Real world reviews & comments from actual users

I just picked up my ONE and thought I would pass along some information that might help others and may help those trying to make the decision.

Quality/Feel
I was not sure what to expect when I took it out of the box (did this at the Sprint store). First thing I noticed when I picked it up was the weight. Compared to the OG Evo, this thing is downright light! I is so light I have a hard time thinking that anyone would want one lighter (SG4 for example). Despite what others have posted, I did not find the phone too slippery. That may have been due to my sweaty palms because I was so nervous - like holding a newborn baby. The build quality is what others have posted. Nothing short of - WOW. I can confirm the gap issue that others have reported. I did not like the gap size on the first one they opened, so they were willing to open their only other model (it was spoken for already, but they opened it for me). This second one looked much better with a very very slight gap on top. Nothing like some of the pics being posted. No rough machining noted at all. I told them I would buy if they would give me this one and they did.

Sound
I wanted to comment on this one in particular. Despite what others have posted, I did not find that the notifications and ringing were too loud on the lowest setting. Now here is the kicker. When I got home, I thought it only appropriate that I initiate the ONE by playing the Tolkien trilogy soundtrack and the trailer from The Hobbit. Yes, it does sound good, but I had to turn the volume up to max to really hear it well. I am wondering if this phone has an update that brought the volume capabilty and levels down. I find myself wishing that it would go louder.

I have only made one call. The quality was so so. Since the person on the other end has an Uma landline, that may have been the issue. Not sure, yet.

GPS
I haven't enabled GPS yet, but the phone still did a good job of finding me in my house. It was only off by a hundred feet or so. Not bad.

Screen
The Hobbit trailer looked fantastic. The comments that have been posted by others are spot on. I don't have much to compare this to, but my personal opinion is that this is amazing.

The only negative so far
There was one thing I was not happy with at all. Maybe it is a setting, but I seem to remember something like this back on the OG Evo. When you go into the call screen, below the word Phonebook, There is the word HISTORY on the left and FAVORITES on the right of the screen. However the first three letters of the word HISTORY are faded in color - almost black and you can barely read them. The last two letters of the word FAVORITES are completely off the right side of the screen and the remaining letters RIT are faded just like the other side and barely readable. I am not sure what is up with that or if it is normal. I will let the others chime in and advise if their phones do this. That's it. That is my only negative so far.

There is much more to play with and get set up, so I will post more when I have it. If I were to advise anyone on the fence at this point, I would say that it is worth pulling the trigger. Go for it.

toolwarrior said:

The only negative so far
There was one thing I was not happy with at all. Maybe it is a setting, but I seem to remember something like this back on the OG Evo. When you go into the call screen, below the word Phonebook, There is the word HISTORY on the left and FAVORITES on the right of the screen. However the first three letters of the word HISTORY are faded in color - almost black and you can barely read them. The last two letters of the word FAVORITES are completely off the right side of the screen and the remaining letters RIT are faded just like the other side and barely readable. I am not sure what is up with that or if it is normal. I will let the others chime in and advise if their phones do this. That's it. That is my only negative so far.

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I don't think it's fades its more like a shadow effect it does say call history when you swipe right and or left for the favorites you can rearrange that as well but unfortunately it will always have that fade/shadow effect to it for now

Abird! said:

I don't think it's fades its more like a shadow effect it does say call history when you swipe right and or left for the favorites you can rearrange that as well but unfortunately it will always have that fade/shadow effect to it for now

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Thanks Abird. It just looks odd to me, like it is an error. Good to know that yours does this too.

I have now come up with two additionall negatives and my battery is not doing too well at this point. Looks like I am headed for a bit less that the average I have been seeing from our USA brothers. I know this takes a few charges, so I will keep an eye on it.

Now, back to the two issues. First is one in which I would like to know if others have this. If yes, then I may be ok with it. However, coming from the Extreme HDTV world, I am sensative to LCD issues. I seem to see what looks like a flashlight affect at the top of the phone right in the middle. It is visiable when there are black screens, like my stock homescreen or the dialer. The flashlight affect is a half circle about an inch and a half in diameter - again, right at the top. Is this a feature to highlight the upper area when in black screen?

The second and more of a real concern is the call quality. Frankly, it is not that good. People on the other end say I sound ok, but a bit muffled (I guess because I have it on speaker phone). The speaker phone is one of the most important needs I have, because of work. However, on my end, the person talking sounds like in the old days when we were kids and had walkie-talkies. The phone is quiet, until the person starts talking. Then you hear a low level staticy white noise kind of sound. Then when they stop talking the background staticy sound stops, but with one extra little click... like the old walkie talkies used to do when you let up on the talk button. Surely this can not be by design. This has me concerned because I have not heard of any other posters reporting call quality issues. (I have Sprint and I have tried calls on both WiFi and regular radio). Unfortunately, I don't get 4G LTE. I need others to weigh in on this issue. This could be a reason to return, but I need more test time and information from other users.

toolwarrior said:

Thanks Abird. It just looks odd to me, like it is an error. Good to know that yours does this too.

