• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Anyone else have second thoughts on getting a S4 now that HTC One is getting rave reviews?

Even if his picture is not fake, comparing just bars is not so useful. You need to test dbm, speedtest, browsing, etc.

Indeed.

I have reports from an HTC One user I follow in twitter who I trust and on the same networks and locations he is experiencing very poor network connectivity compared to his (several) other phones. Of course a data set of one, no matter how trustworthy, is too limited to draw any conclusions from, but it gives me some reservations about that side of things.

Be interesting to see more information come to light with wider release, and when I have my One to compare to my Padfone Infinity, HTC Butterfly, Xperia Z and 600/Octa S4s.
 
Upvote 0
Indeed.

I have reports from an HTC One user I follow in twitter who I trust and on the same networks and locations he is experiencing very poor network connectivity compared to his (several) other phones. Of course a data set of one, no matter how trustworthy, is too limited to draw any conclusions from, but it gives me some reservations about that side of things.

Be interesting to see more information come to light with wider release, and when I have my One to compare to my Padfone Infinity, HTC Butterfly, Xperia Z and 600/Octa S4s.

If correct, I wonder if the metal design is impeding reception? iPhone design provides a window for the radio signal. Surely HTC did not pull an ASUS and put the antennas behind metal. Not joking or being sarcastic- HTC is too savvy for a big miss like this. No sd slot is nuts, but they usually do a good job with overall design.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EarlyMon
Upvote 0
If correct, I wonder if the metal design is impeding reception? iPhone design provides a window for the radio signal. Surely HTC did not pull an ASUS and put the antennas behind metal. Not joking or being sarcastic- HTC is too savvy for a big miss like this. No sd slot is nuts, but they usually do a good job with overall design.

I hope metal case isn't impeding reception. There were already glaring examples with Apple and ASUS around metal cases impeding reception, so HTC should have been very aware of issues and possible solutions regarding signal reception and metal cases. Will be interesting to see more reviews and people's real world experience as more production model One's end up in people's hands in order to see if this is a consistent issue across the board on all production devices (which would hint at a design flaw).
 
  • Like
Reactions: EarlyMon
Upvote 0
But not because of an agenda-ladened faked photo, but rather just because. :)

Hi EarlyMon,

I'm not going to get into a slagging match with you because you clearly put a lot of work into this site and have a lot of talent. I don't know you and so it would be rude as well. I'm sure we'd have some great discussions if we ever met.

To answer your accusations, I have absolutely no agenda other than to wish to help someone out before they made a very significant purchase.

What you have done here is prove how conspiracy theorists get carried away and believe they have done some terrific research to disprove something. I absolutely know that the photo is 100% genuine because I took it. All the things you point out are just as is came out - a rather hurried photo taken under a plastic sheet to try and avoid the reflections from the lights above. It was resized in Paint Shop Pro 7 because it was massive and I guess that stripped the ExiF because it is a program written in 2000.

As for us only being in the 'marketing and customer support' fields, may I refer you to our section on Diagnostics?

If you like, you are more than welcome to come to my office and I will show you anything you want to see. I have nothing to hide.

But first of all I would like an apology for the public accusation of faking results when all I was trying to do was help one of your members.

In future, it may be wiser to get in touch first before posting items like this which, if I was such a person, could end up with a lawsuit. For the record, I'm not, and it won't because people like that are _jerks_, but I must admit that I was a little upset because I look fat in that video...).
 
  • Like
Reactions: EarlyMon
Upvote 0
There were already glaring examples with Apple and ASUS around metal cases impeding reception...

And just to add another faked photo to my arsenal, here is a side by side of an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4.

After Antennagate you'd have thought Apple would make the iPhone 5 better, but it is in fact worse.

Yes, the iPhone 5 is Jailbroken. No that doesn't make any difference. Yes, it was the latest OS with the 3G issue fixed.



Disclaimer: May I add that mine is the one on the left. I don't even know who those jolly cherubs are on the right (my daughter's 4S).
 
Upvote 0
Not exactly less than a millimeter difference, now is it?

I'm touched that you spent so much time on this.

Note that the picture is at a slight angle. You can see this by looking at the top edges - they are at an angle. I had my iPhone in one hand and an A1 piece of 5mm plastic sheet balanced on my back to shield me from the lights in the ceiling when I quickly took this photo to help one of your forum members.

So you would need to do it with a trapezoid, not a rectangle.
 
