Android Tablet Update

There’s no beating around the bush; most of us on staff here at Android and Me love the HTC One series of devices. I had a chance this weekend to spend some hands-on time with the HTC One X from AT&T, and was completely blown away by both the look and build quality of the device.

At CTIA last week, Verizon Wireless announced the mid-range Droid Incredible 4G LTE by HTC. The Droid Incredible 4G LTE is not a One device, and HTC Spokesman Jeff Gordon indicated to Android Authority that Verizon “is not going to be carrying either of the HTC One devices currently announced.” Considering the HTC One V, One S, and One X devices have all been announced, Gordon’s remarks suggest these phones won’t be coming to Big Red’s network.

That’s not to say future HTC One (or, is it HTC Two?) devices won’t make their way to Verizon Wireless. It’s possible Verizon and HTC are working on a superphone to take Verizon’s network by storm later this year. We’ll continue to incessantly check our inboxes for a special invitation from Verizon or HTC, though we won’t hold our breath.

Were you hoping to see the HTC One series come to Verizon’s network? Does the Droid Incredible 4G LTE suffice for your HTC smartphone needs? Sound off below.

Capturing that perfect moment with an Android phone’s digital camera has always been tough, but HTC seems to think that the new HTC One series has solved the issue. To prove its point, HTC has launched an interactive page on its blog to see if you can tell the difference between pictures taken with an HTC One series device and a “professional digital camera.”

Having used the HTC One S and HTC One X extensively, I was able to easily identify the images which were captured with an HTC One device – achieving a score of 8/10.

There are a few distinct characteristics to look for when trying to identify the images taken by the HTC One, but I don’t want to give them away quite yet. Take the HTC One camera challenge and let us know what you score. Do you think the HTC One lives up to the high expectation HTC has set?

Since the unveiling of the HTC One series, the main complaint we have heard about the phones was HTC’s decision to deliver devices with non-replaceable batteries. There are quite a few reasons why average users may want the ability to swap out a battery, but the main concern most people have centers around battery performance.

In the past, HTC has not had the best track record when it comes to battery life. HTC’s dual-core flagship phones from 2011 were powerful and beautifully designed, but it was nearly impossible to make it more than 10 hours on a single charge. Fortunately, HTC listened to consumers and sent their engineers back to their labs to work on the issue.

Rather than equipping the HTC One phones with massive batteries, HTC’s engineers researched every single layer of their phones to maximize power efficiencies between the chipset, networking, display, OS and application.

For the HTC One series our engineering teams spent thousands of man hours on the Battery Stamina Boost Project – an effort that impacts battery life by improving standby time, extending talk time, increasing audio and video entertainment time and increasing web browsing and social network time. When you combine this engineering effort, along with the 1800-mAh battery in the HTC One X, the real-world performance gains, as highlighted earlier, are significant.John StarkweatherHTC

The result? Compared to the HTC Sensation, the HTC One X features a larger 4.7-inch HD display and an 18% larger battery, but HTC managed to improve talk time by 147 percent, improve MP3 playback time by 105 percent, improve video playback by 39 percent and improve web browsing time by 23 percent. In order to back up its claims, HTC cites recent benchmark tests by AnandTech which proclaimed the AT&T HTC One X as the “longest lasting Android smartphone in our 3G web browsing test.”

We’re sure many of you would love an HTC phone with a 3000 mAh battery, but we applaud HTC for its effort in making their phone more power efficient without making compromises in size and design. In our testing, we found that the 1,800 mAh battery in the HTC One X lasted longer than the 2,100 mAh extended battery of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It still falls short when compared to the 3,300 mAh monster found in the RAZR MAXX, but heavy users will always have to charge their phone at least once a day until there is a major breakthrough in battery technology.

Do you think HTC took the right approach with the HTC One series? Will any of you not buy an HTC phone that features a built-in battery?

HTC has released its Q2 earnings estimates this morning, forecasting a 55 percent jump in revenue over Q1 and improved profit margins as well. HTC expects second quarter revenues to reach T$105 billion ($3.56 billion), 3.5 percent higher than the T$101.46 billion that analysts had predicted. While the Q2 forecast is positive, they are still significantly lower than the NT$124.4 billion revenue numbers they reported in Q2 of 2011.

HTC’s projections for the second quarter could be an indication that the HTC One series (which has been available in Europe for three weeks) is already having a positive effect on the company’s bottom line. With the HTC One S set to make its U.S. debut on T-Mobile tomorrow and the One X (available for pre-order on Amazon for $149.99) heading to AT&T on May 6th, HTC is poised to regain some ground lost to Apple and Samsung over the past months.

Do you think the HTC One will help HTC beat out the competition in the second quarter and help HTC regain its momentum?

