HTC has released a first look video to compliment the announcement of its newest phablet – the HTC One Max. The One Max isn’t a match Samsung’s Galaxy Note III in terms of hard specs, with HTC banking on good looks to steal phablet fans.
Despite coming up short of the Note III, the One Max is no slouch. It boasts a 5.9 inch 1080p display, 1.7GHz quad-core CPU and will come running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box.
Other specs include:
- 2GB RAM
- 16/32GB on-board memory (no MicroSD slot for expansion)
- Bluetooth 4.0
- WiFi a/b/g/n/ac
- NFC
- 4G LTE
- 3300mAh battery
- Dimensions of 82.5mm x 164.5mm x 10.29mm
- Weight of 217g
What’s the big deal?
The One Max mightn’t be a super-powered monster, but it does still have HTC’s great features. The Zoe camera is definitely one of our highlights of 2013. It takes fantastic panoramas, great daytime photos and in low-light it was the winner of our iPhone 5/HTC One/Lumia 925 camera showdown.
The Zoe feature itself is an oddity, albeit a welcome one. Instead of taking a single still image, a Zoe is a three second clip. Said clip can be displayed as a still image based on any one of its frames, or as a short video. It also allows for some great editing functions, such as the ability to remove any object that enters the frame just as you snap a photo.
Boomsound is HTC’s acknowledgement that, until now, just about every smartphone manufacturer has handled speakers terribly. The Boomsound speakers are located on the front of the device, not the rear, and play stereo sound much louder and more clearly than any other smartphone we’ve heard. It’s a simple concept that should have become that standard long ago, but you’ll still only find it in the HTC One line of phones.
Blinkfeed is the new Home Screen for Sense 5.0. Essentially it’s a merging of Android widgets and Windows Phone live tiles, at least aesthetically. It’s a better approach to an amalgamated news/social media widget than we’re used to, but it’s still not for everyone. You don’t have to use it though, so if it isn’t your thing you can just put it to the side.
Not too much new
The only really new thing that HTC seems to have put in the HTC One Max is a rear finger-print scanner on which the user places a fingertip while simultaneously swiping to unlock. It looks simple and comfortable enough, and we expect to see more of this kind of thing now that Apple’s started including it in the iPhone.
Other than that, the HTC One Max really does just look like a bigger HTC One. There’s not really anything wrong with that; the One is still a fantastic device. However, these specs are now a solid 6 months old and the price will need to reflect that.
If HTC does end up making this Big One (ha, we said it) cheaper than the Note III then we think it will not only be a solid device option, but a good contender in the market. If, on the other hand, it goes toe to toe with the Note III we feel it can only be destined for failure.
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