HTC One Max announced

[WelshBloke]

5.9?

Nope. Too big. They finally pushed too hard and lost me.

217 grams/7.65 ounces. You have got to be kidding me. This thing is a tank. The Note III is 168 grams/5.93 ounces.

Nice to see them properly place the power button on the side and provide an SD card slot. It's a shame the One didn't offer both these features.

It is bloody huge.

 

[WelshBloke]

How many people know what s600 or s800 are? Or OIS? The majority of people I know don't buy a phone for specs. All they know is "Samsung = good" If it doesn't sell it will be because HTC phones in general don't sell well. If this was a Samsung with the exact same specs it would move like hot cakes.

That may or may not be true. The problem is though that the Samsung thing is pretty much superior all round.

If it doesnt sell it will be primarily because its worse than the alternatives.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

This is why HTC is in trouble, they saw that Samsung is selling a lot of big phones so they decided to make their own big phone without bothering to figure out why the Galaxy Note was successful, much less attempting to match Samsungs engineering and technology. The Note line has always been a flagship device with the best of everything combined with a stylus and proper software support for it. So to compete with that HTC pushes out a device that dosn't have the specs to sell to power users and also is lacking anything that would entice mainstream users.

 

[Crono]

One Max looks like a rather lazy attempt at scaling up the One, much like Samsung's attempt at scaling down the GS4.

The One Mini looks good, though. The Max should have been an entirely new phone design. I agree about the stylus - I don't have any phones with a stylus, and haven't had a mobile device with a stylus since the days of resistive touch Pocket PCs, but any device approaching 6" or more could really benefit from a stylus. Almost essential for any drawing or photo editing app, and some people prefer taking handwritten notes on their phones.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

That may or may not be true. The problem is though that the Samsung thing is pretty much superior all round.

If it doesnt sell it will be primarily because its worse than the alternatives.

you guys need to give samsung the credit theyre due. the reason they became the monster of the android world is that they are the ONLY company giving you phones with the features you want (sd card, fastest chip, biggest screen, replaceable battery etc...) as soon as they are available. htc, motorola etc... dont do that

 

[Crono]

you guys need to give samsung the credit theyre due. the reason they became the monster of the android world is that they are the ONLY company giving you phones with the features you want (sd card, fastest chip, biggest screen, replaceable battery etc...) as soon as they are available. htc, motorola etc... dont do that

True, but I can also fault them for not really thinking about what not to put in their phones (I don't like TouchWiz even remotely), and for using tacky materials. Yeah, yeah, people say it doesn't matter if they use glossy plastic, but the masses wouldn't throw a fit if they took a page out of ASUS', Nokia's, Motorola's, or HTC's book. $600 phones don't need faux stitching and plastic that looks like leather.

Bottom line is that all these companies have flaws in their approaches, or otherwise focus on some features at the expense of others.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

True, but I can also fault them for not really thinking about what not to put in their phones (I don't like TouchWiz even remotely), and for using tacky materials. Yeah, yeah, people say it doesn't matter if they use glossy plastic, but the masses wouldn't throw a fit if they took a page out of ASUS', Nokia's, Motorola's, or HTC's book. $600 phones don't need faux stitching and plastic that looks like leather.

Bottom line is that all these companies have flaws in their approaches, or otherwise focus on some features at the expense of others.

materials is really the only thing you can fault them for, but id still rather have a cutting edge plastic phone than a phone with last years features like moto x

 

[QueBert]

That may or may not be true. The problem is though that the Samsung thing is pretty much superior all round.

If it doesnt sell it will be primarily because its worse than the alternatives.

The Samsung Galaxy Mega's a pretty shitty phone, yet I bet it'll sell much better than this phone. Which imho outside of a smaller screen is better in every aspect.

 

[Crono]

materials is really the only thing you can fault them for, but id still rather have a cutting edge plastic phone than a phone with last years features like moto x

TouchWiz made the GS4 slower/laggier than stock Android, while HTC's Sense is nearly as fast. There is some amount of personal preference and you may not like either, but TouchWiz is still pretty crappy even if Samsung added some features that are useful. HTC's features barely slow down the device - you really can only see it benchmarking.

The Moto X is also a good implementation of nearly stock Android. Not surprising given it's from the new Google-owned Motorola.

The Note 3 is an improvement over the GS4 in most ways except camera (which is pretty much the same, I gather), but I personally would flash a different ROM right away if I were a Samsung smartphone owner.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

TouchWiz made the GS4 slower/laggier than stock Android, while HTC's Sense is nearly as fast. There is some amount of personal preference and you may not like either, but TouchWiz is still pretty crappy even if Samsung added some features that are useful. HTC's features barely slow down the device - you really can only see it benchmarking.

The Moto X is also a good implementation of nearly stock Android. Not surprising given it's from the new Google-owned Motorola.

yeah but samsung add ons also bring all sorts of things people want like camera features, etc.... their stuff is sometimes rough but theyre doing better than anyone else to give you what you want and they deserve to be rewarded for that.

 

[WelshBloke]

The Samsung Galaxy Mega's a pretty shitty phone, yet I bet it'll sell much better than this phone. Which imho outside of a smaller screen is better in every aspect.

How much does the the mega cost compared to the one max?

