HTC One® - Android Power With iPhone Style

HTC One® 32GB - Glacial Silver

Android Power With iPhone Style

by Scott Lowe

The HTC One isn't just the best smartphone the company has ever made, it's one of the best devices on the market. It blends the power and versatility of the Android platform with the sleek, stylish design and premium build of the iPhone. But don't be fooled, the One isn't just another Android phone with a pretty shell — with its own unique UI layer and innovative photography and social features, HTC has forged a cohesive relationship between software and hardware for a superior user experience. But has HTC achieved smartphone perfection?

HTC BLINKFEED™

Stream all your favorite content live onto one screen.

The HTC One is absolutely stunning with a curved aluminum back and chamfered edges bound by a thin band of black or white plastic, depending on which model you choose. HTC clearly drew inspiration from Apple's design language, and at first glance, you could even mistake the One for an iPhone. But I'd go as far as to say that it looks and feels better than the iPhone, offering a more distinctive and innovative visual design and fitting more comfortably in your hand. HTC has shown impressive consideration for small aesthetic details, like the textured swirl of the volume rocker or the thin, perforated speaker grills that flank the display.

HTC BOOMSOUND™

Features dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers.

To that end, the One's 4.7-inch 1080p Super LCD3 display is easily the best I've ever seen on a mobile device. Not only is it one of the most pixel-dense screens available at 469ppi, it presents bright, vibrant color without appearing over-saturated — a common issue with other display technologies, like Super AMOLED. It measures below the growing number of 5-inch or larger smartphone displays, which will either be considered a disappointment or a boon, depending on where your preferences lie. I, for one, have been passionately opposed to the ever-expanding, category-blurring growth of smartphone displays, and enjoy the One's 4.7-inch screensize. It adds some valuable screen real estate over the iPhone's 4-inch screen, but still maintains easy, one-handed use. Some areas may be tough to reach at times, but basic navigation and use is simple.

HTC ZOE™

Bring photos to life with Living Gallery.

HTC has also made marked improvements to its Sense software, which adds a unique UI layer to Android, as well as new apps and OS-level tools. In the past, Sense had been plagued by performance issues and unintuitive interaction design, but with the introduction of the One and Sense 5, many of its prior issues have been resolved. Sense 5 is fast, though not nearly as lightweight as stock Android, but gone are most instances of sluggish window loads, unresponsive icons, and unexpected crashes.

As a long-time iPhone user, the HTC One is the Android smartphone I've been waiting for. It's the first handset on the platform that looks and feels worthy of its premium price tag and ships with software that maximizes the potential of the hardware. With room for improvement in battery life and camera fidelity, it's by no means perfect, but it's the closest thing I've found so far. — IGN.com