HTC One Unboxing
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
2,112 words · ~10 min read
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This video is brought to you by Cooler Master mobile featuring the JazzPro
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notebook stand. Check it out at mobile.coolermaster-usea.com.
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Welcome to my unboxing and first look at the HTC1.
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Now, we've already seen a 1X and a 1S
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and a 1X Plus, but this is just
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one. That's all there is to it. So they
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have gone instead of sort of a a hedged
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bets multi-tiered phone strategy and they're saying okay nope this is it this
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is going to incorporate all of the best technology that we can build the shell
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itself so the aluminum frame the aluminum body that it uses has 200
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minutes minimum on a machine for each
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individual phone that's produced. So to put this in the appropriate context,
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those machines cost tens of thousands of
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dollars potentially for high-end CNC machines and they are occupying 200
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minutes each. They had to put a bunch of advanced techni techniques into it just
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to manufacture this thing. So I'm going to go ahead and put it down here and
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we're going to start actually I'm not going to put it down here. We're going to start with a size comparison. So,
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compared to the HTC8X, it is actually a very similar size in
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spite of the fact that the screen is a little bit larger at 4.7 in. So, if I go
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ahead and turn it on. So, I'm just going to try and get an HTC logo on the
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screens here. There we go. You'll see it goes a little bit closer to the edge.
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There's the sound when it boots up than the 8X. So, that's a Windows phone. This
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is an Android phone and it runs HTC's Sense 5.0.
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All right. So, by comparison, here's a Galaxy Note 2. We should probably also
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do thickness comparisons here as well. I'm not going to put it quite up against
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the other phone because this is Diesels and I'm sure he'd freak out if he saw me
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doing that. So, it's much smaller than a Note 2. However, the resolution is
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actually higher. This is a 1080p Super
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LCD 3 phone. Now, I've seen Super LCD 2
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and Super LCD 3. This is a Galaxy S3, by the way, guys. The S4 is a little bit
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bigger, also has a 1080p screen, and Super LCD 3 is absolutely better than
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Super LCD 2, especially with respect to color shift. So, they both have pretty
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vibrant colors, good text, all that stuff. Here's an iPhone 4, by the way,
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guys. There's a size comparison there. But Super LCD 3 doesn't really shift the
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colors as you move around and look at it from different angles up and down. So,
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here's is a 1S. So that's a previous
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generation phone, not quite a flagship like the Droid DNA. So this is only one
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of the first uh one of the first two or three phones on the market that has a
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1080p display. It also has the allnew
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Snapdragon S600 platform. So that includes a 1.7 GHz
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quad core processor, wireless AC, an
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Adreno 320 GPU, as well as 2 gigs of
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memory. So, we're into the setup wizard. So, I'm going to go ahead and get that
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started, and we'll be back in a moment. So, now let's take a really close look
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at the phone itself. There are a few things about it that are particularly
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innovative. So, number one is I'm going to take it, I'm going to hold it in portrait, then I'm going to go bam,
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landscape, because these two speakers right here are stereo speakers with what
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HTC is calling boom sound. So boom sound
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is pretty much their way of saying it actually has sound that will actually be
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usable in the context of sitting and looking at your phone like this and
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watching a movie for example. This makes perfect sense because if you look at
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something like an iPhone 4 which has one port for audio that comes out of the
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bottom or even something like a an 8X
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that has one speaker on the back of the phone. How many times have you done this
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where you're cupping your hand behind the phone in order to direct any noise
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at your face? So, Boom Sound looks incredibly cool. They've also added a
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1080p front-facing camera in addition,
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so that's a 2.1 megapixel still 1080p 30fps video camera in addition to the 4
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megapixel 1080p 30fps rear camera. So,
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hold on a minute. Why did I just say 4 megapixel? They're calling this
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ultraixel. So rather than having lots of
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tiny tiny micro dense dense pixels, what
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HTC has gone totally in the opposite direction of the regular industry trend
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and gone, okay, no, we're going to put bigger pixels in the phone because those
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will actually be able to capture more light because they're larger and should
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give you better lowlight performance. And from what I've seen sort of looking
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around so far, it's actually working. So
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in spite of fewer pixels, you're able to get better dynamic range and oh yeah, so
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it's got a 1/3 inch sensor as well as an f/2.0 lens that gives you more light
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transmission and a larger sensor to capture the light on as well. So this is
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a very different way of going about it. In fact, if you look at HT the HTC1
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product page on HTC's website, you'll see that they don't even list how many
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megapixels it is because they feel it shouldn't be about that. It should be
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about what actual quality are you getting out of the images you're taking.
