***The Official HTC One Thread***

Nexus18 said:
I have no doubt that it will be the same again this year with the one VS GS 4 i.e. GS 4 will have better specs overall and be a more "complete package", not necessarily a "better" phone and will sell millions more.


Phone isn't even announced yet! marketing + lots of hype = profit! :p
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I'm not so sure you know, I don't think the Galaxy S 4 is going to be better spec wise unless you need removable storage but we won't really know until the 14th. But you're right on advertising, HTC need to do more. If they make people aware of how good their phones are then they will start to sell more again.
 
Nexus18 said:
Just having a look at all the news site and pretty much every top article is to do with the GS 4/samsung, then had a look on gsmarena:

ipplco.png


Phone isn't even announced yet! marketing + lots of hype = profit! :p
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This is hilariously damning. :(
 
Well if you go by the past years, that has always been the case;

- usually put a more powerful GPU/CPU in their phones
- generally had the better camera overall (wasn't as "much" of a difference with the GS 3 VS one series phones though as the one series cameras are superb overall), although I think this time might be different VS the one, that is if they decide to just continue the epeen MP number bump whilst not using a sensor etc. to match the one used in the "one" (terrible name :o) and not include any neat software stuff like HTC did with "zoe"
- bigger battery
- SD slot

Screen is personal preference.

Although as I said before, imo, the CPU/GPU performance gain is pointless now, phones from the last year or two (although the GS2/GN hardware wouldn't be enough for smooth operation at 1080P for games) have plenty of power and they are just pushing quad etc. out just for the sake of it really now. Only benefits I want to see from all these new CPU chipsets is power efficiency and how well it runs with regard to heat.


Although I think this year, HTC will win the following categories (regarding hardware):

- audio (if samsung don't put the speaker(s) on the front etc.)
- camera (if the above does turn out to be true)

Samsung will probably win:

- CPU/GPU (personally I prefer qualcomm though)
- battery life (although there were rumours from apparently a very reputable source that the battery life is similar to the GS 3)


Just have to wait and see.
 
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HTC: Samsung snagged our burst shot innovation, we'll trademark everything around the One

We're changing the culture within HTC. Our culture has always embraced this "quietly brilliant" mentality, which meant the good things about being humble. But we've been too quiet. We're embracing that we need to be a challenger. HTC is a company fighting against two of the biggest companies in the world, Apple and Samsung, who have a lot of resources. So we're embracing that.

What that means is we will be a lot more aggressive in our communication. We need to take ownership of our innovations. So if I think about last year, the HTC One X; great product. We had this "amazing camera, authentic sound" message, but it was too vague. We didn't communicate well why it was an a amazing camera. We essentially worked for our competitors in some cases, where we launched these great things like burst mode, and then we let Samsung come in and suck in our innovation and own it in the consumer's mind.

So the first thing we're doing with those big innovations I took you through--BlinkFeed, BoomSound and the UltraPixel camera--we're actually trademarking these terms, we're going to own them and we're going to be very aggressive about how we communicate those. The second thing is we're going to be a lot more strategic in how we're marketing. We'll have an "always on" approach. Before we've come out in these four- or five- or maybe eight-week bursts around a product. Now you will see HTC aggressively market throughout the year.
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I seriously hope they don't mean the actual burst feature........ but more so how it worked i.e. you held the camera shutter button down and took photos until you let go, no need to select "burst mode" where as with Samsung you had to switch to "burst" mode etc. first but they changed it to HTC's way in one of the updates iirc with 4.1

Battery life looks good:

http://www.phonearena.com/news/HTC-One-battery-scores-very-well-in-endurance-tests_id40704
 
Just spoke to Three to see if they could match the better deals out there but they can't until they have it in stock.

