HTC One M7 - Specifications. HTC One M7 - Specifications Description of smartphone htc one

Despite all the good things that didn't happen to HTC last year, this year the company has made every effort to ensure that the new flagship is not rated as something in between. In general, instead of a couple of dozen leading words, they made HTC One a smartphone that real users and reviewers around the world are already calling the best on the market. And I partly agree, it has some advantages that no one else can boast of, but this smartphone is not ahead of the others, there are still strong competitors. In any case, it's great that the HTC One is regarded by everyone as a first-tier smartphone, without obvious flaws.

Appearance

One came to me clearly not new. They have been used by other journalists for some time, however, the appearance of the device remained almost out of the box. Apart from the white plastic edging, some scuffs and darkening are visible on it. Here the black version wins - these micro-scratches are not visible on black plastic. In general, if we compare SGS4, which I also had not the first freshness, HTC One is better preserved. Still, the body is almost entirely made of aluminum. This photo, which was shown to us at the presentation in London, seems to hint that the body is made of one piece:

but it is not. The upper and lower bars, which are above and below the display, are attached with adhesive. Nothing terrible and no questions arose, but until the first photo that appeared on the network, where one of these details lies next to the smartphone. However, due to the singularity of the case, I assume that it was either torn off on purpose, or the smartphone really fell too unsuccessfully. I have a friend who broke the display on One, but with parts that have fallen off - not a single one.

Speaking about the integrity of the structure, I can not add anything bad. Even HTC One X could creak if you try to twist it, but One is resistant to deformation. By the way, none of the latest smartphones has been so monolithic, even the LG Optimus G can be twisted a little, SGS4, although stronger than the Galaxy S 3, is also slightly pliable.

But to say that the design samsung galaxy S 4 I like less I can't. I love practicality, and HTC One is not so practical, if the smartphone falls on the pavement - aluminum will definitely warp, and the screen may crack, replacing all this is either impossible or very difficult. At the same time, the plastic itself in the Galaxy S 4 endures falls more easily, especially since the phone is lighter, but replacing the back cover will not be difficult. In general, the situation with HTC One is the same as with the iPhone 5, it is better to put on some kind of case or body so that it would not be so offensive when it falls.

There is one more nuance, the display size in HTC One is 0.3″ smaller than in SGS4, but the case is thicker (9.3 mm vs. 7.9 mm), taller (137.4 vs. 136.6) and the entire smartphone heavier (143 g vs. 130 g). I like the compactness of Samsung's new flagship, but HTC's flagship has good reason to be heavier and bigger. As for the weight - everything is clear, the aluminum case, but what about the size?

Speakers

And the size has become larger due to the chic speakers located above and below the display. I have never heard such a sound from the speakers in any smartphone, even something similar to the bass is heard. Showing a demo to your friends, watching a video on the One is much more enjoyable than on any other smartphone. I run Real Racing 3 on any smartphone (if the hardware allows), but then the graphics ceased to interest me immediately after I heard the growl of cars, very impressive. Everyone should have such speakers, the impressions of many actions with a smartphone are completely different.

It is very possible that it was impossible to make the smartphone thinner precisely because of the acoustic properties of the speakers, they simply would not sound with a certain degree of depth. For example, in a thinner iPhone 5, the sound is lousy than in 4s. Therefore, we forgive HTC One both dimensions and weight.

Location of elements

From the first minutes of acquaintance, I noticed how inconveniently placed the device lock key. Not only is it on top, but it has also been shifted to the left. But that's not all, the key is almost completely recessed into the case, it's hard to find it. Everything to make it as inconvenient as possible to use it! Yesterday, quite by accident, I observed a similar picture, a friend bought a BB Z10, in which the lock key is located at the top in the center. Another friend asked him to look at the smartphone and was immediately indignant at why the lock key was so inconveniently placed. And Z10 will be smaller, and the key is not on the left.

There is also a headphone jack. Talking about the sound, it didn't impress me at all, worse than I had planned, especially after reading several good reviews. With the Beats feature turned on, the bass is locked in; with it turned off, the sound becomes too flat. I am sure that the problem is software, but it will not be fixed, because HTC most likely considers such a sound to be correct. You will have to look for third-party custom solutions if you like listening to music.

Not so inconvenient, but also unusually placed volume rocker. She is on the right and is also maximally recessed into the body.

On the left, there is a tray for a MicroSIM SIM card.

But what they thought of was the placement of the connector for connecting the MicroUSB cable. Bottom, shifted to the right side. Thus, it is convenient to keep the smartphone in a horizontal position when it is charging. Needed in games or when watching videos.

There are only two control keys, they are located under the display. Oddly enough, I didn’t have to get used to it - it was done conveniently. Left key - back, right - home. Double-clicking the last one brings up the multitasking menu (it displays the last 9 running applications), a long press brings up Google Now.

Above the display, there are standard sensors, a front-facing camera, and a notification LED.

Display

This is the strongest side of the smartphone. 4.7 ″, on which 1920x1080 pixels were placed, the pixel density is 468 ppi. My laptop monitor is not FullHD, tin! The display is made using Super LCD 3 technology, it is protected by Gorilla Glass 2. By the way, I did not find any scratches on the screen, despite the fact that this is a test specimen that was visited by other authors before me. The picture remains readable in the sun, according to this indicator, the smartphone outperforms the iPhone 5 and is far ahead of the SGS4, in which the display is too dark. Viewing angles are excellent. Unfortunately, I will not call a 4.7″ display a plus for those who find 5″ smartphones like shovels, because, as I said above, the SGS4 is more compact.

Camera

The camera on the HTC One is a real stumbling block. She is good and not so good at the same time. At the presentation in London, HTC forgot to mention the number of MP, but paid a lot of attention to the fact that the smartphone has an Ultrapixel camera. The size of each pixel, placed on a 1/3” matrix, has been increased from 1.4 micrometers to 2 and receives several times more light. Thus, the photos should be of better quality. But there is a problem - large pixels could fit on a sensor of the same size only if the number of these pixels was reduced, there are about 4 million of them left. Yes, HTC One has a 4 MP camera and it does not sound solid, but do not rush to immediately criticize the smartphone for this, after all, it’s stupid to measure megapixels, we all know how badly a 13 MP smartphone can shoot. On a Full HD monitor, you see only 2 MP, respectively, the photo itself is twice as large. My opinion - let there be less megapixels, but better quality, this is what HTC tried to do. And it kind of worked, in low light conditions the pictures are better than with the SGS4 and iPhone 5, but in general, the revolution did not happen. The quality of shots in daylight is almost the same as that of the iPhone 5 or SGS4, but the detail is worse.

Below you can see how different photos taken on a 4 MP smartphone and 8 MP will be in real life.

Unfortunately, I can't say that the One shoots even as well as the iPhone 5 in daylight, often the light colors just fall through in the photos (like on the building above), the iPhone draws the shades. Below are some comparison photos taken on HTC One and iPhone 5.

But the standard HDR mode in HTC One is clearly superior to that in the iPhone:

The front camera in HTC One is somehow strangely squeezing photos, but it draws everything, unlike that in the iPhone.

And some more photos from HTC One:

Video examples:

Separately, I would like to mention the quality of sound recording in video, even at concerts you can get a good track, better than in 99% of other smartphones. In general, I am more satisfied with the camera than not. In the first public versions of the firmware, the pictures were not as high quality as they are now, perhaps they are still working on the camera and soon it will shoot even better. I can say one thing for sure - it will definitely not reach the Nokia 808 PureView)

There are no complaints about the software for the camera, everything is convenient and understandable. I really liked the ability to switch between the main and front camera with a simple swipe across the screen.

Specifications

HTC One is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz. 2 GB of RAM, built-in - 32 or 64. There is no slot for memory cards, however, it is available in the version of the smartphone for the Chinese market, it is a pity that such a model is not supplied to us. I did not notice fps subsidence in the interface, the smartphone works quickly. While the octa-core SGS4 slightly outperforms the One in synthetic benchmarks, Samsung is noticeably thoughtful even when rendering the interface, though not often.

Heavy games are going well, but not great. So far, there really is no Android smartphone on which Real Racing 3 would not sag in fps, this is especially noticeable on the camera span before the start of the race. But it's nice to play, the graphics are not cut down and do not lag. However, the smartphone gets very hot during games. Under normal load, it is completely cold, but heavy tasks heat the case well. And the battery, of course, is quickly discharged. The capacity of the latter is 2300 mAh and, oddly enough, the smartphone lives, if not to play, enough. The day of work with my load One calmly withstood.

• Dimensions: 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm.
• The weight: 143
• Operating system: Android 4.1.2 ICS (upgrading to 4.2.2 is expected).
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core, 1.7GHz.
• Graphic arts: Adreno 320.
• Display: Super LCD 3, 4.7″, 1920x108o (468 ppi).
• Memory: 32/64 GB flash.
• RAM: 2 GB.
• Camera: main - 4 MP, video recording in 1080p, front - 2.1 MP.
• Wireless technologies: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS\GLONASS.
• Interface connectors: 3.5mm headphone jack, Micro USB.
• Battery: Li-Pol battery 2300 mAh.

ON

HTC One has Android 4.1.2 JB installed. But the absence of the latest version 4.2 does not upset, since the HTC Sense 5 shell is installed on top of Android. The interface has been seriously redesigned, compared to the previous version, it has become simpler, the icons and icons are flatter. Even the weather, which HTC was so proud of, has lost its animation. By the way, this very weather now meets you both on the desktops and in the menu, along with a large clock. The clock also does not look analog, as before, but the animation of changing the numbers has been left. The default apps menu looks a bit too big, but the grid size can be easily changed. Scrolling in the menu is now vertical. I like the dialer a little less, earlier in Sense several last dialed contacts were displayed above the dialer, now only one.

