The HTC One, which just launched in Canada, is HTC’s latest premium Android smartphone, and their attempt to reclaim the crown from the current King of Android, Samsung Electronics. The HTC One has a beautiful all-aluminum industrial design that gives the phone an executive look, and there are a number of features that would make this a great choice for business use.
The One has a “zero-gap” all-aluminum construction that not only makes it look good, but also makes for a very durable device, especially when compared to most other Android smartphones on the market that are made from plastic. It also has Gorilla Glass 2 at the front protecting a gorgeous, crisp, 4.7”, 468 pixels per inch, LCD screen. This screen is also very bright, and has excellent viewing angles, making it easy for colleagues or customers to view content you might want to share with them.
Continuing on from that, you can use the HTC One as a mini-presentation device, since the excellent screen is combined with loud stereo speakers on each side of the phone that can easily fill a small space with sound. If the 4.7” screen isn’t big enough, you can also hook the One up to an external display wirelessly, using HTC’s Media Link HD accessory, with a device that supports the Miracast standard.
The first screen you see when turning on the HTC One is the new home screen, which features HTC’s new BlinkFeed application, which is similar to the popular Flipboard application. BlinkFeed visually displays news and information in a vertically scrolling feed from sources that matter to you, be it social media updates, or the latest business news, so you’ll always be up-to-date when you turn on your phone.
At the back of the One there is HTC’s new Ultrapixel camera, which, to be honest, is just marketing-speak for a lower resolution camera with much better low-light performance. While the 4MP images captures by the One’s camera aren’t perhaps detailed enough to be blown up for a large print, they are the perfect size for sharing via e-mail and social media. The One’s low-light performance will allow a real estate agent, for example, to take decent photographs of the interior of a poorly lit property where other camera phones would struggle. The front camera of the One has an 88-degree wide angle lens, which is excellent for video conferencing using Skype or Lync 2013.
If your organization uses an MDM solution, such as Airwatch, then the HTC One is a good choice, since Airwatch integrates with HTC’s APIs for enhanced device management over and beyond that which can be done with stock Android JellyBean. You can also install a third party e-mail client on the One, such as NitroDesk’s TouchDown, for further device control, such as disabling copy/paste and attachment forwarding from corporate emails.
Specs: 4.7 inch, Full HD 1080p, 468 PPI, LCD3 display; 1.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 CPU; 32GB (non-expandable) storage; 2GB DDR2 RAM; Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5.0; Rear Camera – HTC UltraPixel (4MP) Camera, F2.0 aperture and 28 mm OIS lens; Front Camera – 2.1 MP, 880 wide angle lens; 2300 mAh battery; Canada – 3G – UMTS/ HSPA 850/1900/2100 MHz up to HSDPA 42 Mbps, 4G – LTE 700 MHz and AWS band; 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm; 143g
The HTC One is now available in Canada from Bell, Rogers, Telus and Virgin Mobile for $150 on a 3-year term.