Best deal I could find = Tmobile £26 x 24 months + £45 upfront (500 cross network min, unlimited texts & data)
 
doggo said:
Couldn't agree more, if htc miss this opportunity they really have lost the plot. I can see the delay in certain countries due to regional variations. Lets just keep our fingers crossed for this week in the UK.
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We shall know soon enough! After all the 15th is only 4 days away and certain sites in the UK are still showing the same release date :)

Elixir said:
Indeed, one phone can totally swing it.
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I agree with you, one phone can totally swing it and it took Samsung to release the S2 to rave reviews which lead to the S3 being snapped up by practically everybody.

HTC really need to market the HO as a very serious alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S4, they need a break and a massive one at that. (No pun intended!) :D


Nexus18 said:
They were king with the desire/nexus one, however, they were the only good android manufacturer then, no one could compete (android wasn't "that" popular either then), in fact I can't even think of what android phone there was that could compete with it, then came the galaxy S1 (came rather late to the game though), I didn't like it, but iirc in the end it sold more and became more popular than the desire.

HTC's problem is not with the phones they make (there one series were fantastic really and easily stood up to the GS 3 overall, the desire HD and sensation were one of the biggest key factors to their downfall though [imo]), it is more to do with their silly decisions i.e.

- releasing all these difference versions of the current model, last time I checked there were at least 6 "S" devices and then releasing an improved version like 2 months later
- awful marketing/advertising, it is a bit better this time but still sucks
- phone names, phones feature names, Samsung have nailed this area and doesn't sound anywhere as confusing as the likes of HTC = desire, sensation, one S, X, V, XL and now the "one"


I have no doubt that it will be the same again this year with the one VS GS 4 i.e. GS 4 will have better specs overall and be a more "complete package", not necessarily a "better" phone and will sell millions more.


Just having a look at all the news site and pretty much every top article is to do with the GS 4/samsung, then had a look on gsmarena:

ipplco.png


Phone isn't even announced yet! marketing + lots of hype = profit! :p
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It is true that when Android was in its fledgling state HTC were the only manufacturer who made decent phones, the original Nexus and the Desire being the breakout phones that brought Android into the public eye.

I remember owning both the Desire and Nexus (at the same time!) then the S1 came out but that was plagued with a host of problems and I almost tossed the phone against the wall several times because I was so frustrated.

In the end the Nexus One took preference over the Desire, although when the S2 came out that was it and I had to buy it and it was an awesome phone. I couldn't be happier with it. It was fast, had a decent screen and Samsung put everything right that was at fault with the original Galaxy S.

HTC admitted themselves that they saturated the market and confused consumers with lots of phones that's why they released the One series but the One series didn't quite live up to its name. Just go over to GSMarena and have a look at the HTC section and you'll see lots of variations of the same model phone.

HTC lost out big time when the S2 was released because their answer to the S2 the Sensation was plagued with a few faults and wasn't a patch on the S2. Then they released a newer version of the Sensation within months which annoyed thousands of consumers who had bought the original Sensation and quite rightly so. They repeated the same mistake with the HOX, which was a better phone IMHO than the S3 but again they made some horrible decisions going with the Tegra 3 chipset which hampered the HOX, that in conjunction with production faults was the nail in the coffin for HTC.

Even their mid range phone the HOS was much better than their flagship this point will be agreed by a few people on this forum.

HTC call themselves "Quietly Brilliant" but in reality they're "Obviously Stupid" and not learning from their mistakes.

Yes it'll again be the One vs S4, Samsung will no doubt win and that will be through a massive marketing campaign and Samsung's savvy.

Samsung have become like Apple within the Android world and all the other manufacturers do not have a snowballs chance in hell to keep up.

They will have to be content with making quality products and fight to keep the no.3 slot in the mobile industry.
 
Oxide™ said:
Just spoke to Three to see if they could match the better deals out there but they can't until they have it in stock.

Best deal I could find = Tmobile £26 x 24 months + £45 upfront (500 cross network min, unlimited texts & data)
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I'm loving all this aggressive pricing I'm seeing on unlimited data deals, so that's the XZ & HO that can be had on unlimited data contracts for little more than the price of the phone upon release for easy monthly terms and that's without cash back being looked at.
 
