HTC One good

In the year 2013, few things are as hyped as a new premium smartphone. There were adverts for the Sony Xperia Z all over the national press, technology journalists (ourselves included) are falling over themselves to pick up on any rumours about the Samsung Galaxy S4 and even staid, businesslike BlackBerry hired Alicia Keys to be its Creative Director. By contrast, HTC has been relatively quiet about the new HTC One.

There was a launch press conference in London but, acrobats aside, there were few gimmicks. Make no mistake, though; this is the big one. HTC has fallen far behind Apple and Samsung in sales, and it hopes this is the top-end phone to revive its fortunes.

First impressions, thankfully, are great. The One is a gorgeous phone, and we think it wipes the floor with the Sony Xperia Z. The combination of metal rear, bevelled metal edges and edge-to-edge screen are class itself, and make the Xperia Z feel square and tacky, despite its glass rear. The HTC One's curved back also makes it comfortable to hold - a minor downside is that it's tricky to type when it’s lying flat on a desk.

The metal-backed HTC One is a thing of beauty, and even out-classes the Sony Xperia Z's glass chassis

We were also seriously impressed with the screen. It's a 4.7in model with a Full HD 1,920x1,080 resolution, leading to a huge pixel density figure of 468ppi. When compared side-by-side with the Xperia Z's display, we preferred the HTC One's screen, thanks to its superb contrast. It has incredibly deep blacks (for an LCD at least), and our test photos showed rich, vibrant colours and plenty of shadow detail.

The Xperia Z had the advantage when it came to looking at web pages, however; its slightly larger 5in display meant text was ever-so-slightly larger and easier to read when web pages were fully zoomed out, helped by brilliant white backgrounds, compared to the very slight grey tinge on the HTC One.

Last year it was 720p, now Full HD 1080p screens are becoming the norm on top-end smartphones

The HTC One wins out when it comes to web browsing performance. It has a quad-core 1.7GHz processor, and completed our Sunspider JavaScript benchmark in a super-fast 1,123ms. This is far faster than the 1,890ms we saw from the Xperia Z, but we think much of this is down to the speed of the Xperia Z's browser. For comparison, we ran the same test using the fast Dolphin browser, and the HTC One remained ahead of the Xperia Z with a score of 1,120ms compared to 1,357ms.

This difference was borne out in our subjective web browsing tests. Both phones rendered graphics heavy web pages at a similar speed, but when zoomed in and panning around a web page, the Xperia Z would stutter when coming across a large image – a problem we didn’t have with the HTC One.

Luckily, HTC has provided a huge 2,300mAh battery to power the fast processor and bright screen. The handset managed 8h 32m in our continuous video playback test, which is a strong result and bodes well for all-day battery life.

DUAL SIM & EXPANDABLE STORAGE
If we have one major gripe with the HTC One, it's is lack of expandable storage - unless you buy the top-end 64GB model, you could quickly find yourself running out of space if you take a lot of photos and video, or use your handset as an MP3 player.

HTC is preparing to rectify this problem with an updated model which includes a removable rear cover, much like the HTC One Max. Known as the HTC One 802w in China, where it's already on sale, it will simply be called the HTC One Dual SIM here in the UK.

It will still be made of aluminium, rather than plastic like the HTC One Mini, but include a microSD card slot as well as twin SIM card slots.

This is somewhat rare for the UK, as dual SIM handsets typically aren't very popular with customers. They are much more popular in developing nations, but twin SIM card slots could still be a welcome inclusion for anyone that wants to keep work and home life separate without carrying two phones.

If you've been put off by the HTC One's limited storage you may want to wait a little longer - although no release window has been confirmed, you can pre-order the handset for £495 through the HTC Store.

Unfortunately, you have to make a choice between extra storage and faster internet speeds, as the dual-SIM model doesn't support 4G LTE networks. If you live in an area without 4G coverage, however, it could be an easier decision.

SENSE 5.0

An Android smartphone can be beautifully designed and have an amazing screen and top-notch chipset, but none of this will make any difference if the software is rubbish. HTC sails closer to the wind than most on this front, as it heavily customises Android with its latest Sense interface.

