Well it's been a few months now since I first set my sights on the HTC ONE and pretty much penciled it in as my next Android device. The only real negative that I was really worried about was the fact of me coming over from stock android the last 6 months or so with my nexus 4 and having to deal with sense. Other then that I really thought that the ONE was going to really impress me with it's looks as well as build quality.
Well I finally waltzed into at&t this morning ready to burn my upgrade and have me some fun this weekend getting to know my next daily driver. Only problem is that I wasn't impressed, and actually left the store pretty depressed...With no ONE in my hands by the way! Heres why???
Wow HTC, I really thought you hit the nail on the head with this phone, I couldn't believe how many reviewers were basically stamping this phone as the absolute best feeling phone to date as far as build quality goes...That was then, this is now. And after playing around with the demo, as well as using the Manager of the stores phone as well, I just couldn't believe this phone was getting stamped as such a superior built device?
Both the demo as well as the Mgr's phone had pretty bad gaps on the bottom part of the phone, pretty interesting that this should be present on a GAPLESS phone right? Well it was there and by no means a non issue, I could basically stick my nail in the demo. To add to that, the very top of the phone felt pretty jagged, and not flush at all. It looked like the plastic material just wasn't laser cut properly, both the top and side of the phone had this issue and it was present on both phones. Next up was the fact that the volume rocker on the Mgr's phone was just extremely off centered and hardly even registered when pushing up and down.
Listen some my write these issues off as non events and not care, I happen to care and take the build quality issue of a phone seriously. I like to keep my phones looking and feeling new, and when stuff like this is present out of the box it bothers me.
Anyway my cousin just got his a few days ago and when I asked him to take a look at the bottom of his phone he noticed the gap as well, and also said he was some jaggedness near the top of his phone as well. Either was I have to say I'm a little let down and will be taking a step back from joining in on the HTC ONE train for now. maybe if these issues get adressed with the next batch I'll reconsider.