Our Head of International Markets, Richard Moore, recently sneaked a peek at the highly anticipated HTC One down under. Here’s his story!
As I flew from the UK to Australia, I found myself doing a very unofficial survey of what devices everyone had. We have seen Samsung’s dominance in the market recently, so I expected to see lots people holding Galaxy S3s, Galaxy S2s and Galaxy Notes. Not so, it appears that the iPhone is still very much the people’s choice and at my stopover in Singapore it was like an Apple convention with iPads and iPhones everywhere.
There were a few devices that were a shock to see – as I even saw 2 Blackberries and an old Nokia N series, but the biggest shock of all was when one of the candidates I was interviewing for our forthcoming Aussie site pulled out a HTC One. This wasn’t a device I expected to see on my travels as it hasn’t even been released yet! It was a good way to start an interview I must say, as well as a great opportunity to get my hands on the phone before its release. So what did I think?
I have to say, I was really impressed. The first thing that appealed to me was the design and how thin the HTC One looked. The brushed aluminium gives it great styling and a svelte finish. I was not disappointed either as I picked it up, the full metal casing gave it not only style but a confidence in build quality (although I’d obviously still recommend a HTC One case from Mobile Fun to keep these great looks protected!).
It felt light and was comfortable in my hand due to the curved rear of the phone and the perceived edge to edge screen tempts you to dive in. It’s ticked my boxes so far, but how does it operate? It was quick and the Full HD screen was really sharp. Sense 5 was slick and intuitive and the new features such as Zoe and Boomsound are great additions.
So the big question is whether it is good enough going to make me change from an S3? Honestly, I am tempted! I think HTC will do well with this device, but I’m sticking with my S3, at least until the Galaxy S4 is announced…