Just had a glimpse through, generally find their reviews pretty poor (always seem to have a different opinion compared to nearly every other review/user site), although it seems good to me so far....

BTW they mentioned this here:

HTC tells me my review unit isn't a retail model. That should mean only that it's not in retail packaging, but it's possible that there are slight software changes coming over time. I'll update here if that happens.
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So don't base too much on the review, especially the camera.

Really don't get why HTC don't send out the final units with the final software, if they want to do well, they need to ACE the reviews as well especially when the majority of review sites won't update the review if a software update did make a huge difference.
 
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Just watched the video review and that display looks stunning. Still not keen on the nav buttons though, nor the lack of microSD. With the so-so camera, I'm leaning back to the Xperia Z, although waiting to see what Samsung has in store later this week.
 
Had a brief scan through the review. I just don't understand why sites bother reviewing pre production models and slate the camera amongst other things.

I normally don't go by The Verge reviews as they have a habit of being very hit and miss, will wait for the Techradar and GSMarena reviews.
 
The NAV buttons annoy me too :(

As said, wait till users get their one devices and post camera shots up as they will most likely have the final unit/software.

Lumia 920 did very poor in the reviews with regards to the camera but after a software update, it is easily the best camera phone to date. Same with the GS 3, camera quality was iffy and very inconsistent, the 56MB or whatever update quickly fixed that though. And the with sense V4+, the one S and X produced even better photos.



Favourite review sites are:

- gsmarena - although they are very harsh on a lot of things especially mid range phones and I often disagree with many of their opinions
- anandtech - the best imo, very detailed and do proper tests (display test is the best) and generally agree with everything they say too
- phone arena - not as detailed but they cut to the point and generally I agree with most of their opinions too

Techradar is ok I find, their opinions are generally wrong or out of place to the other sites imo. They give the phone a good evaluation overall though.

Unfortunately all of their battery tests suck, gsmarena and anandtechs is ok for a general idea but the rest are just awful, the best battery review I have seen is by android police iirc for the HTC DNA/butterfly.
 
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The review read pretty much exactly as I expected it would really.

It's a brilliantly designed phone, with an excellent screen and great performance. However it seems to be let down by the camera - which would seemingly still be a bit poor even with a minor software improvement - and the battery life doesn't sound ideal either.

I think the GS4 will tick the battery and camera boxes (I mean, they're both already better on the S3... :eek:), as well as having an excellent screen and provide equal or better performance, along with the SD card slot.

So, as I've suspected, you take a hit on most features to get a nicer design... decisions, decisions. I desperately don't want the camera and stuff to be an issue but I just can't see HTC fixing it with a software update... they'd probably make it worse. :p

Time will tell. The million page long thread of arguing on XDA should highlight any issues between the One and GS4, as should all the other reviews.

It's frustrating because HTC have such a good design department but seem to make lots of other poor decisions. :(
 
The thing is though it could very easily be fixed by a software update as I said above:

Lumia 920 did very poor in the reviews with regards to the camera but after a software update, it is easily the best camera phone to date. Same with the GS 3, camera quality was iffy and very inconsistent, the 56MB or whatever update quickly fixed that though. And the with sense V4+, the one S and X produced even better photos.
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If the same happened with them as well as all the other phones in the past then why can't it happen again? Especially when it has been proved that the camera should be very good [aside from when you crop/zoom in] given the detailed articles into the camera specs i.e. sensor, lens etc. and many "photographers" are expecting good things from it too, due to the hardware, so any issues "have" to be due to the software optimisation.

Same goes for battery life, it could be much better with a software optimisation i.e. look at the nexus 4 when released and now look at it with the 4.2.2 update (one of the best phones for battery life), also phonearena's quick test shows the battery to be good here:

http://www.phonearena.com/news/HTC-One-battery-scores-very-well-in-endurance-tests_id40704

In theory it should be better than the GS 3 etc. again it just comes down to software optimisation.

