My Next Smartphone: The HTC One

With new devices being announced or coming out right about time, a lot of people are considering new smartphones. You have the Galaxy S4, Sony Experia Z, LG Optimus G, and many other options. I'm ready to upgrade from my HTC One S and moving to a device whose name subtracts the S from it's moniker, but there's so much to the actually device that is added. Yes, I'm talking about the HTC One - my next device.


The HTC One

The spec sheet of the HTC One is quite a lengthy one and has a whole lot of power behind the device. The central power behind the device comes from it's amazingly powerful Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600, quad-core CPU @1.7GHz. But that's not all the device has to it. I'll give a quick run down of some of the specs bellow but head on over to the spec page for a more in-depth look. It meets the requirements of my next phone, which were to have a 720p screen or higher, NFC, 2GB ram, quad core and LTE

DISPLAY: 4.7 inch, Full HD 1080p, 468 

RAM : 2 GB DDR2
NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, 2300 mAh Battery

, LTE, AC WIFI

However, the big features of the phone though aren't really expressed well on a spec sheet. The key areas that HTC really shines out on this phone is with the build quality, the camera, the sound experience, and the sense features. I'll be able to give a more first hand experience once I get my hands on the device, but initial reviews have been very promising.


Build Quality

Now the build quality of the device makes the device look very premium and has been compared to that of what Apple has been known for, especially with the unibody aluminum iPhone 5. The HTC One has a lot of time being put into the outside aesthetics of the phone. Check out the video bellow to see just how much work goes into each and every HTC One. The end result after a lengthy manufacturing process is stunning.

Camera: HTC Zoe

The camera is another area that HTC stepped up their game. Now if you just take a simple look on a spec sheet the camera is a 4MP sensor. People would be quick to write off such a low megapixel camera in the days of 8 and even 13 megapixel cameras in smartphones. The truth of the matter though is megapixels aren't the only thing that helps produce an excellent image. HTC's 4 megapixel sensor is what they are dubbing the ultrapixel. The ultrapixel is able to capture more light and therefor is able to give better low light images and more accuracy to true colors. It's able to go head on with 8 and even 13 megapixel smartphone cameras. 

Although some are seeing a degradation of clarity because of the lower megapixel count, check out some comparison shots and decide for yourself. I'll do my own shoot out once I get my hands on the device.

The other thing HTC has done with the camera experience is they have included a bunch of camera settings. They have the new HTC Zoe which takes shots and videos and merges them into one presentation and then there are a whole bunch of filters and editing that you can do right from the phone. For example you can remove unwanted photobombers with just a click...or at least that's how easy they say it will be.


Sound

HTC has it's usual beats audio included with the new HTC One but it has gone beyond that in two important areas. The first is by including now just one but two front facing speakers on the device, located bellow and above the screen. They have named this BoomSound. A little bit of a cheesy name, but what really matters is does it improve the experience. Everything points to a resounding yes.

The next thing HTC has done in terms of sound quality is they have greatly improved the microphone and sound recording experience. Instead of using a single membrane microphone they use dual membrane microphones which takes two different sound recording. Then after the two signals have been combined, background noise is greatly reduced, which increases the overall sound quality of the recording. After all, no one wants to huddle around a phone to hear a distorted concert. You can read more about that on their blog post over here.


HTC Sense

Now I've never been the biggest fan of HTC Sense, even though I've owned several HTC Android phones. With the new version of Sense HTC has brought the UI more in line with what Android 4.0 design language looks like. The colors of Sense still leave somethings to be desired (I really am a fan of the way stock Android looks now), but beyond that you'll think twice...or more, about modding the device and getting rid of Sense. There's some really cool features built into Sense: Blinkfeed, Sense TV, HTC Zoe, Music App, and more.

HTC Blinkfeed: A Windows Phone styled widget built into the homescreen that collects 

updates from news or social media sources and puts all that information in one location.

Sense TV: Sense TV is one of the features that I'm really excited. The HTC One has a

IR Blaster beneath the power button so you can actually control your TV with your phone!

HTC One Music Player: The new music player has a built in lyric player, put that in

combination of the beats audio and BoomSound and you got a nice media player!

It looks like HTC is stepping up it's game and I can't wait to give my thoughts on the device once I actually get it in my hands. Another thing I hope HTC has learned is to support the developer community. I hope getting S-OFF is easy and that as a result there will be a large developer community behind it. What does help is that it seems like HTC is steering away from producing so many variants, that way developers can focus their efforts on one amazing device.

