2012 may not be a good year for HTC. Entering 2013, the company fights back with the newly crafted HTC One (previously leaked as M7) flagship smartphone. Underneath the all-new aluminum unibody design, the phone packs new hardware, breakthrough camera and enhanced software to “reinvent the mobile experience and set a new standard for smartphones.”
The first thing you will notice when you see the HTC One is its zero-gap aluminum unibody that is comfortable to hold. Above and below the handset’s 4.7-inch Full HD 1080p touchscreen with 468ppi, you can find the HTC BoomSound front-facing stereo speakers that work with a dedicated amplifier and Beats Audio to deliver rich audio experience.
On the back, there is the UltraPixel Camera custom built by HTC to “redefines how people capture, relive and share their most precious moments”. Instead of high-resolution sensor, the UltraPixel Camera sports a bigger 1/3-inch BSI CMOS camera sensor with 2mm pixel size, which can gather 300 percent more light than most 8 or 13 Megapixel sensors for a better low-light performance. HTC also adds F2.0 aperture lens, 2-axis Optical Image Stabilizer as well as ImageChip 2 to make it the best camera you can find on a smartphone. The camera can do Full HD video recording, HDR Video, continuous shooting and VideoPic. There is also a 2.1 Megapixel wide angle front-facing camera with HDR and Full HD video. The phone is also equipped with dual microphones and audio processing for HDR audio recording, adding clean, rich sound to Full HD video footage. Introduced along with the new camera is HTC Zoe that will shoot a three-second snippet when you shot, which will bring a life to your photo gallery. Zoe can also create highlight films for events that can be be remixed and shared with family and friends.
The new HTC One, same as LG’s 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro, is powered by Qualcomm’s new SnapDragon 600 quad-core 1.7Ghz processor and 2GB of RAM. It runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with the new Sense 5.0 that includes BlinkFeed that will bring information relevant to users such as social updates, sports and news, entertainment and lifestyle updates, photos right to the homescreen. The idea is similar to Windows Phone’s Live Tiles though.
Some minor new features also highlight HTC’s new flagship. The power button of the One is not just a button, but also a IR-blaser that works with HTC Sense TV to transfer the phone into a universal remote control and an interactive program guide. For enhanced call clarity, the handset also features Sense Voice with dual built-in microphones to detect loud ambient noise and then dynamically boost the in-call voice to compensate. The phone’s Bluetooth 4.0 is aptX enable and support for new WiFi 802.11ac standard is also added. You can also find DLNA for wireless media streaming and micro USB port with MHL. It supports GPS and GLONASS for navigation as well.
The HTC One will be available in 32GB and 64GB capacities and will be launched globally. 4G LTE is supported but only available in select countries. In the US, the phone will be available from AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.
