The new HTC ONE (M7)

[swerve147]

Yeah the glasT is quite thick, the SGP one I have not so much so doesn't seem to create any issue.

Thanks a bunch, just ordered the Crystal 😀

I am 100% Apple when it comes to everything else: computer, laptop, thunderbolt display, tablet, and I had no problem having an Android smartphone in my life.

My one big concern as well. My contacts calendar and email all centers around iCloud nowadays. The last time I had an Android I recall even setting up .mac mail was difficult.

I'm not afraid of a challenge, though, bring it on!

 

[jrswizzle]

Thanks a bunch, just ordered the Crystal 😀



My one big concern as well. My contacts calendar and email all centers around iCloud nowadays. The last time I had an Android I recall even setting up .mac mail was difficult.

I'm not afraid of a challenge, though, bring it on!

Not that difficult - I use CardDav sync to sync up my contacts, there's CalDav Sync as well for calendars (both paid, but worth it) and setting up @me.com email isn't difficult at all (personally use K9 email).

Music also syncs quite well after some inital setup. I can purchase from iTunes on my iPhone, iPad or iMac and it'll sync and show up on my N4 as if it were another iOS device.

 

[fr4c]

Yeah a phone is only as good as your workflow / lifestyle.

It can offer a whole manner of fancy features but if they are not ones you will ever use outside of the initial 10 minutes experimenting, what's the point? The most important aspect of any device is that it has to fit into our workflow/life's.

If the iPhone is doing all that perhaps it is the better device for you. The grass isn't always greener, its just different. Maybe its different in a way that you'll prefer the grass your on.

It is a tough decision, but only you know you.

I tend to get bored with devices way too easily, and in the end theres always something missing (Android, WinMo, BlackBerry) that makes me say to myself, "damn wish I could just do this, or that". I've always given every single new device a shot at being my daily, but no matter what up to this date there is not a single device that I've used longer than an iPhone.

Android has really come a long way, and I vastly enjoyed my Galaxy Nexus on Verizon when I had that as my primary phone for 6 months on a personal line. But in the end, subpar camera, poor battery life, and the rough integration with my multimedia (iTunes, iPhoto) made me switch back.

For me I know that the iPhone will do everything I want it to do, but theres always that itch to try something new. Kinda like spicing up your sex life a bit with a new set of thunderbeads.

 

[swerve147]

Not that difficult - I use CardDav sync to sync up my contacts, there's CalDav Sync as well for calendars (both paid, but worth it) and setting up @me.com email isn't difficult at all (personally use K9 email).

Music also syncs quite well after some inital setup. I can purchase from iTunes on my iPhone, iPad or iMac and it'll sync and show up on my N4 as if it were another iOS device.

Checking out Play Store/Internet right now, thanks!

 

[thehustleman]

Buy it. It'll be the best app you've ever purchased. If you want to wait, there usually are deals on Swiftkey. I got it for 99 cents during a promo.

Even at full price, though, it's worth it.

Not so much for the prediction engine, but more so for the auto correction. As it continues to learn how you type (which is still customizable), the level of auto correction is just brilliant.

And yes, once in a while, when predictions work, it can finish whole sentences for you. Those times are only few and far between, but when it happens, it's magic.

One major problem with SwiftKey you gotta inform people of, it works great until you pay for it, then every time you restart your phone it goes right back to the default keyboard. You have to change it to swift key every time you restart

 

[TG1]

One major problem with SwiftKey you gotta inform people of, it works great until you pay for it, then every time you restart your phone it goes right back to the default keyboard. You have to change it to swift key every time you restart

Hmm, I've never experienced this on Droid X, Razr Maxx, Samsung Stratosphere, or Razr M. Stays default as soon as I set it.

 

[PerfectDB]

Genuinely can't wait for Apple to do it. I wonder, though, what were they waiting for to "get right" taking this long...

My guess is either they haven't found a way to maintain battery life to their usual standards on a larger screen, or they're working on a new UI that maintains single handed use even on bigger displays (might explain why Ive's was put in charge of overall design).