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Now, one of the other things that's changed about the front here is that instead of having three buttons, there
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are two buttons. So, there's a back button and a home button instead of a
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recent app button. You can double click the home button to access your recent
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apps and then you can hold it down to get to Google Now. So, that's the way
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that that functionality is enabled. But, uh, so it's a little bit different.
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They've also added their HTC Sense 5.0 UI. So there there are some intricacies
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to it. It works well with the apps that they include. So another thing they've
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changed about the camera is you can use a mode called zo ze in order to take
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about four or five stills as well as a several second 1080p video. So part of
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their their whole thing here is they want it to be more like sort of like a
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Harry Potter type picture. So you're capturing a moment as opposed to just a
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still. So, they've included a management application, a gallery for it, but it's
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a very cool concept. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds neat. So, instead of
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just taking a picture, you get a little bit of the leadup, you get the smile,
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and then you get a little bit of whatever it happens to be. Very, very
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neat stuff. So, let's keep moving around the phone. On this side, we find not a
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whole lot. Just a spot for a micro SIM. Other than that, you can see just the
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beautiful finishing on the phone with the aluminum backing as well as the
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beveled aluminum front that meets seamlessly with the Gorilla Glass 2
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front. So, it should be extremely durable and it looks fairly
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dropresistant as well because the glass doesn't go right to the edge. There is a
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little bit of a buffer zone, although that's not to say that if you dropped it directly on the glass, it wouldn't
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break. On the top, we find a headphone microphone combo jack as well as check
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this out. So, the power button is not only a power button, but also an IR
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emitter and receiver. So, you can use it as a universal remote with any infrared
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devices. Very, very cool little innovation. And it doesn't detract from
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the overall look of the device either. On this side, we find a volume rocker.
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And what I like about it is it's a little bit it's it's flush or slightly
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recessed. So, when you pick up the phone, because it's a little bit wider
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here at the at the back of it, you can pick it up easily without accidentally
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triggering the volume buttons, which is a problem that I had with the 8X during
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my 30-day Windows phone trial. On the bottom, we find a USB/MHL
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port. So, that allows it to also output HDMI signals to compatible MHL devices.
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Finally, there's a little uh Oh, sorry. There's a Nope, that's it. There's on
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the back a little noise cancelling microphone and an overall very symmetrical looking design. This is a
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solid piece of aluminum back here and you've got a couple of cool things. So,
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there's a flash right next to that camera I talked a lot about before as
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well as a little Beats Audio logo and an HTC logo. Now, the Beats audio logo,
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maybe this is part of just the the general I don't know if it's Beats audio
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or just part of HTC's internal direction, but the audio is
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significantly better on the device than what you'll find on a typical
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smartphone. Whether that's the headphones, which have a reasonable headphone amp on them, which is great,
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but also those front-facing speakers that I talked about before.
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Accessory-wise, they also include a bit of a more premium looking headphones
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headset than you're generally used to seeing. So, it's got a non-tangle cable.
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It's got a red and black color scheme. Where have we seen that before, guys?
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And of course, it includes three different sizes of ear tips. They are
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IM, so they're meant to go right into the ear canals. They also include, at
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least with our demo model, not to say the retail one won't have more stuff, a
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SIM card tool, as well as a micro USB cable, charger, a cable, and a charger.
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All right, so this will be the shot where I finish up with all the little other little things that I forgot. So,
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for one thing, it's got a 468 pixel per
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inch density. This is pretty much the mo I believe this is the most dense display
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on the market for a smartphone because it is a slightly smaller screen than
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there was on the Droid DNA. It's only 4.7 in, making it a little bit easier
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for someone like me to use. In spite of my small hand syndrome, I'd say already
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that just because of the shape of it, it's easier to hold on to than the 8X
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was. So, since this is the device I'll be using for my 30-day Android I
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switched trial, I'm really glad that that's uh something that I discovered
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about it. On the back, this isn't something you can see, but it does have
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NFC, so you can easily exchange data, apps, or whatever else you want.
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However, there is no wireless charging built into this phone for those of you
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who were hoping to see that option. You pretty much cannot open it up. It has a
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2300 millia battery, though, so hopefully that's enough for you. Um, and
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same thing with respect to not being able to open it up. You can't add a
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micro SD card for more expansion. So, you're going to be stuck with either the
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32 gigs or 64 gigs that were included
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with your phone. It comes with Android 4.1.2, but it is upgradeable to 4.2. And
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they include the HTC Sync Manager to facilitate moving whether it's from iOS
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or from another Android device to this new platform. And I think that pretty
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much wraps it up for this unboxing and first look. Thank you for checking it out. Online is tech tips.