The reviews are universally positive, and virtually everyone seems to agree: the HTC One is one heck of an Android device, and quite possibly the best phone currently on the market. Outstanding build quality, great design, fast – and just like the One X before it, it looks like to me it’s a far better phone than its Galaxy counterparts. Why, then, is no one buying HTC phones?
I honestly do not understand it. Back when I bought my Android phone – Galaxy SII – I genuinely thought it was a better phone than the HTC competition, and to this day, I think the SII is the best phone in the Galaxy lineup. I strongly dislike the SIII – shapeless plastic blob with no identity – and the S4 doesn’t seem to be changing up the formula. It’s more, but the same.
After Samsung’s success with the SII, HTC started to get it’s act together. The One X was met with raving reviews (aside from its version of Sense), and if you held the SIII and One X in both hands it was clear right away which of the two was the better phone. Sadly, the world didn’t seem to agree; the SIII became yet another smashing success, and nobody bought the One X.
This year, I think the gap has widened even more. I have to do without first-hand experience for now, but judging by the reviews, videos, and photos, it certainly does look like the HTC One takes a huge leap forward in build quality and material choices, and even Sense has been changed considerably and looks far less outdated and ridiculous than it did before.
The S4, on the other hand, is more of the same; same plasticky phone with loads of ‘features’ that most likely won’t work properly, that nobody is going to use beyond the novelty factor, marred by the horrendous abomination that is TouchWiz. In fact, with every new Galaxy S flagship, Samsung seems to be moving more and more to the phone equivalent of The Homer.
Of course, neither the HTC One nor the Galaxy S4 have been widely available long enough, so this year, everything might be different. This year, the tables might turn, and people might start buying HTC’s flagship instead of Samsung’s. I hope they do, since Samsung is becoming far too dominant for my taste, and with Nokia failing to make any inroads into the market and LG and Sony scribbling in the margins, HTC is my only remaining hope.
So, to all of you who opted for the Galaxy SIII last year, or those of you considering the S4 right now – why? Why did you or are you planning on going with Samsung over HTC? What are your reasons? Does Samsung have something HTC does not? If you live in a country with carrier lock-in (like the US), is HTC too expensive on your carrier? In countries without carrier lock-in, where you get to pick whatever phone you want regardless of carrier, is Samsung cheaper?
What is it?
While I prefer Windows Phone1, I still rock my SII, and still think it’s a fantastic phone. I do plan on replacing it at some point, though, and I really see very little reason to pick anything other than the HTC One (The Netherlands is not important enough for Google, so the Nexus 4 has never been available here). When I talk to friends with some modicum of what’s going on in the industry, they tend to prefer HTC as well.
It baffles me why no one else seems to.
1 My daily driver is an HTC 8X, which I easily chose over Nokia’s 920 – which I found too large and slippery to hold, but that’s a very personal thing. I don’t think either the 8X or the 920 is significantly better or worse than the other.
I Q2 2012, HTC, having run into financial trouble made it first savings cut in a critical place – advertising.
It did the last thing it should have done, especially as that was also when Samsung decided to massively increase its advertising.
The end result was that even though HTC had a top notch phone, its marketshare plunged from its previous share when it had not as spectacular phones. Samsung increased its advertising and took over the Android world.
The more people know about a product, the more they will consider it so HTC really need to ramp up spending on advertising, but it will take time to get past their mistakes last year when they lost mindshare and marketshare.
What he said.
Samsung’s bludgeoning HTC (and almost every other Android maker) in the advertising space. Yes, Samsung ads are mostly corny, but they still generate massive exposure for them.
Add to that the fact that Samsung usually uses it’s financial muscle to build bigger booths (and pay floor management for central positions for those booths) at most of the tech hyper-stores.
I’d wager Samsung also have the most ads floating online, whether they be via sponsorship (like the Verge had in the past) or ad-sense banners.
Shame, really. I think HTC make more attractive devices than Samsung. If I were in the market for a non-Nexus Android superphone (which I’m not, thankfully) the HTC one would be my first choice.
Over at the excellent Asymco site there is a interview with Rafael Barbosa Barifouse of Redacao Epoca about Samsung. In the interview he puts forward three reasons for Samsung’s success compared to companies like HTC.
http://www.asymco.com/2013/04/07/samsung-vs-google-an-interview-wit…
Here is the relevant excerpt from that interview:
I’ll raise you one on the “supply chain” argument. Not only can they do what that excerpt says, they can also constrain the market for competitors as and when they see fit, be it to dictate pricing or simply stifle competitors. I’m sure they already do it. Any megacorp in their position has certainly done it in the past. Only difference is that Samsung practically runs the government in their home nation, so it’s much harder to keep their behavior in check.
You are forgetting one other thing – Samsung has an established brand. For years people did not know that they were buying HTC devices and HTC didn’t care(I blame Chinese humility). But Samsung was on your washing machine, dishwasher, dryer, vacuum cleaner and TV.
You know Samsung. You didn’t know HTC.
Edited 2013-04-09 12:45 UTC
The lack of timely updates and upgrades doesn’t help the situation either – it isn’t just about ‘new features’ it is also providing prompt updates to address security holes or known bugs that make the experience with their phones less than pleasant. You’ll never complete against Samsung in terms of marketing muscle but what you can do is put on a damn solid product and really work with carriers when it comes to training staff and the benefit of the carrier not having to deal with customers unhappy about their smart phone experience because the handset vendor fails to get their act together and provide fixes and updates in a timely manner. Here we are in 2013 and their HTC One X still hasn’t received the 4.2 update let alone 4.1 with the excuses still being created – doesn’t speak to highly of those customers who spent $799 for a phone that HTC can’t be bothered supporting.
Regarding the reason I haven’t gone for Android let alone HTC – HTC has refused to provide a synchronisation tool – so either I have a choice of a Samsung which refuses to provide a version compatible with Mac OS X 10.8 or HTC which provides no software for Mac users hence my only choice in terms of smart phones is the iPhone 5. I want choice but goddamit is it too much to ask to create a basic synchronisation tool like Microsoft has done with its Windows Phone 8 (btw, I have swore off Windows Phone 8 after a negative experience with the Nokia Lumia 920 I had).
Well… When I brought my Galaxy S3 it was superior in all specs. And I’m a spec fanatic. Actually when I look the HTC ONE DDR2 vs Galaxy S4 DDR3 RAM makes me want S4 more than the HTC.
Plus, a year ago the promise of full cyanogenmod support for galaxy devices made me want Samsung more than anything else..
The HTC One at least on my carrier, AT&T in the USA, did not have any options above 16GB of storage. My music collection on my SD Card alone is 20GB. My work used to take me to very rural areas sometimes and I need a minimum of 32GB for all my files on the go. I purchased the SIII over the HTC One primarily because of its ability to use SD Cards.
I also got a good deal for the SIII price wise, so that didn’t hurt any.
My next phone will probably be one of the Ubuntu phones that can double as a desktop when plugged in. Assuming that Ubuntu actual pulls it off and Android or Windows phones haven’t gained the same functionality.
“HTC One” covers a whole range of models – which one are you talking about? I have the One V, and that certainly has an SD slot – would be useless without it, since it has very little onboard storage.
There is one model which is called precisely “HTC One”. This is probably what the previous poster was talking about.
The “HTC One” isn’t available yet. It’s been showcased and reviewed, and “coming soon” to carriers in North America. But it’s not in any customers’ hands yet. I also believe it comes in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB variations.
The “HTC One X/+”, “HTC One S”, “HTC One V/x” are out, and have smaller onboard storage sizes. Most likely, the OP is talking about one of these.
Gotta love HTC “branding”.
