphones don’t offer a great experience as far as music or other sounds goes and I often find myself putting the volume at full blast, something I didn’t feel the need to do with HTC One’s speakers.

The HTC One has a full HD screen combined with excellent sound quality. So yes, watching television show or movie might actually make sense on this screen.  HTC One also come with Beats Audio sound enhancement technology and this combined with dual-speakers makes this smartphone pretty powerful in terms of sound.

So, you can just sit back and watch a video, something I do a lot on my smartphone.

Verdict: The HTC One offers great camera features, along with excellent sound quality which would put it high on the list of those who value their smartphone as a multimedia house. But as a utility hub,  BlinkFeed doesn’t cut it for me.