When it comes to the future of mobile devices from HTC, thin is in. Over the course of the past year or so, HTC has been conducting market research to help them set their vision for the future. Results from HTC’s survey shows that consumers care more about thinness of the device than they do about battery life. As a result of the survey, HTC removed plans it had to release 3,000+ mAh battery-toting devices from their product roadmap.

Instead, beginning with the One series of devices, HTC is upping their focus on thin form factors, which generally shed user-replaceable batteries. None of HTC’s 2012 revealed smartphones to date have allowed users to remove the battery plate and replace the battery.

HTC will focus its battery life efforts on improvements in battery technology, and increase efforts on software enhancements that are geared at battery life, similar to what Motorola has done with its Smart Actions program. Motorola’s Smart Actions have greatly improved the battery life on the OG Droid RAZR, making it the first LTE smartphone we’ve tested with an 8+ hour battery. Hopefully

Whether or not HTC’s focus on form factor over battery life will get them back in the game remains to be seen. As we move more and more into LTE-territory, battery life becomes much more important. Most devices out there that run on the super fast LTE networks barely make it through a full work day without needing to be plugged in. Fortunately, the HTC One series offers some of the best battery life we’ve seen in a while, so HTC is clearly taking steps in the right direction.

What do you guys think? Do you value thinness and form factor over battery life, or would you accept a slightly thicker device that provided 24 hours of battery life?

The HTC One series has me excited for an HTC smartphone again. The One X (or, Evo 4G LTE) matches HTC’s notorious styling with top-notch innards, and a toned-down version of the popular HTC Sense custom UI. Similarly, the One S and One V phones are stellar phones for the mid-range market, and should easily steal customers away from the competition.

In a way, the One series is a make-or-break product for the Taiwanese manufacturer. Over the past year or so, HTC has continued to lose market share to Apple and Samsung, the latter of which is not resting on it’s previous successes. A huge deal between HTC and Beats Audio has left the company with a financial bottleneck that has just seen the ousting of HTC’s CFO Winston Yung after just a year on the job. Yung is being replaced by former Goldman Sachs partner Chia-lin Chang.

What’s worse, Samsung is about to take the spotlight off of the One series, just as the HTC One line begins to go on sale in the United States. Samsung will soon take the wraps off their next flagship device, the Galaxy S III, and if sales of the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II lines are any indication, the Galaxy S III will sell phenomenally well when it launches later this quarter.

These two situations spell potentially bad news for HTC, and HTC’s shares have taken a tumble this morning as a result, shedding over 5% in early trading. We’re sure this will even out over time, and we hope that sales of the HTC One X and S smartphones in the U.S. will give HTC the boost it needs to remain successful in the Android handset market.

The HTC One V may be the value proposition of the HTC One family, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be HTC’s entry-level handset for 2012. A press shot of the HTC Golf (rumored to launch as the HTC Wildfire C later this quarter) has surfaced, revealing a design very similar to the HTC One X.

While the HTC One X and HTC Golf may look alike, their specifications are polar opposites. The HTC Golf is rumored to have a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 pixel display, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 3.0 and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. The software setup should include Android 4.0, HTC sense 4.0, Beats Audio and 25GB of cloud storage through DropBox. The processor on the HTC Golf is still unknown, but we hope it’ll pack a little more punch than the 600 MHz processor included in last year’s HTC Wildfire S.

With the price of the HTC One V coming in at less than $350, we can’t see HTC charging more than $300 for the HTC Golf. We doubt any of you are planning to purchase the HTC Golf, but it could be a huge seller for consumers who want to jump on the Android bandwagon for the same price it would cost them to buy a feature phone.

Do you think the entry-level HTC Golf fits into HTC’s new strategy for 2012?

Tomorrow’s unveiling of the HTC EVO One is right around the corner, but that doesn’t mean we have to wait any longer to see what Sprint’s variant of the HTC One X will look like. PocketNow has managed to get its hands on a press release which they say depicts the HTC EVO One posing next to the AT&T HTC One X and the T-Mobile HTC One S. The design of the handset looks similar to the two HTC One devices, but it trades in a micro-drilled speaker holes at the top of the phone for a more traditional speaker grill and the display looks to have sharper edges giving it a looks which is reminiscent of previous HTC EVO devices.

One other feature which stands out in the leaked image of the HTC EVO One is the presence of a dedicated camera button along the edge of the phone. Since HTC is putting such a huge focus on the HTC One’s camera abilities, we were actually surprised to see they didn’t include a physical shutter button on their other HTC One devices.