Sure look at how much better the one X is with JB/sense V4+ as opposed to ICS, not just performance but battery life, audio as well as the camera.
 
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I don't think the Lumia 920 improvement was that huge, but I'm not sure.

The other thing is, how long do you give it for HTC to release an update? You could be waiting a while. 2 weeks, a month, two months?

As you said above, giving the handset to reviewers with a bodged camera would be beyond stupid!
 
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It was a big difference overall, before the update, results were very inconsistent, many review sites were left disappointed (much like the current reviews for the one) but once that software update came it was much better. IIRC even jabbs said the same happened with his 920.

Have a look through this page too:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=23077983&highlight=poor+camera#post23077983

And then Tim at neowin said the same in his review.

Supposedly the battery life was awful as well, however, iirc the 920 battery life is actually very good currently?


True, however, supposedly these phones aren't running the final/public unit software so I imagine that the phones being sold in shops will be the final unit/final software. Don't forget, generally the review sites get the phones in before they are released to the public by a good few weeks too.

It is stupid but it wouldn't be the first time this has happened.


Will just have to wait and see, personally I am taking every review even when gsmarena and anandtech post theirs with a big pinch of salt (unless they specifically mention that they have the final unit/software)
 
Nexus18 said:
It was a big difference overall, before the update, results were very inconsistent, many review sites were left disappointed (much like the current reviews for the one) but once that software update came it was much better. IIRC even jabbs said the same happened with his 920.

Have a look through this page too:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=23077983&highlight=poor+camera#post23077983

And then Tim at neowin said the same in his review.

Supposedly the battery life was awful as well, however, iirc the 920 battery life is actually very good currently?


True, however, supposedly these phones aren't running the final/public unit software so I imagine that the phones being sold in shops will be the final unit/final software. Don't forget, generally the review sites get the phones in before they are released to the public by a good few weeks too.

It is stupid but it wouldn't be the first time this has happened.


Will just have to wait and see, personally I am taking every review even when gsmarena and anandtech post theirs with a big pinch of salt (unless they specifically mention that they have the final unit/software)
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its like deep down you really dont want HTC to fail on this one? :) and i kinda get it but i don't expect the camera to be any better in "Day-to-day" photo tasks.. it will be better at low light but the lower res + same quality = lesser camera capabilities than what s4 will have(im sure samsung will do good in camera department)
 
I wouldn't really take anything that The Verge say as gospel, lately their reviews have been full of carp.

As Nexus previously mentioned the reviews I would take seriously are anandtec because they don't hang about and will call out a device without hesitation and gsmarena because at least they are consistent with their reviews.
 
If you're taking all reviews with a big pinch of salt, what will you base your decision on? User posted pictures? :p

If the reviews all arrive at the conclusion the camera and battery aren't very good, it will be pretty much set in stone, even if it's improved at a later date.

This could really work against the phone. To start with the 4 megapixel camera isn't going to impress your average person; it doesn't sound good at all. People have already commented to me that it, and I quote "sounds a bit crap". :p

Secondly, a mass of reviews panning the camera and battery will just be really awful, as those are a couple of important aspects.

Comparisons are going to be inevitably drawn up between the One and GS4, and you know the GS4 is going to win all of them aside from the design/build, even now. This is before we even start on marketing... :(

As for me, I can live with a slightly sub-par camera, it would do for me, but I'm thinking about HTC getting things right and so far it doesn't seem like they are. I want Samsung taken down a peg or two, just for their stupid hype advert with the kid. :o :mad:

stoosh said:
I wouldn't really take anything that The Verge say as gospel, lately their reviews have been full of carp.

As Nexus previously mentioned the reviews I would take seriously are anandtec because they don't hang about and will call out a device without hesitation and gsmarena because at least they are consistent with their reviews.
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Anandtech are brilliant but they are usually a long way behind.
 
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