I have now come up with two additionall negatives and my battery is not doing too well at this point. Looks like I am headed for a bit less that the average I have been seeing from our USA brothers. I know this takes a few charges, so I will keep an eye on it.

Now, back to the two issues. First is one in which I would like to know if others have this. If yes, then I may be ok with it. However, coming from the Extreme HDTV world, I am sensative to LCD issues. I seem to see what looks like a flashlight affect at the top of the phone right in the middle. It is visiable when there are black screens, like my stock homescreen or the dialer. The flashlight affect is a half circle about an inch and a half in diameter - again, right at the top. Is this a feature to highlight the upper area when in black screen?

The second and more of a real concern is the call quality. Frankly, it is not that good. People on the other end say I sound ok, but a bit muffled (I guess because I have it on speaker phone). The speaker phone is one of the most important needs I have, because of work. However, on my end, the person talking sounds like in the old days when we were kids and had walkie-talkies. The phone is quiet, until the person starts talking. Then you hear a low level staticy white noise kind of sound. Then when they stop talking the background staticy sound stops, but with one extra little click... like the old walkie talkies used to do when you let up on the talk button. Surely this can not be by design. This has me concerned because I have not heard of any other posters reporting call quality issues. (I have Sprint and I have tried calls on both WiFi and regular radio). Unfortunately, I don't get 4G LTE. I need others to weigh in on this issue. This could be a reason to return, but I need more test time and information from other users.

Click to expand...

For the battery life,lots of possibilities there,however,I'd start by disabling any pre-loaded apps that you will never use. I've disabled about a dozen & after locating a "Safe to Delete/Disable List",I'll probably be adding to it.

As for call quality,I've noticed that one individual that I talk to I have issues with,everyone else is OK.(I suspect a B/T mic issue on the other end)

As per your initial review,I too am pleased w/the audio quality but it definitely could be louder.From some "professional reviews",one would think the volume on the speakers was approaching ear-bleeding/earthquake producing levels.

Ringtones & notifications are plenty loud,but,media audio could be a bit louder. I've installed an aftermarket booster (SPEAKER BOOST) & equalizer that seems to have added a bit more loudness/bass to the volume.

KOLIO said:

For the battery life,lots of possibilities there,however,I'd start by disabling any pre-loaded apps that you will never use. I've disabled about a dozen & after locating a "Safe to Delete/Disable List",I'll probably be adding to it.

As for call quality,I've noticed that one individual that I talk to I have issues with,everyone else is OK.(I suspect a B/T mic issue on the other end)

As per your initial review,I too am pleased w/the audio quality but it definitely could be louder.From some "professional reviews",one would think the volume on the speakers was approaching ear-bleeding/earthquake producing levels.

Ringtones & notifications are plenty loud,but,media audio could be a bit louder. I've installed an aftermarket booster (SPEAKER BOOST) & equalizer that seems to have added a bit more loudness/bass to the volume.

Click to expand...

Thanks Kolio. I appreciate the response. You did not mention if you have any flashlight affect at the top of your phone. I am curious if others have this.

I think I will be able to get the battery in line with my needs. I have already stopped some of the syncing. I will look further into what you mentioned.

I have additional detail and updates on the call quality. This issue seems to be exclusive to the speakerphone. When I make the same calls and put the phone to my ear, the quality is fine. It is related to the speakerphone. I have made calls to multiple people and the issue is the same. This is bad news for me. I need a top notch speakerphone. But something seems odd here. I can go to youtube and play some vids of my favorite artitists and the sound is flat out awesome. So why would the sound from a speakerphone call be so bad? I am at a loss here. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Edit:
I just spent nearly two hours on the phone with my brother and I was flipping back and forth between speaker phone and phone-to-the-ear. I retract my previous statement that this is just the speaker phone. I also detected this white noise (staticy) affect when the phone was to my ear. It is more subtle, but it is definately there. Additional detail on the noise itself. It only comes on when sound is coming through the phone. If the person is silent, so is the speaker. But the moment there is a noise or the person begins to speak, the white noise staticy sound appears and follows the persons voice. They stop talking, the sound disappears. This is very strange. Does anyone know what is going on?

toolwarrior said:

Thanks Kolio. I appreciate the response. You did not mention if you have any flashlight affect at the top of your phone. I am curious if others have this.