The last lone hero

It so happened that of all the top new products of the current season, it was the new HTC smartphone that turned out to be the last one in our hands, when reviews of all other flagship devices have already appeared on the pages of our publication. This happened through no fault of ours - the release of the device was postponed for a long time, there were no final samples, and this situation is quite symbolic. Things are not going very well for the Taiwanese company now - over the past year and a half, NTS has gradually lost its former glory among users, and the company's position in the world market has noticeably shaken. After the release of problematic models with the prefix X and X + in the name, the company did not offer the market any significant new products for some time, and the only noticeable HTC Butterfly model released during this time suffered a strange fate. For some reason, the European version of the phone turned out to have too little flash memory, and at the same time there was no possibility of expanding it with cards. All this, coupled with a dubious glossy case and a very high price, could not cause (at least in our area) great interest users for this model. And now the company decided to make a “reboot” and start all over again. The developers again focused all their efforts on only one model, ceasing to be sprayed, and this immediately bore fruit. The latest creation of the NTS turned out to be so interesting that it instantly drew back to the company the lost part of the attention of users. Although there is no talk of a complete return to its former positions yet: at the last Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​the NTS booth could not boast of either size or an abundance of attention from visitors and the press. Yes, and the model at the booth during the exhibition was presented almost one - HTC One. The one on which all the stakes in the company are now made: “if it takes off, we will fly further.”

Unusually tense attitude in the company to the "new hope" manifested itself even in the very name of the novelty. Quite a strange name, we must admit. The Taiwanese decided to suddenly give their creation a name corresponding to the common name of the entire line of smartphones that have come out of their factories lately - no more, no less. “HTC One” is like Sony calling its next smartphone simply “Sony Xperia”, without any additional letters or numbers. An interesting decision. Very inconvenient for searching on the Internet (when you type in the name of any other device starting with “HTC One”, information about the HTC One itself will automatically drop out, and vice versa) and very beneficial for the company itself (for the same reason). However, given the recently shaken position of the Taiwanese company in the world market, perhaps this step was well thought out in order to raise the fading interest in HTC products?

The main flagship models that we tested earlier have been added to a single table below for the convenience of visual comparison.

	HTC One	Samsung Galaxy S4	Sony Xperia Z	Oppo Find 5	Google Nexus 4	LG Optimus G
Screen	4.7″ S-LCD3 (IPS)	4.99″ SuperAMOLED	5″, IPS?	5" IPS	4.7" IPS Plus	4.7" IPS Plus
Permission	1920×1080, 469ppi	1920×1080, 441ppi	1920×1080, 440ppi	1920×1080, 440ppi	1280×768, 317 ppi	1280×768, 317 ppi
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 @1.7GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Exynos 5410 @1.8GHz (8 cores)		Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)
RAM	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB
Flash memory	32/64 GB	16/32/64 GB	16 GB	16/32 GB	8/16 GB	32 GB
Memory card support	No	microSD	microSD	No	No	No
Operating system	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.1
SIM format*	Micro SIM	Micro SIM	Micro SIM	Micro SIM	Micro SIM	Micro SIM
Battery	non-removable, 2300 mAh	removable, 2600 mAh	non-removable, 2330 mAh	non-removable, 2500 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh
cameras	rear (4 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP)		rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP)	rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.9 MP)	rear (8 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP)	rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP)
Dimensions	137×68×9.3mm, 143g	137×70×7.9mm, 130g	139×71×7.9mm, 146g	142×69×8.9mm, 165g	134×69×9.1mm, 139g	132×69×8.5mm, 145g

* The most common SIM card formats are described in a separate article.

Key features of HTC One

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, 1.7 GHz, 4 cores, ARMv7 Krait
• GPU Adreno 320
• Operating system Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
• IPS touch display, 4.7″, 1920×1080
• Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, internal memory 32/64 GB
• No microSD card slot
• Communication GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• Communication 3G UMTS HSDPA 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, MHL, OTG
• WiFi Display/DLNA support
• WiFi 802.11a/ac/b/g/n
• GPS/Glonass
• Digital compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, position, light sensors
• 4 MP camera with HDR video support
• Camera 2.1 MP (front)
• Lithium polymer battery 2300 mAh
• Dimensions 137.4×68.2×9.3 mm
• Weight 143 g

Appearance and usability

The description should begin, of course, with the case materials. Unlike most plastic modern communicators, HTC One is almost entirely made of metal. At each presentation, the developers tirelessly demonstrate such a picture, especially focusing on the production technology of the new smartphone case.

The body is entirely cut from a single piece of aluminum, leaving only the screen glass and camera optics. In principle, NTS has had experience working with metal when creating cases for its smartphones. However, by her own admission, she always had to make a compromise by embedding plastic parts in a metal case so that the metal did not shield the radio waves. When creating HTC One, the developers went a different way. They took all the antennas and microphones outside, laying them in special recesses - grooves cut out from the outside right in the case material. These recesses contain those elements that should not be shielded by metal. From above, these grooves are filled with a special composite material that resembles ordinary plastic in structure. It is curious that not only the undercuts on the back side, but also all four side edges along the perimeter are also filled with this material. This does not cause inconvenience for the user, and it looks unusual - somehow “not beaten”.

Everything else here is just metal and glass, so there is no need to talk for a long time about whether the new smartphone looks expensive or cheap. The materials themselves are premium, so the HTC One looks exactly like it is ready to match any environment at any moment. In other words, HTC One will look equally good with an expensive suit and in the hands of a teenager.

The smartphone is quite heavy (143 g), which is logical, given the abundance of metal from which the case is machined. If we talk about the dimensions, then due to the narrow edges and the sloping back, the phone is quite comfortable in the hand. But this does not mean at all that I am ready to praise metal as the best material for the production of smartphones. Many users, by the way, prefer “warm”, light and rough plastic, especially since now it is also quite durable. And in terms of ease of holding in the fingers, the matte soft-touch coating is certainly more practical than smooth and sometimes slippery metal. This one can slip out of your hand (especially given the mass), and is more susceptible to heat than plastic. Yes, of course, metal removes heat from the processor better than plastic, we all know this, but in terms of comfort it's hard to say that it's very pleasant to take always cold metal in your hand, which suddenly heats up to hot after a few minutes of operation. Plastic in this sense just behaves more calmly, that's all. But in any case, a neat appearance and small thickness allow us to talk about HTC One as a universal smartphone, which is equally suitable for both male and female hands.

And of course, such a strong case will be better able to withstand various external influences than plastic. Although at this point it is worth noting that the specialists of one popular foreign publication who disassembled the HTC One smartphone claim that the smartphone is practically unsuitable for repair, because it cannot be disassembled. That is, if the speaker wheezed or the glass cracked, it will probably be very problematic to replace these elements. However, this is only an unofficial opinion of some journalists.

Now let's look at the details and individual elements of the HTC One case. In the back, in addition to the mentioned grooves, there is a digital camera window and a flashlight nearby - everything is standard. Case form factor - monoblock. The case is non-separable, there are no removable parts, so the cover cannot be removed either.

Another fact logically follows from this structure of the hull. The SIM card is inserted into the side slot on the left side of the smartphone, driving there on a metal sled. The attachment method is exactly the same as the iPhone: you need to press the key clip to eject the container with the card. The SIM card is used here in the Micro-SIM format, the container itself is made of metal.

Both connectors, traditionally located on the upper and lower ends of the device, are universal: Micro-USB - at the bottom, 3.5 mm audio output - at the top.

But that's where the logic ends. All other controls on the NTS One are so unusual and inconvenient that one can only wonder. First, that ill-fated power and lock key. For some reason, she was again placed not on her side, but on top - where not a single finger could reach. And the fact that this button is also an IR transmitter does not justify it in any way. And who, in fact, forced to embed the infrared port in the power button? At the top end, and without it, there would be enough space for arranging an IR transmitter. By the way, it is needed here to control various equipment, such as a TV or set-top box - the corresponding software is already installed in the smartphone.

Secondly, both this key and the other, which controls the volume, are both embedded flush with the plane of the case. They do not protrude from it at all, and therefore, it is not possible to grope them blindly. Manipulating such buttons is extremely inconvenient, all the time you have to watch where you press, and it's impossible to get used to it. As already mentioned, these buttons are indistinguishable from the rest of the surface to the touch.

And this list of absurdities is crowned by an unusual touch panel of control buttons under the screen. During the time that humanity has been creating smartphones with touch screens, it seemed to have managed to sort through all the possible options for the execution of the block of buttons under the screen. But the developers from the NTS managed to change everything this time. From the standard set, they simply “cut out” a button that calls the menu. In its place, the NTS logo now flaunts - right in the middle of the panel, and on the sides of it - only Back and Home, there is no Menu button here at all. There was no question of saving space: unlike the completely virtual block of buttons that migrated to the screen in some smartphones, here the strip under the screen still takes up space, albeit not with three, but with two buttons. A rather strange decision, and how it is justified is not entirely clear. Accordingly, the list of recently opened applications is also not easy to intuitively find now: it is called up here by double-tapping the Home button.

Finishing the topic of buttons, it is worth noting that the menu that pops up by long pressing the power key, in addition to the standard functions of shutting down, rebooting and switching to flight mode, has been supplemented with one more item - calling the children's mode. In this mode, you can safely let your children play with your smartphone without fear for access to important phone functions that are blocked for them.

It remains to be added that two versions of the NTS One are supplied to the market with different color schemes: Glacial Silver (metallic gray with the romantic name “silver glacier”), as in our review, and Stealth Black (“invisible black”) - in the photo above. In the black version, all the materials are the same, only the metal is painted here, and the plastic, which fills all the recesses and sides, matches the color of the case: in the gray version it is white, and in the black phone it is black. The rest of the smartphones are identical. Both options are not too easily soiled, as there are no glossy surfaces. However, on the cover of the black HTC One fingerprints, dirt, dust and grease are more visible than on the gray one - this should be taken into account by pedantic tidies when choosing.

Screen

HTC One has a very high-quality touch display, called the creators of S-LCD 3. In numbers, the physical parameters of the screen of the novelty are as follows: dimensions - 58 × 103 mm, diagonal - 119 mm (4.7 inches), resolution - Full HD 1080p ( 1920 × 1080 pixels), the PPI pixel density is 469 dpi, which is now a record high in the smartphone market. The HTC One display has both manual and automatic brightness adjustment, which is based on the light sensor. Multi-touch technology allows you to simultaneously process up to ten touches, which is confirmed by tests. It is curious that here this feature must be manually enabled in the settings, otherwise the screen will recognize only two simultaneous touches - such a strange know-how has already been encountered in NTS devices before. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear.