…but the first smartphone I had that ran Android was the Droid Incredible. Just like all of the other manufacturers, the updates were very slow in coming to my phone as an official release. Once I learned of custom ROMs, I made the decision to only buy Nexus phones as they are typically one of the earliest “brand” of phone targeted. I am now very happy with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
That makes two of us, I won’t buy anything that’s not a nexus device at this point due to update policies and not liking any of the third party manufacturers crappy skins on top of Android anyhow.
Reviews? Specs? Are they really different or at the margins?
I am looking – one of the Moto Droids has a QWERTY slide-out, and the Samsung has the stylus enabled Note2. Can I put a (FAT32) 64Gb uSD in?
I’m also more interested in the Blackberries – apparently the Android ports work well, and it has much better battery life and security.
No one as mentioned LG, but they are there too.
I’m also not sure about accessories, but more kinds tend to be more available for more popular phones.
If the Nokia N950 (Meego w/ QWERTY) were available I would probably have one.
I have a Galaxy Note 2 with 64GB MicroSD card in it on FAT32, loads of videos and pictures on it and it works luke a charm.
Battery is incredibly good on the Note, can easily get a day and a half with pretty heavy usage.
So the HTC one has nice specifications. But when you look at the value it’s pretty low:
* Low marketshare means less support by community distributions
* No guarantee of timely android updates.
* Can’t replace the battery, battery life within 2 years is likely to be much less than day 1. Also if you ever plan on heavy use it’s a real disadvantage to not be able to grab a second battery.
* locked bootloader… might be hacked… but not as likely as more popular phones.
So you end up with a phone that’s likely to get Android 5.0 late or never. You can’t replace the battery, you’ll likely be looking for a replacement sooner rather than later.
Not a particularly compelling argument against the Galaxy S4 which is very likely to be sell well (as the S3 has) and has a replaceable battery. I’m all for a metal body, but not at the cost of a device dying when the battery dies.
BTW, I’m far from a HTC hater. I bought a pair of HTC G1s on the first day of availability. I later upgraded to an HTC G2, and a HTC Nexus 1. All G1 and nexus 1 had generous/timely updates, great community support, and replaceable batteries. The HTC G2 less so, locked bootloader, and special write protected flash. At the time I believe the G2 was one of the least community friendly phones you could buy.
I tend to keep phones for awhile, and move them to secondary uses after I buy something. In all 3 cases I ended up buying a new battery after the first had noticeably degraded.
Currently I have a samsung galaxy nexus that has a replaceable battery, is running android android 4.2.2. The HTC one is currently running 4.1.2 and will likely get whatever android’s next release is well after my current phone.
The bootloader alone is a deal breaker for me. I can update my tablet by putting update.zip on the SD card and rebooting, why should I be stuck with OEM garbage on my phone?
When the choice was galaxy s2 or HTC sensation, the clear winner was samsung as HTC was by far more restrictive towards their users.
HTC has started to open themselves up a lot more but this was well after everyone dropped their phones for Samsung.
The HTC hero is my favourite android phone of all time but I’ll probably never buy HTC again.
I love the Hero too, and I went to that from a succession of HTC Windows mobile phones (the Touch Diamond was the last of these). But like you, I had the choice of the Sensation or the S2 and I went with the S2.
I haven’t regretted it for a moment – it’s fantastic and still among the very best phones you can buy, in my opinion.
Having said that, I’ll possibly upgrade at some point later this year. I’ll consider both the S4 and the HTC One, but I’ll also shop around and see what other manufacturers have to offer.
One more thing – lightweight, durable plastic is way better than metal for a phone body.
Plastic also doesn’t feel cold to the touch, like metal tends to do …it’s strange how so many people seem to prefer cold metal for a body of something so often held in hands.
I’ve never liked Samsung phones. Not now, not pre-Android, not ever.
For me, it was all about Sony Erricson until Android came along, then HTC. And I’ve owned a few HTC’s (G1 / Dream, Desire HD, Desire S, One X) and each and every time I’ve loved the phone. My wife and most of my friends all own something from the Samsung Galaxy series and I just hate them.
I hate the fugly colours in Touchwiz. I hate Samsung’s choice of buttons on the bottom of the screen (I hate how there’s no real back button on the SIII). I hate how light the phone is (I don’t want heavy phones either, but I like to feel like I have something substantial for my money instead of a plastic kids toy). I hate the stupid curves of the exterior. I hate every single thing about it. And not even the fact that it’s running Android redeems it.
In every single measurement HTC phones runs circles around Samsung. Yet people seem to love those things. So I’ve often wondered what the draw is as well.
I spent a lot of money on an HTC Evo 3d only to have most of the touch screen crap out and become unresponsive after 3 months. I was told it was my fault and they wouldn’t repair it. I searched Google and found it was a common problem with this device. I decided I can’t afford a new HTC phone every 3 months and opted for Motorola for my future needs.
Touchscreen crapped out on me too. In fact, I’m on my 3rd EVO 3D (thank goodness for insurance). The phones were all kept in an otterbox case and look like new, but the issues abound.
Random lagginess, dropping calls when I pick up the phone…
I’ve bought 3 GSIII phones in the past 3 months for my wife and two employees. They have none of the issues that I deal with.
I’m due for an upgrade next month and it will be a Samsung.
With Samsung it seems they do everything… plus all that Samsung does is at least decent, and often good.
Edited 2013-04-11 17:53 UTC
Well, first of all, let me say that I have a Nexus 4, and so am not in the market for a new phone, especially not a fake Android phone like the S4 or HTC One. But if i were in the market for a fake Android phone, I’d at least want one with an SD card slot (since data doesn’t grow on trees when you’re streaming from the cloud) and a removable battery. These are two things I guess we’ll never have again on a genuine Google phone.
In regard to the HTC One, there are two other things that immediately turn me off:
– The Blinkfeed thing that takes up a whole screen and is non-removable. If you’re going to fork Android and do your own thing with it, fine. But IMO, it is incredibly arrogant on HTC’s part to force their shitty bloatware onto an entire home screen and not give users the option to remove it. It seems very power-user hostile. The only answer HTC fanboys have for this is, ‘well, you can install a launcher’. Well, you can kiss my ass too
– There’s a honkin’ huge ‘HTC’ logo on the bottom of the phone that doesn’t actually do anything, and can never be programmed to do anything, because there is no ‘button’ underneath. That’s one less button than every other Android phone has, and is a waste of space.
– And if what another poster said is true and there is only 16gb of storage available on the AT&T version, that’s another strike against it.
As for the S4, it seems to me that comparing the HTC One with the S4 is like comparing the shit I took last night vs the one I took this morning. However, I think I’d have to go with the S4, because of the extra hardware features. The big speakers on the HTC One do nothing for me, since I don’t use speakers on the phone anyway. I have a Jawbone Jambox that I pair up whenever I want big sound.
All that being said, I think it’s kind of dumb to say that you don’t like company x’s phones, because all of them have had winners and losers. Any HTC fans remember the Thunderbolt? That thing was an ass burger.
At least as far as the removable battery goes, it sounds like the N4 is the exception to the rule at this point, all the other Nexus devices have had removable batteries.
Well, I bought an HTC 8X, and I love it. So… Why aren’t you other guys buying HTC phones?
My 8X is well built, has a nice screen, good cameras. Only thing I’m iffy about are the volume buttons: Hard to feel them, hard to know where they are.
I believe we’re in a recession for one thing. I personally got a Nexus 4 from work.
Also, there are more and more Chinese brands with more performance at a lower cost as options for Android.
http://www.gizchina.com/
They’ve come a long way and are very serious contenders at a much lower price-point.
I can only speak for myself. And i have gotten over the whole social media, smartphone and other such fads.
Now i have a skype phone on my wall. It is so liberating not to have a cellphone anymore and if i would ever get one again, it would probably be one of those shock/damage resistant Doro waterproof phones with huge keypad and monochrome screen. (battery life is several weeks on those badboys.)