Click to expand...

I downloaded a black wallpaper to see if this "flashlight" effect was just a shading effect on the notification bar & dock or, something else.
On my phone, it appears to be the former, but, it is present in the app drawer.

Download "No Wallpaper" from the GOOGLE PLAY STORE & it'll be in w/the live wallpaper section on your phone.
Please keep us posted.

As for the call issues, I suspect a fix will be in an update. If it were a hardware issue, your music/media would have similar issues. Of course not everyone here will/may be affected & totally pleased w/their call quality.

Thanks Kolio.
I guess I can live with it if I know it is intentional higlighting of that upper area. Not sure why they would view this as good when most people like their blacks... well, black.

One thought - are you using a case? If so, is the noise cancelling mic obstructed?

I remember one person having call quality issues for this reason, and it's something that would only affect calls. But I'd not expect it to only affect speakerphone, so may not be that.

Hadron said:

One thought - are you using a case? If so, is the noise cancelling mic obstructed?

I remember one person having call quality issues for this reason, and it's something that would only affect calls. But I'd not expect it to only affect speakerphone, so may not be that.

Click to expand...

Thanks Hadron. It is a good thought, but no case as of yet. I also played around with covering up the mics with my fingers. Interestingly, they still work pretty well. But that did not solve this odd white noise/static that is present while the person on the other end is speaking.

The mics may not come into play here because this noise occurrs when the other person is talking, not me.

Mods, if this topic is running on too long for this thread, please feel free to move it to its own thread. Thanks.

Hi guys,

Still loving my HTC One

Found this app suggested on a forum somewhere and gave it a whirl to see if I could get the speakers down quiet for night-time listening - works really well but you sometimes need to flick the ON/OFF buttons in the app a couple of times:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...esult#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImhyLnBvZGxhbmljYSJd

In other news - had a play with the action sequence/Events feature of the camera... WOW! Basically, go to GALLERY>MY PHOTOS then click the "Albums" dropdown top left and change to EVENTS. If you pick an EVENT photoset the first pic will be a mini-movie with sound etc - it's great and can be shared too!

I was excited to finally be able to order the HTC One when it was announced but that was a challenge in itself but after 5 days of website problems and the signature part of the purchase finally loading It was ordered. I even tried calling customer care and could not order it that way. They said

Sorry I do not see any button lights at all. The only light is from led notification at top in speaker. One is green, one red.

Today, my HTC One won't connect to wifi for nothing. It was fine earlier today and yesterday. All other devices in my house are connected just fine. Anyone else experiencing this?

AndroidifyMe said:

Today, my HTC One won't connect to wifi for nothing. It was fine earlier today and yesterday. All other devices in my house are connected just fine. Anyone else experiencing this?

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That has happened to me once or twice with the One and quite a few times with my EVO 4G LTE. I think it is a bug but usually to fix it, turning WiFi off then back on on the One will force it. I usually just click my Airplane mode toggle. In one circumstance with the LTEvo I had to restart the phone and in another I had to reboot my router.

Router tables issue.

sikclown said:

That has happened to me once or twice with the One and quite a few times with my EVO 4G LTE. I think it is a bug but usually to fix it, turning WiFi off then back on on the One will force it. I usually just click my Airplane mode toggle. In one circumstance with the LTEvo I had to restart the phone and in another I had to reboot my router.

Click to expand...

AndroidifyMe said:

Today, my HTC One won't connect to wifi for nothing. It was fine earlier today and yesterday. All other devices in my house are connected just fine. Anyone else experiencing this?

Click to expand...

That happened to me once I just rebooted my phone and all was well again

Abird! said:

That happened to me once I just rebooted my phone and all was well again

Click to expand...

The reboot didn't help. I just unplugged my router then plugged it back in which fixed it. But what bothered me was all my other devices were working just fine. I've seen other stories on it for the HTC One (and previous HTC devices). If it does it again with my 14 day period I might have to swap for S4. I wanted the premium build, but I don't mind what Sammy has to offer either. All is good as of right now.

AndroidifyMe said:

The reboot didn't help. I just unplugged my router then plugged it back in which fixed it. But what bothered me was all my other devices were working just fine. I've seen other stories on it for the HTC One (and previous HTC devices). If it does it again with my 14 day period I might have to swap for S4. I wanted the premium build, but I don't mind what Sammy has to offer either. All is good as of right now.

Click to expand...

The issue you're describing - everything works on my network except my Android - has been reported for every Android, iPhone and iPad.

