The HTC Once arrived Monday morning, and so far, HTC is continue their tradition of excellent build quality in a phone. The HTC One is the best feeling phone I have held. It’s just the right size for my hands, and it’s weight is light, but not so light that I think it will blow away.
For the HTC One, they went with a uni-body design, that is slightly curved on the back side, and fits nicely in the palm of your hand. As you hold the phone, you can truly see how much work went into the design. As you look at it, you notice the screen. The screen is very vibrant and looks amazing. Everything I have looked at so far looks amazing on it. Pictures, videos, and web pages.
The phone does not come with stock Android, it comes with HTC Sense, which is just their launcher that is used. It is actually better than I thought it would be and the built in widgets work very well.
The phone has great battery life, which, with Android phones, is not always the case. I have owned 4 Android phones, including the HTC One, and this is the 1st time I have made it through an entire work day and not needed to charge my phone. I took the phone off the charger as I walked out the door yesterday morning, and did not need to charge it until 8:30-ish last night. And that was through slightly moderate use.
HTC has a partnership right now with Beats By Dre and the audio from this phone is pretty damn good, for a cell phone. I like that there are two speakers on the phone. One at the top and one at the bottom. When I am looking at a YouTube video and the audio is playing towards me and not away from me as it does on other phones, it really does make the listening experience a little nicer. I don’t own a pair of Beats By Dre headphones so I can not tell you if there is any kind of special audio intelligence going on there, but I hope there is.
To put a few things into perspective, there are the smart phones I have owned throughout the years, in the order that I had them.
Nokia E62 – Symbian OS
iPhone 3G – iOS
Motorola Droid X – Android
HTC Thunderbolt – Andorid
Samsung Galaxy Nexus – Android
Samsung Galaxy II – Android
iPhone 4 – iOS
HTC One – Android
I would rate the phone an 8/10, and it is still the best phone I have ever owned.