I have always used the nexus phones, currently on the nexus 4 upgraded from nexus s and the nexus 1. Still have both of them. My wife has the galaxy s3 but I liked the HTC one x better. I am sure they will pick up sales as soon as new phone hits the market. The One is an awesome piece of hardware, but I really prefer stock android
I would pick the Samsung Galaxy S4 over the HTC One mainly because the S4 comes with a microSD slot and a removable battery. HTC highend phones tend to not come with those features anymore
In Australia, a lot of my friends have HTC phones. My first Android phone was an HTC Magic. I moved to the Nexus because HTC didn’t have unlocked bootloaders, but I always intended that my next phone would be an HTC.
However, it would be the One-S, not the new series. I’m really quite sad they got rid of their “quietly brilliant” namesake, as it was absolutely true: you’d never see an HTC ad, but everyone would notice the phones, and the love of it by their users.
I wish they’d stayed the Nexus phones, as the Nexus 1 is still the prettiest Nexus phone by far. I’m also disappointed with the look of the One, but I can see how they’re under market pressure. I think buying Beats was a mistake.
To some extent I blame Sense UI. HTC simply doesn’t have software people that know what they’re doing. I wished they had the sense to assemble a design and engineering team from around the world — from France and Korea, from Australia and Spain, and make a UI that was universal, truly push Sense beyond a skin. Unfortunately that never happened.
Hopefully they’ll see some traction with the Facebook phone. I fear they’ll become another Palm. Which makes me sad.
…I had two Titan’s before my 920. I guess I went to the 920 with ATT simply because it was THE WP8 phone to get. I am glad I did, I really like the feel of it and am pleased with the screen as well…
Took delivery of my HTC One today, oddly enough. Samsung had me with the SII, but lost me shortly after (I took a detour through webOS).
It’s a beautiful phone. But there’s a problem. It’s just another Android smartphone. It’s beautifully executed, but it just feels dull. I was due an upgrade, read reviews, picked the best phone, but none of the choices excited me. I miss the excitement of a new device. I would’ve gone with BB10 but the app situation is too immature.
But I do reward HTC for being the only Android OEM seemingly interested in design and risk-taking. Once you purge the Sense crap, the One’s a perfectly good, sensible, totally (yawn) fine phone. And better than a lazy Samsung. I just wish someone would make a real effort to make Android more pleasant to live with.
1) No removable Memory Card.
2) No removable battery.
Galaxy S4 have both, and that is where my money is going as soon as it is available.
Add to that a locked bootloader that hadn’t been cracked (at the time), and the HTC One X just didn’t seem like a phone I wanted to own.
I’ve had HTC phones in the past, but Sense and I aren’t on the best of terms.
HTC, along with BlackBerry, is another example that the market penetration problem in the mobile sector is not exclusive to Microsoft, Windows Phone, or Nokia. Its a cut throat market that has inherent inefficiencies which are completely aside from the value of the phone or the OS.
The HTC One is by all accounts an astounding device. The line up from last year (confusingly called the same thing) was also comepelling. I’ll echo the sentiment that the 8X is in some ways nicer than the Lumia 920.
HTC’s problem is Nokia’s problem is BlackBerry’s problem. Samsung is crowding out the market with its sheer scale. It doesn’t matter how much better HTC makes their phones. Unless Samsung slips up, HTC won’t retake the crown without things changing drastically.
Look at how Samsung took control — HTC became complacent after the success of their DROID lineup. It might be possible for this to happen to Samsung, but I don’t think its as likely.
The carriers (or if you’re overseas where carriers are less influential, the big name brick and mortars you get your phone from.) are the gate keepers to adoption for mobile. Consumers do not buy things, consumers are sold things. The sales channel is an obstacle that’s causing everyone significant amounts of pain.
Its tough for relatively small companies like HTC to afford to match Samsung subsidy for subsidy, compete on advertising, and differentiate sufficiently for it to matter.
Nokia has been having a hell of a time trying to figure out the right formula for limited success, and they receive $250 million a quarter and get matched marketing from Microsoft along with having cozy relationships with carriers in Europe. It still isn’t enough.
HTC has none of this, except for the 8X (minus the $250 million a quarter) which receives matched marketing funds from Microsoft and enjoyed flagship status this time around. Something which pissed Nokia off.
Look at HTC’s fate, its exactly where Nokia would be if they had gone with Android instead of Windows Phone — except they’d probably be dead without the monetary support from Microsoft.
What HTC has shown us is that Android isn’t a magic bullet for commercial success, and its reinforced the position I’ve argued for that HTC’s failure in the market has little to do with HTC and everything to do with an inefficient market run by Kingmakers who desperately want to avoid becoming a fat pipe.
Small correction: Droid branding is mainly a Motorola thing, and exclusive to their phones on Verizon. There are a few HTC Droid-branded phones, but again, only on Verizon. Most (the bulk, 90-odd percent) of Droid-branded phones are from Motorola.
The S3 battery life is just the double of the S2 and all HTC phones for the same weight.
im not getting anything with any lesser batt life now.
The HTC One is almost 30000 pesos and my local brand (myPhone) Android was 3500 pesos. Sure, it’s only Gingerbread but getting Android 4.x is not worth 25000+ pesos to me. Even if I wanted 4.x I could get that for ~7000 pesos.
Edited 2013-04-09 04:55 UTC
I bought a Flyer because I’m a designer and wanted the pressure-sensitive stylus. After multiple promises of Honeycomb coming to the Flyer, it finally arrived close to a year later than they initially declared. HTC also claimed that Ice Cream Sandwich was on the way, but that never happened. There are no custom ROM’s that I’m aware of that support the pressure-sensitivity feature I require.
If I’m going to buy from a company I need to know they’re going to stand behind their product and support it. I’ll buy the Samsung Note 10.1 next.
Sir, may I tell you my story : bought a refurbished HTC Evo 3D in November 2011 with carrier ROM (FR SFR) Gingerbread 2.3.4 and no possibility to update ROM (carrier) since the previous owner had S-OFFed the phone. The phone in still impressive (qHD, 3D stereoscopic, dual core 1.5 GHz) but Sense and the 3D carousel were really annoying.
HTC never wanted to support it’s lineup for very long, delayed updates (ICS) as long as they could to “focus” on more recent products, which I could understand. But like a good branded washing machine abandoned by its constructor after not even 2 years, how can you put your trust in them ?
Anyway, I recently took my courage and following this XDA thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2147742 I updated my “aging” HTC Evo 3D to… Jelly Bean 4.2.2 that HTC pretend it cannot copes the RAM usage. Since 2 weeks now, my phone have never been snappier ! A breeze ! And stock ROM are so better ! But the 3D is gone…
So, there is the stock Android source tree on one side, up to date, and the other side the OEMs then the carriers that delays needlessly “for testing and stability reasons, for best consumers’ experience” while the consumer is fed up to be told stories : Jelly Bean is DE FACTO far better and provides better “user experience” than Gingerbread !
So HTC have lost my faith from their very own behaviors, while they might produce very good hardware, the software lags behind. They might still be afloat by having opened hboot and allows people to update their phones by themselves, otherwise they would have lost any consumers’ interest long ago.
Bad move by bad business practices. That’s full own HTC’s fault here. All people are not eager to buy an expensive phone that’ll turn into a brick just one year after purchase.
Kochise
I picked the SGS3 over the One X due to the One X lacking a microSD slot and not capable of storing files of 4GB or more in size. I have a big collection of HD movies and most of these are at least 4GB.
The SGS3 supports 64GB microSD cards with ExFAT.
The One looks absolutely gorgeous and I love the fact that it’s not a yet-another plastic toy — the aluminum casing has been designed exceedingly well and the few elements that had to be added so the antennas would function just increase the effect. The specs are fine, the display is good and so on, so it’s close to being a dream-phone for me. The reasons why I am not buying, however, are as follows:
* My Galaxy Note is still perfectly functional and I just don’t need a new phone at this time.
