This morning, HTC introduced its latest flagship device, the New HTC One. This is not to be confused with the HTC One that was introduced at Mobile World Congress last year, as this is the New New HTC One. All kidding aside, the New HTC One looks to be an impressive bit of kit. It will have a 4.7” 1080p screen, a zero-gap aluminum unibody, and new HTC innovations including BlinkFeed, HTC Zoe and HTC BoomSound.
The New HTC One will have a 1.7GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600, quad-core processor, 2GB RAM and either 32GB or 64GB ROM; it will run Android Jelly Bean. The capper is that this phone has a 2300mAh battery, which is big enough that it might actually get you through the day. You can check out all of the specs by clicking here.
HTC BlinkFeed is responsible for the new Home Screen you see above; its goal is to transform the home screen into a “single live stream of personally relevant information” that is kept in one central location with no need to open multiple applications or leave the screen. More than 1400 global media sources will be providing content for this service, and you can read more about this feature on the HTC Blog. I think it looks pretty good … almost like Windows Live Tiles on steroids.
HTC Zoe reminds me of the Nokia Cinemagraph app, which allows you to take photos in 3 second snippets. This basically gives the snippets an animated appearance — similar to the photos in the Harry Potter movies or a well made .GIF, I suppose. HTC has made it easy to share these with your social networks, so now you can post pictures that move. That should be interesting.
HTC BoomSound appears to be a continuance of HTC’s desire to distinguish themselves as the brand music lovers will choose; the HTC One has dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers, BeatsAudio sound, an HDR microphone, and Sense Voice.
Available with either a black or white unibody, the New HTC One will be available globally; in the US it will be carried by AT&T, T-Mobile and by Sprint. Verizon users get no love, and that’s too bad as this looks like a great device.
I’d like to give it a try; what about you?
64GB at last! This sounds like it could be interesting.
“not to be confused with the HTC One that was introduced at Mobile World Congress last year, as this is the New New HTC One.”
THAT is exactly my problem with this … it is simplification to the point of confusion.
Similar to how we were told the iPhone 5 was the “New iPhone” and not the iPhone 5? And yet … it’s a freaking iPhone 5. 😉
Exactly! Sorta like the iPad 2/3/4 …
There is one difference – millions of people track the iPhone to a minute level and recognize this stuff. For HTC … they have been bleeding money, market share and mind share for a couple of years now – so very few people will get this whole thing.
Oh, I agree. It just seems a bit “me too” to me. But at the same time, this is a really nice looking smartphone, and I hope I can get my hands on one next week at MWC. =)
I have always loved the HTC phones – I had a Touch Pro 2, then WinPhone 7Pro, then a low-end Android one whose name I forget. All with excellent build quality and solid features. I am glad that they streamlined from the ’27 new SKUs per year’ to a single line … but to use the same basic name two years in a row seems odd. Regardless, I hope they see success … and I hope you get your hands on one at MWC!
I agree that the naming is confusing. The difference with the “new” iphone naming, however, is that the previous one was called “iphone 4” so the confusion wasn’t quite the same. This time HTC is using EXACTLY the same name – no modifiers, no differences. It’s going to be especially confusing for buyers since they will need to be cautious to make sure they get the “right” one and not the “old ” one, especially as retailers/carriers are trying to dump stock of the old device. No matter how good/bad the product is, I think the naming was a mistake.
Good point, Chris. 😉