Walking down the street, you’ll scarcely be able to get by without seeing an advert for either Samsung or Apple, whether it’s the latest iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S4 being splashed on billboards or TV screens.
But because the likes of Apple and Samsung shout the loudest, does this necessarily mean that they offer the best smartphones? Is there a case for some of the lesser-known mobile phones that currently fill the market?
In my opinion the HTC One is, and will be, the best mobile phone that hits our shelves in 2013. And here’s why…
Design – First and foremost, the HTC One stands out from all the rest when it comes to its design. Not only is it sleek and stylish with its all-aluminium casing, but it also has a premium look and feel about it, which you seldom get with a lot of cheap-looking Android devices.
Let’s compare it to the Samsung Galaxy S4, for instance, a phone that’s receiving a lot of interest from consumers and phone experts alike. The Galaxy S4 has a cheap-looking plastic casing with rounded edges, which makes it look more like a child’s toy than a high spec, functional device.
Because of its plastic cover, the S4 might well be lighter, weighing in at 130g compared with the HTC One’s 147g, but I feel that having an ever so heavier phone is a fair price to pay for having a phone that really looks the part.
Features – The HTC One’s many features are something that again makes the handset stand miles apart from any other Android device on the market.
The HTC One is the first device to feature BlinkFeed, a rolling home screen that updates with the latest news, social media posts and photographs according to your personal preferences. A little like the Windows Phone 8 operating system, HTC BlinkFeed gives you complete access to your phone’s wealth of apps and features without having to scroll away from the one screen, which is great for multi-tasking.
Also, the HTC One, rather surprisingly, is the first smartphone to combat the issue of muffled audio by placing two speakers- kitted out with BoomSound technology- to the front of the phone, making listening to music not only twice as loud, but also much sharper than any other device that I’ve tested. Again, compared with the Samsung Galaxy S4 which features Group Play, whereby placing numerous S4 phones together effectively turns audio into stereo sound, the HTC One’s dual-frontal speakers are much more usable on a day-to-day basis, and really solve the issue of weak audio found on most smartphones.
Camera – Last but not least is the HTC One’s fine camera. Compared with all other smartphone manufacturers, who seem intent on packing their phones’ cameras full with megapixels, HTC decided to play a risky card by releasing the One with only a 4 megapixel lens.
However, because of HTC’s Ultrapixel technology, the HTC One’s camera lets in 300% more light than most 13MP cameras, which makes photos taken with the device superior to most smartphones currently on the market.
Not only is the One’s camera quality pretty impressive, the in-built features that appear in the phone’s camera application by far exceed the usual post-production editing filters you seen on other high spec smartphones like the Sony Xperia Z, BlackBerry Z10 and Samsung galaxy S4.
The HTC One features HTC Zoe; a mode which can be turned on and off, which takes 3 second bursts of video when you press down the shutter, which is great for truly capturing a moment as opposed to a simple still shot. Also, because HTC Zoe automatically generates a 30 second movie made up of all your pictures, the 3 second moving clips really bring this feature alive and make it far more than just a photo slideshow.
Why the HTC One is the best smartphone of 2013 – So there we have it; just four reasons why the HTC One is perhaps the best smartphone of 2013. Rather than offering gimmicky features like the Samsung galaxy S4’s S Translator, Story Album and Group Play, the HTC One fulfils users’ demands in offering a premium-looking device which performs in each and every category that a user expects; its camera, its audio and its user-friendly interface all make up a device that’s at the forefront of technology.
And why am I so passionate about the HTC One? With so much hype surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S4 (and in many ways the iPhone 5), it’s time that the ‘Quietly Brilliant’ phone made a stand and received the attention that it so rightly deserves.
Thanks to Charlotte Kertrestel who writes for Mobilephones.com, a website that covers all the latest mobile phone deals, reviews and news articles. She enjoys writing about Androids and loves reviewing all the latest apps.
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