* I wish the One had a slightly bigger display, similar in size to the Note.
* I want a phone with a dedicated camera-button.
* The reviews I’ve read mention the One as not having all that stellar battery-life and, well, neither does my Note — speaking from experience I don’t want mediocre battery-life anymore.
I really don’t give a flying fuck about removable batteries and I don’t need an SD-card-slot, either: on my 16GB Note I’ve got a 16GB microSD-card since day one, but to this day I still haven’t found any use for it as the internal memory has been more than enough.
Alas, I’m afraid no one else will come out with such a high-quality phone as the One in the sizes I want and with a larger battery, so I don’t know if I’ll ever find a replacement for my current phone that will fully satisfy me.
HTC devices are usually costlier then similar specs samsung devices. Why pay more when you get the same for less would be the indian thinking.
There aren’t any very low end 100-200 HTC devices. Samsung has a very wide range devices across multiple price points.
I am not sure if advertisement would change it. Nokia lumia ads are shown like literally every minute on tv but that has not made wp8 a hit considering how big Nokia was here at one time.
But samsung could lose the low end $200 to local indian brands.
…But neither Android nor Windows Phone interest me – so you won’t see me buying any HTC phones in the future.
Also, HTC Sense? I’m sorry, but it doesn’t interest me either.
I’d probably go for HTC again if they’d release a webOS based phone – without any HTC Sense modifications.
My reason for not buying a HTC phone is their choice of not supporting microSD cards and no option to put a new battery inside the phone when the first one got empty. Of course i can use a external battery to charge the one inside. But for me the idea of setting the battery indicator to 100% again with a new battery is much better then charge the phone for an hour with an external battery to gain a few more percentage.
A second thing is that i never found the camera software very good. I have had a Nexus One and hated the pink glow in the center when pointing the lens to some white surface.
Agreed-that’s a deal breaker (and two of the things I hate about the iPhone) for me.
Eh, in the current markets, since when a superior technical implementation is a condition *sufficient* to succeed in the field? (unfortunately, I should add)
Especially in a huge market like mobile devices, where it needs only a little bit of ‘hint’ to steer massive herds of consumers.
First, let me say that my first Android phone was the HTC Hero. I then upgraded to the HTC Evo 4G, all with Sprint. When it came time for my next upgrade, I was predisposed to another HTC.
But, while I liked the feel of the HTC phone and its build quality, like others before me, I chose the S3 because the HTC didn’t have a removable battery, nor did it have an SD slot.
My Evo had battery life problems, and I always had a spare battery with me because I live and die on my smartphone with my consulting business. I can’t always guarantee I’ll be able to plug it in and recharge it. To not have the ability to swap in another battery was a deal breaker.
Lack of SD card was another deal breaker. I save a lot of files, and I need the SD card. No card slot, no purchase. Same gripe with the Nexus 4 and 7.
HTC seems to have copied two of the worst feature of the iPhone on this one.
Another reason was the internal memory. The S3 had 2GB of memory and the HTC only had one. I felt this would allow me to upgrade the ROMs longer on the S3 because of this.
HTC was notorious for not upgrading their phones, and I hated that. It forced me to learn about rooting and custom ROMs, though, so maybe it was a good thing in the long run!
When my contract for my S3 comes up, I doubt I’ll even look at the HTC unless the above mentioned items are included again, and also I won’t even consider it if they’re locking bootloaders, etc.
I think they must consider manufacturing devices for Firefox OS. This may increase their revenues specially in developing countries.
I think I read an article a month ago somewhere (Verge ?) suggesting the same thing.
It might be worth spending some engineering on as it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to try it.
I hear when you get a Mozilla engineer and an engineer from a phone manufacturer in the same room you can get FirefoxOS ported to an existing Android device in 4 days ! So that is just two people in 4 days !
First, I admit, that “HTC One” is beautiful. But external looks is not enough to make a decision.
Second, I live in Israel, where we have no subsidies, and I’m not locked to a carrier, so I can choose whatever phone I like and the price between Galaxy S3 and HTC One X is similar here.
So why I decided for the Galaxy S III Series instead ?
Hardware and software:
A. Removable battery: is of utmost importance for travelers. I take 3 batteries with my Galaxy S3 and it is only 1 minute of inconvenience of swapping them.
B. Removable Storage: microSD allows me to take a large portion of my videos (including HD videos) to travel.
Carriers here top out at 3 GB/month of data, so streaming HD video from the cloud is out-of-question.
Software:
I like to watch video clips and browse the net at the same time: Galaxy allows me to with it’s incredible “Video Pop-up play” feature.
Those 3 are features are deal-makers for Samsung, and deal breakers for HTC.
Samsung Android has a lot more extras (compared vs. vanilla Google Android), chronicled in my past articles.
And unless HTC fixes those lack-of-features, those omissions, I will buy Samsung Galaxy S4 in the future…
What is interesting, is that in the past many high-end phones from various vendors had removable batteries and removable storage, but the recent developments of “iPhonization” of the market and removal of those features makes me really angry, but it also makes Samsung more valuable. Namely: HTC & Nokia & Google Nexus (Nexus One) had those features in the distant past. – Newer high-end models, such as HTC One / One X, Nokia Lumia 920 and Google Nexus 4 lacks both.
Here is my article: Samsung Android vs. Google Android:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KFzxBiq9Ro5UY0U_M0JBQ4Aj1dfcksEy…
-Alexey “Technologov”, 09.Apr.2013.
HTC One is very nice but non removable battery (immensely useful feature) and no SD card is a no-go for me.
Obviusly, here follows what happened to me. Your experience may be completely different, so I may just have been unlucky. However
I bought my amazing HTC Desire in november 2010. It was a great phone. After 12 months, however, it began restarting without any reason if wi-fi or any other-than-phone networking option was active, freezing immediately when the white HTC logo screen appeared. This made the phone show that white screen, overheating until the battery went down. I could notice when happening only when the phone was placed in my trousers pockets, by the heat.
I sent the phone to customer care and they replaced the motherboard in 15 days or so. Unluckily, the new one had the microphone broken, so I could connect to the internet again, but people calling me couldn’t hear what I was telling them. The phone turned back to the same customer care two days after.
Another 2 weeks, and my HTC went back to me (I bought a Samsung S2 in the meanwhile – far better phone I’d say, even if my GUI preference was still on the HTC side). Internet worked, microphone worked, but I had the S2 already, so I gave it to my wife.
After 2 months, the Desire died again. It suddendly froze. Since there was no way to reset or power off the device, we unplugged the battery, waited for some seconds, and plugged it again. No luck and no sign of life from the phone. Trying recharging the battery didn’t help either. Completely dead. Again. I really hadn’t the courage to send the same phone over the customer care for the 3rd time in 3 months.
I also REFUSE to accept that a hi-end (because the Desire actually was a hi-end) product could leave its user in similar situations, so I won’t buy a HTC product again, no matter how they will behave in reviews. Moreover, reviewers generally test a device for 1 or 2 weeks before writing their articles. They simply can’t experience long-standing hardware defects because they would need months and months of testing before they actually appear. So reviews are good to understand if features, software and tech specs are good, but they can’t predict how the phone will work and how much it will last.
I perfectly know that. I’m a reviewer too.
Edited 2013-04-09 08:48 UTC
I have had a couple of HTC phones in my time, they were pretty unimpressive, but then I’ve had more Samsung phones/tablets and they were equally unimpressive.
HTC is changing though, and the One looks very nice. If I was to return to Android though, not sure if I’d get a non-Google branded device, as that provides *slightly* more assurance of updates.