A detailed examination of the display using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the HTC One screen.

The screen of the smartphone is covered with a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface and, judging by the reflection of bright light sources in it, it has an anti-reflective filter. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special and quite effective oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating, so fingerprints do not appear as quickly as in the case of ordinary glass, but are removed more easily.

With manual brightness control, its maximum value was about 450 cd/m², and the minimum was 11 cd/m². The maximum value is quite high, so in bright daylight the readability of the screen will be preserved to some extent. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. There is an automatic brightness control by a light sensor (it is located in the upper left corner of the front panel): in total darkness, the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to 18 cd / m² (not very dim yet), in an office lit by artificial light it sets to 81 cd / m² (acceptable), in a very bright environment increases to a maximum of 450-460 cd/m² (as it should be). In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. There is no backlight flicker.

This smartphone has an IPS type matrix. The micrograph shows a typical IPS sub-pixel structure:

The screen has good viewing angles without hue inversion and without significant color shift even at large deviations of the gaze from the perpendicular to the screen. The black field, when deflected diagonally, is lightened quite a bit and, depending on the direction of the deflection, acquires a purple tint or remains almost neutral gray. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is very good. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 21 ms (12 ms on + 9 ms off). The transition between halftones 25% and 75% (according to the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 33 ms. Contrast is good - about 950:1. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the exponent of the approximating power function is 2.23, which is close to the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve slightly deviates from the power dependence:

The color gamut is sRGB:

Therefore, visually, the colors on this screen have a natural saturation. The spectra show that the matrix filters moderately mix the components to each other:

The balance of shades on the gray scale is good: although the color temperature is above 6500 K, this parameter does not change very much on the entire part of the gray scale that matters, while the deviation from the black body spectrum (delta E) is less than 10, which is considered to be a good indicator. (The dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since the color balance does not matter much there, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

As a result, we have a high-quality version of the screen on an IPS-type matrix, which deserves high praise.

Sound

The sound of the HTC One smartphone is one of the best solutions on the market. Of all the smartphones we've tested recently, only the Oppo Find 5 can match the HTC One in sound quality. HTC One speakers are located in the most unusual way - the creators do not tire of reminding of this in television advertising. The phone has two front-facing stereo speakers, and both of them face the front surface, and not the back, as in most smartphones. The device produces not excessively loud, but very clear, even in the entire range, deep sound, saturated with low frequencies. The speaker grille openings on the front surface cannot be blocked by the table surface, so nothing prevents sound from escaping (except, of course, when you put your smartphone “face down”). The sound here is additionally processed and improved with the help of HTC Boomsound and Beats Audio technologies.

There is an FM radio in the smartphone, but traditionally it works only with connected headphones that act as an antenna. There is also a regular voice recorder used to create voice notes. Both applications should be looked for in separate folders, where the icons of the corresponding applications are carefully collected: the radio in the Multimedia folder, and the voice recorder in the Tools folder. Unfortunately, HTC One does not have the built-in ability to record telephone conversations.

Camera

Photo evaluation and quality conclusions were made by Anton Solovyov.

HTC One is equipped, like most modern smartphones, with two digital camera modules. The front camera, which is used for video communication, has a sensor with a resolution of 2.1 megapixels, an example of a picture is in front of you. In principle, the quality of shooting for front camera not bad, you can even parse the text if you wish. The maximum resolution of images taken with the front camera is 1920×1088 pixels.

For a 2-megapixel front camera, the quality is quite acceptable. In the center, the text is quite legible, but sharpness drops off at the edges. The fragment with the barcode is already noticeably blurry.

The whole intrigue lies in the new module of the main, rear camera of the smartphone: here the developers installed a module with a resolution of only 4 megapixels. Explaining such a low resolution by modern standards, the developers tirelessly repeat in their presentations the words that the number of megapixels really does not mean anything, and offer to look at the rest of the characteristics of the new sensor. Which, by the way, make up the most voluminous section in the list of specifications on the manufacturer's website.

HTC UltraPixel Camera:

• Pixel size 2.0 µm
• Sensor size 1/3″, matrix backlight
• Dedicated HTC ImageChip 2 processor
• F2.0 aperture and a [relatively] 28mm wide-angle lens

Colorful epithets and large pixel sizes do not help much yet: the pictures do not shine with special quality and leave much to be desired. "For now" - because there is an opinion that something can improve with the release of new software firmware for HTC One. At least, the majority of HTC brand fans are now inclined to believe in it and are waiting. In the meantime, you can independently evaluate the quality of the resulting images by clicking on the thumbnails below. By default, the camera is set to shoot at a maximum resolution of 4 megapixels, while the pictures are taken at a size of 2688 × 1520 with an aspect ratio of 16:9.

Good detail for 4 megapixels. Slight geometry distortion suggests that the lens may have too wide an angle. Nice color rendition.

And a few more photos taken with different settings in different lighting conditions.

Noticeable distortion of the geometry is quite normal for a wide-angle lens. There is no significant distortion. Small chromatic aberrations are visible on the fragment with the telephone wire.

Pretty even exposure across the entire field of the picture with almost backlight.

A detailed examination of the image indicates either the absence of software sharpening, or its good work.

Examples of macro photography of nearby objects, as well as text from paper.

Strange loss of sharpness on the right side of the image. If the text on the left side is sharp, then on the right side it seems to be out of focus. Most likely just a bad shot.

Good sharpness on the branch. In addition, a pleasant absence of chromatic aberrations in bokeh.

There are four shooting modes in the video settings: with maximum Full HD resolution 1080p, 60fps slow motion, slow motion, and Full HD video with HDR technology.

The ability to shoot video on a smartphone camera in fast and slow motion, as well as to use HDR technology when shooting video, are now fashionable “chips” among manufacturers. We met the same set of features when testing the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Oppo Find 5, as well as some other top smartphones. By the way, it is worth noting that Oppo Find 5's fast shooting is at 120 frames per second, while HTC One's is only 60 frames per second. However, Oppo achieves this by reducing the resolution of the video to 480p, and HTC One, although the speed is lower, but the fast mode is implemented at 720p. So everything shows that the struggle on this new front is just beginning to unfold. In any case, while both of these "unusual" modes - slow and fast - can only be used when shooting in low resolution, and not in Full HD, so the very quality of the image on the resulting videos always leaves much to be desired. Examples of video recording in all four described modes are listed below.

• Clip #1 (Normal, 30.5 MB, 1920×1080, 16:9, 30 fps, video - MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 192 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels)
• Clip #2 (Slow motion, 11.9 MB, 768×432, 16:9, 23 fps, video - MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC)
• Movie #3 (Fast, 13.5 MB, 1280×720, 16:9, 60 fps, video - MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 192 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels)
• Clip #4 (HDR, 26.3 MB, 1920×1080, 16:9, 29 fps, video - MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 192 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels)

And of course, one cannot fail to mention one more "find" - the photography mode, in which the camera not only takes several pictures in a row, but also glues them together later into a whole micro-movie that can capture some short event in motion. This is not a standard video mode, but a little different, this is evidenced even by a different resolution of the resulting micro-rolls (1920 × 1088, not 1920 × 1080, as in normal Full HD video shooting). In principle, there is nothing special in this mode - probably, in such cases, ordinary video recording could be completely dispensed with. In addition, this format is not unique: Samsung Galaxy S4 presentations show exactly the same mode that can capture short events in motion - a dance pirouette, for example. But for some reason, the developers at HTC decided to put a strong emphasis on this, gave this mode a separate button in the most prominent place on the screen, and even gave the mode its own unique name: Zoe. Examples of a pair of such "Zoe" are in front of you.

• Zoe #1 (3.82 MB, 1920×1088, 16:9, 24 fps, video - MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 108 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels)
• Zoe #2 (3.74 MB, 1920×1088, 16:9, 24 fps, video - MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 107 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels)

It is curious that in the phone's memory, in addition to these Full HD videos, a whole series of photographs from the same video series, numbered with the "zoe" marking, was found, but in a resolution different from the micro-videos - 2688 × 1520. That is, Zoe is a real continuous shooting, and then you can work with individual frames from the series with built-in tools - in particular, choose the best one. For example, here are the "footage" related to "Zoe #2":

As for the settings for controlling the camera, they are somehow unusually collected all in a single long tape, in which you need to open the sub-items that interest you in turn. It's a little confusing at first, but then you get used to it. It is curious that there is no item for changing the resolution of the resulting photographs, shooting is carried out only in one resolution. True, there is the possibility of "cropping" for a different aspect ratio. In the settings there is also the possibility of geotagging, adding graphic effects, enabling face detection, smiles, panoramic shooting and, of course, manual settings for exposure, white balance, etc. The shutter sound can be turned off. You can also display a grid on the screen, which is convenient.

There is no separate hardware key on the side of the device for controlling the camera on HTC One. It is also impossible to release the camera shutter using the volume key, although this is now often practiced in smartphones from other companies. Here, this key, and in the shooting mode, still continues to adjust the sound volume level, which is frankly surprising. On the positive side, it is possible to note the possibility of taking a photo while recording a video, there is also a standard possibility of burst shooting.

Conclusions on the capabilities of the camera for taking photos:

The camera is well suited for everyday shooting, designed to capture interesting moments or important information. Of the advantages, one can single out a good exposure selection program, as well as an interesting implementation of macro photography. A significant drawback is the low resolution of the camera. It is done really well, but still the main task of the smartphone camera is more of a documentary than an artistic one. And here HTC One loses almost three times to top-end smartphones of competitors. On the other hand, it boasts good sharpness compared to some smartphones, whose manufacturers do not consider that a large number of pixels on the matrix is ​​a big responsibility.

Compared to the LG Nexus 4, the HTC One loses only in resolution. Sharpness at the edges of the Nexus drops, but not much. LG Optimus G, in turn, loses to HTC One in terms of the exposure selection program. In some places, its sharpness leaves much to be desired, despite the resolution of 13 megapixels. The same can be said about the Sony Xperia Z, whose optics are clearly rather weak for such a “large” matrix. But the camera on the Oppo Find 5 smartphone is very worthy: there is practically no drop in sharpness to the edges of the image, and in general, the sharpness of the image is good. Good choice of exposure. However, it also has geometric distortions that are common to all the listed smartphones, as a result of using a wide-angle lens. The Samsung Galaxy S4 also does a good job of taking pictures, although it is somewhat inferior to the Oppo Find 5. Apparently, all manufacturers have almost managed to defeat chromatic aberrations and “white contours”. In fact, in this general comparison, the HTC One lacks only a large resolution to rightly call its camera one of the best among high-end smartphones.

