HTC One revealed – 4.7in 1080p screen, quad-core innards and… a 4MP camera?
UPDATED WITH RELEASE DATE AND PRICES! HTC's latest flagship is a beast. And don't let that 4MP camera fool you. There's more to it than meets the eye...
After months of leaks and speculation, HTC has revealed its flagship device for 2013, the HTC One. And it’s packing enough firepower to challenge the mighty Sony Xperia Z for our smartphone number one spot.
The 143g HTC One features a 4.7in 1080p display (that’s 468ppi for you pixel lovers) as well as a 1.7Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor and 2GB of RAM for multitasking shenanigans. All that tech is crammed into a curved, 9.3mm thick frame that weighs in at 143g.
The HTC One’s pin-sharp screen has the same optical lamination found on the One X‘s LCD display. In English, that means that the screen is laminated to the glass, resulting in top-notch viewing angles – an area in which our review found the Xperia Z to fall a little short. Round the front, dual stereo “BoomSound” speakers with that ubiquitous Beats Audio branding should make for a video-viewing powerhouse – if you don’t mind annoying everyone else on the bus.
If you prefer watching video the conventional way – on a TV – the HTC One also features an IR blaster integrated into the power button, letting you control your tellybox.
HTC has held its ground by not including a removeable battery or microSD support in the One. The 32GB and 64GB options should however satisfy most users, while a 2300mAh battery will hopefully provide enough juice for that power hungry display.
HTC’s Sense Android skin has received an overhaul, too – fire up the phone and you’re greeted with BlinkFeed, which aggregates social media, customised news feeds and video for an at-a-glance view of your world.
And as for the camera? Well, it’s a 4MP affair. While that may sound unimpressive next to the 13MP snappers on current smartphones, this “UltraPixel” camera, as HTC’s billing it, gathers a claimed 300 per cent more light than conventional sensors. It’ll also shoot 1080p video at 30fps and 60fps 720p video. That mysterious Zoe function, it turns out, is a Vine-alike feature that lets you shoot hi-res, three-second video snippets. Round the front there’s also a more conventional 2.1MP camera for video chat.
The UltraPixel camera and IR blaster are intriguing features which certainly set the HTC One apart from the rest of its Android competitors – but will they be enough to overpower the Sony Xperia Z and its waterproof armour? Check back for our first impressions in our HTC One hands on review.
UPDATE! The HTC One will be available for pre-order from today, and will hit store shelves on March 15th. Want to get your hands on it? It’s available to play with at 11 Phones 4u stores exclusively till 21st February, including one in Oxford Street. It’ll be available on all major networks from £36 a month. EE has announced that it’ll be available for 70 on a £41 per month 24 month package – that will net you 1GB of mobile data plus unlimited UK calls and texts.
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Dan Grabham
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