If you have any questions about the device that you would like me to answer once I get the device or anything you would like included in my full review of the device feel free to leave a comment bellow. 

Pebble: Replacement Watchband

If you were worried that the cheap little watch band that the Pebble watch came with would put your fashion sense in a bad mood, don't worry too long. The good thing about the Pebble watch is the watch bands are easily replaceable with a standard 22 mm watchband. I just got my replacement Black PVD Metal epolyant Diver Watch Band HR and I must say, it adds a very nice touch to the device! Replacing the watch band is quite easy. All you'll need is a knife or something thin and sharp to get the current band out. Watch the short little video bellow for a brief demo on how to remove the watch band.

The watch band feels very nice and solid. It was pretty easy to take out a few links so that it could fit my smaller wrists. One thing is where the pins are so that it is fastened to the pebble watch isn't really flush with the watch. That's the one improvement to the watch band in combination with the Pebble watch. However, this is just one example watch band that you could replace the Pebble with, there are many others out there. I highly recommend looking at a replacement watch band so you can get one to your liking.

Also as  I downloaded some new watchfaces I hit the limit of how many I can have stored on my watch. I'm wondering if it's a storage limitation or if it's a limitation being placed for some other reason. Either way I hope that I can have more watchfaces/apps downloaded on it and that it's not a storage limitation as I feel that might be an oversight that could have easily been avoided. It wouldn't be too big an issue as I typically keep my watch face on a single watchface. 

Pebble Smartwatch: Early Impressions (Week 1)

In case you guys are unfamiliar with the crowd source project funding website called kickstarter, you guys should check out the website. Kickstarter is described as

"a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative projects that are brought to life through the direct support of others."

I kickstarted the project on April 18th, 2012. After a long wait and 30 something kickstarer project updates later...it's finally here! I got my Pebble last Monday and thought I'd share some of my first thought impressions about the device. First of all, this is coming from a person that almost never wears watches. Last time I put on a watch was probably 3 or 4 years ago. I've just never found the appeal to them when I have a smartphone to tell time as well. With that being said let's delve into the details of the device first.

First off for kickstarter backers the device could have been yours for a pledge of $99 (black watch) for early pledgers, $115 for a black watch, $125 for a watch of your choice from their color selection and then the Pebble smartwatch will be available to those that didn't kickstart it for $150. It's not too late to pick up this device!


Specs: 

• 1.26-inch 144 × 168 pixel black and white ePaper-display with backlight
• Vibrating motor
• Magnetometer
• Bluetooth 4 (currently not active yet)
• Three-axis accelerometer
• Water resistant to 5 ATM
• And must of all, watch faces!

The device can pair with your Android or iOS powered smartphone and get notifications of incoming: texts, calls, emails, facebook notifications, and more! It can even control your music that is playing on your phone, which is one of the things I found most useful. The ability to go bike riding or jogging and change songs without having to fumble through your phone is great.

Packaging: 

 

The packaging is quite nice and reminds me of the kindle packaging. A very easy to open, eco-friendly container that houses the watch and the usb charging cable. The packaging is super easy to open, just tear this flap all the way down and you're into the heart of it all.










Now I wasn't sure if I was suppose to charge it all the way or not, but I just got right into turning the device on and using it. Even without charging it it still lasted me about 2 days of use. Even while paired with my phone. Since then I've only charged it once completely. 










Initial Thoughts:

After about a week I'm really impressed by the watch. Now not everything is all good. For example, they still need to improve the software on the device and the corresponding smartphone apps. The watch needs a notification center or some way of looking at past notifications and the apps need to improve how apps that you can download are sorted. There also is a weird bug that I'm not sure why it's being caused by sometimes it just stops communicating with my device and I have to hold both the back and select button to reboot the device and repair the device. I'm sure the kinks are being worked on.  

 Despite those few quirks that the device seems to have I highly recommend this device if you're looking for a better way to listen to music while exercising or if you're like me and you work at a place where you can't be pulling out your phone all the time to be checking who just texted you. With the Pebble, a quick glance at the watch to see who the text is from and you can quickly decide if it's something important that needs to be attended to or not. I just ordered a black stainless steel watch band for it too (any 22 mm watch band should work for the watch). So I'm waiting for that to arrive. More pictures will be available as soon as I get the watch band!