The new HTC ONE (M7)

[MRU]

You know what else I'm not too crazy about? The app drawer. After seeing it in action in videos, what the heck is the deal with scrolling up/down?

Why is HTC trying so hard to make Android different, but in all the worse ways?

-The changing of the home button from the center (all for a logo). I've yet to hear a sensible reason to remove home from the center, or at least not make the HTC logo itself home.

-Blinkfeed being unremovable (you can change which is your home screen, but Blindfeed is always a home screen. If I'm mistaken, please correct me. That would be nice information to know. I forgot which review said it best, but any user can install and use Flipboard so easily, that BlinkFeed just doesn't seem necessary to force).

-The app drawer scrolling up/down instead of pages left/right.

What's the deal, HTC? The hardware is so ace (minus a few poor decisions), but the software so lame.

Just install a different launcher (Nova prime) and all those things are sorted bar the HTC logo. I personally have no problem with the home placement and don't mind the HTC logo there.

HTC are selling/targeting the one to people wanting to buy into the new sense experience as much as the HTC One's design aesthetics.

Just think of it as a radical new launcher, but if its something that really you can't buy into your going to either use a different launcher or look elsewhere.

Again for me, HTC saw exactly what I use my phone for. My biggest used apps on android or ios outside the core (phone/calendar/messages/camera) are Pulse/Flipboard & Currents rss and Instagram/Facebook & Twitter.

Blinkfeed to me is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to sense 5. Im hopeful that once app developers have been able to support it in some of their apps too, I can see it only becoming more useful and an essential little hub (akin to bb hub in BB10).

Sense 5 is bound to have quirks, I'm willing to deal with them and by the time its inevitably gets updated much like Sense 4+ on the one X it will have a lot of the kinks ironed out and I imagine include options such as horizontal app drawer.

By initially not supporting blink feeds removal altogether I imagine HTC are trying to say to developers every HTC One has this feature, here's the SDK, pease add support for it in your apps. If they had made it removablev/ user-disabled then they couldn't create as much drive initially for developers to bother looking at the SDK and seeing if the api is worth adding.

But as I say if Blinkfeed and app drawer are big issues either install an alternative more stock like launcher, and if there are still issues that you can't get by, then yes the HTC One maybe just not the right phone for you. Just another case of different boats for different folks.

It doesn't make HTC's design choices suddenly wrong for everyone, just not right for you in this instance. I'm sure they realised when designing the one and sense 5 that they may alienate some as much they will attract others with its different approach.

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What do you think the developer support for the HTC One will be like? I know cyanogen always has support for Samsung do you think the developer support will be decent or no?

I have my doubts because of the camera software and such.

Well Cyanogenmod supports HTC One X so one assumes it will inevitably be rooted.

The camera software is essentially the same software despite the lens change so shouldn't cause an issue. The ultrapixel camera just has bigger sensor for light, this is in hardware level not software, so the camera software shouldn't cause an issue directly for Cyanogenmod.


I imagine the phone will still be S-Off locked however, much like the One X.




____ EDIT!!!

Since this post it seems HTC are really thinking of the modding & developer community.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/13/htc-one-developer-edition-unlocked-sim-bootloader-649/

64gb version with bootloader unlocked for $649 - shame it's US only.

 

[Alfuh]

The good thing about Samsung is that I'm gonna buy the official 3.100 new battery for the SGS3 in the next couple of weeks. That way I'll have even better battery life, with no need to buy the SGS4.

I would not be able to do that on HTC, thus forcing me to change phone if I'm not happy with their battery life.

Advantages of removable batteries. You can increase it for one bigger.

Just one up that and get the Anker 4,200. It's a big mother, but you get 2 days off of a charge and its pretty much impossible to kill it in a day even with heavy use. But the phone gets pretty fat and heavy, not for the frail and weak

 

[MRU]

Well the double dip case and the screen protector have arrived.....


It's very light and comes in three parts which lock together with the phone.

There is a nice volume rocker to the side.