Rumored specs for the HTC EVO One include a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 4.7-inch 720p HD display, 8 megapixel camera with LED flash, 16 GB of internal storage, 2650mAh battery, NFC, support for Sprint’s 4G LTE network and a kickstand. At this point it’s hard to say if all of the rumored specs will be included once the HTC EVO One is unveiled tomorrow afternoon, but Sprint has always worked hard with HTC to deliver handsets that are unique.

What do you think of the design of the HTC EVO One? Do you like what Sprint and HTC have come up with or should they have stuck with the original design of the HTC One X?

It’s a sad night for HTC fans in France and across the globe as HTC France has taken legal action against HTC-Hub (currently the largest HTC blog on the web) for releasing an unboxing video of the HTC One S. The handset, which Bruno obtained through a confidential source, has also been seized by French authorities.

At this point, we’re not sure what legal charges have been brought against HTC-Hub, but it looks like everything has stemmed from a lack of communication from Hopscotch, HTC’s PR agency in France. Bruno approached Hopscotch a few weeks after Mobile World Congress to inquire about HTC One demo units. While HTC typically sends out demo units to members of the press several days before the actual launch with an embargo agreement (an agreement to not publish any information about the phone before a specific date or time), Hopscotch informed Bruno that demo units would not be available in France until the launch of the HTC One next week.

Members of HTC-Hub decided to take the matter into their own hands and were able to secure the HTC One S without help from HTC or its PR company, meaning there were no legal restrictions as to when they could share images, videos or information about the device. We know that quite a few bloggers in Europe have been using the HTC One S and HTC One X for a few days already, but no major site has given any hands-on account of the devices due to the embargo which they all agreed to.

We don’t know how things will progress with Bruno and the rest of his team at HTC-Hub. From the personal communication we have had with Bruno, it’s obvious that this whole situation could have been resolved without legal action. We don’t want to point fingers at HTC and say that they are in the wrong since we are not directly involved and may be missing some key details, but we’ll be monitoring the situation and let you know if there are any interesting updates.

What are your thoughts on the situation? If HTC-Hub managed to obtain a demo unit of the HTC One S from a different source should they be legally required to abide by an embargo that they never agreed to?

You already watched the unboxing and the new TV ad, so why not see what the HTC One X camera can do? One of the main things I’m looking forward to in HTC’s new lineup is ImageSense. With this new technology, HTC thinks they can rival digital point and shoot cameras with improvements to every part of the camera, including the lens, the sensor, the software, and even integrating a new custom HTC ImageChip.

Today’s new video demonstrates just how good the HTC One X camera is compared to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Sony Xperia S. We can see the One takes a photo in just 0.7 seconds, and it takes 4 photos per second (max of 99) in the burst mode. Best of all, these exciting new camera features are available across HTC’s entire One lineup (X, S, and V).

I recently found myself using my camera more than ever, and I admit that I’m a little disappointed with the Galaxy Nexus camera. It can take great photos, but it’s slow to start up and it struggles with low light situations.  It’s nice to see HTC raise the bar for camera phones, and we hope more handset makers follow.

How important is camera performance for your next smartphone purchase?

Highlights of HTC ImageSense include:

• Superfast Capture - HTC One dramatically reduces the time it takes to capture those key moments. In just 0.7 seconds you’re able to take a shot, and with a new superfast 0.2-seconds autofocus, continue to take nearly unlimited continuous shots simply by holding the shutter button.
• Good photos in adverse conditions - HTC One delivers dramatic enhancements in image capture quality even in adverse conditions such as low light, no light or with bright backlighting. The f/2.0 lens on the HTC One X and HTC One S offers best-in-class performance, capturing 40 percent more light than the f/2.4 lenses available on other high-end phones. HTC One also includes HDR, a market-leading technology, for taking great photos even when there are varying levels of brightness.
• Video Pic (Concurrent Video/Still Capture) - With Video Pic you capture a photo and shoot video at the same time. Now, while you’re shooting HD video, all you have to do is tap the shutter button and it snaps a high-resolution still photo while the video continues to shoot. You are also able to capture a photo frame from a previously recorded video.
• Dropbox integrated with HTC Sense - HTC One gives you an easy way to save and share your photos and videos. HTC has integrated Dropbox into HTC Sense 4 enabling HTC One customers to get 25 gigabytes of free Dropbox space for two years. That’s enough to keep more than 10,000 high-quality photos. Dropbox is also integrated throughout HTC Sense 4, so it’s easy to edit, save and share your documents and other kinds of files.
• Sharing your photos and more - HTC One gives you a new way to share your photos and videos. When you plug in HTC’s wireless Media Link HD* accessory into your TV’s HDMI port, you can easily share your photos, videos, or anything else on your phone with your friends, family or colleagues regardless of the television’s brand as long as it has HDMI.