Upvote 0
I hope metal case isn't impeding reception. There were already glaring examples with Apple and ASUS around metal cases impeding reception, so HTC should have been very aware of issues and possible solutions regarding signal reception and metal cases. Will be interesting to see more reviews and people's real world experience as more production model One's end up in people's hands in order to see if this is a consistent issue across the board on all production devices (which would hint at a design flaw).


Both blogosphere reviews and user reviews here report no signal issues aside from what appears to the occasional lemon for our user group.

The antennas are active and rather than separated into dedicated cell antennas by band, the upper and lower antennas work dynamically in tandem.

The iPhone 5 was the first in the industry with an active antenna design and as I understand the One is the second (refer to AnandTech). I think that Apple used their own chipset for that and I think that I have identified the part that HTC is using.

In any case, our members who own both the iPhone 5 and the One report better reception and battery life on the One.

Visit the review threads or antenna thread in our One forum if curious.

http://androidforums.com/htc-one/

The One isn't perfect and we're seeing the typical (not excusable, but typical) list of glitch issues I've seen with every phone release.

Whatever faults the One has, cell reception isn't one of them by all accounts.

Still need to see how it does with CDMA and LTE, but according to FCC documents the One shows a 4 dB improvement over last year's models for that.

TL/DR - possible occasional lemons but no design flaw indicated.
 
Upvote 0
Both blogosphere reviews and user reviews here report no signal issues aside from what appears to the occasional lemon for our user group.

The antennas are active and rather than separated into dedicated cell antennas by band, the upper and lower antennas work dynamically in tandem.

The iPhone 5 was the first in the industry with an active antenna design and as I understand the One is the second (refer to AnandTech). I think that Apple used their own chipset for that and I think that I have identified the part that HTC is using.

In any case, our members who own both the iPhone 5 and the One report better reception and battery life on the One.

Visit the review threads or antenna thread in our One forum if curious.

HTC One - Android Forums

The One isn't perfect and we're seeing the typical (not excusable, but typical) list of glitch issues I've seen with every phone release.

Whatever faults the One has, cell reception isn't one of them by all accounts.

Still need to see how it does with CDMA and LTE, but according to FCC documents the One shows a 4 dB improvement over last year's models for that.

TL/DR - possible occasional lemons but no design flaw indicated.

That's what I would have expected: the occasional lemon, rather than an inherent design flaw. Especially with all the signal reception scandals the past few years, HTC would have to have been living in a cave to not be aware of potential issues. So I won't worry about it being an issue with the One unless there are suddenly widespread reports of very poor signal reception with production models, which if it were to happen would indicate something more than the occasional lemon.

But as of now there doesn't appear to be any conclusive evidence that there are any signal reception issues to be concerned about.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EarlyMon
Upvote 0
Hi EarlyMon,

I'm not going to get into a slagging match with you because you clearly put a lot of work into this site and have a lot of talent. I don't know you and so it would be rude as well. I'm sure we'd have some great discussions if we ever met.

To answer your accusations, I have absolutely no agenda other than to wish to help someone out before they made a very significant purchase.

What you have done here is prove how conspiracy theorists get carried away and believe they have done some terrific research to disprove something. I absolutely know that the photo is 100% genuine because I took it. All the things you point out are just as is came out - a rather hurried photo taken under a plastic sheet to try and avoid the reflections from the lights above. It was resized in Paint Shop Pro 7 because it was massive and I guess that stripped the ExiF because it is a program written in 2000.

As for us only being in the 'marketing and customer support' fields, may I refer you to our section on Diagnostics?

If you like, you are more than welcome to come to my office and I will show you anything you want to see. I have nothing to hide.

But first of all I would like an apology for the public accusation of faking results when all I was trying to do was help one of your members.

In future, it may be wiser to get in touch first before posting items like this which, if I was such a person, could end up with a lawsuit. For the record, I'm not, and it won't because people like that are _jerks_, but I must admit that I was a little upset because I look fat in that video...).

Show us pictures, even better a video, of both phones, side by side with pictures of software version screens and actual signal levels and my apologies will be both profuse and sincere.

Our members are also complaining that your post and matching picture claim a final version for the One software but your app drawer icon doesn’t match what's being shipped and used with the stock One.

One of our members wanted to know why it appeared that the One was running the Android Task Killer, I opined that maybe your group believes in that.

Not a few people didn't believe your post, I have been the voice and one of them.

Please substantiate your claim as requested and as I said, your apology will be forthcoming.

As for being flattered that I spent so much time on your post, you're entirely welcome. I'd have probably not had it not been for the complaints and an hour or two between answering those and looking over your stuff was no big deal, but rather my pleasure to help.