Recall that the company deliberately refused a large resolution, using a standard-sized matrix with a relatively small number of pixels. That is, the linear size of the photosensitive elements here is relatively large, which should at least provide images from such a matrix with a reduced noise level. And in practice, we really see that in terms of noise, the pictures of HTC One definitely win. However, if you reduce a picture of the same Oppo Find 5 to 4 megapixels, then in terms of detail and noise it will be no worse, and perhaps even better than the HTC One version. It's no secret that good old 4-5MP cameras shot cleaner than early 12MP cameras. Now, due to software processing, manufacturers are trying to achieve the same purity at a higher resolution. HTC went the other way, trying to win with a lower resolution. The experiment is very interesting, but from the series “the new is the well-forgotten old”. However, we also note that it is impossible (or rather, very difficult) to objectively assess the noise and detail of a smartphone from field shots. In a good way, it requires shooting the world in a specially prepared room, and we are not at all sure that our readers will be interested in these technical details when applied to a smartphone camera. Returning to the “user” level, we can give the following assessment: HTC managed to achieve the best quality of pictures, but this quality is manifested in the “beauty” of an artistic picture, and not in the detail of a documentary. For all its dislike for a large number of pixels on the matrix, we believe that HTC is not going the right way, since 4 megapixels is too small for a flagship smartphone - at least for those areas where a smartphone camera is usually used. This camera shoots better than the 5-megapixel cameras on past HTC smartphones, so they should have invested in at least 6 megapixels.

In conclusion, we can say that the HTC One camera is well suited for capturing artistic scenes where you don't need to look at small details.

Software

HTC One works in this moment on the Google Android software platform version 4.1.2. On top of the standard OS interface, the company installed a shell of its own making, called HTC Sense 5. The shell has undergone significant changes compared to previous versions. Literally everything is completely redesigned here, from color schemes and general desktop organization to strange, tall fonts.

Curiously, the application menu on HTC One quite unexpectedly scrolls not horizontally, like everyone else, but vertically. This is so unusual for users who have already had experience with the Android system before that, without a hint, they still cannot figure out that they need to scroll vertically. Perhaps someone will find this more convenient, but those whom I asked are not too happy about such changes.

The application menu itself by default looks “loose” - the program icons are separated from one another by a considerable distance. However, the matrix of application icons can be made denser by changing the grid configuration from 3x4 to 4x5 in the settings. The settings buttons for changing, sorting and searching through the program menu are not initially visible - they must be called by additionally pulling down the home screen, which is not quite familiar.

But the most noticeable innovation here seems to be HTC BlinkFeed. This is a standalone service built right into the home screen - a kind of widget on the desktop that cannot be removed. It is a live feed of constantly updated events, whether it is news from websites, social activities of friends, event announcements, and the like. According to HTC, BlinkFeed brings together relevant content from various sources, which is collected and processed on the company's servers, and then issued to the feed. The number of 10,000 articles coming daily from more than 1,400 media sources from around the world is announced. According to the developers, the user will now be able to cover everything that is most necessary and significant at a glance, without switching between various programs and websites. The content of the feed is divided into sections, and the owner of the HTC One smartphone is free to choose on what topics he wants to receive information updates in the BlinkFeed feed. The problem is different: the user cannot independently connect here other sources that are not initially included in the list processed by HTC servers for the BlinkFeed service. That is, the user can choose only within the limits limited by the choice of HTC itself. To switch from BlinkFeed view to the desktop, you need to perform a horizontal swipe on the screen - then the application menu will open.

There are not many pre-installed programs. Some of them, such as the Polaris Office package or a flashlight, may be useful. Moreover, office programs, for example, here allow not only to open the usual Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, but also to edit and save them. There is even a curious service called Rescue, with the help of which, as expected, the user can receive remote technical support from the company's specialists. We are impressed by the desire to ennoble the appearance of the application menu: as soon as Google added the ability to create folders for icons, manufacturers immediately began to neatly arrange them by subject.

But, unfortunately, proprietary applications installed on HTC One do not work in our country. Wherever you click (HTC Watch, HTC TB…) - the programs report that they do not support our region, although they are correctly translated into Russian: Russia is simply not in the list of countries.

In HTC One unexpectedly much attention is paid to the "children's issue". A separate service is built into the smartphone, which allows you to close access to important settings from children, and this mode is even placed in the menu when you reboot as a separate item. Obviously, this may be useful to someone, although in this day and age it may be easier to buy a child their own inexpensive electronic toy than to trust such an expensive parental device.

Telephone part and communications

The radio part of the tested HTC One smartphone is stable, no random signal loss or loss from the network of the telecom operator was noticed. The screen is large, the drawing of keys, numbers and letters of dialing and a virtual keyboard for typing SMS messages is quite convenient. The HTC One pays a lot of attention to how to enter information, there is a full-time ability to enter a stroke, and even compiled a whole tutorial on the topic "how to type easier."

There were no freezes, reboots and spontaneous shutdowns during testing. It is convenient to reboot the phone using the menu that pops up by long pressing the power button. When brought to the ear, the screen is blocked by the proximity sensor. The ambient light sensor controls the brightness level of the screen automatically. There is a convenient LED event indicator, which is not built in the most usual way: the indicator does not have its own “window”, but shines directly through the holes in the upper speaker grille.

The device is equipped with modern network interfaces and wireless communication modules: Bluetooth version 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11a/ac/b/g/n (this is the first announced device with 802.11ac support!), there is support for Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and the ability to organize Wi-Fi hotspots. The Micro-USB connector supports MHL and OTG modes: a 32-gigabyte flash drive connected to the device via an adapter was perfectly recognized and mounted as a separate storage. As for MHL, we tested this mode in detail in the video playback section.

We separately tested the new Wi-Fi 802.11ac standard, which support is announced in HTC One. Testing was carried out with the ASUS RT-AC66U router - one of two models with support for the 802.11ac standard, present on the local market. Recall that this new version of the standard operates only in the 5 GHz band and provides more than double the speed compared to 802.11n. In the case of smartphones, most often only one antenna is used, so connection speeds in this case can be a maximum of 150 Mbps for 802.11n and 433 Mbps for 802.11ac. Real performance is usually about half that. In addition, many mobile devices do not even support dual channel operation, resulting in a 72 Mbps limit for 802.11n.

Despite the declared support for 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, we were only able to get a connection from the device at the typical 802.11g speed of 54 Mbps. At the same time, the real performance was a little over 20 Mbps. We put a lot of effort into setting up the router, but the smartphone could not see the 5 GHz band, so tests in 802.11ac mode were not carried out. Most likely, the situation is due to the use of a pre-sale sample. If possible, we will definitely return to this issue later.

HTC One also has support for NFC, a short-range wireless high-frequency communication technology that allows you to exchange data between devices located at a distance of about 10 centimeters. This technology is aimed primarily at use in mobile phones and payment terminals, and in some countries is already being used with might and main for contactless payments, fare payment in public transport or even personal identification. In our country, NFC has not yet become widespread, but even now the user of a smartphone that supports this technology can try it out in action. It is enough to download and install the Yandex.Metro application, which, when presented to the phone, is able to show the terms of its use and the number of remaining trips. Another application is offered by the domestic mobile operator MTS, which has organized NFC support for contactless payments. The Mobile Wallet package includes a special MTS SIM card with MasterCard PayPass technology, linked to an MTS Money bank card. In addition, an NFC antenna is included with the kit, which must be able to be placed in the SIM card slot. That is, for such contactless payments, in any case, just a smartphone is not enough - you also need to get and insert a new special SIM card into it, as well as open an appropriate account with MTS Bank. But in the case of an NFC-enabled phone, you don’t have to install an antenna either - and this is not so simple, and in the iPhone, where the SIM card is pushed into the case through a slot, it simply cannot be installed.

A-GPS technology provides assistance in determining the location of the GPS module, with its help orientation on the ground is carried out almost instantly. If you turn off all wireless communication modules, then a cold start with a search for satellites and determining the location will take one and a half minutes. The phone also claims support for the Russian satellite navigation service Glonass.

Performance

The hardware platform of HTC One is based on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC. It includes a quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait 300 CPU and Adreno 320 GPU. According to the creators, the new system provides 40% more performance than the previous generation system Snapdragon S4 Pro, while reducing power consumption by 30%.

The amount of RAM in HTC One is 2 GB. The system memory in the smartphone is laid 32 or 64 GB - depending on the selected configuration. In our case, the storage available to the user for uploading their own files was about 25 GB, with a nominal designated volume of 32 GB. When you connect your smartphone to a PC, its internal storage is mounted as an independent removable drive. Unfortunately, the HTC One did not provide for memory expansion with microSD cards, so the user will have to be content with only these 25 GB for all his needs.

We compared the hardware performance of the HTC One in various popular tests with the performance of other top modern smartphones we've tested so far. Most of them, by the way, are built on the very previous Snapdragon S4 Pro platform, which was mentioned above. Therefore, it is quite expected that a device based on the new Snapdragon 600 turned out to be at the forefront of tests in comparison with competitors. The HTC One delivered very strong performance results, putting it on par with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and outperforming the rest of today's top smartphones such as the Google Nexus 4, LG Optimus G, HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Note II. Here is a summary with a comparison of the results based on the AnTuTu test database. Our own data are slightly different from these, but the overall balance of power is clear.

Below are the test results for HTC One in new version GLBenchmark - 2.7.0, which added a new T-Rex HD scene of increased complexity. As we remember, even such a powerful system as the Oppo Find 5 produced only 13 fps in this test. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 platform in the HTC One did a better job on this tough test, but just barely at 15 fps.

Video playback and connection to an external display

To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it.

