News & Reviews:   HTC One specification

Qualcomm often does many things because they can which results in some interesting setups like this slow-motion surround rig crafted from 130 HTC One smartphones. Qualcomm are calling it "The Ultimate Smartphone Photobooth" and have done a very interesting video showing how they made awesome 360-degree rotation slow-motion videos with just a Qualcomm powered smartphone, or in this case 130 of them. Qualcomm haven't said why they chose the HTC One but do check out the video in this article.

HTC has recently announced that it would make 5 limited edition gold plated HTC One smartphones. The phones would be gold plated with 18K gold and have "MOBO 18" laser engraving on the back for the 18th MOBO awards (for the UK's best urban music artists). The cost estimated for each gold HTC One is estimated at RM14199 each but it is very likely that they are not going to be available for sale. Instead, it could be the prizes or awards for the MOBO awards ceremony. Tech specs and features for the gold HTC One will likely remain the same though. If you must get the HTC One in gold it is already available from Goldgenie in 24K gold at a lower pricing.

In many ways, the HTC One is a pioneer, innovating upon features that most Android smartphones lack. It was the first premium Android smartphone to offer more than just a plastic casing and paid much more focus to design (almost like the Apple iPhone). It offers features like Full 1080p HD on a 4.7-inch screen, an UltraPixel camera and software features which you won't find on any other smartphone. Is this the smartphone for you though? Read on and find out.

Design / Appearance

Before the HTC One, most Android smartphones all looked the same, were basically made out of plastic and looked downright boring. The HTC One shook things up by taking the same design approach as the Apple iPhone, giving much thought and focus to a new tough metal unibody chassis with a rounded brushed metal back. In making the overall smartphone, HTC designers decided to stick to a zero-gap construction, which makes for a beautiful smartphone with no gaps in between the components. The result is a nearly sealed case apart from the earphone jack and micro-USB port. In short, the HTC One is one of the most beautiful smartphones in the market, even after so many other Android smartphones have followed or tried to follow what it did.

After just two weeks or so of offering top smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One on Zero Contract at subsidized prices, DiGi are slashing the prices for these two top smartphones by about RM100 or so. While the Samsung Galaxy S4 was initially offered at RM1883 DiGi is now offering it from as low as RM1773 while the HTC One is dropping from RM1953 to as low as RM1843 on Zero Contract. Contracted plans for 24-months have also received a price cut which you can see in the table below:

If you ever thought that the HTC One would look great in gold, well, you're not the only one. Jewelry experts Goldgenie have decided to come out with a 24-carat gold plated HTC One going for the equally premium price of £1895 (RM9258). You can also go for Rose gold at £1995 (RM9747) and Platinum at £2095 (RM10235). Asides from the premium (and now, much heavier) precious metal plated phone you also get a premium box as well.

In what looks like an "if you can't beat them, join them" move, a bigger screen HTC One looks to be coming soon. With a cheaper and smaller screen version of the HTC One already in the works, we can't help but wonder if HTC One is following Samsung's current decision to make various versions of it's flagship smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, Active, Zoom, Mega). The only difference being that the HTC One versions will likely come packing ultrapixel rear cameras.

The HTC One looks great and works well with its 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. Quite a few smartphones are now sporting this same processor with some even going to 1.8GHz and 1.9Ghz. Not to be outdone, HTC One tech fans at Pocketnow decided to see what would happen if this same processor on the HTC One was overclocked to 2.0GHz and above.

Maxis has recently released it's bundle plans for the HTC One. In view of how popular the smartphone is, Maxis have been a bit more flexible this time around so you can get it on either a 12 or 24 month contract or with a SurfMore or TalkMore plan. For the full details, check out the table below:

Been waiting for Celcom and the HTC One to join forces? Well,  if you have then now is a good time as Celcom are now offering the HTC One for as low as RM1428. As befitting Celcom's flexibility, the telco is offering the 32GB version of the HTC One under 12 months, 18 months and 24 months contracts. For the full pricing details check out the table below:

Considering the HTC One's elegant aluminum unibody design it seems hard to put it through such punishment, but one user did just that, bringing a hammer, knife and key to it. As expected of the scratch resistant screen, it didn't really get damaged by any of the three, and the tough aluminum unibody chassis also didn't dent all that readily. However, this time the torture test was more thorough and exposed the weaknesses of the back and chamfered sides of the aluminum unibody design.