So far, 2013 has brought with it a number of changes to Google's Android strategy. More and more apps and services are being separated from the core of the operating system to allow for easier updating. Google didn't take advantage of Google I/O to announce a new version of Android, and what we've seen of the rumored version 4.3 suggests that it will be a relatively minor update. And Google is working with its partners to sell versions of their high-end smartphones that run stock Android instead of those partners' respective Android skins.

The roster of so-called Google Play-edition phones doesn't replace Google's tailor-made Nexus products, but it does augment them—if you don't like the design of the Nexus 4 or its lack of LTE, these handsets are intended to give you the stock Android experience running on the best hardware anyone is making today. Samsung's Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One are the first two phones on offer, and we'll look at the One here.

Whether you prefer the stock Android experience to HTC's Sense and its add-ons is largely a matter of taste, but there are some things about the Google Play edition of the phone that are objectively better, worse, and just plain different from the standard edition. It is to these aspects of the phone that we'll be paying the most attention. For more on the standard edition of the One, our review of it is here; more detailed information on Android 4.2 is here.

The hardware

Specs at a glance: HTC One Google Play edition Screen 1920×1080 4.7-inch (468 PPI) Super LCD 3 with RGB Matrix OS Android 4.2.2 CPU Quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 RAM 2GB GPU Qualcomm Adreno 320 Storage 32GB NAND flash Networking 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC Ports Micro-USB, headphones Camera 4MP rear camera with "UltraPixel" image sensor, 2.1MP front camera Size 5.41" × 2.69" × 0.37" (137.4 × 68.2 × 9.3 mm) Weight 5.0 oz. (143 g) Battery 2300 mAh Starting price $599 Sensor Accelerometer, gyroscope, digital compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor

The phone's shell is nearly identical to the subsidized, locked versions of the One you can go out and buy from your carrier. The only external difference between the two phones is the AT&T logo etched onto the back of the standard One.

Otherwise, this is the same handsome aluminum body and 1080p IPS touchscreen that we saw in our One review earlier this year. Whether you prefer to hold the One, the Nexus 4, or the Galaxy S 4 in your hand will depend on which material you prefer—metal, glass, or plastic—but we can say that the One remains one of the nicest Android phones on the market right now. It feels rock solid in your hand, and unlike the glass-backed Nexus 4, the One shouldn't be as prone to scratches and scuffs.

If you're coming from any other phone, the one thing that might take a little getting used to is the way the One's edges are angled inward slightly toward the display. Most other phones and handheld devices that come through our offices—the Galaxies, iPhones, BlackBerries, and so on—have flat edges, and the first day or so I spent with the One the phone felt just ever-so-slightly off. You get used to it (and to the phone's height—it's slightly taller than either the Galaxy S 4 or the Nexus 4) in short order, but it's really the only thing I can think to take issue with. Otherwise, the One still feels excellent, regardless of the software it's running.

The software

These phones' main draw is their promise of stock, up-to-date Android, and on that front the Google Play edition of the One delivers. All of the standard One's splash screens have been replaced by the same understated Google logo as is found on the Nexus, plus a boot animation specific to Google Play Edition phones (it trades the Nexus' glowing, multi-colored X for multi-colored circles that swirl around each other in an X-shaped pattern).

If anything, the version of Android 4.2.2 on the HTC One looks even more "stock" than the Google Play edition of the Galaxy S 4, which changes the lock screen a bit to accommodate flip covers and gets rid of some gradients throughout the OS to better take advantage of that phone's AMOLED display (since AMOLED pixels display black by shutting all the way off, a black background consumes a tiny bit less power than a dark background with a gradient).

There are two big visible changes compared to the Nexus 4 Android experience: the first, obviously, is that the onscreen software buttons (part of the Android design spec for phones since version 4.0) are absent in favor of the One's capacitive home and back buttons. This frees up a few extra pixels on the One's screen unless an app calls for the legacy Android Settings button, which shows up at the bottom as it does on the standard One. The second is that a Beats Audio toggle has been added to the sound settings. When using the phone's built-in speakers the setting makes a positive difference, and on the stock One the Beats optimizations make the highs a bit less tinny and the lows a bit more bass-y than in the standard version.