Format	container, video, sound	MX Video Player	Regular video player
DVDRip	AVI, XviD 720×400 2200 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL SD	AVI, XviD 720×400 1400 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL HD	MKV, H.264 1280x720 3000Kbps, AC3
BDRip 720p	MKV, H.264 1280x720 4000Kbps, AC3	Video plays fine, sound is software only¹	Video plays fine, no sound¹
BDRip 1080p	MKV, H.264 1920x1080 8000Kbps, AC3	Video plays fine, sound is software only¹	Video plays fine, no sound¹

¹ sound in MX Video Player only played after switching to software decoding; The regular player does not have such a setting.

Additionally, the MHL interface was tested. To test it, we used the LG IPS237L monitor, which supports direct MHL connection using a passive Micro-USB to HDMI adapter cable. In this case, the output via MHL is carried out in a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels at a frequency of 30 fps. Displaying on the monitor screen in portrait orientation of the smartphone screen is carried out in portrait orientation only if the current program does not support landscape orientation at all, while on the monitor screen the image height is slightly less than the height of the display area, and black fields are displayed on the right and left. In all other cases, regardless of the orientation of the smartphone, the image on its screen and on the monitor screen is forced to be displayed in landscape orientation. Unfortunately, the image on the monitor is displayed in a slightly reduced form so that black stripes remain around the perimeter. There doesn't seem to be an option to turn it off. As a result, the actual resolution on the monitor screen is lower than on the screen of the smartphone itself, that is, less than Full HD. The sound is output via MHL (in this case, the sounds were heard through the headphones connected to the monitor, since there are no speakers in the monitor itself) and has good quality. At the same time, at least multimedia sounds are not output through the loudspeaker of the smartphone itself, and the volume is controlled by the buttons on the smartphone case. The smartphone connected via MHL is charging.

Video output by means of a regular player deserves a special description. To begin with, using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1), we checked how the video is displayed on the screen of the smartphone itself. Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the output frames of video files with various parameters: resolution (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps) varied. With). The results of this (block titled " Screen”) and the following test are tabulated:

File	Uniformity	Passes
Screen
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4	not reproduced
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4	poorly	few
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4	Good	No
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4	Good	No
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4	Good	No
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	Good	No
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	Good	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	Good	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	Good	No
MHL (monitor)
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4	not reproduced
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4	poorly	a lot of
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4	Good	few
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4	poorly	No
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4	poorly	No
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	poorly	a lot of
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	poorly	a lot of
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	poorly	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	poorly	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	poorly	No
MHL (adapter)
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	poorly	a lot of
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	poorly	a lot of
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	poorly	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	poorly	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	poorly	No

Note: if both columns "Uniformity" and "Gap" are set to "green", this means that when watching movies, most likely, either artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and dropping frames will not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. "Red" marks indicate possible problems associated with the playback of the respective files.

Only one file plays perfectly - 1280x720 at 60 fps, in all other cases the intervals between frames alternate unevenly, in one case a small part of the frames is skipped, and 1080p files with 60 fps are not played. However, apart from these two cases, it is quite difficult to visually notice artifacts. Note that uniform frame interleaving, if it exists, is still a relatively unstable state, since some external and internal background processes lead to periodic failure of the correct interleaving of intervals between frames. When playing video files with Full HD resolution (1920 × 1080 pixels) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed one-on-one, exactly along the border of the screen in true Full HD resolution. The range of brightness displayed on the screen is slightly different from the original one - in the shadows, three or four shades of gray are indistinguishable from black, but in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed (for video in the range of 16-235). It is impossible not to note the relatively good - loud and good quality - stereo sound, which is created by two spaced speakers of this smartphone. As a result, it is not necessary to wear headphones to watch a movie, unless, of course, the sound disturbs others.

With a monitor connected via MHL, when playing video with a standard player, the picture of the video file itself is displayed both on the smartphone screen and on the connected monitor, but information elements and virtual controls are displayed only on the smartphone screen. When playing video files with Full HD resolution (1920 × 1080 pixels), due to the non-switchable, as noted above, the actual image resolution on the monitor screen is slightly less than the Full HD resolution. The brightness range displayed on the monitor corresponds to the original one - all gradations of shades are displayed in highlights and shadows (for video in the range of 16-235). The results of the monitor output tests are shown in the table above in the "MHL (monitor)" section. The output quality is not high, since the intervals between frames (or between groups of frames) alternate unevenly, and in some cases frames are skipped.

Additionally, video output (with a standard player) via MHL using an MHL adapter was tested. When using this adapter, the monitor output was 720p at 60 fps, which determined the maximum actual image resolution. With the exception of resolution and frame rate, everything else - the nature of the interface output, recharging, sound output and gray scale - did not differ from a direct connection via MHL. The test results are shown in the table above in the "MHL (adapter)" block. The conclusion is similar - the output quality is low.

As a result, it turns out that the implementation of the MHL interface in the HTC One smartphone has a number of serious drawbacks. Nevertheless, this type of connection can in principle be used for games, watching movies, displaying web pages, etc., but you will need to put up with a decrease in the actual resolution and with periodic twitching of the picture when displaying a dynamic image.

Battery life

The capacity of the lithium-polymer battery installed in HTC One is 2300 mAh. The battery is non-removable, so you can’t remove it yourself and replace it with a new one.

The smartphone showed very good performance in terms of battery life, leaving a little behind all the top new items we've tested lately. Here are the test results of the test subject in several modes of battery life.

Continuous reading in the FBReader program at the minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to about 100 cd / m²) for 2 hours consumed only 14% of the total battery charge, and for two hours of watching YouTube videos in high quality (HQ) via a home network The Wi-Fi device has used up 27% of its battery capacity. At maximum load in the continuous 3D game mode (100% brightness, 60 fps), the smartphone worked for 2 hours and 14 minutes. A full charge of HTC One takes 2 hours.

Prices

The average retail price of the device in rubles in Moscow at the time of reading the article can be found by moving the mouse to the price tag.

Outcome

As for the cost, the official sales of the HTC smartphone in Russia have already started. From April 10, the smartphone was to be sold in most retail chains and stores at a recommended price of 29,990 rubles. This time there will be no exclusive contracts with individual sellers, which is understandable: the company is not in such a position now to dictate its terms to anyone. Thus, the smartphone will be sold in all stores, and those who pre-ordered on the websites of the company and all its key partners will receive a smartphone at a price of 27,990 rubles. Compared to the flagships of other companies, this is a very attractive price, and the smartphone turned out to be quite interesting. Of the obvious advantages, it has a reliable case made of high-quality and durable materials, as well as a powerful, most advanced hardware platform to date. Of the relative disadvantages - a strange camera, an inconvenient combination and location of all hardware buttons, as well as the need to get acquainted with the "finds" of developers expressed in software and interface, such as the vertical menu of programs and BlinkFeed, for example.

For a combination of innovative solutions, concentrated in one product, flavored with a non-standard attractive appearance, the HTC One smartphone certainly deserves our award.

One of the most anticipated smartphones of 2013, the HTC One, has arrived for testing. There are many legends about this device, because it has a cool appearance, a cast aluminum body, a chic touch screen with the maximum pixel density at the moment, advanced and very productive hardware. But is everything here as good as they write about it?

HTC One is rightfully included in the club of flagship smartphones. In addition to it, fall into this category,.

Perhaps the main feature of this device was the appearance. The device feels very cool in the hands. I can't say otherwise. There is a feeling of reliability and some kind of pride that he is in your hands. This is not some plastic Samsung or Nokia! For me personally, this was a revelation. I had similar feelings except for the first iPhone and the Nokia 8800 line.

Among the special merits of HTC One can be identified a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip with a quad-core 1.7 GHz processor, a 4.7-inch Full HD display, great sound from both external speakers and headphones. In general, there are many pluses. Where are the downsides?

Looking ahead, I will say that the HTC One has disadvantages. I will definitely tell you about them.

Dimensions. Contents of delivery

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HTC has never been shy about the large dimensions of their smartphones. At one time, the company was among the first to introduce a model with a 4.3-inch screen, then 4.7. However, now the realization has come that there is a limit to everything. This limit is 4.7 inches. For this reason, HTC One received just such a diagonal. This is a kind of compress between the mind and feelings.

As a result, the dimensions of the device are 137.4x68.2x9.3mm. They are quite appropriate and reasonable. If we compare the dimensions of HTC One with the dimensions of competitors, then there are no special differences. Yes, the "Taiwanese" is some millimeter longer, while already one and a half millimeters narrower. The biggest - .

The weight of HTC One 143 grams did not seem excessive to me. In addition, the smartphone can be carried without wearing in the pocket of tight clothing. True, if you want a network, you have to pull the gadget out of your pocket.

Delivery set includes:

• HTC One phone
• USB charger adapter
• Cable for synchronization with a computer (microUSB)
• Stereo headset with 3.5 mm mini-jack
• Set of overlays for a headset of different sizes
• Instruction

Design, construction

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HTC One has already been dubbed almost the only alternative to plastic devices and the best device for a painless transition from iOS to Android. In many ways, the device has achieved such epithets because of the design of the case. It is a solid sheet of aluminium. In modern models, this is a rarity, so each such model looks fresh against the background of faceless plastic "twins".

Another feature of the unibody case is that the whole part consists of several elements. This is clearly seen on the back side, which is divided into three parts. The laws of physics forced us to make such a compromise - the metal screens the signal. Therefore, it was decided to embed the antennas in a metal panel, which divided it into several fragments. It is worth noting that the stereo speaker covers above and below the screen are also made of aluminum.

The build quality is top notch. Everything is very reliable.

The devices are available in two colors: white and black. In both cases, fingerprints and dust do not remain on the case. The exception to this rule is the screen.

Almost the entire front of the smartphone is occupied by a large touch screen with a diagonal of 4.7 inches. Above it is a speaker hole. To the right is a camera for video calls (2 megapixels), and to the left - all kinds of sensors and sensors: motion sensor, light sensor, G-sensor. In the right corner there is an LED that lights up during charging, and also blinks during SMS, calls or low battery.

Under the screen is the second speaker. I can state with confidence that the stereo speakers in HTC One sound extremely loud and of the highest quality. The stereo effect is very pronounced. Feeling as if a good audio system was turned on nearby. The rest of the smartphones fade against the background of the flagship from HTC, giving out a completely indistinct cacophony in comparison with it. Contrary to fears, even if you put the smartphone face down on any surface (be it a table or a soft sofa), the audibility remains excellent.