 

[MRU]

And if your wondering how it compares size wise with the iPhone 5 (with an incipio case - only fair to compare case to case rather than naked device)










and yes that's a bodhran reflected in the background of first photo, and my wallpaper on the iPhone 5 is some nice cattle in the sunset on the cliffs at the beach.. They joys of the countryside ;-) so fashionable...

 

[Sedrick]

Even that case is gorgeous.

 

[MRU]

Even that case is gorgeous.

It is indeed.....

BUT!!!


I just got a phone call from Expansys customer support telling me that as feared it has been delayed further till the 29th March, though they hope to fulfil some pre-orders before then - they can not guarantee doing so......

16 days looking at my lovely case and screen protector.....



2 weeks for us impatient users to read reviews of the SGS4 .... bit of a dodgy move HTC, but nothing I can do about it other than suffer with my #firstworldproblems

 

[TG1]

http://www.slashgear.com/verizon-backtracks-on-htc-one-refusal-13273738/
If Verizon gets the One it'll be a tough choice between this and the S4. Or to wait for the Note III.

 

[Peterg2]

Another, generally very positive, review here:

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/03/htc-one-review-damn-near-close-to-perfect/

 

[robstunner]

http://www.slashgear.com/verizon-backtracks-on-htc-one-refusal-13273738/
If Verizon gets the One it'll be a tough choice between this and the S4. Or to wait for the Note III.

Wait for note 3? Bah. Why not just wait for s5?

 

[Peterg2]

Here is probably the most detailed english-language review so far. This is, again, a review of a European model:

http://www.slashgear.com/htc-one-review-2013-13273560/

 

[CD3660]

Got my order allocated from Expansys for my pre-order

Dear Sir / Madam,

Goods that you pre-ordered from us on the order reference above are
now available, please confirm your pre-order so that we may ship your
goods as soon as possible.

You can see the order details by clicking on the link below:
-------------------------------------------------------------

If you no longer require the goods please let us know so that we can
allocate your stock to another customer.

Regards

eXpansys

I just got a phone call from Expansys customer support telling me that as feared it has been delayed further till the 29th March, though they hope to fulfil some pre-orders before then - they can not guarantee doing so......

So much for Expansys effectively saying that they had stock in hand!

I was sceptical having experienced similar misinformation from them a few years ago.

I just don't understand why they do this.

 

[MRU]

So much for Expansys effectively saying that they had stock in hand!

I was sceptical having experienced similar misinformation from them a few years ago.

I just don't understand why they do this.

It just creates customer frustration to say the least. If anyone else was getting it sooner I'd just cancel and order from somewhere else, but as it is the same everywhere I guess I'll keep the order with them.

 

[onthecouchagain]

I've dealt with Expansys USA once, and honestly, their customer service left a lot to be desired. They just didn't sound like they cared.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Verizon will get the One, but not until June. Most likely to put Verizon logos all over it, and lock it down hard, and rename it the Droid One.

And now this "developer" edition One for $649 if that price is true, but the big question is, will it have true S-Off or just unlocked ?

My Wife has the international One X, still no S-Off, and installing ROM's, and kernels is ****ing brutal on that thing, you also need the correct HBOOT #, and those change as new release comes out, and having to use Command Prompt flash the boot.img, and fastboot loader. If you don't follow instructions to a "t" you can screw it up.

**** that again. Samsung phones, and Nexus devices are a piece of cake to root, and easy as pie to flash ROM's. I am done with HTC if developers can't get S-Off.

 

[The iGentleman]

And now this "developer" edition One for $649 if that price is true, but the big question is, will it have true S-Off or just unlocked ?

My Wife has the international One X, still no S-Off, and installing ROM's, and kernels is ****ing brutal on that thing, you also need the correct HBOOT #, and those change as new release comes out, and having to use Command Prompt flash the boot.img, and fastboot loader. If you don't follow instructions to a "t" you can screw it up.

**** that again. Samsung phones, and Nexus devices are a piece of cake to root, and easy as pie to flash ROM's. I am done with HTC if developers can't get S-Off.

