Anandtech's HTC One Review is up!

[Phobic9]

Seems like this is a great phone but I've grown fairly attached to my Note 2. This review definitely doesn't help in that regard but I'm glad to know that I don't have to completely ignore it now. Looking forward to getting to play with it in a store soon.

 

[Dulanic]

So torn between going HTC One or SGS4. Guess I'll wait to see what the price is for them since I'm swapping to Tmobile soon.

 

[pauldun170]

It's the 21 century version of your grandmother's fancy sofa covered in plastic.

First chuckle of the day...
Thank you sir
:biggrin:

 

[dawheat]

I'm excited to play around with one once it gets in store. I always thought the One X felt better in hand than a S3, though I couldn't bring myself to buy one.

My biggest possible issue about this phone that I want to get a sense of in person is this - it has a smaller screen than the S3 (which after using for about 6 months felt adequate at best), much less the S4, yet is heavier, similar in dimensions while being decently thicker. It's basically as thick as my Note 2 which seems really odd to me.

 

[ponyo]

I see battery life test has been changed and tweaked AGAIN for this phone. But I see none of the old phones were retested with the new test. Instead, Brian just used the old data from the old tests which had different testing methodology. You can't mix and match and compare when the phones were all tested differently. Either retest all the phones on that graph with the new test or test this phone with the old test. Same kind of crap happened with the iPhone 5 battery test.

 

[s44]

I see battery life test has been changed and tweaked AGAIN for this phone. But I see none of the old phones were retested with the new test. Instead, Brian just used the old data from the old tests which had different testing methodology. You can't mix and match and compare when the phones were all tested differently. Either retest all the phones on that graph with the new test or test this phone with the old test. Same kind of crap happened with the iPhone 5 battery test.

And you gotta love the Hotspot test chart that excludes every Android phone from 2013, 2012, and the end of 2011. Yay! The one lasts longer for tethering than a Thunderbolt!

 

[Red Storm]

Yeah really iffy stuff there. Makes the rest of the review feel like a PR piece from HTC.

 

[ponyo]

And you gotta love the Hotspot test chart that excludes every Android phone from 2013, 2012, and the end of 2011. Yay! The one lasts longer for tethering than a Thunderbolt!

It's same for pretty much all tests and comparison. The list of phones and devices seem to change for many of the comparison tests and some devices that will excel in those tests are absent. Look at the display contrast ratio chart. There is not a single AMOLED phone tested on that chart. Why? Because AMOLED phones would dominate that chart. Same with Brightness (Black) chart. No AMOLED phones tested on that chart as well. But on a test AMOLED won't fair well which is Brightness (White) chart, we see several AMOLED phones tested there. It's not just HTC One review. It's like that with all Anandtech review. It's like they like to mix and match data as they see fit.

 

[Red Storm]

It's same for pretty much all tests and comparison. The list of phones and devices seem to change for many of the comparison tests and some devices that will excel in those tests are absent. Look at the display contrast ratio chart. There is not a single AMOLED phone tested on that chart. Why? Because AMOLED phones would dominate that chart. Same with Brightness (Black) chart. No AMOLED phones tested on that chart as well. But on a test AMOLED won't fair well which is Brightness (White) chart, we see several AMOLED phones tested there. It's not just HTC One review. It's like that with all Anandtech review. It's like they like to mix and match data as they see fit.

Yeah I had already been losing a lot of faith in AT's ability to properly review phones, but this review pretty much seals the deal. I'll look at other sites for phone reviews, as a member of AT this is kinda embarrassing.

 

[sze5003]

It's the flagship phone for att and T-Mobile right ? Verizon does not have it ? If metro PCs gets this phone I'll end the contract with Verizon and get it from there. I really have been looking forward to it.

 

[s44]

If metro PCs gets this phone I'll end the contract with Verizon and get it from there.

Buying a new non-disposable phone on Metro is a terrible idea. Their spectrum will be absorbed by T-Mo soon.

 

[dguy6789]

The battery life page and data pretty much ruins the credibility of the review

 

[Red Storm]

Buying a new non-disposable phone on Metro is a terrible idea. Their spectrum will be absorbed by T-Mo soon.

And if Metro was even an option, then he's been ripping himself off being on Verizon.

 

[sze5003]

It is an option I put my sister on there because she was on my Verizon plan and it cost too much. Now I can keep my unlimited data and she has a data phone too. The service where I live is good.

I like the service I get from Verizon so for now I'm sticking with them.

 

[dagamer34]

Yeah I had already been losing a lot of faith in AT's ability to properly review phones, but this review pretty much seals the deal. I'll look at other sites for phone reviews, as a member of AT this is kinda embarrassing.