Sense has always divided opinion, but this time HTC has really pushed the boat out. Running on top of Android 4.1.2 is Sense 5.0, and with it comes the end of the traditional Android homescreen, with its mix of widgets and icons.

Instead, you get what HTC calls BlinkFeed. This consists of a rolling grid of tiles, containing information aggregated from various news websites and your social media feeds. You can add all the major social media services, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Flickr, but the choice of news websites is quite narrow; you get the Guardian, the Independent and Reuters for news, and CNET and TechCrunch for technology. For those used to getting their content from a wide variety of sources the BlinkFeed selection will seem very narrow.

BlinkFeed replaces the standard Android homescreen, and shows you news feeds and social networks in chronological order

It looks like the BlinkFeed needs to be specifically supported by the corresponding news outlet or website, so it remains to be seen whether overstretched publishers will be keen to support yet another platform. We found BlinkFeed more useful for keeping an eye on our Twitter and Facebook feeds, though, and often used Twitter links to find news stories anyway.

BlinkFeed is a clever idea which is in tune with how many people actually use their smartphones; to keep an eye on what's happening in the world and among people they know. Of course, if you prefer to use your Android smartphone to check your calendar widget at a glance on your homescreen before opening your email, you will most likely hate it.

The app tray is a smooth-scrolling lovely bit of design

The standard Android homescreen isn't completely dead and gone, though. Swiping right from the BlinkFeed takes you to a standard Android homescreen with space for the usual apps and widgets, and you can add up to three more screens if you need more room.

Most importantly, you can set a standard Android home screen as your default screen (the one that appears when you unlock the handset). BlinkFeed is still there, sitting to the left of the default screen, while your other home screens are off to the right.

Meanwhile, pressing the icon in the middle of the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen takes you to the app tray, which is rather lovingly designed; we like the way it scrolls smoothly through pages of icons rather than continuously, as this makes it easier to keep track of where you are.

ANDROID 4.2.2

Although the HTC One shipped with Android 4.1, the company has announced that it is updating the OS to Android 4.2.2. While Sense 5.0 will remain the same, the OS upgrade adds new features and stability improvements.

Features from Android 4.2.2 that make it through HTC's customisations include the Android Daydream function, which allows data from selected applications, including Google Currents, the company's news reading app, to appear on-screen when the device is being charged. The audio sub-system, previously entirely reliant on Beats Audio technology, also gains the new equaliser.

Final features of the update include numerous tweaks to the underlying operating system designed to boost battery life, improve performance, reduce crashes and improve compatibility with certain Bluetooth accessories, along with the option to view the battery level percentage in the status bar at the top of the screen.

For those people that think that Sense is still a step too far, you'll be pleased to know that there's an HTC One Google Edition on the way. Announced in the US, but with no UK details so far, the Google Edition of the phone ships with standard Android with none of HTC's tweaks or additions. In this way, the phone is more like Google's own-brand phones, such as the LG-manufactured Nexus 4. This follows the news that there will also be a Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition, also running stock Android.

MUSO CORNER

HTC has made a big deal about music playback ever since it first stuck a Beats by Dr. Dre logo on one of its phones, and the One is no exception. It has what HTC calls BoomSound – a pair of stereo speakers at the top and bottom of the phone - or left and right when watching video in landscape orientation.

Amazingly, these speakers sound reasonably good. It's the best sound quality we've ever heard from a phone, but the bar is set pretty low. The speakers are loud and produce audio with some definition, but the sound is certainly harsh with a definite high-end emphasis, but that's to be expected from speakers this size. We're also not convinced that putting loud speakers in a phone is a great idea, as most bus journeys we take are hellish enough as it is.

The One also has built-in twin microphones, which HTC says are designed for recording gigs. We didn't have any upcoming gigs during our time with the phone, so we decided to simulate one instead. We played back a Crowded House gig from YouTube on our PC with our speakers turned up high, and recorded the result on the HTC One.

When we played back the recording and compared it to the original, the concert sounded clear with little distortion, but there was a marked lack of bass compared to the original. You can compare the original video clip and the version recorded on the HTC One in the two YouTube clips below.