The HTC One Has Finally Been Unveiled, it Brings a Whole Range of Goodies And a Few Tricks up it's Sleeve [Photos+Video]

Despite the abundant fanfare and critical acclaim, HTC's One X just couldn't quite mark the spot in 2012. No wonder, then, that the company's lopped off that extraneous letter in favor of a fresher start and renewed brand focus for its latest flagship: the One.

Gone by the wayside are those pure polycarbonate hulls -- HTC's Sense 5-laden Android Jelly Bean (4.1.2) handset comes crafted with an all-around premium look and feel, housing its 4.7-inch 1080p Super LCD 3 display (boasting 468 dpi and protected by Gorilla Glass 2) in a machined aluminum unibody. And, in a bid for the top spot on the mobile totem pole, the One also bears the distinction of being (one of) the first smartphones to feature Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 600, clocked here at 1.7GHz and paired with 2GB RAM.

For all its premium, metallic construction, the One cuts a relatively light figure, weighing in at 143 grams and measuring 5.4 (137.4mm) x 2.7 (68.2mm) x 0.37 (9.3mm) inches -- a thickness that puts it on par with the BlackBerry Z10. Take note, that slim silhouette accommodates for the integrated 2,300mAh Li-polymer battery, radios for WiFi a/ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and 32GB or 64GB of storage (sorry, there's no slot for microSD expansion).

Looking at the load of innovations HTC's crammed into the One, it's clear this is a handset for the social oversharing set. Even its front face alone tells that story. From the dual stereo speakers (featuring dedicated amps) surrounding the screen to the 2.1-megapixel camera with 88-degree wide-angle lens capable of 1080p video, to the simplified soft keys (one for back, one for home), to the IR blaster (integrated in the power button), to the default BlinkFeed homescreen (a Flipboard-like social feed); it's safe to say, the One's aggressively embracing the role of smartphone as multimedia powerhouse. And that's just what it offers head-on.

HTC's taking a risk with the One. Flip the handset around and you'll find an unassuming rear shooter in the midst of that clean aluminum body. Or, as the company calls it, the UltraPixel camera. Tackling the "myth of the megapixel," HTC's outfitted the One with a 4-megapixel BSI sensor and f/2.0 lens, such that each pixel is meant to gather 300 percent more light than the current crop of smartphone sensors. The camera unit also features optical image stabilization and HTC's ImageChip 2 for HDR, 1080p and 60fps video. But that's not the end of HTC's imaging focus. It's also introducing a new feature / service dubbed Zoe, which allows users to capture and share short videos, much like Vine, via HTC's dedicated site.

Whether or not HTC will finally strike gold with the One, only time will tell. But it's certainly not for lack of effort. This is a smartphone at the top of its class (for now, anyway); a zeitgeist-y take that should please both power and social users alike. Look for it to rollout globally this March in both HSPA and LTE models. [Engadget]

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Leaked Screenshots of HTC's Sense 5 Show Major Areas of Improvement

You know, for all the changes HTC has made to its Sense interface for smartphones over the years, it generally looks the same as it did back in the old days. That may not be the case for much longer if a new batch of screenshots spotted on the xda-developer forums are to be believed — they claim to provide an even better look at HTC’s forthcoming Sense 5 interface, and (if real) they represent a big step forward for HTC’s custom UI.

Before we go any further, I just have to point out that the kicker here is where the images came from — according to a thread on the xda-developer forums, someone managed to flash a Sense 5-laden build of Android 4.1.2 onto a Verizon Droid DNA. And where did that ROM come from? Well, should you believe the original post, it came from a Sprint-branded HTC M7 (you know, the not-so-secret flagship that HTC hasn’t officially announced yet).

It sounds sketchy, I know, but the visual style seen in these images matches the one seen in a batch of leaked photos that purportedly depict the M7 itself. As always, I’d advise you to have your grains of salt at the ready.

First impressions? If all of this is legitimate, HTC really may be onto something. It’s a pretty drastic leap from the Sense overlays of yore, which have generally looked very similar (save for some recent, much-needed changes) for years now. There are plenty of little touches that seem to bring the overall Sense experience closer to the cold, digital aesthetic that Google had in mind for Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean, and that’s just fine by me. Perhaps one of the biggest tweaks here is to Sense’s typography — the skin’s usual font has been replaced with a narrower typeface (Engadget referred to it as a sort of “Roboto condensed”) which helps things feel less cluttered.

                                     

Interestingly, the icons for the stock dialler, web browser, messaging, and camera apps all seem flatter and less skeuomorphic than the ones seen in earlier versions of Sense. The word that keeps popping into my head is “sparse” — the visual quiet of the phone app and the app launcher is a curious change, but one I hope pans out and pervades the rest of the company’s custom UI. Then again, your mileage may vary on that: I prefer Google’s minimalism, but Samsung sells a crazy number of TouchWizzed devices so someone clearly enjoys garish, overwrought interfaces. [TechCrunch]

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