It's a common issue where the addressing tables in your router get screwed up.

Rebooting the phone or going in/out of airplane mode only causes the router to re-attempt. Sometimes it works, but it's not the mobile device at fault - it's the router.

Every. Time.

I promise.

Also, check out "Wifi Analyzer"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

Make sure that you're not sharing a channel with other routers in your neighborhood, swipe screen left/right to see.

Never use the default network name on your router, you're bound to get a neighbor doing the same, sooner or later.

If your router has an actual reset button, use that, otherwise, yeah, go for at least a full minute without power.

Hope this helps!

AndroidifyMe said:

The reboot didn't help. I just unplugged my router then plugged it back in which fixed it. But what bothered me was all my other devices were working just fine. I've seen other stories on it for the HTC One (and previous HTC devices). If it does it again with my 14 day period I might have to swap for S4. I wanted the premium build, but I don't mind what Sammy has to offer either. All is good as of right now.

Click to expand...

Someone in the GS4 forum had exactly the same problem the other day, definitely a router problem.

I received my lovely (and exorbitantly expensive) HTC One today. It's a well made phone, attractive and solidly built. I was very pleased with it until I discovered it has no SD Card slot and, more importantly, no way to replace the battery!

Like most people, I assume, I am paying for this phone over the course of two years. As we all know, the Li-ion battery in a cell phone typically lasts a year or so. To put this into perspective, I have worn out and replaced three batteries in my previous phone before the phone itself died and needed replacing. (That's why I bought the HTC One.)

So now I have a phone that will literally not last as long as the payments on it. I would have returned it already if my previous phone hadn't died (meaning that I'll be without a phone for another week or more if I send this one back).

I can't express how disappointed I am. How on Earth could anyone think that making a disposable $580 phone was a good idea??

Don't let your battery run all of the way down, and you'll find the Li-Poly battery in this phone lasting well over two years and over three years with this battery tech is not unheard of at all.

Still, if this isn't the right phone for you, I hope you can swap it soon and get that sorted.

Sorry to be blunt but have you heard of a thing called Google? With the plethora of reviews out there there's really no excuse to not have researched this phone before purchase (let's face it, it's not cheap!) - in which case you would have discovered battery is fixed and there's no SD slot... How can you complain when ALL the info you require is out there and freely available?

bblackmoor said:

I received my lovely (and exorbitantly expensive) HTC One today. It's a well made phone, attractive and solidly built. I was very pleased with it until I discovered it has no SD Card slot and, more importantly, no way to replace the battery!

Like most people, I assume, I am paying for this phone over the course of two years. As we all know, the Li-ion battery in a cell phone typically lasts a year or so. To put this into perspective, I have worn out and replaced three batteries in my previous phone before the phone itself died and needed replacing. (That's why I bought the HTC One.)

So now I have a phone that will literally not last as long as the payments on it. I would have returned it already if my previous phone hadn't died (meaning that I'll be without a phone for another week or more if I send this one back).

I can't express how disappointed I am. How on Earth could anyone think that making a disposable $580 phone was a good idea??

Click to expand...

I have had smartphones for as long as the term smartphone has been around and have only had one Battery go bad on me. Three batteries on your previous phone? What phone was that? HTC did not hide the fact that it is an enclosed battery nor the fact that there is no SD card slot. Reading one review would have told you both.

bblackmoor said:

I received my lovely (and exorbitantly expensive) HTC One today. It's a well made phone, attractive and solidly built. I was very pleased with it until I discovered it has no SD Card slot and, more importantly, no way to replace the battery!

Like most people, I assume, I am paying for this phone over the course of two years. As we all know, the Li-ion battery in a cell phone typically lasts a year or so. To put this into perspective, I have worn out and replaced three batteries in my previous phone before the phone itself died and needed replacing. (That's why I bought the HTC One.)

So now I have a phone that will literally not last as long as the payments on it. I would have returned it already if my previous phone hadn't died (meaning that I'll be without a phone for another week or more if I send this one back).

I can't express how disappointed I am. How on Earth could anyone think that making a disposable $580 phone was a good idea??

Click to expand...

Firstly, like others have mentioned, doing 5 minutes of research will have told you this.

Secondly, the latest battery tech should last 2 years easy with almost no change in battery life. What the heck were you using before that went through 3 batteries? I can understand 1 going faulty but 3?

Thirdly, if something goes wrong with the battery within the life of your contract, call HTC and use that wonderful 2 year warranty they give with every phone to get it fixed.

Just to note that the 2 year warranty is an EU thing - I believe our American cousins get less.

But as everyone says, don't abuse the battery and it should last fine.