‘Bold’ Was a Frequently-Used Adjective for HTC One

HTC President Jason Mackenzie said the company was “taking a bold step forward and delivering something bold and new.” He added that the One, which features a 4.7-inch 1080p screen, a new type of physical construction and impressive camera, audio and speaker technologies, among other features, “improves on every part of the smartphone experience.”

Mackenzkie said that we live amid a “constant flow of content,” and we’re “constantly snacking on that information in 10-, 20-, and 30-second moments of time.” To feed that appetite, the One features a home screen with a continuously updating stream of personalized content from a user’s social feeds, like Facebook, and beyond. HTC has partnered with more than 1,400 content providers, including ESPN Reuters and MTV, that will push content to the phone—more than 10,000 articles per day.

HTC Lead Designer Jonah Becker said that with other phones it’s no fun to share a video or game with friends because the sound experience is “pretty terrible.” However, the One features a dedicated amplifier and two front-facing speakers. Sound is “way better when it hits you from the front,” said Becker. When listening to music, users can take advantage of the cloud and launch a Visualizer to see song lyrics displayed in real time.

Becker also explained that while phones have always had to have non-metallic areas so that the antennas can work, the One features a new type of antenna technology that enabled HTC to go with a zero-gap aluminum unibody construction—a “revolutionary breakthrough in quality and finish.” The One will come in silver or black finishes.

It’s not megapixel count that matters, but size, says HTC (and others). The One’s UltraPixel camera includes an f/2.0 aperture lens and a sensor that gathers 300 percent more light than traditional smartphone sensors. The front camera also supports 1080p video, and the rear camera includes multi-axis optical image stabilization, for smoother video footage.

Here’s a closer look at the One, which tapers to 4mm thick at its thinnest point and features Gorilla Glass that spills over the sides of its display.

A shot of the One in profile. When held more typically in the palm of the hand, one HTC executive said it “feels like nothing else.”

The One’s UltraPixel camera also takes what HTC calls Zoes—three-second snippets that it says are more interesting than still images, and can be included into automatically created videos set to music with “professionally designed cuts, transitions and effects.” If a user doesn’t like the arrangement, the video can be instantly re-cut.

HTC invited event attendees into slightly quieter listening rooms to experience the One’s speaker quality, which is indeed loud but still crisp. The phone also features dual microphones, which helps it capture richer sound to accompany high-definition video footage. Poor sound quality generally makes concert footage unwatchable, but the One changes that, said HTC executives.

“You can control your living room all through the one piece of equipment you always have with you,” said Becker. The One features infrared technology, so it can be used as a remote control. HTC’s Sense TV additionally taps “the power of the cloud,” offering users programming information and the ability to use the phone as a DVR. (But if you Feed journalists chicken and waffles, you wind up with greasy display phones.)