HTC lost a significant part of the smartphone market share these last two or three years, however they seem to be back with a bang with the release of some excellent smartphones, in particular the HTC One. Some reviewers have voted the HTC One as being the best smartphone ever produced at the time of writing. Is this indeed the case?
The HTV One is a beautiful phone, both on the inside and on the outside. It definitely looks better than the Samsung Galaxy S4, which is the smartphone of the moment along with the Zperia Z and the HTC One itself. However, when comparing the HTC One with the Sony Xperia Z, it is difficult to tell which the best looking phone is.
According to HTC, the body of the HTC One is made from a single block on aluminium while the Sony Xperia Z’s body made of glass. The HTC One has rounded edges while the Sony Xperia Z has squarish edges. I won’t get into which of the two phones is better looking – both smartphones look beautiful and naming the best looking one is more of a question of personal preference.
When it comes to the display, the HTC One is on par with the Galaxy S4. Both displays looks great, however the HTC One suffers from sunlight legibility issues, similarly to the Xperia Z. The display on the HTC One however looks better than that of the Xperia Z. With a display size of 5 inches, the S4 and the Z both fall under the phablet category of smartphones. The One, on the other hand, is only a mini phablet as it has a screen size of 4.7 inches. This can be seen as a disadvantage to many, but for anyone who likes to operate a smartphone with one hand, the smaller screen size can actually be an advantage.
Coming to the hardware performance and specifications, the HTC One is comparable to the Galaxy S4 and the Xperia Z. However in benchmark tests, it scored more than the Xperia Z but less than the Galaxy S4. This is expected given that the processor on the HTC One is more powerful than that on the Xperia Z but less powerful than that on the Galaxy S4. One drawback of the HTC One is that its memory cannot be upgraded by inserting a microSD card. However the phone comes in 32GB or 64GB, which should be more than enough for the majority of users.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 wins hand down when it comes to battery performance. While the HTC One and Xperia Z have batteries of 2300 MAh and 2330 MAh respectively, the battery on the Galaxy S4 is a 2600 MAh one. Apart from that, the battery on the S4 user replaceable, unlike the batter on the HTC One and Xperia Z.
When it comes to robustness, the Sony Xperia Z takes the title. In drop tests, the HTC One has shown to be a robust phone, mostly due to its aluminium body, but nowhere as robust as the Xperia Z. This may come to a surprise to some, given the Xperia Z’s body is made of glass. The Galaxy S4 is not too robust, mostly due to its plastic body and it fairs pretty badly when it comes to drop tests. On the other hand, best rolex replica the Galaxy S4 is in general (depending on the kind of fault) easier to repair, mostly due to the fact that the backside of the S4 is easily removable. One other thing that puts the Xperia Z in a league of its own is the IP57 certification. This makes the Z dust resistant and water resistant up to a depth of one metre for thirty minutes.
So, is the HTC One is indeed the smartphone of the moment? Calling the HTC One the smartphone of the moment may be a bit ambitious, considering the fact that the Samsung Galaxy S4 has just been released on the market. While the HTC One is being regarded by many as being the current king of the smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S4 may well take this title as more reviews of Samsung’s new flagship are released. After all, not everyone has the same perception when it comes to choosing a smartphone. If robustness and water resistance are more important features to you, then there is no doubt that the Sony Xperia Z is the best phone to choose in this case.
