I went into this review with my mind pre-blown. You know how sometimes a new movie comes out, and everyone is raving about it being “the best movie ever made”, and you start yearning to see it because you feel like you’re the only one who hasn’t seen it? The HTC One was kind of like that for me. Early reviews lavished heaps of praise on the device, and it quickly became the one device I couldn’t wait to get my hands on.

Thankfully, unlike most of those “best movies ever” that usually turn out to be total stinkers, the HTC One lived up to the hype. In fact, I’d say it surpassed the hype, blowing away my pre-blown mind in almost every way possible. This is one incredible phone.

VIDEO REVIEW

HARDWARE

Superb. Gorgeous. Stunning. I can’t think of any word capable of overselling the HTC One. Bucking the trend of plastic housings, HTC has opted for an aluminum device with the One, making it the first Android phone that matches the craftsmanship and high-end feel of the iPhone 5. This is hands-down the most beautiful, best-designed Android phone ever released. The body itself features an all-aluminum back, with aluminum strips on the front above and below the display. Similar to the iPhone 4, the HTC One features an external antenna band around the edges, which are finished with a white polycarbonate. Despite not being a unibody device, the One feels seamless and solid, and the subtle curve of the aluminum back gives the device a smooth feel in hand. I’ve always been a fan of HTC’s hardware, but they’ve really outdone themselves - and every other manufacturer - with the HTC One.

I must applaud HTC for not including a 5-inch screen on the One. The 4.7-inch 1080p display on the One is absolutely gorgeous, and is much more manageable than the 5-inch “standard” of 2013. While it can still be difficult to use with one hand thanks to its vertical stretch, I think the size is perfect. The 1080p resolution ensures that everything looks sharp and crystal clear. Comparing the One’s display with some of the other review units I have scattered around my apartment, it bests every single one, including the iPhone 5′s Retina display. Also notable are the front-facing stereo speakers, a genius move by HTC. Most smartphone speakers are on the bottom or the back, often getting covered and muffled by your hand. The HTC One features dual-speakers above and below the display, pumping noise directly at the user. Sound quality crystal clear and loud. I can’t say much else about the hardware other than that it is simply stunning, and it can’t be truly appreciated without seeing and holding one yourself.

CAMERA

The one area where the HTC One falls flat is the 4-megapixel “Ultrapixel” camera. Rather than participating in the megapixel war being fought by their competitors, HTC purposely chose a lower-resolution camera, and focused instead on improving the sensor and post-processing techniques. Unfortunately, that risky bet did not pay off. Photos taken with the One look low-resolution, grainy, and pixelated in many areas. In a number of outdoor test shots I took, the left and right edges also appear to be blurry and out of focus, while the centre of the frame looks fine. I’m not sure if this was a motion blur issue, or caused by fingerprints on the camera lens, though I made a point of cleaning it before shooting.

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Regardless, outdoor shots taken on a bright day have a grainy quality to them and a fuzziness around sharp edges. In fact, most of the test shots I took have a persistent grain to them, especially in dark areas. The sensor also appears to struggle with focusing in some cases, and areas with intense light tend to look washed out. There were a few rare exceptions, like an indoor shot I took of my MacBook Pro’s keyboard, or a close-up I shot of a tree trunk, both of which turned out with crisp, vivid detail. It seems to be wider, landscape shots that the One has trouble with.

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For some reason shots look great on the One’s display, but you really notice the low quality when you view the photos on a computer screen. For most people who use their smartphone camera to take Instagram photos and post to Facebook and Twitter, the One’s camera will suffice. Overall though, the Ultrapixel camera in the HTC One just doesn’t live up to its promise, which is extremely disappointing.

SOFTWARE

Sense is somewhat of a black sheep in the Android world: some love it, some hate it. You can’t dispute its necessity back in the days when Android was in need of a UI makeover. However now that Android has matured into a beautiful OS in its own right, the utility of manufacturer-branded launcher skins has been called into question. Thankfully, HTC has taken a step back with Sense in the last few years, and though Sense 5 on the HTC One is slightly more intrusive than Sense 4 was last year, it is still a fairly simple, well-designed experience. The homescreen grid remains untouched (unless you count Blink Feed, which I will touch on in the next section), the dock, app drawer, and menus have been redesigned with a flatter look, and HTC has included some of their custom app skins and icons. The keyboard works pretty well, though it would struggle with auto-correction at times, ignoring misspelt words. HTC has also included a Swype-like “Trace Keyboard” that works great, and of course you can also download a keyboard replacement from Google Play if you wish; I found a stock Jelly Bean keyboard that worked great.

Software performance was buttery smooth on the One. Zero lag when swiping, tapping, or scrolling thanks to the quad-core processor. Many of my favourite apps - Falcon Pro, Instagram, Pocket, and Dash, to name a few - ran extremely well on the One, smoother than the stock Nexus 4. Oddly enough the One seemed to suffer from some frame rate issues while playing simple games like Jetpack Joyride and Nimble Quest. Not a huge problem, but a noticeable annoyance. Battery life was average for a modern smartphone. The One easily made it through a full day of use with juice to spare in the evening. Data performance on Virgin Mobile’s LTE network was phenomenal, with the One easily averaging 20Mbps up and down. Oh yeah, it also makes phone calls and sends text messages.

THE “HTC” FEATURES

Software customizations are the main differentiator among Android smartphones, and HTC has packed in some interesting ones. The highlight of Sense 5 is the new “Blink Feed” homescreen, which serves to replace the traditional grid of icons with a social news feed. Blink Feed displays updates from your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr) and a host of other news sources (from The Associated Press to TechCrunch) and displays them in a vertically scrolling list of tiles, each one representing a story or post. The idea is that you’ll always have something new to look at on your homescreen. The nicest thing about Blink Feed is that it doesn’t have to be your default homescreen; you can set it to live on the far left, so it’s there when you want to browse, and gone when you want a traditional homescreen setup. The other high-profile feature of Sense 5 is HTC “Zoe”, a camera mode that records a 1 second video before and after taking a photo. I don’t quite understand its usefulness, and in fact it ended up annoying me when I would try to take a photo and end up with a video clip, with no easy way to distinguish between the two in the gallery view. Finally, the HTC One ships preloaded with a “TV” app that uses the IR blaster hidden beneath the sleep/wake button. With the TV app, you can use your HTC One as a remote control for your TV and cable box, browse the channel guide, and the phone will even notify you when your favourite shows are on. Unfortunately I was unable to test this feature; the TV app requires you to select your cable provider before you can use it, and I don’t have cable. Bummer.

BOTTOM LINE

“Galaxy S who? I want the HTC One!” That’s what you should be saying if you walk into a store to buy a new Android phone this spring. The HTC One is hands-down the most beautiful Android phone ever made, and is one of the best looking smartphones in general. Beautiful, powerful hardware running an up-to-date version of Android is an extremely compelling package - if you can look past the camera, the only sore spot of an otherwise perfect device. Downfalls aside, the HTC One is an absolutely incredible smartphone. If you’re looking for the best Android phone to buy this year, the HTC One is your answer.

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