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Anandtech's HTC One Review is up!

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I want to like it, but the way the HTC Thunderbolt was treated, honestly I feel like the HTC One is probably another off-brand phone or whatever you want to call it. I loved my Thunderbolt when I first got it, then the features just stopped working gradually after about 2 months. They never even bothered updating the version of Android it was on until last month (not a misprint). They pretty much ignored the phone as soon as they released it.

I think for phones your only choice if you want quality and something that the maker is going to ACTUALLY support, it's Galaxy or Droid. Anything else is a massive downgrade, and I personally would never trust or purchase an HTC product again.
 
My HTC incredible lasted 1 year and a half I did have to get it switched out because the USB port got loose. My HTC rezound now has no issues and I run custom kernels on it so performance is always top notch.

I was ticked off by the charging port thing so they can do better with quality but I guess I just really like sense for some reason.
 
Skurge said:
Billions they made by selling the best phones. They aren't where they are cause of marketing only. They had the best ones on each platform for a few cycles and they capitlised on that and they are using that advantage the gained long ago to not squander it like Nokia and HTC have done.

To be honest you can't really go wrong with either phone. It's not like one phone is terrible and the other is great. They are both great phones with pros and cons. Samsung will win out in the end cause of marketing as you say and they fact that people expect each galaxy to be one of the best if not the best phone money can buy at the time and Samsung have yet to disappoint.
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Did they make flat out the best phones? Iono. I thought in the Galaxy S1, and Galaxy S2 days they did have the best damn phones out there. With the GS3, not really. The design was compromised, while the HTC One X had the best screen out there according to many reviewers. It was a toss up. The HTC One really pushed it one step more. Is the GS4 really the best damn phone? I think to some, yes, but I don't think it's clear cut Samsung only.

That's why I'm saying people are buying Samsung mostly due to marketing, brand recognition, popularity, etc. Bandwagoners. It's not because they thoroughly evaluated the One X versus GS3 and made their decision. Part of this was exacerbated by the fact that the One X was an AT&T only device.

We'll see. I just hate to see HTC lose out because it's really developed 2 great phones these past few rounds. They're just not getting the coverage they need. The Sensation got badly screwed in the US in that it wasn't even available except for T-Mobile. Let's not forget it did have qHD to go against the GS2's WVGA.

poofyhairguy said:
As far as the hackibility, I just don't know if I could do without that. My SGS2 is just SOOOOO easy to ROM, I never want to go back. My tablet has a locked bootloader and I will never go that route again!
Click to expand...

lol come on... phones are easy to ROM once you unlock them, but Samsungs don't play well with ROMs. If your GS2 was easy to ROM, then you could do the Nexus 4 flying blind.
 
DLeRium said:
Let's not forget it did have qHD to go against the GS2's WVGA.



lol come on... phones are easy to ROM once you unlock them, but Samsungs don't play well with ROMs. If your GS2 was easy to ROM, then you could do the Nexus 4 flying blind.
Click to expand...

Crappy qHD vs Super AMOLED Plus was an easy win for the SGS2, the screen on the Sensation wasn't even optically bonded to the glass and thanks to HTC's lacking build quality some people ended up with dust between them. There is also the fact that Exynos 4210 was significantly faster than Snapdragon S2.

If you think Samsungs don't play well with roms you have obviously never modded a HTC device. Locked bootloaders aside they aren't nearly as easy to flash roms to and they don't have tools like Odin.
 
And you have to deal with crap like s-off as well. I'm saying this as a mostly HTC phone owner but Samsung phones are heads and shoulders easier than HTC ones (not including the Nexus One of course).


As for HTC One X vs the GS3, it again comes down to the fact a large portion of enthusiasts value a microsd slot and removeable battery. You can shout how it doesn't matter to you until you're blue in the face but it's something important. ESPECIALLY since the ATT version of the One X has only 16GB (and 10GB available to the user).

I love the screen and camera on my One X compared to my friend's GS3. But speed-wise we're equal and he doesn't have to reencode his music just to fit it on the phone.
 