The illuminated touch buttons located under the display will require some getting used to. At first, I really want to press the HTC logo placed between the two keys. After several unsuccessful attempts, one has to get used to the idea that the logo does not carry any functional load.

On the right side is the volume control button. On the opposite side is a microSIM slot. The SIM card is inserted using a master key, which is supplied in the kit. You can also use a thin paper clip.

The button for turning the device on and off, as well as the screen lock, is located on the upper end. There you can also see a hole for connecting headphones with a 3.5 mm jack. At the bottom end there is a connector for an interface cable and a charger.

On the back is a 4.1-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. The battery is non-removable.

In terms of ergonomics, HTC One easily bypasses and is not inferior. The build quality of the device is excellent. During the test, I did not find any external defects. Impressions are extremely positive. The smartphone is assembled at a factory in Taiwan.

Screen. Graphic features

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HTC decided to go for an experiment and equipped the smartphone with a 4.7-inch matrix, while the main competitors put 5-inch screens in their flagships. At the same time, the resolution for all models is the same 1080 × 1920 pixels. This resulted in a fantastic 468 ppi for the HTC One. However, in terms of image clarity, it is impossible to notice the difference with. All three devices show a perfectly clear picture.

The HTC One screen is a Super LCD3 matrix. In terms of characteristics, it most closely resembles the IPS display of the iPhone 5, only the brightness margin of the Taiwanese device is more modest.

Brightness is adjusted both manually and automatically, based on the operation of the light sensor. Naturally, there is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to simultaneously process up to ten touches.

The HTC One screen is protected by Gorilla Glass version 2. During testing, there were no scratches on it.

User interface

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HTC One is running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean operating system. The software can be updated via the Internet. On top of the operating system, its own Sense 5 shell is installed, which greatly changes the familiar look of the android, so it hardly makes sense to complain that someone has a more up-to-date version of the OS.

The user interface on HTC One has been seriously redesigned. The result was a complete misunderstanding of what and how it works here.

The fact is that in Sense 5 the so-called Blinkfeed shell appeared a la a live home screen with all statuses, news and similar information. The main screen displays messages from all social networks that you feed the phone, plus selected news feeds. At the very top of this list, the clock and the weather forecast lurk, and at the bottom, five icon buttons remain all the time - almost the only reminder of Android. Blinkfeed is convenient for those who cannot live without social media, but it seems to be impossible to remove it from the desktop, and this is very, very wrong. It is impossible to impose highly specialized options on the user.

Another Android reminder is the icon strip at the top. If you pull on it, the familiar "android" menu will drop out. But HTC removed the wireless interface switches from it a long time ago and still can’t return it, although it’s already 2013 and such switches are a generally accepted ergonomic standard.

Interestingly, you can now create folders in the applications menu - this is a great way to hide all infrequently used applications.

Phone features

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Phone functions, God is weak, did not touch. First of all, these include "Phone", "Contacts", "Messages". They are all located at the bottom of the HTC One home screen.

In the Contacts app stores detailed information about phone numbers and subscribers. A specific record can have two dozen fields, whether it is a last name, first name, patronymic, mobile number, home phone number, address Email, date of birth or personal ID, Skype, etc. The search in contacts occurs immediately in all fields of the client, that is, you can dial a number, first name, last name, etc. Each subscriber's profile can be linked to his social media accounts.

Drawing keys, numbers and letters for dialing and a virtual keyboard for typing SMS messages is very convenient. During an incoming call, the screen displays a photo and a subscriber's number from the phone book, or, if the subscriber is unknown, a picture of a green man.

Text and multimedia messages are grouped by subscribers. By clicking on a specific contact, you can view the history of correspondence with this person.

Multimedia features

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The music player application allows you to play files: MP3, AMR, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+. There is sorting by artists, albums, genres, composers.

The package includes a regular headset. Thanks to the 3.5 mm jack, you can pick up any headphones.

The "Video" item displays videos made both by the device's camera and downloaded from the Internet.

A kind of thematic browser for photo and video files is the "Gallery" item. All files are divided into folders: photos and video clips, music.

Camera

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Although many people know that megapixels are not an indicator of the quality of a camera, in mobile devices this very quality is measured out of habit by them. Thirteen megapixels is good, five is bad. And when HTC announced the 4 MPix camera module in the flagship One, the public took it with incomprehension.

The fact is that the vendor decided to use an alternative imaging technology, calling it "ultrapixel". Here, as in the confrontation between soapboxes and DSLRs with the same matrix resolution, the pixel size is important. The larger the pixel, the theoretically there should be less noise and other artifacts. Accordingly, in the so-called HTC One ultra-pixel camera, the pixel area is three times larger than that of a conventional 13 megapixel camera in a smartphone. That is, the HTC One matrix receives more light and - again theoretically - shoots better in the dark, and in general creates less noise. At the same time, the camera module is still not very large and does not require thickening the phone.

Real shots from the HTC One camera upset. The quality has not improved. The good old megapixels gave a light to the newfangled "ultrapixels". Photos are noisy and somewhat blurry. Night shots in automatic mode are terrible, the “Night” mode saves the situation a bit, but still, the Taiwanese flagship is very, very far from competitors. Otherwise, everything is fine, the photos are sharp, with a good white balance.

The only plus of the newfangled camera is that photos take up much less space.

Memory and speed

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The flagship from HTC is built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset, which consists of four Krait 300 cores operating at up to 1.9 GHz. The Adreno 320 HF chip is responsible for the graphics, 2 GB of RAM is enough with a margin for everything. Built-in memory is only 32 GB, you can not expand this amount.

The smartphone can easily "pull" any Full HD video, and it seems that there are no games yet that would not be enough for the One's filling performance. All interfaces fly, there are no delays. The only thing is that with a high load on the hardware, the phone heats up noticeably.

Communication options

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HTC One works on 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks. To ensure fast wireless data transmission in mobile networks, the smartphone supports the HSPA + standard. It also has support for fourth generation networks (LTE), including its Russian version at 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz.

In addition, the smartphone supports the Wi-Fi standard (802.11 a/b/g/n). The device is equipped with Bluetooth version 4.0, NFC, there is support for DLNA, MHL and OTG. It is possible to communicate directly with other devices via Wi-Fi Direct, as well as organizing a Wi-Fi access point.

An infrared port suddenly appeared on HTC One. It is hidden in the power button of the phone. Accordingly, using the appropriate application, you can control TVs - the benefit of the universal software remote control is already preinstalled.

Working time

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The smartphone has a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 2300 mAh. Under test conditions, with the number of calls 60 minutes a day, always-on Wi-Fi and Internet browsing for about 1.5 hours, listening to an mp3 player through a headset for about 2 hours a day, the device worked for a day. If you turn on navigation, and also allow several applications to work in the background, then the time will drop to 10-12 hours. A large display and productive hardware still take their toll! If you watch videos in FullHD quality, then the smartphone will work for about 3-4 hours.

Contents of delivery

The delivery set is traditionally as simple as possible, together with the device in the box there is a microUSB-USB cable, a charging unit, a few brief instructions and earplugs. And although the body of the smartphone is decorated with the Beats Audio inscription, the bundled headphones are simple, not from Beats, although with a microphone and a call control panel (a key on the wire).

Positioning

The device was initially positioned by the company as a mid-range smartphone. Three new items were presented: the top HTC One X, the average HTC One S and the budget HTC One V. But if the top and budget models had corresponding price tags, then One S at the start of sales could not be definitely attributed to the middle segment at a price of 25,000 rubles. Now the situation is starting to improve, so far only due to the gray market, but I would like to believe that the company will adequately evaluate the sales of the official One S and the price tag will soon crawl down from the cosmic 24,990 rubles.

Design

HTC One S looks interesting and even unusual. This is achieved by a combination of metal, and for two colors a metal cover of different textures is used (differences in the way metal is processed) and glass, as well as an interesting shape of the case and its small thickness. Speaking about my impressions, I like the design of HTC One X and dislike One S, however, many friends and acquaintances to whom I showed both models, on the contrary, are close to the design in One S.

Housing materials

The front side of the smartphone is scratch-resistant tempered glass Gorilla Glass that protects the screen. This model is not yet listed on the site, it will be added later. It is very easy to remove marks and fingerprints from the screen, but it is not completely scratch-resistant. During the use of the model, I still got small scratches and marks on the surface of the display, they are almost invisible, but if you look closely, you can notice them.

The screen surface gets dirty, but marks and fingerprints are barely noticeable, so I can't call it a disadvantage.

The body of the smartphone is made of metal, there are two color options, classic black and slightly rough due to special metal surface treatment and gray with a gradient, the color changes from light gray at the top of the phone to dark gray at the bottom. In this version, the body is smooth.

Assembly

The device is almost monolithic, it uses only one removable element, this is a cover in the upper area on the back of the smartphone, under which some antenna modules and a slot for a microSIM card are hidden. The rest of the case is one-piece, with a non-removable battery.

Dimensions

In terms of dimensions, HTC One S is noticeably smaller than the older model, it fits more comfortably in the hand, and it is more comfortable to talk on it.

• HTC One S- 130.9 x 65 x 7.8mm, 120g
• HTC One X- 134.4 x 69.9 x 8.9mm, 130g
• HTC Sensation XL- 132.5 x 70.7 x 9.9mm, 162g
• Samsung Galaxy S2- 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5mm, 116g
• Apple iPhone 4S- 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm, 140g

In my opinion, the HTC One S has almost ideal dimensions for a mid-range sensor. It is not so small that its screen is inconvenient to use, but not so bulky that it barely fits into the pockets of trousers and is difficult to hold and at the same time is controlled by the same hand.

Controls

The smartphone is running the fourth version of Android, and all controls in it have been redesigned in accordance with the requirements of the Quartet. This means that the company abandoned the four keys under the screen, traditional until the last moment for HTC, including the search button, and switched to three buttons. From left to right, these are the “Back”, “Home” keys and the call to the “Recent Apps” menu, as in HTC One X.