You're going off on a tangent.... The developer model will have an unlockable bootloader. Take a breath and calm down lol.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Holy moly, the unlocked developers edition changes things quite a bit.

Available on same day in the US market, and is 64gigs? Eat that, unlocked iPhone (16 GB!).

And because it's unlocked, it's presumably easier to flash stock JB on it, right?

Color me interested.

I just hope the battery life isn't an issue. Reviews said HTC One X had average-to-good battery life, too, which is similar to what people are saying about the One. I had the HTC One for a little bit. It had horrible battery life. Really horrible. It worries me.

----------

What's S-Off?

And is it a problem flashing ROMs on a mac? I don't own a Windows PC.

 

[Tig Bitties]

You're going off on a tangent.... The developer model will have an unlockable bootloader. Take a breath and calm down lol.

But the big deal is S-Off. Unlocked bootloader is kind of vague. Without S-Off and only S-On, you have to jump through hopes to install ROM's and kernels, making development very difficult.

 

[The iGentleman]

But the big deal is S-Off. Unlocked bootloader is kind of vague. Without S-Off and only S-On, you have to jump through hopes to install ROM's and kernels, making development very difficult.

You may want to head over to XDA and familiarize yourself with what is involved in getting S-Off. It doesn't sound like you are entirely clear on the process.

 

[Tig Bitties]

You may want to head over to XDA and familiarize yourself with what is involved in getting S-Off. It doesn't sound like you are entirely clear on the process.

Honestly I am not. XDA has saved my butt with my Wife's One X. I just know the international One X still does not have S-Off, and the ATT One X just got S-Off last month, like 10 months after release.

On the international One X, it's just a pain to flash stuff without S-Off, you still can, and development is ongoing for that phone, but it's more work and little tricky to flash that way if your not familiar with it

As far as I know, with S-Off, flashing ROM's is just like any other Samsung or Nexus phone, very simple and fast. With S-On, then you have to go through the extra bootloader stuff, flash boot.img with command prompt, and run a few more processes, just not as easy and fast, but still can be done.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Samsung's S4 doesn't even compare to this. Performance will be very similar as neither company custom designed the SoC from ground up like Apple (Samsung basically slightly modified ARM's reference design). I don't need to see benchmarks because there is a fundamental difference between designing the SoC yourself versus using a reference design or some other company's chip (like Qualcomm). Camera is probably better than S4 because Samsung choose to go with quantity (# of megapixels) over quality (of images). Not to mention HTC wasn't brain dead when they chose build materials and build quality. Software upgrades is kind of moot since a) most people don't care and b) people who do care will root and install custom ROMs anyway. Either way, slow official software upgrades comes standard with Android, there's no getting around that.

One last thing, HTC wasn't brain dead when they made Sense 5.0. They didn't choose to pad their spec sheets with half-baked, DOA, useless, never working crap like Samsung did with the S3 and will most assuredly do with S4. They strive for fit and finish with overall clean design language. If I wasn't an iPhone user (I personally prefer iOS over Android) I would chose HTC over Samsung any day. HTC is indeed quietly brilliant. Samsung is boisterously and stupidly ignorant.

 

[Sensamic]

So merely by increasing your battery life on an almost 1 year phone is all you need? Nothing else appeals to you in the potential of the S4? No display improvements, processor, etc?

Today's smartphones are so powerful that I really don't feel the need to buy another one, at least not just one mere year later. Seriously, what more can we ask for?

I don't really like the idea of the full hd screen, since it will take more CPU and GPU power away and more battery away for a tiny tiny difference in pixel density, since I don't believe it's much more better than 720p on a 4.8 screen like on the SGS3. Right now 720p screens are really good.

2GB RAM is nice, but let's see if the SGS4 keeps having the screen redraw issue. I'm good on 1GB and can wait until 3GB

My total memory is 48GB on the phone thanks to the SD card, so no need to for more on that department.

