HTC finally unveiled their 2024 flagship device, the HTC One this morning in New York. As various photos and specs details had been leaked in previous weeks, there wasn’t too much talked about today that we didn’t already know. Nevertheless, HTC unveiled a very solid smartphone today, promising a worthy competitor to Samsung’s upcoming S IV.
The Specs
The One comes with an aluminum unibody chassis with a 4.7-inch 1080p (468 ppi) Super LCD 3 display made with Gorilla Glass 2. Inside, we find a Qualcomm 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, an Adreno 320 GPU, LTE connectivity, 2GB of RAM, NFC, a 2,300 mAh embedded battery and 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage capacity. Not sure why OEMs keep doing this, but no, there is no micro-SD slot. In total, the phone weighs 143 grams.
HTC was promising something special with their new camera technology, and they delivered by promising “a custom camera that includes UltraPixels and can gather 300 percent more light than traditional smartphone camera sensors.” HTC made a big deal that a camera having more megapixels doesn’t necessarily mean better quality photos. As such, the One comes with a 4 ultrapixel camera which equates roughly to 13 megapixels.
Called “BoomSound,” the Beats Audio-certified technology on the HTC One’s is pretty impressive. It includes dual front stereo speakers, proving to be very loud and clear due to the One’s larger speaker chambers. Hopefully, a phone that produces audio we can actually hear without putting it face-down on a desk will encourage others to make similar improvements in design.
Sense 5
Although I’m not a big fan of the various skins companies like Sony, LG, and Samsung have put on Android, I’ve always liked HTC’s spin on things with their Sense UI. Along with the release of the One, HTC showed off Sense 5.0 and its plethora of new features.
Blinkfeed is the name of the Sense homescreen experience. It resembles the tile structure of Windows 8 phones meshed with the widgets we’ve grown accustomed to on Android. Blinkfeed widgets update regularly with live feeds from over 100 HTC partners, including the likes of AP, MTV, and ESPN. It kind of reminds me of Flipboard, except for your homescreen. Not a bad idea.
Zoe is the name given to the One’s ability to capture up to 20 photos and a 3-second video with the simple press of a button. As such, rather than being presented with a gallery of static images, HTC is promising a “living, breathing gallery” full of short 3 second “zoes”.
Accessories
HTC seems to have learned a thing or two from Samsung, promising consumers the ability to customize the One in various ways. As such, the company has been working with case manufacturers like Belkin and Otterbox to produce approved cases for the phone. As part of the unveiling this morning, HTC showed off two cool OEM cases made for the device, one with a leather-finish foldable cover with a back that can fold out creating a horizontal stand for the phone, and another that comes in three pieces so that users can remove and exchange pieces based on colour preferences.
As for other accessories, there’s also a mobile charging system that is a basically a tiny cube that can be placed in your pocket and offer the phone a recharge if needed. HTC also revealed a 6,000mAh Battery Bar, Car Stereo Clip, custom earphones, and HDMI kit.
Availability
According to the press release, the HTC One will be hitting Rogers, Bell, TELUS and Virgin Mobile in March. We will let you know when a specific date is established with each carrier.
For more on the HTC One, here is a hands-on video made from the folks over at Android Central.