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WelshBloke said:
Yeah, TBH the odd little ding on the phone doesn't bother me. As long as the screen stays scratch free I'm fine with a few little marks on the case. I'm probably going to change phones every year or so anyway.
Click to expand...


I'd never buy your used phone. Not unless you'd drop $100 from your asking price because of the dings and scratches.
 
ChronoReverse said:
And you have to deal with crap like s-off as well. I'm saying this as a mostly HTC phone owner but Samsung phones are heads and shoulders easier than HTC ones (not including the Nexus One of course).


As for HTC One X vs the GS3, it again comes down to the fact a large portion of enthusiasts value a microsd slot and removeable battery. You can shout how it doesn't matter to you until you're blue in the face but it's something important. ESPECIALLY since the ATT version of the One X has only 16GB (and 10GB available to the user).

I love the screen and camera on my One X compared to my friend's GS3. But speed-wise we're equal and he doesn't have to reencode his music just to fit it on the phone.
Click to expand...

And as someone that has worked with both HTC and Samsung, give me HTC any day. Once you get S-OFF flashing is far less painful. No need to bother with Odin, which is an unreliable program, just use recovery for just about everything, and for the few things left, fastboot is quick and easy with no nonsense.
 
Hunt3rj2 said:
And as someone that has worked with both HTC and Samsung, give me HTC any day. Once you get S-OFF flashing is far less painful. No need to bother with Odin, which is an unreliable program, just use recovery for just about everything, and for the few things left, fastboot is quick and easy with no nonsense.
Click to expand...

I call your BS. Once you have s-off, it's only just as easy; you can simply flash zips using TWRP (or use Goomanager or similar tools) on either platforms.

You can get to that stage day 1 with a Samsung. You have to hope someone finds an exploit to s-off on an HTC.

And you never have to touch adb or fastboot on a Samsung. Odin once then recovery as many times as you like.
 
Hunt3rj2 said:
And as someone that has worked with both HTC and Samsung, give me HTC any day. Once you get S-OFF flashing is far less painful. No need to bother with Odin, which is an unreliable program, just use recovery for just about everything, and for the few things left, fastboot is quick and easy with no nonsense.
Click to expand...
Shens.
And how long are you going to be waiting to get S-OFF? Months or possibly even years.
Galaxy phones can be unlocked and rooted day one.

Odin is only unrealiable to people that don't know how to follow simple instructions.
 
thecapsaicinkid said:
Isn't the One essentially a write-off if the screen gets broken? Carry one around without a case/insurance and you're nuts imo.
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Meh, I drop my phones now and then, last year I dropped my Lumia 900 and ran it over with my bike, it survived fine. I've never cracked a screen, a little nick or two around the edge isn't going to make me lose any sleep.

I don't use cases because I don't like them. I don't like the way they loom, feel, or make the phone I already consider too big even bigger. So I take my chances. If I end up breaking one - so be it. That's life. People break phones with cases too, nothing is fool proof.
 
DLeRium said:
any phone is a write-off if the screen gets broken. The One even more so. Ok, I mean you're not totally screwed with other phones, but the typical $150 you need to repair one is pretty much annoying for most. I just don't get the attitude about cases. Some feel like they need it. Others feel like they don't. It just depends.
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For me, it depends on the phone...
I bought a case for my Galaxy S II and stopped using it after 4 months.
I've been case free for 15 months now, dropped the phone plenty of times with not a single crack anywhere on the screen.

iPhone? LG Optimus G? Nexus 4? other phones with glass back?
Not a chance, I won't go without a case.

Samsung's plastic phones? Motorola's kevlar phones?
I'm perfectly fine without using a case for them.
 
Never, will I ever use a case on a phone. I "try" to keep my left pocket free of dirt, sand, keys, coins or "anything at all". I like my phone the same way I like my women: naked. So they get a scar here and there, no big deal. The eBay/Craigslist buyer who gets my loved phone will not care either. I do however, use a transparent screen protector.

Those who use a case usually end up scratching the phone against the case anyway.
 