Truth be told the only reason I've stuck with my 5 is because none the of the Androids I've tried couldn't hold a candle to my iPhone battery-wise, though I've got great expectations for the One/S4.

 

[aerok]

I've heard and seen great things about paranoid android. Also happens to be the name of one of my most favorite songs. 😉

Will paranoid android be ready for the htc one very soon? As in 14 days soon???

Also I'm on a Mac and my understanding is flashing roms on a Mac is slightly harder initially?

I'd love to give roms a shot. If I can gesture up from the htc icon (ala the blackberry z10) to go back home I could forgive htc for reconfiguring the layout. 🙂

To be honest, I prefer rooting on my Mac using Terminal over using Windows. No extra drivers necessary with Macs. Rooting is easier on Windows with Samsung phones only in my opinion. (I rooted a lot of phones)

Just don't forget to add ''./'' in front of all commands when using Terminal to root.

ie. ./fastboot flash rom update.zip

 

[onthecouchagain]

So my unlocked iPhone got the Tmobile carrier update to run their LTE and it is abysmal! Absolutely abysmal.

This is really bad news because unless I'm mistaken, the unlocked One also has the same bands as current unlocked iPhone 5's (ie. not the ones being released on April 12th). They both support only HSPA (21 MB/s) and LTE, and not AWS HSPA+ (42 MB/s) that can be fell back to if LTE isn't around.

It says "4G' on my phone, but can hardly pull down greater than 3 MB/s on my speed tests. It also has a hard hard time finding signal.

Tmobile prices may be the bomb, and I love their uncarrier model, but man their network sucks.

And if you think their HSPA is good enough, just walk into a building. Usually, you're leaving signal behind like a dog tied to a pole.

I fear this is an indication of how the One unlocked will run, too. This is bad news.

 

[fr4c]

So my unlocked iPhone got the Tmobile carrier update to run their LTE and it is abysmal! Absolutely abysmal.

This is really bad news because unless I'm mistaken, the unlocked One also has the same bands as current unlocked iPhone 5's (ie. not the ones being released on April 12th). They both support only HSPA (21 MB/s) and LTE, and not AWS HSPA+ (42 MB/s) that can be fell back to if LTE isn't around.

It says "4G' on my phone, but can hardly pull down greater than 3 MB/s on my speed tests. It also has a hard hard time finding signal.

Tmobile prices may be the bomb, and I love their uncarrier model, but man their network sucks.

And if you think their HSPA is good enough, just walk into a building. Usually, you're leaving signal behind like a dog tied to a pole.

I fear this is an indication of how the One unlocked will run, too. This is bad news.

Welcome to the TMo network. Unless you're under the clear sky and are in a coverage zone, your phone might as well be a over glorified iPod.

 

[woodekm]

One major problem with SwiftKey you gotta inform people of, it works great until you pay for it, then every time you restart your phone it goes right back to the default keyboard. You have to change it to swift key every time you restart

$&@€%#! I thought it was just my phone! WTH?!?!

 

[tbayrgs]

One major problem with SwiftKey you gotta inform people of, it works great until you pay for it, then every time you restart your phone it goes right back to the default keyboard. You have to change it to swift key every time you restart

Hmm, I've never experienced this on Droid X, Razr Maxx, Samsung Stratosphere, or Razr M. Stays default as soon as I set it.

I think it's a known issue on Samsung devices running Jellybean--had the same problem on my Note 2 until I installed a custom ROM (cleanROM ACE 4.5).

 

[daneoni]

Pete Rojas give the HTC One a glowing review

 

[onthecouchagain]

Pete Rojas give the HTC One a glowing review

Not exactly very thorough. But glowing, indeed.

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So a photo of the size of the phone in the hand compared to the iPhone 5 with and without case

Viewing angles and brightness are fantastic on both devices.

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Regarding first pic, I'm not convinced you don't have to shuffle your hand up/down to reach the power button then go back to normal hand position for usage.