If that causes you to no longer read an AnandTech review, what site would you actually go to for any kind of in depth information? The Verge? Engadget? :whiste:

I don't you guys are idiots. There will ALWAYS be something that you feel is important which can be omitted. Battery life is an inherently touchy subject because if you really wanted to do it right, you'd test with the latest software updates of all phones that fix bugs. That's impractical. It's one guy writing a 16K review that has attempted to be thoroughly researched. I simply do not see any other site even begin to attempt such a level of detail.

And the word "bias" gets thrown around way too much.

 

[dguy6789]

Surely I'm not the only one who sees a problem with writing pages and pages that do nothing more than say "the phone is made out of aluminum and is pretty" and then do battery life tests with different phones in each test(many of them outdated) while omitting the most important phones to include in those comparisons and not even doing an apples to apples comparison(some of them used different testing methodology) but presenting the data as if it is apples to apples.

 

[krumme]

Brian is in love, it shows and its okey.
I just skipped the entire battery part, and didnt read it at all. AT dont have enough flow of phones to do it properly. You can all just go to gsmarena to get the numbers and a fair assesment of the numbers.
Screentesting is a problem that needs t be adresses.

What i was disapointed about was the lack of background information of the optics and gyro.

Read AT phone test more as background information. I think the cpu part was really good here fx.

 

[sarav]

Guys, I think Brian didn't include AMOLED screens in the black levels and contrast ratio because AMOLED screens, as you know, have zero black levels. This would make their contrast ratio infinity. So I omitting AMOLED screens in those graphs is not a big deal IMO as we already know what they'll score.


On a different note, the Adreno 320 GPU seems to score less than the Power VR 543 MP3 in all the individual GPU tests but somehow scores better in the offscreen test which is the most important. Any idea why this would happen?


I love the review and the HTC One is a stunning phone. I'll inevitably use a case to cover the phone so I can't help but wonder if the premium feeling aluminium body provides any advantage in real world usage at all.

 

[pakotlar]

Guys, I think Brian didn't include AMOLED screens in the black levels and contrast ratio because AMOLED screens, as you know, have zero black levels. This would make their contrast ratio infinity. So I omitting AMOLED screens in those graphs is not a big deal IMO as we already know what they'll score.


On a different note, the Adreno 320 GPU seems to score less than the Power VR 543 MP3 in all the individual GPU tests but somehow scores better in the offscreen test which is the most important. Any idea why this would happen?


I love the review and the HTC One is a stunning phone. I'll inevitably use a case to cover the phone so I can't help but wonder if the premium feeling aluminium body provides any advantage in real world usage at all.

As far as I'm aware the amoled screens implemented by Samsung have a > 0 minimum luminance. At least my galaxy note 2 does. CNET pegged the note 2 as having a ~ 20,000 ANSI contrast. Excellent, but not infinite.

 

[MrX8503]

Surely I'm not the only one who sees a problem with writing pages and pages that do nothing more than say "the phone is made out of aluminum and is pretty" and then do battery life tests with different phones in each test(many of them outdated) while omitting the most important phones to include in those comparisons and not even doing an apples to apples comparison(some of them used different testing methodology) but presenting the data as if it is apples to apples.

Or you can read reviews from other sites that say "battery life seems good".

 

[pakotlar]

Anandtech provides first rate reviews. Maybe not perfect, but I challenge those who find this review to be overly flawed to submit something better.

If Brian didn't retest all phones to ensure continuity with newer testing methods, that's ok, I don't think that was dishonest. It seems more likely to be an issue of resource constraint.

Great job Brian. This was one of the best reviews I have read on any site, written about any device.

 

[Bateluer]

Readers here seem to go ballistic if there's a review that shows an Android phone in a positive light. All iPhone models must automatically top the charts, after wall. How dare HTC think they can win an award for outstandingly well designed phone. The nerve of that company!

 

[dawheat]

Readers here seem to go ballistic if there's a review that shows an Android phone in a positive light. All iPhone models must automatically top the charts, after wall. How dare HTC think they can win an award for outstandingly well designed phone. The nerve of that company!

Actually I don't think any iPhone users really care. It's other Android users who, for the first time in a while, have 3 great flagship choices in HTC, Samsung, and Sony. Mostly we'd like an apples to apples comparison between all of them since most of us will be picking between them (and maybe the Note 3).

 

[grkM3]

Wow I just actually took the time to read this long assed biased review

I cant wait to read the Samsung hate review of the gs4 to compare it to this one

 

[Roland00Address]

On a different note, the Adreno 320 GPU seems to score less than the Power VR 543 MP3 in all the individual GPU tests but somehow scores better in the offscreen test which is the most important. Any idea why this would happen?

1136x640 is the resolution of the iphone 5 screen
1920x1080 is the resolution of the htc one screen.

1920x1080 is 285% more pixels than 1136x640 thus it is much harder to draw things on the screen so you can't compare frame rate vs frame and expect to compare the gpus themselves. Instead you are comparing smoothness of the phone or game framerate if they draw themselves on the phone screen.