As for not contacting you first, I have good reasons for that. I have spoken highly of LucidCX in my post and not knowing if you really were who you indirectly claimed to be, I simply answered your public charge in kind.

As for trapezoids, no thanks. I asked one of my friends, a digital forensics expert to take your side and prove me wrong last night. I especially asked him to take into account that a small wide-angle lens common to a cell phone may have been used. He declined to continue after verifying my initial results due to the fact that there were too many unknowns in your setup.

As for jailbreaking, we don't care and I don't blame you.

You've made the claim that the One has reception issues.

Professional reviewers and our members claim otherwise.

The burden of proof is yours and if I'm wrong about the issue, humble crow pie is a taste that I know and have become accustomed to. :)

PS - would love to meet up but I have no immediate plans to visit the UK. If that changes, I'll gladly visit your office.
 
Upvote 0
I would be all over the HTC-One in a heart beat, but, since it's not coming to Verizon any time soon, Verizon is forcing me to the S4, I know, not a bad way to go either, the S4 would be my 2nd pick anyways. But, a little annoyed, that the HTC-One isn't an option on Verizon, friggin big red!!!!

Its coming. Give it a few months. Big red wants to sell its stock of DNAs.

Nobody is gonna buy them if they know the one is on the horizon
 
Upvote 0
If the aluminum is impeding reception, you will not notice unless in threshold areas where signal goes from good to something less. A big misnomer is the way some review signal in mainly good dBm level areas. Especially for "4G", the signal performs great with medium to high signal dBm, so no harm no foul.

Reception issues show up in non-good signal areas.
 
Upvote 0
If the aluminum is impeding reception, you will not notice unless in threshold areas where signal goes from good to something less. A big misnomer is the way some review signal in mainly good dBm level areas. Especially for "4G", the signal performs great with medium to high signal dBm, so no harm no foul.

Reception issues show up in non-good signal areas.

I agree, that's all common sense in the RF world.
 
Upvote 0
Not at all, pre ordered my GS4 yesterday. Reason why didn't go with the Htc One is due to it having an even smaller display than my GS3, No memory card slot (Ive got a 32GB MicroSDHC and a 16GB which I swap between), lack of Multiview multitasking (Ive been spoilt by this in my GS3 :D), lack of Super AMOLED (love the eye popping colours of these displays since my Nokia N8 and GS2), battery life not as great as S4 going by some reviews and also the fact that its CPU/GPU is less powerful than the Exynos 5 Octa variant im getting. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: EarlyMon
Upvote 0
Still sticking with the s4 once I get enlisted into the Mlitary. I've had the HTC thunderbolt for 2.5 years and hate it do death. I do not care for the HTC sense and everything around it. Plus its very slow phone IMO. After the s3 great release i was stoked for the s4 this year since my contract has finally gone month to month with VZW I can switch out whenever I can. I need unlimited data and Sprint offers that!
 
Upvote 0
Make sure your area has 4gLTE in your area first.

I made a mistake switching from alltel to get dial up data speeds, sometimes worse.

Not trying to dissuade you, just to know what to expect :)

As a Verizon DNA user i keep hearing HTC phones are laggy, sense is bloated and HTC never updates their phones,but i have yet to see any of these claims.not saying HTC is better then any other, it more then fits my needs,where i am not a fan of the way the screen looks on Samsunng phones,i sure hope with the S4 they fixed that Dim issue.
 
Upvote 0
As a Verizon DNA user i keep hearing HTC phones are laggy, sense is bloated and HTC never updates their phones,but i have yet to see any of these claims.not saying HTC is better then any other, it more then fits my needs,where i am not a fan of the way the screen looks on Samsunng phones,i sure hope with the S4 they fixed that Dim issue.

As a former htc user myself, I don't see the claims being true unless it's on some older htc devices which tend to be true.

Only thing I wished samsung has that htc does is build quality, build quality of samsung devices just feel so flimsy and toy-ish if you will.
 
Upvote 0
As a former htc user myself, I don't see the claims being true unless it's on some older htc devices which tend to be true.

Only thing I wished samsung has that htc does is build quality, build quality of samsung devices just feel so flimsy and toy-ish if you will.
I'll place a bet that the next Galaxy Note & S will have a metal design.

If there's one thing you can rely on Samsung is they listen and act very quickly to sort out any negativity issues....
Although previous HTC phones have been metal the HTC One has caused quite a stir and Samsung have realised there is a lot of negativity to their plastic devices. This ultimately hurts Samsung sales.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones