Wednesday 25 / December / 2024
Smartphones — they get smarter and smarter by the day. A phone that you buy today will probably have become an outdated one by the time its stickers start fading. They have graduated from being a mere necessity to a must have accessory, and today a phone’s physical appearance and aesthetics matter as much, if not more, as the specs.
More so, the phones are so common on the inside, using common platforms and softwares, and features as the battle of edging out the other gets more and more intense. Even the Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi are creating a name in the smartphone market based on their performance. Mention any feature and every other set has it — so much are the smartphones at par with each other.
And when it comes to looks, it is the HTC that leads the pack by a big margin, having invented and implemented many a successful news in its smartphone models over the years. The success of the brand’s designs is evident clear and loud; even Apple’s latest phones today wear the full metal body frame, which HTC had initiated with its iconic ONE series.
Others followed suit and tried to come up with their own interpretations of new looks, but failed largely – be it the Samsung’s leather back on its Galaxy S5 and Note 3 onwards, which LG also copied to its G4, or the wooden back on Motorolla Moto X (I could only wonder how the phone would age after years of use; if at all used that long which is. All cracked up maybe?).
Like that HTC has many a firsts to its name, and though they may have been adopted by others today, still it was the HTC who came up with them in the first place. The Taiwanese giant also launched the world’s first phone with 2TB microSD card support recently – the ONE ME. Here are a few more reasons that make the HTC a drool worthy option.
All-Metal
The HTC One had what the brand labelled as ‘zero gap’ construction and a curved, all-metal body. A new change altogether to smartphone appearance, the concept went on to become hugely popular. Every other smartphone on the market today is boasting of a metal body, except Samsung, for the obvious reason that it is HTC’s arch-rival, and won’t give in at any cost. Apple however, was quick to adopt (or steal?) the all metal outer and the entire iPhone6 series is metal clad.
Front Audio
I could never understand why phone makers put audio speakers on the backside, or top and bottom instead of placing them up front. I mean we talk, watch video, or listen to songs, with the facing side up, and then why not have the speakers on the front too? Smartphones specially should have no space crunch, given their large sizes.
Here too Kudos to the HTC. The brand’s trademark BoomSound on their ‘One’ series has two front-facing speakers powered by built-in amplifiers, a rarity in the smartphone game. The result is super-awesome sound – loud and clear, and though many have stolen the idea, so far nobody have been able to beat the HTC’s sound; not even close.
Second Camera
Another most notable HTC-first addition is the second camera on the back, which is used as a depth sensor to shift the focus. The dual cameras can focus on multiple objects simultaneously while snapping a photo, which enables to shift the object focus in the image later on, to get the perfect blur effect. Also not to forget the Ultra-pixel camera, delivering wonderful results especially in dark conditions, is available only on the HTCs (although it has a hate-love relationship with fans).
Cool Video Feature
Called Zoe, it is by far the most innovative part of the camera based on HTC’s pitch. Hitting the shutter button it enables the camera to capture up to 20 photos in a row and 3 seconds of video. The idea is simple: instead of hoping to snap one perfect shot, especially in fast situations, you can opt to choose the most perfect one from a bunch, and get a little moving photo style memento along with it.
Again Apple played thief, and the iPhone6 range is having the same feature, albeit with a different name.
Dot View
HTC also made a clever case for the One called Dot View, which flips over the screen and lets you view incoming notifications. When you slip on a Dot View cover, the One’s screen adapts and lets your notifications shine through dozens of tiny holes punched through the cover. You can also double tap the cover to get a quick look at the time, weather, and missed notifications: very clever, very stylish.
BlinkFeed
Another great feature in the HTC smartphones is BlinkFeed, an app that lives on the home screen and pulls in news from social networks and several major news outlets. It also syncs with third-party apps like Foursquare and the FitBit fitness tracker.
BlinkFeed used to be the default home screen on the ‘One’ phones earlier, but you now have to swipe over from the home screen to view it, probably done to top the user’s favourite apps over it.
Software Updates
Finally, buying an HTC One comes with a big advantage that other Android phone-makers haven’t been able to match yet: the guarantee that you get the latest and greatest software updates for two years. Rivals like Samsung and LG tend to abandon major software updates for their devices whenever a new phone comes out, but HTC keeps updating its previous models with the same software the new model gets.
While it is for sure that HTC does not lag behind its competitors in performance – not one bit, it definitely does look better than the rest. You have got to try.