Better camera? I've come to not expect much of phone cameras after years with the same quality overall. Doesn't matter if it's 5, 8 or 13 megapixels. The sensors on the phones are just not good. It's just marketing saying it's now 13 instead of 8. And I already have what I wanted the most: 1080p video recording. There's nothing better than that for now, so again, no need to upgrade in that department either.

Battery life is good and can be improved thanks to the bigger official battery from Samsung. No need to change phone for that either.

What else is there to improve? The SGS3 is a powerhouse, and it will get 4.2. My only desire to improve would be software, and that is why I will wait for the next Nexus, or at least another phone that comes with Android 5.0 instead of 4.2, since I'm already gonna get that.

I don't see the point in changing from the SGS3 to the 4. I already have an HD screen, a high quality camera with 1080p, 48GB memory, 1GB RAM, very thin and lightweight, capacitive buttons, great battery, good software (already have multi window feature and everything I need), it's quad core, etc.

Only thing I hate is the plastic, and the SGS4 will be the same, so... Also, I don't want a bigger phone or screen. 4.8 is really huge. It seems the SGS4 will be bigger, so I don't really like that. 4.8 is already too big.

Just one up that and get the Anker 4,200. It's a big mother, but you get 2 days off of a charge and its pretty much impossible to kill it in a day even with heavy use. But the phone gets pretty fat and heavy, not for the frail and weak

I will check that. Thanks.

 

[The iGentleman]

Honestly I am not. XDA has saved my butt with my Wife's One X. I just know the international One X still does not have S-Off, and the ATT One X just got S-Off last month, like 10 months after release.

On the international One X, it's just a pain to flash stuff without S-Off, you still can, and development is ongoing for that phone, but it's more work and little tricky to flash that way if your not familiar with it

As far as I know, with S-Off, flashing ROM's is just like any other Samsung or Nexus phone, very simple and fast. With S-On, then you have to go through the extra bootloader stuff, flash boot.img with command prompt, and run a few more processes, just not as easy and fast, but still can be done.

I will give you the short version. S-Off is basically just "security off" if you will. With an encrypted bootloader, you cannot change the setting from S-On to S-off, without first cracking the bootloader. An unlockable bootloader allows you easy access to changing the S-On setting to S-Off. That said, if my recollection is correct, the international One X came with an encrypted bootloader, that was later unlockable on HTC's website. That is different than a bootloader that comes already unlockable (unencrypted).

 

[dojoman]

Well the double dip case and the screen protector have arrived.....


It's very light and comes in three parts which lock together with the phone.

There is a nice volume rocker to the side.


View attachment 402183

View attachment 402184

View attachment 402185

Where did you get the case?

 

[MRU]

Where did you get the case?

clove.co.uk

 

[2298754]

One last thing, HTC wasn't brain dead when they made Sense 5.0. They didn't choose to pad their spec sheets with half-baked, DOA, useless, never working crap like Samsung did with the S3 and will most assuredly do with S4. They strive for fit and finish with overall clean design language. If I wasn't an iPhone user (I personally prefer iOS over Android) I would chose HTC over Samsung any day. HTC is indeed quietly brilliant. Samsung is boisterously and stupidly ignorant.

Oh please, is that why the One X ceased to be relevant a couple months after it came out? And how many more S3s got sold than the lackluster S3?

Have you even used the One X before? It was a terrible device. Poor battery life, botched multitasking, no SD card slot...

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It's ridiculous that HTC makes a dev version of the One and charges people more for it. How hard is it to leave the boot loader unlocked, etc? Why can't they be like Samsung? I can root an S3/Note 2 and have a custom rom running in under 10 minutes.

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Software upgrades is kind of moot since a) most people don't care and b) people who do care will root and install custom ROMs anyway. Either way, slow official software upgrades comes standard with Android, there's no getting around that.

People do care.

http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-57573133-85/at-t-rolling-out-jelly-bean-to-htc-one-x/

HTC One X came out months before the S3, but Jelly Bean JUST comes out? That is ridiculous.