The touch keys are separated from each other, their layout is simple and clear, and the backlighting of the white keys turns on only when there is a lack of lighting. It is convenient to press the keys, when you touch any button, the device vibrates slightly. This is where the pros end and the cons begin. The first is that the context menu button has been replaced with the dubious use of the Recent Apps key. Secondly, there is no search button familiar to HTC anymore. Thirdly, most of the programs from the app store are now displayed with a black bar that takes up noticeable space, which is nothing more than the on-screen key for calling the context menu, this is a problem with many devices on Android 4.0 ICS.

In addition, if earlier some of the four touch keys performed two actions, by touch and by holding, now there is no such luxury. Accordingly, it is no longer possible to quickly call up a voice search or open the keyboard where necessary (the keyboard is hidden with the on-screen key).

On the right edge of the smartphone is a key to adjust the volume, moderately long and comfortable even to press blindly.

On the left is a microUSB connector, on top is a power button, a 3.5 mm mini-jack and a microSIM card slot under the cover.

When you hold down the power key, a menu appears with the ability to turn off the smartphone, put it into airplane mode, and reboot.

On the front side, in the upper part, there is a speaker, inside on the left there is a light indicator, and below - a light sensor and a proximity sensor. Slightly to the right of the speaker grill is the front VGA camera eye.

The indicator light flashes green when there are missed calls, unread text or email messages or other notifications, lights up green when connected to a PC or a fully charged battery (when the smartphone is still connected to charge). When the battery level is low, it flashes red, when charging, it lights up red.

Screen

The HTC One S uses a "Super AMOLED" display with PenTile technology. Personally, I don’t see subpixels, but buyers of the novelty should know that they are here. In terms of brightness, the screen is excellent, the color reproduction, for my taste, is not as smooth and calm as in One X, but that's what AMOLED is for. Viewing angles are maximum, the screen fades in the sun, but remains more or less readable.

Now about the characteristics of the screen. Diagonal 4.3", physical dimensions 95 x 53 mm, pixel ratio per inch ~ 256 ppi (data from gsmarena.com), resolution 960x540 (dots (qHD). The screen displays 16 million colors.

In the screen settings, you can choose the font size for me and programs, there are four options, from the smallest to the largest. The screen supports multi-touch technology, the reaction to pressing with your fingers is excellent. Initially, the option to process a maximum of three touches is enabled in the display settings, if you uncheck it, the screen is able to process up to 5 clicks at the same time. A three-finger touch from the bottom to the top of the display launches the Media Link HD application.

Camera

Despite the fact that at the presentation of new products in conversations about the camera, it was always about the HTC One X device, the One S model is equipped with a similar camera module and the same interface, that is, the image quality for these two devices is almost identical, as well as the impressions of working with camera. It uses an 8-megapixel module, BSI sensor, F2.0 / 28 mm, LED flash. Of the main features of HTC, they noted a very high shooting speed, the ability to take photos during video recording without stopping recording, as well as a “neat and correct” post-processing mode for images with the HDR effect.

The camera eye is located in the upper part of the device on the back, on a protruding area with a border, the flash is located next to it on the right. The protective glass of the camera in my sample was covered with tiny scratches after a month of use.

The camera interface has changed slightly compared to previous models, so now there is no photo-video switch, and the buttons for shooting and starting recording are simply located next to each other. Above these keys there is a button for calling the menu with a choice of effects, below is the button for going to the gallery, and on the left there are three icons: flash modes, calling the settings window and below - selecting the shooting mode.

Below are screenshots from the review of HTC One X, the camera interface in these models is the same.

There are 10 shooting modes available:

• Slow motion video
• Panorama
• Portrait
• group portrait
• Landscape
• white board
• close up
• low light

The following standard and widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) resolutions are available for photos:

• 8 M - 3264x2448
• 5 M - 2592x1952
• 3M - 2048x1536
• 1M-1280x960
• Small - 640x480

White balance:

• Incandescent
• Fluorescent
• Daylight
• cloudy

In addition to the described settings, you can change the level of sharpness, saturation, contrast and exposure, you can turn off the shutter sound, the grid in the viewfinder mode on the screen, the timer, and enable shooting with geotagging using GPS. The ISO value varies from 100 to 800.

There is a continuous shooting mode, shooting with face detection, as well as automatic smile detection.

Using the front camera, you can take self-portraits.

Below you can evaluate the quality of photos in different modes, I will refrain from commenting and just say that, in my opinion, the quality of pictures from HTC One S is generally quite good and worthy.

Photos during the day:

macro photography:

Shooting text:

Scaling:

Video. Video is recorded in mp4 format (h.264 codec) with variable recording speed, from 10 to 31 frames per second. In FullHD resolution, video is recorded in a variable bitrate (on average 9,661 kbps, data from Media Player Classic. Sound is recorded using the aac codec, in stereo mode, quality is 128 kbps.

The following resolutions are available for video:

• FullHD - 1920x1080
• HD-1280x720
• High - 640x480
• Low - 320x240
• MMS - 176x144

For video, you can enable or disable audio recording, and enable image stabilization during recording. During movie shooting, you can change the focus manually by pointing to a point on the screen, in addition, tracking autofocus works during shooting. At any video resolution, zooming is possible right during shooting. Also during the recording, you can take photos, below you see a few of these shots.

You can evaluate the quality of the video by the examples below.

Offline work

The smartphone uses a Li-Pol battery with a capacity of 1650 mAh. Compared to the HTC One X, the capacity is smaller, but technically the device is a little simpler, it uses a dual-core platform, a smaller diagonal screen and a lower resolution. All these details together give a good result, against the background of HTC One X, which worked for me with a load of 5-6 hours, HTC One S lasts until the evening, which is not bad for those who are used to using their android device to the maximum, including listening to music.

My smartphone usage pattern was as follows: listening to music 2-3 hours a day, push-mail enabled for two mail accounts, Internet via Wi-Fi and EDGE / HSDPA (about an hour), 50-60 minutes of calls, as well as sending and receiving about 20-30 text messages. In this mode, HTC One S lasts all day and discharges closer to the night. If you listen to music for 5-6 hours, the device sits down by 20-21 hours. When watching a video, the charge lasts for 5-6 hours, it all depends on the quality of the video being watched and the selected screen brightness level.

Performance

The smartphone is based on the Qualcomm MSM8260A platform with a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor. On the one hand, it may seem that against the backdrop of a quad-core processor on Tegra 3 in HTC One X, the platform is weaker here, on the other hand, in reality, the performance difference between the flagship and HTC One S is imperceptible. However, even in synthetic tests it is not always obvious that One X is built on a more powerful platform. The smartphone has 1 GB of RAM, a year ago this amount or even a little less would have been enough, but with the new version of Sense 4.0, which takes up more than half of the “RAM”, I can’t say that a gigabyte will always be enough, because my a sample of HTC One S after a reboot and without running programs shows only 250 MB of free memory available for software operation.

HTC One S has only 16 GB of internal storage for data storage, of which approximately 12 GB is available to the user. There is no slot for a memory card, so you cannot increase this amount, unless you consider 25 GB of memory in dropbox.com as an alternative, this amount is given to every HTC One S owner for a year for free after purchasing a smartphone.

The company's position in terms of memory is not entirely clear, what prevented you from sticking a memory card slot in One X and One S, even sacrificing a millimeter or two of thickness? One way or another, but we can say that 16 GB is one of the serious shortcomings of the device compared to competitors with slots for microSD cards, if you like to watch video on the device from time to time, and also constantly listen to music, this volume will be critically lacking for normal operation. On the other hand, if the device is used only for calls and games, 12 free gigabytes will be enough.

The speed of the smartphone is excellent, there are no delays and slowdowns in the menu, scrolling through the windows with programs is smooth, the system line is called without jerks. Apps take seconds to launch, and large numbers running programs, the smartphone does not start to work more slowly. Below are the test results of HTC One S in various benchmarks.

AnTuTu Benchmark

Quadrant Standart

There are no problems with playing HD video, the device plays FullHD trailers in high quality recordings in Dice Player without any problems.

Interfaces

The device works in GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and UMTS (900/2100) networks. Both high-speed data transfer standards, EDGE and HSDPA, are supported. Enabling and disabling various communication modules can be done in the settings menu or using widgets. Unlike Sense 3.0, where there was also a tab on the system tray with interface control keys, this is not the case in Sense 4.0.

For synchronization with a PC and data transfer, the included microUSB cable is used. USB 2.0 interface. When connected to a computer, a menu appears in which you can select one of five types of connection: charging only, HTC Sync, Floppy drive (visible internal memory), Internet modem (using the machine as a modem) and connecting to a PC to access the network via a PC.

Embedded module Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP.

WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n). The Wi-Fi module works flawlessly. On your smartphone, you can configure the rules for switching Wi-Fi to sleep mode, using only a static IP address when connecting, and adding security certificates. There is also a maximum Wi-Fi performance mode. During the operation of the module, the device practically does not heat up.

wifi router. HTC One S has a function of "sharing" 2G / 3G Internet connection via Wi-Fi. It works as follows. In the wireless interfaces menu, select the "Portable hotspot" option and then "Portable Wi-Fi hotspot". Here you need to select the network name, password, and connection type (WEP, WPA, WPA2). In addition, you can set the maximum number of connections to your smartphone, or separately block or allow each new connection.

When this option is enabled, you can connect to the Internet, for example, from your laptop via routing to HTC One S, and you will use the GPRS/EDGE or UMTS/HSDPA connection that is pre-configured on your smartphone to access the network. This function can be used, for example, in a country house or on business trips, in a hotel where for some reason there is no Wi-Fi, but there is a local SIM card with relatively inexpensive 2G / 3G traffic.

DLNA, HDMI. The smartphone supports DLNA technology, so if you have a DLNA-compatible media server and other devices at home, you can use HTC One S with them. For example, output sound or video from the device directly to the TV. In addition, the device supports HDMI, the connector is combined with microUSB (MHL), so in order to use HDMI, you will first need to buy a special cable.

Navigation

The smartphone has GPS support. When you first start navigation, it takes about 30 seconds to search for satellites, then this process takes 10-15 seconds. For navigation, the device has a navigation program HTC Navigation based on Route 66, as well as Google Maps and Google Navigation. Using Google Maps, you can get directions, search for addresses by street names or places. With Google Navigation, you can enjoy navigation with route guidance and voice guidance.

