HTC Sense was the laughing stock among Android purists for years - Sense 5 (almost) shows the core Android UI team how it should be done.

It was my one moment of hesitation before placing the order for a brand new One: would I be hurled back into depressing memories of my old HTC Desire, suffering through layers of completely unnecessary, bloated, obstructive Android interface customisations that robbed you of the will to live?

But the HTC One has zero bloat. And yes, Sense 5 is beautiful.

It’s like the HTC design team took the best of the flat Holo design language from the core of Android, then set about making every element slightly better (don’t bother sending the hate mail, AOSP lovers - I won’t open it). The typography throughout is almost perfect, and 99% of the custom icons are tasteful and well finished (OK, I’ll ignore that cheesy Personalise icon in Settings).

The HTC One’s UI manages that trick that every mobile interface designer aspires to: allow the user to forget the design. Every common job - check mail, send a tweet, find an appointment, launch a game - is about as easy as it’s possible to make it, helped no end by the aforementioned rapid performance.

What about Blinkfeed, you cry? What lunacy inspired a team to give over an entire screen to an endless scrolling tiles of pre-selected news, without the ability to turn it off? OK, so it’s an issue. Even after living with it for three months, I can’t quite understand why HTC didn’t include an ‘off’ switch for Blinkfeed, so allowing One buyers the freedom to use the maximum of five available screens as they see fit.

But then after three months of punishing a One every day, I’ve found myself regularly checking Blinkfeed, rather than opening Flipboard or Feedly (both of which I have installed), mostly because it’s… well, there, and easy.

Eventually, I set my home screen as the middle of my maximum five screens, which means that Blinkfeed is on the far left - so only two quick swipes away. Which is actually quicker most of the time than launching an app.

Yes, I’ve wasted a few hours tweaking Blinkfeed channels, and I wish there were more of them. But most days, at least in the way I have it set up, it’s out of the way enough to be painless, but there enough to be useful.

There were quirks in the HTC One’s launcher at first. The device came to market with Android 4.1.2, overlaid with the firm’s revamped cut of the stock Android launcher, Sense 5. This included such maddening issues as the inability to remove an app from the shelf without a PhD (it was easy, by the way, you just needed to open the app drawer first, then drag the shelf app into it. Who knew?), and a app drawer that in its default state only offered a minimal number of apps per screen.

But 90% of the HTC One’s usability quirks were squashed by the recent update to Android 4.2.2. Moving apps around is more intuitive now, and the update also brought such delights as quick access to settings from the notifications screen and, of course, lock screen widgets.

(In case you're wondering, the default app drawer grid could be fixed from launch, simply by adjusting a setting under grid size).

How to out-One the One? Tell your new smartphone’s marketing department that an entire screen given over to a feed reader is a bloody stupid idea. And if they really have to do it, include an off switch.