Shoppers Magazine 02

SIMBA SHOPPERS MAGAZINE - THE CHRISTMAS ISSUE
HTC One
he HTC One is a smarphone
that has been built with one
purpose, to revive the ailing
fortunes of its maker by
being not only the best Android smartphone
out right now, but also by remaining
the best handset in months to come (Samsung
Galaxy S4 we’re looking at you).
To even stand a chance of doing this it’ll
need to be as fast as the Google Nexus 4,
as beautiful to look at as the
Sony Xperia Z and then also boast the kind
of feature set that we’ve now seen from
the Samsung Galaxy S4.
This then all has to be wrapped up in a Full
HD package that won’t weigh a tonne but
still boasts a build quality that would make
the iPhone bow its head in shame. No
pressure then.
HTC One: Size and build
Well to start off with the iPhone 5 can start
blushing because in terms of build quality
the HTC One is almost flawless. A precision
machined aluminium body is then seamlessly
joined to the rest of the phone using
a technique which leaves no gaps, and we
mean none at all.
It’s certainly on a par with Apple’s own
standards and even though we’ve only had
a short time with the S4 we’re going to go
ahead and say that its got that safely beat.
All that aluminium must surely translate
into weight then? Well at 143g it’s not the
lightest smartphone being safely trumped
by both the BlackBerry Z10 and the Galaxy
S4. That said it never becomes noticeable
instead giving the feeling of being sturdy.
This is then carried across with the 137.4
x 68.2 x 9.3mm dimensions which put it as
being just slightly thicker than the iPhone
5.
On the top you’ll find the power/lock button
and on the side is the volume rocker,
which, from a design point- of-view is the
weakest aspect of the phone. On the front
you’ll notice two rectangular grills which
is where HTC has managed to cram two
speakers for stereo sound.
HTC One: Features
The One comes with an almost unrecognisable
Android 4.1.2 thanks to HTC’s
latest version of its Sense UI. Whereas with
the HTC One X you could still see hints that
there was Google’s operating system lurking
underneath the One has almost entirely
ditched all of this for a cleaner experience
that offers less hassle.
The most notable addition is BlinkFeed, a
news aggregator that can be customised
using your social networks and by adding
a number of compatible news sources. In
principle it’s a brilliant idea however we
found that day to day it’s just not customisable
enough and with only pre-approved
news sources available it never truly feels
like a rival for Flipboard.
This could of course change over time as
more are added but for now it’s just not
the revelation we were expecting, some-
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