The HTC Navigation application is launched using the Locations program. This is a full-fledged navigation software with support for points of interest (POI), a route log and the ability to plot routes. The device provides an overview map of Russia and a demonstration 30-day map of Russian cities. For the program, you can buy any of the available cards, the purchase is made directly through the program interface, using a bank card (VISA, Master Card, American Express, Diners Club). You can also buy cards on the Internet on the developer's website, and then simply enter a special voucher code in the device and download the already purchased card. It's nice that you can choose one of several license options upon purchase, for 30 days, for a year or perpetual. You can evaluate the order of prices yourself using the example of the cost of Russian cards (5.99 USD for 30 days, 24.98 USD for a year, 37.99 perpetual license).

The "Car" app puts the smartphone in a horizontal orientation. This is a set of links to special versions of applications with larger fonts and icons for more convenient work while driving. The program is intended for use in a car, as the name implies.

In addition, I tested the Navitel Navigator navigation program on a smartphone in order to evaluate the speed of the full-fledged Navi software and the convenience of working with it on a large display. For the test, I downloaded a trial version of the program, which can be used in this mode for 30 days.

There are two ways to install the application: from Google Play or by downloading the program in *.apk format from the official website (link). The same with maps, they can be downloaded directly to the device if you have a Wi-Fi connection, this method is convenient because the map does not need to be thrown anywhere, they download themselves and are immediately indexed. The second option is to download maps from the site. , for example, a 1.8 GB file, a map of Russia. If you use this method, download maps from the site, then you need to create two folders in the device’s memory: “NavitelContent” and “Maps” inside it, and then copy the downloaded file rus20111024.nm3 there. The program downloaded from the site in *.apk format is installed on the device using the explorer. Next comes the initial setup process, you need to select the language of the interface and maps, the type and language of voice prompts, as well as the gender of the commentator.

And a little about the work of Navitel Navigator on HTC One S. After the first launch, all online services were included: traffic jams, events, data exchange, weather and online information. Their work requires about 1-2 MB of traffic, which is not so much.

Search in the program is available by different types of data, for example, by address. You need to select a city (usually it is already selected automatically), a street and a house. When entering letters, extra characters are eliminated, so when I type an address like "Tverskaya", with each next letter entered, I see less and less available options, this is convenient.

Building a route takes less than a second, and it will take the same amount of time to rebuild the route in case of a traffic jam or other unpleasant situation.

There are two map display modes, three-dimensional and flat (2D), the second one seems more convenient to me. You can choose the color scheme (night and day) manually or leave them to switch to the conscience of the "auto" mode. When guiding along the route, the program notifies you of all maneuvers and important waypoints with voice prompts.

The program on the smartphone did not slow down at all, it worked smoothly and without delay. As the main navi software, Navitel Navigator seems to me a reasonable choice, especially considering the fact that you can download the application and use its full version for a month for free. During this time, you will determine exactly whether you need such a functional navigation software and whether it is worth buying it for further use.

HTC Sense 4.0

The smartphone runs on Android 4.0.3 OS, HTC Sense 4.0 is used as an interface. You can find an overview of the new version of the proprietary interface.

I have already talked about all the important changes in the interface compared to the second version in the HTC One X review, so I will not repeat myself, because in terms of "sensation" HTC One X and HTC One S are identical.

Conclusion

In terms of the quality of network signal reception, the device left a positive impression, there were no problems, according to my subjective feelings, the network was caught even better than on the top HTC One X. The volume of the earpiece is average, as well as the volume of the ringer. In most situations, both are sufficient, but in noisy environments it can be difficult to speak, it is easier to use a headset. The vibrating alert is average in strength, I usually noticed it when I carried a smartphone in my jeans or shorts pocket.

At the start of sales, the cost of HTC One S was 25,000 rubles, now the official price tag is still at this mark, but the cost of a smartphone in gray deliveries is gradually decreasing from 19,000 rubles to 17,000-18,000 rubles, judging by Yandex Market. Obviously, 25,000 rubles for a middle-class smartphone is overpriced, and seriously, so I won’t even consider this cost, the device is simply not interesting with it. But if we take the gray price of around 19,000 rubles as a basis, the HTC One S turns out to be an attractive smartphone with a good camera, cool design, minimal body thickness and a decent battery life for an android device. If you have eyesight like an eagle, then you will find two shortcomings in the device: a PenTile screen and only 16 GB of memory, of which a little more than twelve are available. If you have a simple, not eagle vision, then a serious minus one is the same 16 GB of internal memory, which in many situations will be missed. Otherwise, this is perhaps the most balanced smartphone from HTC for the first half of 2012, which, in terms of the combination of characteristics, it seems to me, looks even better than the flagship, and if you have sympathy for the HTC brand, then consider it as a cool device to buy first. the queue is exactly HTC One S.

Description:

• Class: smartphone
• Form factor: monoblock
• Competitors: Apple iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S II, Sony XPERIA P
• Housing materials: metal, plastic, protective glass
• Operating system: Android 4.0.3, proprietary interface HTC Sense 4.0
• Network: GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS/HSDPA 900/2100
• Processor: Dual-core 1.5 GHz based on the Qualcomm MSM8260A platform
• RAM: 1 GB
• Storage: ~12 GB, plus 25 GB on dropbox.com
• Interfaces: Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n/), Bluetooth 4.0 (A2DP), microUSB connector (USB 2.0) for charge/sync, 3.5mm headset, HDMI (via microUSB), DLNA
• Screen: capacitive, Super AMOLED, 4.3 ”with a resolution of 960x540 pixels (qHD), automatic backlight level control
• Camera: 8 MP with auto focus, video is recorded in 1080p resolution (1920x1080 pixels), LED flash (works as a flashlight), front VGA camera for photo and video shooting and video calls
• Navigation: GPS (support A-GPS)
• Optional: accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor, FM radio
• Battery: Removable Li-Ion 1650 mAh
• Dimensions: 130.9 x 65 x 7.8 mm
• Weight: 120 g.

In 2012, the NTS company introduced to the world a new line of smartphones of the One series. The company took into account all the shortcomings that were associated with Desire and Incredible, and flaunted three new smartphones. Among them was one flagship - HTC One X, the characteristics of which were designed to compete with the Galaxy S3 from Samsung, which, in principle, he did at a fairly high level. The phone, like the entire line of new smartphones, was recognized as one of the most successful models of 2012. In the wake of this success, the company from Taiwan tried to consolidate its success, so in subsequent years one could observe the emergence of more and more interesting models from HTC.

Ergometric features of the smartphone

The review of this smartphone should start with the fact that it sits very comfortably in the hand, and the sensations conveyed by the matte surface of the panel are very pleasant. It should be noted that the phone is monolithic, so when using it there will be no backlashes that were possible on other models of this company. In general, the company has made a very serious claim by releasing the X. The characteristics of the external state of the phone speak volumes. What is worth only using as a glass on the screen in order to avoid unwanted scratches!

If you look at the front of the phone, then at the top you can see a speaker for talking and a camera that can only be used offline as a mirror. At the bottom of the screen are 4 buttons: "Home", "Back" and "Task Manager". On the right side of the smartphone, you can find the volume control, and on the top - the power button of the smartphone, as well as holes for the SIM card and headphones. On the left side of the smartphone is a hole for USB devices. If you turn the smartphone over, you can find an 8 MP camera. The smartphone itself can be of two colors: black or white. If you choose the white option, then the camera frame will be silver, if black, then red.

Characteristics of the technology used in HTC One X

The characteristics of this phone are such that it is one of the first smartphones to use a quad-core processor with a clock speed of 1.5 GHz. Another plus of this smartphone is its screen. In addition, HTC One X boasts a gigabyte of RAM. Of course, this may not seem enough, but enough "heavy" games this phone loading is pretty easy. The only drawback in the device can only be called a 1800 mAh battery, and then for the reason that it is non-removable and cannot be replaced with a more capacious one. Problems can also arise if the battery fails and needs to be replaced.

Operating and software

As an operating system, HTC could also supply Windows Phone, because we know that they have practiced using this operating system in the past. But today HTC One X is running "Android" 4.0 with the possibility of a subsequent upgrade to version 4.2. Very good is the HTC Sense program, which gives originality to the standard Android interface. As additional features that are new compared to previous phones, we can highlight the ability to unlock the phone only when your face matches the photo.

Smartphone camera and picture quality

HTC One X, specifications, price

When you purchase the flagship smartphone of 2012 from the Taiwanese manufacturer of high-tech phones HTC, you will receive a few more additional items in the kit. Firstly, this is a branded box, the design of which has been updated. It has no pointed corners. Secondly, this is all that can help you if you have any questions about how to use your smartphone. Thirdly, this is a charger, which is better not to take it out of your pocket at all and always carry it with you, since the phone can be discharged very quickly. Fourthly, this is a USB adapter, which is designed to connect a smartphone to a computer in order to transfer any files or to set up an end-to-end connection. And, finally, fifthly, these are branded headphones from NTS. There is nothing special about them, so if you are a music lover, it is better to immediately buy yourself an additional, higher-quality version of such a headset.

As for the prices for this smartphone, initially after the announcement it cost about 700 US dollars. Gradually, it became cheaper, and by now this smartphone can be easily purchased for 350-400 US dollars.

Review results

Summing up all of the above, we can conclude that this phone is a very interesting option and will be quite relevant even today. The advantages of the smartphone, which was developed by the Taiwanese manufacturer of high-tech smartphones NTS, include its amazing ergonomics, large screen and great sound. Moreover, the last plus is a merit not only of the company itself, but also of partners who, with each new line of smartphones, are trying to make the sound more and more rich and pleasing to the ear. The downsides of this smartphone are the battery and the camera. And the battery should be mentioned for two reasons. The first is that it is quickly discharged, and the second is that it cannot be changed without outside help. As for the camera, everything is ambiguous here.

In general, the smartphone is excellent, but if you want something newer, then you can take the HTC One M7. Description, characteristics and reviews about this model indicate that this is a high-end smartphone.