 

[fr4c]

So there's a few issues that's starting to bother me a little bit based on user feed back from those who already have access to the device:

1) Space between front glass and the plastic injection molding. I keep my phone in my pocket at all times, I hope this "space" doesn't allow dust and lint to get in behind the glass.
2) Speaker grill is glued on and not part of the unibody. Loose on some units already.

🙁

 

[EstaVidaLoca]

T-Mobile is typically bulletproof in the city it's when you leave that the problems occur. I think it's because they stuck with AWS for 3G while everybody else used PCS (AT&T) or CDMA (Sprint, Verizon, Alltel) but now everybody is using AWS for LTE so maybe they'll be able to clear up some coverage issues now.

 

[MRU]

So there's a few issues that's starting to bother me a little bit based on user feed back from those who already have access to the device:

1) Space between front glass and the plastic injection molding. I keep my phone in my pocket at all times, I hope this "space" doesn't allow dust and lint to get in behind the glass.
2) Speaker grill is glued on and not part of the unibody. Loose on some units already.

🙁

There's always some users who get less than perfect devices but they are in a minority. Its just that those with perfect devices won't post in forums about them so it skews the perception.

1. Mines perfect if its any consolation. No gap at all anywhere.

2. Looks all in one here

But if it turns out the speaker covers are glued, so be it.

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Not exactly very thorough. But glowing, indeed.

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Regarding first pic, I'm not convinced you don't have to shuffle your hand up/down to reach the power button then go back to normal hand position for usage.

Generally I just press the power button when I pick up the device initially rather than when its in my hand and then position it in my hand and work away.

It certainly is reachable in one hand, but like I say I think the majority of users will pick it up with one or two hands and wake it to see if there's any notifications on the lock screen, and then once woken they'll position in one hand.

Just see for yourself. Its a definitely a lot better than the HTC One X and the 8X, but I still expect you to absolutely hate it and find it totally unbearable and make the device "inoperable" regardless if I'm honest. But you may surprise us all yet 😉

 

[roxxette]

There's always some users who get less than perfect devices but they are in a minority. Its just that those with perfect devices won't post in forums about them so it skews the perception.

1. Mines perfect if its any consolation. No gap at all anywhere.

2. Looks all in one here
Image
But if it turns out the speaker covers are glued, so be it.

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Generally I just press the power button when I pick up the device initially rather than when its in my hand and then position it in my hand and work away.

It certainly is reachable in one hand, but like I say I think the majority of users will pick it up with one or two hands and wake it to see if there's any notifications on the lock screen, and then once woken they'll position in one hand.

Just see for yourself. Its a definitely a lot better than the HTC One X and the 8X, but I still expect you to absolutely hate it and find it totally unbearable and make the device "inoperable" regardless if I'm honest. But you may surprise us all yet 😉

Didnt Anandtech or other review site talk the build process and repair level ? I think i saw that its a solid block with plastic injecting.

If the grill is glued weird any commented about it.

 

[longhorns172006]

Is stock email app bearable? I have an aol account as my primary email and the stock email app on my S3 is horrible.

 

[MRU]

Is stock email app bearable? I have an aol account as my primary email and the stock email app on my S3 is horrible.

Yeah it's grand.

Emails with rich HTML content are better viewed in landscape though.

 

[longhorns172006]

Yeah it's grand.

Emails with rich HTML content are better viewed in landscape though.

MRU thanks for answering all of my pesky questions and for all of your insight. It's truly helpful in my quest to pick this phone.

 

[ajumbaje]

I saw a drop test vs the iPhone 5 where the speakers were glued on. Or maybe snapped, who knows. That's the only bad thing that happened to the htc one. iPhone fell on its face and shattered the screen from pocket high(lowest level)

 

[fr4c]

I saw a drop test vs the iPhone 5 where the speakers were glued on. Or maybe snapped, who knows. That's the only bad thing that happened to the htc one. iPhone fell on its face and shattered the screen from pocket high(lowest level)

I rather glue a speaker grill back on, than have to replace an entire iPhone screen.