I chose the S3 over the One X for some subjective and some objective reasons.
objective:
– better battery life (the exynos S3 *has* better battery life than the Tegra 3 One X. in my area only these were available)
– better screen (better contrast and saturation, i dont’t care for color accuracy. at 720p pentile is a non-issue)
subjective:
– i expected the s3 to have better CyanogenMod support than the Tegra based one X. I was wrong. Exynos is as much a disaster as Tegra is, from this point of view. (this was the main reason. I got rid of the S3 when I realised it’s far from reality)
I have a nexus 4 now and not planing to change it, but if I were to make a choice, I’d pick the S4 over the One for the same reasons: amoled > lcd imho, and I expect the battery life to be better too. (I’d go with the Qualcomm one for CM support)
yes, all the bells and whistles are useless marketing gimmicks, but if you disable them all, ideally install CM, the S3 (and presumable S4) are very good phones.
Edited 2013-04-09 08:52 UTC
Sony is doing really well in Norway now with their new models, much better than HTC. But in Norway the carriers are mostly dumb data pipes. Here in Spain, the carriers have much more power, and it’s Samsung all over. Advertising and carriers seems to be the reason to me. Most people I know that owns a Samsung phone does not offer one calorie on stuff like removable SD cards and batteries.
Here are my reasons I keep staying away from HTC (or any other brand that has the same issues)
– Non-removable battery
– No microSD card slot
For me these two are a must. However, I recently learned that HTC One supports USB OTG: http://blog.htc.com/usb-otg/
On the bottom of that page in the link: Currently supported devices include the HTC One X, HTC One X+, HTC Butterfly and the all new HTC One.
I can buy a little portable adapter that will let me quickly plug in a USB stick (or a mouse, keyboard etc) to the phone. As far as the battery is concerned, it doesn’t look like I have a choice anymore so it will have to be the HTC One for me. I am sure (I think) if one tries hard enough, the battery can be replaced after all.
Check this out: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/36887/how-can-i-determin… – A USB OTG (USB On-The-Go) cable is what is used to tell your device to act as a host, this is like a normal USB cable but it has one of the internal pins connected to Ground at one end to let that device know that it should act as the host (technically pins 4 & 5 are shorted to ground in an OTG cable).
Knowing that, I am seriously considering HTC One as my next phone.
Edited 2013-04-09 09:59 UTC
Answer: Software support (aka upgrades). With Android, a manufacturer’s track record regarding upgrades is more important than the product itself
After getting my fingers burnt with my Optimus 2X (G2x for the USA), which got stuck in 2.3.3 forever, and with Sony and HTC not having a stellar upgrade track record either in their flagships, I only think about Samsung. Is Samsung’s upgrade track record perfect? No, but it’s the least bad out there.
PS: And I am seriously thinking about WP8, though after the WP7-WP8 fiasco my hopes of being able to just upgrade a cellphone like you upgrade a PC grew pretty thin.
Edited 2013-04-09 10:13 UTC
I believe HTC is getting bad karma for past not very thought over constructions that they used to sell in large quantities before Samsung caught up. They’ve earned their bad reputation by:
– poor UI performance (among others b.c. badly optimized low level drivers)
– tendency to get slow over a period of usage
– nonexistent or undertested upgrades that only made thing worse
– poor reliability despite good build materials
Newer devices improved but it’s too late. Existing customers have switched to Samsung for their 2nd smartphone.
HTC was lucky to caught on the crazy wave of soaring Android but from the hind side they were too small to manage it.
Edited 2013-04-09 10:22 UTC
Funny this should come up, those were the exact two phones i was considering. I am coming from an iPhone 4, so it will be a fairly big switch.
I love the design of the HTC One, the aluminium body is beautiful, and i personally think this is the only well designed phone of the modern smartphones that does not contain an Apple logo.
I do not exactly love the design of the S4, i think it looks fairly plain. I haven’t actually touched it yet, but i don’t like the feeling of cheap plastic of the S2 or S3, and apparently the S4 is the same.
Unfortunately there are many more parameters than design.
I like the fact that they managed to squeeze a 5″ display into the S4 without making the phone bigger.
I am not sold on the “ultrapixels” of the HTC One, sure low light photos look good, but i like being able to crop the images, and with 4 MP that is stretching it. I do think 13 is taking it a bit too far in the other direction, but for me it is the better compromise, though i would have been more happy with 8.
It is just silly that the HTC logo is not a button.
While i don’t trust either company when it comes to OS updates, the S4 at least starts out with the most recent release.
The S4 has wireless charging, not 100% sure i will actually buy a charger for it, but i like having the option in case i get tired fiddling with the micro USB plug. (why people think it is a disadvantage instead of an advantage that the iPhone does not use micro USB is still a mystery to me)
I am having problems staying within the 32 Gb of my current phone, so having an SD slot is a plus.
I don’t really care about the removable battery, if it can just last through the day then that is fine for me since i always plug in the phone when i go to bed.
I do like the front facing stereo speakers of the HTC.
All in all for me, as a tool and entertainment device, the S4 won the match by a fairly comfortable margin. And even then i still wish it looked like the HTC…
I also considered a Nexus 4, but it was knocked out by the S4. The only benefit i can find there is the fact that it runs stock android, which made me very tempted, but it wasn’t enough. The display is ok, but not that great. The fact that it uses the display for the buttons makes it almost false advertising to call it 4.7″, though at least there is software that allow you to hide them, the camera is not very good, and it is stuck at 16GB which would definitely annoy me, and the final straw was all the reports about cracking of the rear glass, i don’t want to have to handle it more gently than an iPhone 4.
I would love an S4 dressed as a HTC One running the software from the Nexus 4 though 🙂
VistaUser hit the nail right on the head – it’s HTC’s marketing and advertising, or lack of both. I’ve never seen them advertise on TV of any type here in the States, let alone ever seeing a Web ad for them outside of a brick or mortar or on-line retailer advertising them as being on sale.
I am still using my HTC Inspire 4G. I tend to keep my phones for 3 or 4 years. I augmented the built in memory with a microSD card and have changed the battery (twice).
I really like the HTC One. I am not really happy about not having a microSD card slot but could probably live with the 32GB model. The deal breaker is the non-replaceable battery. You simply cannot use a phone for 3 or 4 years without replacing the battery. Go ahead and make the phone a bit thicker. I find the really thin phones awkward to hold anyway. I hope HTC stays in the game. I like HTC. I just think they are a little bit off target.
Here’s a copy of the e-mail I sent to my carrier after my first (and hopefully last) experience with HTC. After this I did manage to get in touch with someone at HTC support, but it was the same story over-and-over again…
::: Begin of quote :::
I’ve been having lots of issues with a Vodafone purchased HTC Desire S and the support that has been given to me to address the issues in question. This post will describe in detail the problem (and how to reproduce it) and my experience with the support teams that I dealt with.