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ChronoReverse said:
Samsung may have reached the masses with marketing but they've also made it easy for the tweaking crowd that I belong to.

I couldn't believe how much easier it is than the HTC phones I was on before to root and custom ROM my Note when I first got it. No s-off crap or pulling out my microsd or weird root exploits that come out months later. Just ODIN from the day 1 and away we go.


HTC may have lost the mass market because they couldn't afford as much advertising but they've also lost a lot of the enthusiasts despite all the goodwill they've built up.
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I rooted my Note, it messed up a few weeks later, I reverted back to stock and sent it in. Samsung sent it back and said "sorry, no dice" I found out a day later it was because they have a feature that tracks how many times the phone's rooted and such. And it can't be undone without a mod. At the time I had mine XDA people hadn't figured out the exploit to hide the number of roots from Samsung. So I don't care for Samsung as a company much.
 
QueBert said:
I rooted my Note, it messed up a few weeks later, I reverted back to stock and sent it in. Samsung sent it back and said "sorry, no dice" I found out a day later it was because they have a feature that tracks how many times the phone's rooted and such. And it can't be undone without a mod. At the time I had mine XDA people hadn't figured out the exploit to hide the number of roots from Samsung. So I don't care for Samsung as a company much.
Click to expand...

I bought a $5 dongle off eBay that fixed that issue for my SGS2.
 
QueBert said:
I rooted my Note, it messed up a few weeks later, I reverted back to stock and sent it in. Samsung sent it back and said "sorry, no dice" I found out a day later it was because they have a feature that tracks how many times the phone's rooted and such. And it can't be undone without a mod. At the time I had mine XDA people hadn't figured out the exploit to hide the number of roots from Samsung. So I don't care for Samsung as a company much.
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There's an app for that...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...SwxLDMsImV1LmNoYWluZmlyZS50cmlhbmdsZWF3YXkiXQ..
I've been using it for over a year without issue.

The USB jig from eBay also has always been an option for many years...
 
Seems like a good phone, maybe even a great phone and I would seriously consider buying one if:

It had a SD card slot or a 128GB version.

It had a removable/user replaceable battery.
 
I think I may end up preordering the 64GB version. Originally mind was set on an SGS4.. but I don't know anymore. Ugh. 🙁 I could probably make due without the SD card slot with 64GB and I thought I'd want a removable battery, but I've never swapped it in my SGS2.
 
DLeRium said:
lol come on... phones are easy to ROM once you unlock them, but Samsungs don't play well with ROMs. If your GS2 was easy to ROM, then you could do the Nexus 4 flying blind.
Click to expand...

Actually the old GS2 is much better in the last month or so with the newer open-source Mali drivers. I expect the Qualcomm versions of the SGS4s to be even better.

And you are right, a Nexus would be even easier. But that would require Google releasing a Nexus phone without some major flaw that I would actually want to buy.

I don't really like Touchwiz that much- all the extras are useless if you are stuck in a Gingerbread timecapsule to get them. I will use all that stuff the first day to show off my new phone to the wife, and then it will be gone. Sense is just as worthless to me. I can make my own obituary montages if it comes to that.

What I want basically is a better Nexus hardware-wise, which I think the Qualcomm SGS4s can be.

We will see though. Unlike the AT&T SGS2 which I bought the first day you could, I think I will hang back and wait and see what big subsidized phone gets the best support this year. If its the HTC One then I will get a One.

My dream is to flash a CM-derivative ROM within a week of owning my next phone. If I have to wait until June or July for a clear choice, so be it.
 
thecapsaicinkid said:
People keep trying to make Nexus-like pure Android devices from other phones and they just end up looking like replica Gucci handbags :thumbsdown:
Click to expand...

I think the CM team does a really good job. And considering the fact that the Nexus 4 shares so much hardware with these other flagship phones (same GPU), I would think some of that Nexus development can be leveraged into these flagship phones offered with subsidy. The Galaxy S1 benefitted from being close in hardware to the Nexus S.
 
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