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There's always some users who get less than perfect devices but they are in a minority. Its just that those with perfect devices won't post in forums about them so it skews the perception.

1. Mines perfect if its any consolation. No gap at all anywhere.

2. Looks all in one here
Image
But if it turns out the speaker covers are glued, so be it.

Yeah that's probably it, for every single person that has an issue theres probably thousands without. Just getting a bit anxious waiting for the thing 😱

 

[onthecouchagain]

Just getting a bit anxious waiting for the thing 😱

Me too. I'm really warming up more and more to the One now that I have it preordered and am prepping myself to deal with the few things I don't like. I'm really quite excited. I think my "plan" to get around the home button, power button, etc will work swimmingly. I even bought a pouch already from Etsy! 🙂

Plus, I can't get over what a value HTC is offering. 64GB at the same price as Apple's 16GB iPhone, and the $100 trade-in makes the deal outrageously sweet for a 2013 superpower smartphone.

The other hurdles for the One to get over, to me, are my own real-world battery tests and whether HTC finally learns from their mistakes regarding software updates.

Regarding the battery... though most reviews sound promising, I am cautiously optimistic because I got burned big time with the One X when its battery reviews were good too. The actual experience was far from good. So just being cautiously optimistic.

Regaring updates... unfortunately, there's no way to know within 14 days if HTC has learned their lesson or not in this area. It definitely worries me there's no hard date for 4.2.2. I can forgive them for releasing with 4.1 due to scheduling and whatnot, but it would help if they gave us a more concrete promise of 4.2.2. HTC has made these vague promises of updates in the past and historically have no kept to them. I -- and everyone else who cares about updates -- have every cause and right to be worried. I'm hoping the developer's edition also helps speed things up, but again, won't know if this will be true or not within 14 days. This one area will be a gamble...

C'mon HTC. People are rooting for you. It's up to you to bring it. There's really no one else to blame but yourself if you can't dig yourself out with a device as gorgeous and promising as the One.

 

[jrswizzle]

Me too. I'm really warming up more and more to the One now that I have it preordered and am prepping myself to deal with the few things I don't like. I'm really quite excited. I think my "plan" to get around the home button, power button, etc will work swimmingly. I even bought a pouch already from Etsy! 🙂

Plus, I can't get over what a value HTC is offering. 64GB at the same price as Apple's 16GB iPhone, and the $100 trade-in makes the deal outrageously sweet for a 2013 superpower smartphone.

The other hurdles for the One to get over, to me, are my own real-world battery tests and whether HTC finally learns from their mistakes regarding software updates.

Regarding the battery... though most reviews sound promising, I am cautiously optimistic because I got burned big time with the One X when its battery reviews were good too. The actual experience was far from good. So just being cautiously optimistic.

Regaring updates... unfortunately, there's no way to know within 14 days if HTC has learned their lesson or not in this area. It definitely worries me there's no hard date for 4.2.2. I can forgive them for releasing with 4.1 due to scheduling and whatnot, but it would help if they gave us a more concrete promise of 4.2.2. HTC has made these vague promises of updates in the past and historically have no kept to them. I -- and everyone else who cares about updates -- have every cause and right to be worried. I'm hoping the developer's edition also helps speed things up, but again, won't know if this will be true or not within 14 days. This one area will be a gamble...

C'mon HTC. People are rooting for you. It's up to you to bring it. There's really no one else to blame but yourself if you can't dig yourself out with a device as gorgeous and promising as the One.

This is the last issue I have with HTC.....battery life seems to work well for people with heavier usage than I will have, so all that's left to see is if HTC can provide timely updates - which is a big deal for me.

I guess its a good thing I have to wait until September....by then we'll be able to see if HTC is actually making good on their word to provide updates quickly.

And I agree wholeheartedly with your last paragraph.....HTC seems to be marketing the thing well (with the whole Experience Tour thing), and once they get the phone out to users, hopefully it will take off. I really think they will - they have to as this is their only flagship of 2013 and they aren't in any position to be resting on laurels.