If HTC are selling this as a mid range priced device (like the mega) then it might do ok.

 

[Crono]

yeah but samsung add ons also bring all sorts of things people want like camera features, etc.... their stuff is sometimes rough but theyre doing better than anyone else to give you what you want and they deserve to be rewarded for that.

If you could pick and choose I would give them an A+, or if there were zero performance hit I wouldn't have brought up TouchWiz as a negative. But I think it's clear I'm not the only one who feels this way.

That said, I've got no issues buying a Samsung device, but only the Note 3 would be tempting if I were in the market right now (though it would be nice if it had something like the G2's camera module instead of the GS4's). All their other products aren't appealing to me in the mobile space.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

TouchWiz made the GS4 slower/laggier than stock Android, while HTC's Sense is nearly as fast. There is some amount of personal preference and you may not like either, but TouchWiz is still pretty crappy even if Samsung added some features that are useful. HTC's features barely slow down the device - you really can only see it benchmarking.

The Moto X is also a good implementation of nearly stock Android. Not surprising given it's from the new Google-owned Motorola.

The Note 3 is an improvement over the GS4 in most ways except camera (which is pretty much the same, I gather), but I personally would flash a different ROM right away if I were a Samsung smartphone owner.

I have a 2013 Nexus 7 and Galaxy Note 3 and I honestly think I like TouchWiz better than stock 4.3 with the exception of the notification panel which is much better looking in stock 4.3

At least on the black Note 3 the fake leather back looks and feels great, this might be the first phone I don't put a case on.

 

[Crono]

I have a 2013 Nexus 7 and Galaxy Note 3 and I honestly think I like TouchWiz better than stock 4.3 with the exception of the notification panel which is much better looking in stock 4.3

At least on the black Note 3 the fake leather back looks and feels great, this might be the first phone I don't put a case on.

I have a 2013 Nexus 7 as well. And I like Sense 5 more than stock and more than TouchWiz, but I vastly prefer stock to TouchWiz. It's not a hard fact that one is better than the other (though stock Android is obviously fastest in benchmarking), just my preference.

I'd rather skin or add options via apps or custom ROMs to stock Android than rely on what Samsung decided to throw in TouchWiz by default. I won't argue if someone feels differently, it's all subjective.

I haven't used the leather-esque Note 3 myself, but it looks like an improvement over what Samsung has done in the past. It still seems like they are trying too hard to make plastic look like premium materials. It has to be some cultural thing that appeals to their Korean home market, because most of the rest of the world has since moved on from such tacky design on what are supposed to be premium phones. I guarantee you there will be few complaints if they used the same kind of soft touch plastic ASUS used for the first Nexus 7 or the current one for their phones. There can't be a huge financial hit they would take by doing so (not like they aren't making a ton of profit per phone or tablet, anyway).

It's not just the stitched leather on the Note 3 or the glossy plastic on everything else, they used fake brushed aluminum (again, plastic made to look like something else) on the ATIV S. Ultimately it's not a huge deal, but why not just use plain plastic or otherwise actual brushed aluminum?

 

[Joe1987]

I have a 2013 Nexus 7 as well. And I like Sense 5 more than stock and more than TouchWiz, but I vastly prefer stock to TouchWiz. It's not a hard fact that one is better than the other (though stock Android is obviously fastest in benchmarking), just my preference.

I'd rather skin or add options via apps or custom ROMs to stock Android than rely on what Samsung decided to throw in TouchWiz by default. I won't argue if someone feels differently, it's all subjective.

I haven't used the leather-esque Note 3 myself, but it looks like an improvement over what Samsung has done in the past. It still seems like they are trying too hard to make plastic look like premium materials. It has to be some cultural thing that appeals to their Korean home market, because most of the rest of the world has since moved on from such tacky design on what are supposed to be premium phones. I guarantee you there will be few complaints if they used the same kind of soft touch plastic ASUS used for the first Nexus 7 or the current one for their phones. There can't be a huge financial hit they would take by doing so (not like they aren't making a ton of profit per phone or tablet, anyway).

It's not just the stitched leather on the Note 3 or the glossy plastic on everything else, they used fake brushed aluminum (again, plastic made to look like something else) on the ATIV S. Ultimately it's not a huge deal, but why not just use plain plastic or otherwise actual brushed aluminum?

I'm not a big fan of the faux leather back, but at least now it doesn't feel like you're holding onto a freshly caught fish that's about to jump out of your hands. And I have to give Samsung credit for daring to try different things, at least on the hardware end, I wish to hell they'd decide on a unifying theme for their software and polish it up a bit.

 

[shortylickens]

I'm at the point where I'd prefer a small phone with a big battery.

Use the laptop for everything else.

 

[s44]

This really looks like they tried to compete with the Mega and not the Note.

Except... I'm pretty sure the Notes stomp the Mega in sales.

 

[Wingznut]

Why do you make it so hard to love you HTC?

No kidding. I love my DNA, but there are a couple of features (or lack thereof) that scream "WHY, HTC?!?!"

And, as much as I like my DNA, I was really thinking this might be my next upgrade. Bummer.

 

[lothar]

Wow...Has HTC lost that much clout that they can't even have their own branding in front of their phones?
Capacitive HTC logo(which was already stupid enough to begin with) now replaced with tramp stamp from the US carriers.