I’ve bought a Desire S smartphone from Vodafone in late September 2011. The phone initially met all my expectations, as I “hand picked” it according to its features and my needs as a power user. About 3 months after purchase, it froze while recharging and never switched on again (which is “ok”, as I do understand that electronic devices sometimes fail, and that is why the warranty is there, no question on that matter). So I sent the phone to repair via the Vodafone store on Grafton street, and one month later, went to pick it up, already repaired. This is when the problems started…
After I got home, I noticed (via a popup on the phone itself) that HTC released a new update, which besides including a newer version of Android, it also included Sense 3.0 and some other minor updates. Being this a manufacturer issued update, I went ahead and installed it. Afterwards, the phone was never the same again. It became slow, sluggish, unstable, but that was nothing compared to what was coming out next:
– The alarm stopped working
– Startup applications wouldn’t start
– I couldn’t connect to my office’s 802.x network
– Exchange push mail having strange side-effects on my calendar events and e-mail read/unread status
– Power menu missing (i.e., phone shutdown/reboot only possible by removing the battery)
I did the obvious (OS restore) and that didn’t help, besides other troubleshooting approaches. I’ve also realised that other people were complaining about the same issues, after this specific upgrade, in different countries as well (i.e., problem not tied with the specific Vodafone-HTC firmware images). Upon digging deeper into this, I successfully managed to find the root cause (of part) of the problem: Android’s secure credentials feature. This feature got crippled after the given HTC update, as besides the fact that prior to the upgrade none of the symptoms were present, other phones/firmwares (and I’ve tested this) don’t suffer from this problem. I’ve tested this myself successfully though, on other Desire S phones with the latest update (official HTC update). This is how to reproduce some of the issues:
– Go to the wireless menu and tap “Add a WiFi network”
– Enter any random SSID
– Chose “802.1x Enterprise” as security
– A popup will show up asking for a new password for the credential store. Enter something and hit ok
– Enter a random username and a random password
– Hit ok, a new bogus WiFi network got created
– Hold on the power button, tap “Reboot”
– After the phone reboots, try to hold the power button to see if the power menu shows up
– If you had an alarm set before doing this, you’ll notice that the alarm icon won’t popup on the notification bar (i.e., alarm not working)
– Repeat this process on another Desire S with the latest firmware to prove this theory
I’ve specified in detail all of the above to Fonefix, the company that does the repairs on behalf of Vodafone, upon sending the phone to repair after the update, and it appears that no one took the time to actually read my description (on the repair form, I have information that the hardware button for the power was replaced, when I specifically pointed out earlier that the issue was a firmware one, the button – hardware wise – had no issues). It seems that they just re-flash the phone, do some diagnostic tests, and nothing more.
It has been almost 3 months since I’m without the phone. I honestly lost all my faith on this manufacturer after this, and as the main features for why I chose this phone are now crippled.
Due to all of the above, and since I spent €400 buying a phone that, after a manufacturer issued update, stopped suiting my needs, I would like to get a refund of that amount to proceed with buying a new phone. I explained that on the Vodafone store (upon sending, again, the phone back to repair), and I was told that I had to talk with HTC. I spoke with HTC and they say I should talk with Vodafone. I am stuck at the moment with a worthless €400 phone, and both companies don’t seem to be doing much to help me (that’s the impression I’m getting, after all that happen).
Edited 2013-04-09 11:27 UTC
When in Taiwan, I asked the same question of my cousin, since I also think HTC makes great phones. After telling me a couple horror stories about phones failing one after another, he concluded that HTC reserves crappy ones for the domestic market and sends out ones which probably won’t fail that quickly for export. While I don’t believe that, it definitely looks like there are quality control issues.
I also don’t think they’re reliable with software updates unlike Samsung. Look at the HTC One S. Jelly Bean came out for it after the One X, even though both were advertised as part of the same premium high end series. And when it finally did, the xda-developers community had to fix the keyboard, which had two z-s on it and no y. How did something like that ever get past QC?
Software updates are an even bigger deal for me since I bought the One S for its camera, which has that custom ImageSense chip. Cyanogenmod doesn’t use it, and it shows. It feels like a normal camera, and starts up slower. My phone’s life is thus dictated by HTC.
Which is too bad really, since they make some really good phones. I’m really tempted by the HTC One.
“Software updates”
Yes my friend, you’ve hit the jackpot! I fully subscribe to that and that is the sole reason why I won’t ever touch an HTC phone again (read my comment jut before yours to see what I’m talking about).
Atleast in India, Samsung and to some extent Nokia ads are telecast in every channel in all ad breaks. You are always bombarded with Samsung phone ads. Have never seen HTC ad till now. No wonder Samsung is market leader here. Could be the same case in other countries.
They came to Brazil and left 3 months later, so we have no official support or sales, just import with high tax rates 😛
I can’t comment on why people buy Samsung, but I can comment on why I didn’t buy a HTC One X or One.
– HTC One Xs failed multiple times for friends, 8+ times for one and 3+ for another. I just don’t trust HTC anymore.
– For a phone that fails so often I want a removable battery and SDcard so I can either fix myself or recover some of my data. If I wanted a closed phone there is Apple/Nexus for that.
– I find Sense in it’s recent incarnations more offensive than TouchWiz or Sony’s effort. It really is awful. After using both an S3 and One X in a shop, if I had to choose it would be S3.
– I don’t buy this whole plastic is somehow dishonest compared to metal.
– I don’t really like HTC’s phones designs that much. That is not to say I like Samsung’s either, but at least I can get a cool case and fewer compromises. Really with personalisation the S3’s design is kind of moot.
– HTC are me tooing everyone else on the 5″ish phone. Why that Vs LG/Samsung/Sony… I have small hands, either I buy a 4.3″ phone and just about use it in one hand or I go the whole hog and get a beast like the Note2.
– Virtual buttons or full buttons, don’t just remove some of them.
My present phone is an Acer Cloudmobile. It is far from perfect. However it is far less compromised than an HTC for me and I have received 2 patches and then an upgrade to Jellybean in the past 8 months. Acer’s UI is receding overtime, it is still offensive, but really just limited to so hide-able apps and some extra shading in the notification area. Far closer to stock than any big name make.
I personally think it lacks the personality of the Liquid, that had some white gloss Sci-Fi going on. However the arced top and bottom and lack of physical buttons means my titchy hands can operate it.
The software isn’t bullet proof, you can tell Acer doesn’t have the team size of other makes, but it works.
“and if you held the SIII and One X in both hands it was clear right away which of the two was the better phone.”
I guess that should have been “which of the two was the better *looking* phone”.
My first Android phone was a HTC Desire. Excellent device crippled by very low internal storage which rendered it almost unusable in time.
Took a hard look at the One X last year. I liked the great design and the gorgeous screen a lot. Apart from this, it was inferior to Samsung devices. No replaceable battery (unhappy but could live with it), no SD card (unacceptable). Locked boot loaders, bad updates record.
Got a Galaxy Note 2 in the end, and I’ll stick with pen-accessorized phablets for some time, so until HTC has some offer in the area, they’re out for me.
My secondary phone is a HTC WP 8X. Great design, good device. Gorgeous screen, I like it a lot more than Note’s AMOLED. Has the same problems as the One X: sealed battery, no SD card. Lack of storage means constant management of photos and music for me on that phone. And the included software, compared to what Nokia has on its WP phones, is lame.
HTC is doing great design and some great devices and then they break them with some strange decisions (at least for me).
Samsung goes for the route of giving basically everything you might want. Except for the design (and the debatable AMOLED color pallette), there’s really nothing to say bad about the Galaxy line, but there always seems to be something to nag about a HTC.
And, quite important: the battery life it’s excellent on the Galaxy Note 2, with a quad core proc and huge screen, and not that great on the HTC 8X, with a smaller screen, dual core proc. And a sealed battery.
As an iPhone user that moved to Android recently, I’ve chosed to buy a Galaxy S3 then switch to Galaxy Note 2.
My real reason to chose Galaxy over HTC or Google Nexus is simply the battery life.
I’m able to use my GS/GN intensively(GPS+Wifi activated) almost 2 or 3 days without charging.
It’s true that most features are almost gadgets, except the stylus.
Weird I wonder if IPS screens are a factor in that. My Cloudmobile uses a Highres IPS screen and its battery life is pretty bad.
My boss decided to give a bonus to all the workers (4 of us) we could choose whatever phone we want. Basically I’ve been debating between the HTC One and the GS4.
I really really like the HTC One except for two things which could flip my decision:
1. Non replaceable battery on the HTC One.
2. Has Gorilla Glass 2 as opposed to Gorilla Glass 3 on the GS4.
I’ve still not decided what to do…
Edited 2013-04-09 13:04 UTC
I used to have an HTC Universal then an HTC Desire HD.
Now I have defected to Samsung with a Note 2.
