Introduction

Voted Manufacturer of the Year in 2011 by the GSMA and emerging as the top US smartphone vendor later that year, HTC hit a rough patch and was struggling to find form through the better part of 2012. Complacency, fatigue, or something else - we don't even want to think arrogance - the company somehow forgot that even great products, which the One X and One S certainly were, need proper support and marketing to sell.



HTC One official photos

At the speed smartphones are evolving, a bad year can cause all sorts of trouble and HTC had to learn it the hard way. Fortunately, the financial trouble seems to have had no impact on the company's ability to produce excellent smartphones, as the HTC One is here to prove.

Arguably one of the most exciting pieces of smartphone design in recent times, the HTC One is also properly powered and flaunts a screen that should please even the most demanding eyes. It also brings an overdue redesign of the Sense UI and a new camera that takes a completely new approach to mobile photography.

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support; 3G with HSPA; LTE

4.7" 16M-color 1080p Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen with 469ppi pixel density

Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Sense UI 5.0

Quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait 300 CPU, 2 GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset

4 MP autofocus "UltraPixel" camera with 1/3" sensor size, 2µm pixel size; LED flash

1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR mode, continuous autofocus and stereo sound

HTC Zoe

2.1 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording

Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA; Wireless TV out

GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS

32/64GB of built-in storage

MHL-enabled microUSB port

Bluetooth v4.0

NFC

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

Accelerometer and proximity sensor

Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

Aluminum unibody

Front-mounted stereo speakers with BoomSound tech

Class-leading audio output

Main disadvantages

4MP camera has disappointing performance in good lighting conditions

Non-expandable storage

Awkwardly-placed and uncomfortable power button

Sense UI still lacks connectivity toggles in notification area

Non user-replaceable battery

Poor video and audio codec support out of box

The One is a tempting package indeed and even though it will take HTC a while to get out of the slump, this is certainly a confident step in the right direction. With proven performers in both the computing and screen departments, it's only the low camera resolution that will potentially raise doubt. HTC say the extra-large "ultrapixels" are worth the sacrifice though, and we are as keen as you are to find out if that claim is justified.



HTC One studio shots

With a spec sheet like that, the One has nothing to fear when it takes on the likes of the Xperia Z and the Galaxy S4 in the battle for the ultimate flagship. Here's hoping that it delivers on the promises in real-life performance.

As the tradition goes, we start with the unboxing and hardware checkup right after the break.