Great post. In all honesty, I haven't made up my mind between this and the SGS4 yet but here's my thoughts on your list and i'll add anything else I can think of at the bottom. I've never used Sense before as I have never even played with an HTC much less owned one. I've always had iPhones, Samsung and Sony phones in the past.
I always case my phones, including my iPhone 5 and SGS2 but it would be great to have this thing without a case as it is so beautiful. Still, i'll probably go for a TPU case like you though.
My job means that I can be away from a power point for protracted periods of time, so I really hope the battery on this device is sublime. 18 hours on a single charge with low/moderate use would be ideal for me. I easily get that with my iPhone so I hope this isn't a pipe dream. So I guess my wish for this is also a battery with a long life. If I am up at 4am and not in bed again to midnight (which happens quite a lot), I would much prefer it if my phone wasn't dead on its feet before I am.
I'd rather have a camera on the phone that can take 8" x 10" crisp shots in good light for those occasions when I don't have my DSLR with me. I've been all over these camera quality/comparison threads recently to see what's what and i'll continue to do so. I think I may be out of luck on this but it isn't a deal breaker if I am though.
By all accounts from the videos i've seen, there doesn't appear to be any UI lag at all on the One. Interestingly, it would appear that someone else has spotted some lag in the S4 UI in a couple of videos but I can't remember if the thread was on here or Android Central.
I've never had a phone with bad call quality yet. I guess I have been lucky. Still, I wholeheartedly agree with you that this is a high priority.
And again, like call quality, this is a huge priority. What's the point in having the latest and greatest if the radio means you can't get a signal?
Now, I do like to root my phones and the recent controversy regarding certain apps being loaded into the preload partition rather than the data partition and those apps being permanently deleted upon rooting is a bit of a concern to me. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2191572 I hope this is something that HTC will look into and fix but somehow I very much doubt it as it appears that many manufacturers want to stop people from rooting their phones. I do think that one of the many extraordinarily clever devs will find a way round this issue at some point soon though as it also transpires that once rooted, the phone will no longer be able to accept any form of official OTA update.
Screen quality. I don't want to see any ghosting or tearing on screen at all. I will use the screen for playing film edits and rushes so I absolutely need the highest quality screen I can possibly get and I think the HTC fits that bill, with maybe the S4 running behind slightly (my opinion of course, I could be and very often am, wrong).
Stand up to use- Yes we have all heard about the fantastic build quality of the one and it's aluminum body. However I will leave my final verdict up to myself after some use. What I expect is the phone to just handle some minor wear and tear while being housed in a TPU case. My iphone 5 scratches if you breath on it wrong, and the chamfered edges scratch extremely easy, hopefully HTC's one will do better.
I always case my phones, including my iPhone 5 and SGS2 but it would be great to have this thing without a case as it is so beautiful. Still, i'll probably go for a TPU case like you though.
Battery use- I'm always near power wherever I am, but I must admit it's very annoying to hear that beeping sound that your phone is almost dead only 5 or so hours into a charge...Especially with light use, ugh drives me nuts. Hopefully HTC has worked some magic with the one and I can get 12-15hrs on a single charge.
My job means that I can be away from a power point for protracted periods of time, so I really hope the battery on this device is sublime. 18 hours on a single charge with low/moderate use would be ideal for me. I easily get that with my iPhone so I hope this isn't a pipe dream. So I guess my wish for this is also a battery with a long life. If I am up at 4am and not in bed again to midnight (which happens quite a lot), I would much prefer it if my phone wasn't dead on its feet before I am.
Useful camera- Yup I happen to actually use the camera on my phone, and I'm looking forward to actually taking some nice clear crisp shots with my one. I'm not looking to be able to to blow pics up to a poster size image and put them above my fireplace. But I would like to be able to take some nice shots without any camera UI lag and be able to view them on my phone and have them look clear and crisp.
I'd rather have a camera on the phone that can take 8" x 10" crisp shots in good light for those occasions when I don't have my DSLR with me. I've been all over these camera quality/comparison threads recently to see what's what and i'll continue to do so. I think I may be out of luck on this but it isn't a deal breaker if I am though.
UI lag be a thing of the past- I do not root my phones, or use launchers either, I'm a stock guy and like to pretty much use my phone how it comes out of the box. I must admit I was a little worried about using sense again. However after watching some reviews and seeing blink feed in action, I'm pretty excited and looking forward to using sense again and taking advantage of some of the neat tricks it brings to android. But one thing that does worry me is UI lag, and the fear of HTC's sense overlay slowing the phone down. Hopefully those 2GB of ram and the processor will work well and lag will not rear it's ugly face.
By all accounts from the videos i've seen, there doesn't appear to be any UI lag at all on the One. Interestingly, it would appear that someone else has spotted some lag in the S4 UI in a couple of videos but I can't remember if the thread was on here or Android Central.
Loud and clear call quality- Something that irritates me is when PHONE manufacturers forget that these devices are in fact PHONES and have to endure the task of making phone calls. It's extremely annoying to have an awesome looking device that has really low call volume, or is just cursed with not having good call quality. Hopefully this won't be an issue with the one.
I've never had a phone with bad call quality yet. I guess I have been lucky. Still, I wholeheartedly agree with you that this is a high priority.
And lastly, but certainly not least...A good radio inside this beauty! Dropping data and a call signal in areas that have a strong signal is something I will not tollerate. My Galaxy nexus was just terrible, and I would just cringe watching that signal bounce all over the place, up and down, up and down...All while someone with the same carrier but a different phone would have full bars of LTE...Hopefully there's strong radios inside the one and it hold's onto those at&t LTE signals.
And again, like call quality, this is a huge priority. What's the point in having the latest and greatest if the radio means you can't get a signal?
Now, I do like to root my phones and the recent controversy regarding certain apps being loaded into the preload partition rather than the data partition and those apps being permanently deleted upon rooting is a bit of a concern to me. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2191572 I hope this is something that HTC will look into and fix but somehow I very much doubt it as it appears that many manufacturers want to stop people from rooting their phones. I do think that one of the many extraordinarily clever devs will find a way round this issue at some point soon though as it also transpires that once rooted, the phone will no longer be able to accept any form of official OTA update.
Screen quality. I don't want to see any ghosting or tearing on screen at all. I will use the screen for playing film edits and rushes so I absolutely need the highest quality screen I can possibly get and I think the HTC fits that bill, with maybe the S4 running behind slightly (my opinion of course, I could be and very often am, wrong).
Upvote
0