Reason #1, critical: I can’t change the battery in a modern HTC. I used to carry 2 spares for my Desire HD; now, I can’t.
Reason #2: very important – no µSD storage. Not just for expandability, for ease of bulk transfer – just pop the card out & stick it in my laptop.
Reason #3: HTC used to make great, innovative designs with keyboards, such as the Universal:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Universal
… and the Athena:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Advantage_X7500
Now, it makes me-too sealed slabs. Nice specs, but no different from anyone else. The company threw away its competitive advantage.
At least the DHD had the biggest screen of any Android phone at the time – that’s what attracted me to it. (Dell’s Streak seemed more like a tablet & had an old, downversion of Android.)
Because I, as someone who cares as little as possible about phones, remember HTC as a manufacturer of low quality, slow, terribly ugly, clunky Pocket PC/Windows Mobile devices.
This is probably unfair to the company now, but they’re forever tainted in my mind by the garbagephones of yore, so I’ve never given them a second thought since 2003 or whenever that image arose.
I inherited a friend’s original iPhone when the 3G came out. After a couple of years of using it, the camera died, the battery was weak and the software was three versions behind. I upgraded to a used iPhone 4, because I didn’t want to deal with transferring my contacts and data or with finding and repurchasing applications.
I don’t care if the HTC has better benchmark scores or comes with lasers and unicorns attached. I have a phone already, I don’t chase gadgets and features. Whatever money it costs, I much rather buy pizza and beer for me and my friends.
I fully plan upon getting the HTC One. It just isn’t available in the USA yet. Looks like carriers aren’t launching until the 19th. It’ll be interesting to see what uptake is like then. Pre-ordering through HTC’s site for T-Mobile shows that their preorders are sold out.
The lack of SD card and removable battery is a bit of a hit, but I don’t see completely killing off interest in the phone. The lack of a headstart on the SGS4 is a bit problematic.
There are two ways that people buy cell phones.
1) Either while walking past a kiosk at the mall or when going into a cell phone store they ask what the person behind the counter recommends. They then buy that phone.
Keep in mind that the phones most likely pushed by these people are the ones that company is being paid to push.
2) The person knows what they want to buy before they go into the store.
This is mostly through advertising and what their friends have.
If you want to know what most people are buying, go survey kiosks and Verizon/ATT&T, etc. and see what phones are being pushed.
Me, I’ll always be buying an Apple phone. I like things that just work from buying content and apps to connecting it to my computer to update or wirelessly updating. Nobody has Apple beat.
Of course everyone has a [sensored]-hole and an opinion.
Sense UI. It’s bad. I’d consider getting the new HTC One, if there was a really well supported version of Cynanogen for it.
1) Screen was too small.
2) Didn’t see it listed on Cyanogenmod.
3) No removable battery.
4) I write software to run on my phone for personal use.
Seriously, if I am going to pay the sort of money I do for a phone and service, it will do far more than be a phone and it will do it all day long.
No way can an HTC X One little tiny battery run my software I need all day long.
Unlike most people here my other reason is I write software for my phone for personal use.
No removable battery, no deal.
I don’t care if it is thin like other iCrap, it has to be on and working for at least 8 hours straight.
Right now I drain my battery in my SIII in about 4 hours.
-Hack
I’ve had three HTCs one of them a stinky Desire which had no working headset jack. Couldn’t be fixed. Why did I go one more round with HTC? Well, I find them better looking and I prefer the looks and use of Sense.
Few people have HTC, so that makes me feel special and not part of a herd.
What were the options?
Nokia Lumia 920 not out yet, but I still wasn’t too sure about Windows Phone 8 and not to forget the weight of the thing.
Sony changes models faster than I could say the alphabet. Wanted the T, then came the V and before I knew it the Z was just about to launch. Then there is the ZL… And then they closed down the Sony Stores.
My dream line up Sony Xperia Z and a Vaio Z, nowhere to buy that now. Has Sony given up, now that Apple is losing momentum the biggest contender slows down too…
BB Z10 coming. Samsung? No, I never even looked that direction. I’m sure the S III and IV are fine, but ugly.
So it looked like I would shop and wait for a long time. Possibly until a Ubuntu Phone would come out.
The clue is price and limit needs to essentials!!
One day (again) I was aimlessly checking the options and a sales guy comes a long. He says, “Hey I have a couple of HTC One S in Telenor branded phone boxes, but they are really unlocked. I’ll need to sell them cheaper. Interested?”
I had never looked at the One S. Missing it while looking at 8S and 8X. Oh, well short story I bought it.
I just love that sleek phone it’s lightweight and it fits the apps I need:
1. Spotify
2. Netflix
3. #Ruter ticket – public transport ticket payment
4. Banking apps
5. Dropbox
6. Office apps
7. Opera Mini
AND it has BEATS! Which I love. Improves even J. S. Bach.
And the things I don’t need are:
1. SD Cards – I try to decrease the size of my wallet!
2. Removable battery – when was electricity a problem?
3. 4G – How about a network first?
4. NFC – Ok, and for what again?
When I travel I bring along an old Nokia for calls using a local SIM. Battery lasts for ever and I only use limited online time on the go. A quick Opera Mini session here and there. Opera Mini runs on everything.
I live in Brazil, HTC phones are not sold here. At least, officially.
My Nokia 5110 still works just fine and does everything I want it to.
I’m talking from experience. Some years ago I was working as a techie when the company I was at started selling HTC phones. It was unbelievable how terrible local support was. It was provided by a local distributor who, mind you, was an “Authorized” service center by HTC. Even after many complaints to HTC – they still directed us to their “Authorized” local service center.
Not one phone that we had sent in that was under warranty did ever return without an invoice. Even when a fix that was software based and HTC stated on their site that phones should be returned to the service centers for updates if they’re still under warranty. This distributor still invoiced every unit. We ended up taking it upon ourselves to provide the software update for free.
It did not stop there, when certain models that had failed within a month of purchase and were sent in for repair – without fail every single one was not covered under warranty due to tiny, not even hairline thin, scratch that you’d need a magnifying glass to spot. I’m not even exaggerating. Any excuse not to cover it under warranty.
Don’t get me wrong. I really like HTC phones, I actually own an HTC Desire HD and I thought it was safe to do so due to the fact it was a good few years since their utter fail. Nope… I’m back dealing with the same 6 feet under the ground quality of service. I had to pay up for fixes 3 months in, which apparently were due to user abuse… I admit there may have been some carelessness on my part. However, even after they “repaired” and replaced parts of the phone, they returned it all scratched up.
If I had not thrown a huge fit in their store like I did – I was yelling like psycho – they would not have replaced the damaged parts.
What was worse they didn’t even do the repair properly. Seeing that my phone was out of luck with the warranty. I opened it up saw what a reckless job they did, sorted it out, did ADDITIONAL repairs that they did not do – board level – and now the phone is running sharp ever since – it’s been almost two years now.
They really need to follow up on their so called service centers and sort their act out if I am ever to get this new beautiful model.
Here’s why I don’t by HTC devices: It’s not a Google Nexus device.
I have the Captivate (Galaxy S), with my wife having the Galaxy Nexus, and I’m not buying another phone that doesn’t come with stock Android and doesn’t get updates from Google.
Cyanogenmod was better supported on Samsung phones, so Samsung phones were the ones to buy for people using custom ROMs. Consequently, tech enthusiasts ended up recommending Samsung devices more often.
I have less confidence in HTC software then Samsung software, and I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in Samsung software.
Why do I have a Samsung device, specifically a Google Nexus? For exactly one reason: 100% pure Android experience. I really liked the HTC G1 and seriously considered a HTC device before I bought my Nexus. (My friend had an HTC Hero that I absolutely loved.) Ultimately, I just want the stock Android experience and HTC doesn’t have that.
Edited 2013-04-10 02:24 UTC
I actually like the lightness of plastic, among its other functional benefits (shock absorption, signal transmission, cost, etc). It can also look/feel perfectly nice, e.g. the Nexus 7.
That said, I despise the look of glossy plastic and brushed-metal, which is what Samsung’s used for everything since the SIII.
SD card and removable battery aren’t super-important for my personal phone usage, but they’re nice to have just in case. In retrospect, each did come in handy at least once. (Swapped batteries to test an issue, and once needed to transfer files with no micro-USB cable handy.)
Both Samsung and HTC’s button layouts kinda suck.
I hear the One has a programmable button, which sounds great for the camera. Tapping an onscreen button tends to move the picture. (Plus I often need to shift my grip to do a proper tap. With a curled finger, the nail tends to make contact instead of the skin, which doesn’t register. And no, I don’t have long nails.)
Between the One and the S4, I’d still lean toward the S4, but neither really interest me. I’d love a Note for the screen size and drawing hardware, fugly as the outside looks. Barring that, I’m waiting to see what Google comes up with next (Nexus or Motorola). My main issue with the Nexus 4 was the breakable glass back. Come on, plastic!
Aha, wait, Samsung’s new Galaxy Mega has switched the Back and Menu buttons!
http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/11/samsung-galaxy-mega-6-3-5-8/
Now it’s acceptably close to the stock layout. I was hoping they’d do this, but I had given up hope after the S4 came out with Back still on the right. (At least, I think it’s still on the right. It’s stupidly hard to find a picture with the buttons lit up.)
Notice how the arrow in the back button icon point to the right. Just wierd. Looks more like a forward button.
True, they should’ve turned it leftward again like their pre-GSIII models.
My terminal is an HTC. It was an HTC Desire two years ago, it’s an HTC One X now. The next phone will be an HTC, whenever I feel like changing my HTC One X
It’s mostly the openess and mod support. My first android phone was, like so many others here, a HTC Hero. Nice hardware, horrible software updates (“It’ll be here in December! No, wait, June? September?”), and just a bit too skimpy on RAM. Oh, and the digitizer died, but that did get replaced for free in reasonable time.
I’ve got a galaxy S2 now, and it’s been running CyanogenMod for a while. New HTC phones seem actively hostile to mods, while the new Samsungs appear to pretend to support it while having utterly undocumented hardware. I hear rumors that Sony are being nicer about developer documentation these days, which is flying-pigs-level weird – or I could get a Nexus 4, but I really don’t like onscreen buttons (waste of space that they are).
Eh, the S2 is still great. By the time I replace it I hope things are slightly clearer.
Edited 2013-04-10 09:35 UTC
For me its simple, developer support. HTC messes around with its phones, S-ON, botched up bootloaders etc.
Samsung phones are usually wide open for hacking and have best developer support.
Samsung’s niche has always been finding the right combination of features that will grab the most buyers. Not the highest quality of those features, but checkboxes that a savvy consumer is looking for.
Right now, Samsung is winning becuase of three primary features that people say they need and other phones lack:
1) Removable battery
2) Expandable Storage
3) Big screen
Notice the lack of “Build quality”. That’s not an accident. Most people ( myself included) don’t care. This is why IBM sold off its laptop division to Lenovo. People aren’t willing to trade features for build quality. Its a “nice to have”.
1. From my experience I can tell, that all smartphones are crap. HTC, Samsung, LG – they have the same level of failure. Some models are better, some of them not.
2. Know your rights. If you live in EU and your phone is broken you’ve got always two options. Go to a seller (probably your carrier), or go to the authorized service center (usually via carrier). At first try service center. Always(!!!) take a photos of your phone, and write down everything you can tell about your unit. If they say, that it’s broken because of you, go to your seller/carrier and ask them for a new phone or a full refund. They will try send you back to the service center. Don’t do it. Go to your local Consumer Advocate, they will help you. 3 month with the phone in the service is outrageous.
3. I’m not a dev, but there is an official bootloader unlocker at http://www.htcdev.com/
4. Regular Jan Kowalski(polish Jon Smith) don’t give a ……. about SD card, or battery, or software. They buy what they already know, ant usually it’s Samsung (or Nokia in Poland). Samsung ads are everywhere. I’m sick of them.
Three(?) months ago, one polish carrier advertised HTC 8X with a nice contract – 26$ for 2000 minute (unlimited in the network), 2GB of data, HTC for 1 zloty (about 20 eurocents). What Samsung did? They paid them more, and one week later there were no HTC ads, but Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini with the same contract. It’s always like this.
Why am I not buying an HTC phone? Because I’m happy with my iPhone. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Joking aside however, my reasons why I would go for Samsung over HTC if I were in the market for a new phone essentially mirror the reasons here: no removeable battery and no MicroSD card slot, with limited internal storage. And before anyone points it out, these are my two largest gripes with my iPhone as well, plus no USB mass storage on iOS (though apps like Air Sharing can offset that problem somewhat). However, the apps I need are on iOS, so to iOS I must go for now.
AFAIK, HTC don’t have any _high-end_ handsets that support expandable storage and a removable battery.
I also require a 4.7′ screen for eyesight reasons (and because I like a large screen)
I refuse to purchase a handset without these features (although I suspect I’ll have to eventually)
I have also recently migrated to Windows Phone from Android (yes, really!) and don’t find the Windows Phone line-up particularly compelling. I purchase a used unlocked Ativ S for the reasons above.
If Samsung release a Windows Phone device that’s a rough equivalent to the Galaxy 4 towards the end of the year I’ll buy that too…
While I prefer Window Phone too, I would not even consider HTC because they don’t use AMOLED screens.
I bought the HTC Desire and loved it.. but then they stopped doing updates.. so I bought the HTC Desire HD and then they stopped doing updates.. so I’ve given up on HTC despite being a huge fan of their products at the time.. and even today I almost bought the HTC One but didn’t want to spend money for a brand that I could not trust anymore.. I bought the latest Nexus 4 and have been super happy. Already got one update (4.2.2) and love the design/weight. I miss my alloy HTC’s but that’s the cost of being screwed twice.
That’s the spirit… Hello HTC, are you listening ? You know where you could improve, guys !
Kochise
I agree One X looks much better than SIII. These are the main reasons I chose the SIII over the One X:
1: User replacable battery extends maximum product lifetime. Also, as computerphones have significantly shorter battery life than dumbphones I wanted to be able to bring extra battery on trips.
2: An external SD-card makes playing with custom ROMs easier. While I haven’t used this opportunity yet, it still gives me a higher level of control over my device.
I’m currently on my second HTC phone, a Rezound (first one was an original Incredible). Sense, while it has a few nice features, was a bloated pig on both phones (and that’s an insult to the pig). The Incredible was finally supported by Cyanogenmod, and I never looked back; I just couldn’t believe how much faster it was than Sense. The hardware, though, was top-notch: outstanding GPS (better than my dedicated Garmin unit), good call quality and reception.
When my mom’s phone died, I gave her the Incredible and had to choose between a Galaxy Nexus and the Rezound. My gut wanted to go with the Nexus device, but I had read too much about problems with the hardware and went with HTC again. Hardware again is great, but I was highly disappointed to find this powerful phone similarly hobbled by Sense. Fortunately, HTC eventually provided a way to unlock the boot loader (and subsequently a S-Off hack was found, though it’s not really needed) so some development ensued. Problem was, HTC wouldn’t release the kernel source (as required under the GPL) so everything was a reverse-engineering effort. And of course they only released one point upgrade to Android, months after it came out of Google. Only through the heroic efforts of some XDA devs do Rezound users have a pretty good choice of ROMs today.
I’m on Verizon in the US, so my situation may be somewhat rare. But I’m tired of fighting the software and software freshness issues, so I probably won’t be buying another HTC.