HTC were not particularly successful in 2012. Sure they released some amazing phones, but they failed to grab the market share that perhaps their phones deserved. It appears that the HTC brand is not yet particularly well received by the general public. However with the HTC One, things may be about to change.
Apple had an interesting year in 2012 as well. They went through legal battles with Samsung over patent infringements and spent a great deal of time in the courts. They also released the iPhone 5 which had amazing success, although it was criticised heavily by pundits and market analysts. These two phones are the flagship phones from HTC and Apple. Let’s see how they stack up against each other.
The Designs of the Phones:
There’s no doubt that the HTC One is a vital phone for HTC. It is a beautiful piece of technology with two aluminium plates and a curve round from the back at the top and the bottom with a nice trim. The iPhone is a little bit smaller and has a smaller display. It looks very much like the Apple iPhone 4 and the Apple iPhone 4S. It is a bit longer to house the extra half an inch in the 4-inch screen and it is thinner at just 7.6mm. The HTC is thicker at 9.3mm and is heavier at 143 grams compared to 112 grams with the iPhone 5.
For me, the HTC is a more beautiful phone, although Apple has got their iconic slab design to a tee in the iPhone 5.
The Display:
There are some pretty good iPhone deals out there at the moment and many people are going for the iPhone 4S over the iPhone 5 because it is cheaper and may represent better value in the market place. Indeed the phone display on the iPhone 5 is 326 pixels per inch, which is the same as the iPhone 4S and indeed the iPhone 4.
The display on the HTC is frankly amazing. It is a 4.7-inch Super LCD3 screen. The viewing angles on it are simply incredible and it has 468 pixels per inch. It is not quite as bright as the iPhone 5 and therefore not quite as good in outdoor viewing, but in terms of sharpness it is much, much better.
The Positives of the HTC One:
There are a lot of positives when it comes to the HTC One. It has a very big display at 4.7-inches and has 1080×920 pixels. The quad-core processor is superb and you have 2MB of RAM. As well as this, you of course have 4G connectivity and NFC. A bonus for those that are into using their phones for entertainment is that you have an HDMI connector which works via the micro-USB port and enables you to connect up to your TV.
The Downsides of the HTC One:
There really aren’t any downsides that are obvious on the HTC One. The fact that it lacks the support for a microSD card with no slot present is perhaps the only critique.
The camera is excellent, using ultrapixels rather than megapixels and taking 1920×1080 video. There are a lot of different features such as autofocus, image stabilisation, burst mode, geotagging, panorama scenes and effects. It really is a cracking media device that is difficult to beat in the market at the moment
The Pros of the Apple iPhone 5:
The iPhone 5 has a good resolution display at 640×1136 pixels. It also has good pixel density at 326PPI however it is below the HTC One. The camera is high resolution with 8 megapixels but this is far below the Samsung Galaxy S4 at 13 megapixels and also, not as good as the HTC One when it comes to pictures.
You have a dual-core processor rather than a quad-core and only 1MB of RAM but these are strong performers and positives to the phone because they are upgrades on the previous iPhone. The dual-core 1.3GHz has superseded the dual-core 800MHz on the iPhone 4S.
You also of course have 4G connectivity which is a bonus, although most premium phones should come with it these days. The dimensions of the phones are also a real bonus, with just 7.6mm in depth. It is a very skinny device and very, portable.
The Negatives of the iPhone 5
Just like the HTC One, the iPhone 5 does not have support for a microSD card. Also, it is charged not through a micro USB style slot but through Apple’s own technology. It is about time that Apple took up the industry standards with regards to charging and memory.
On top of all this, the iPhone 5 is perhaps not as far ahead of the iPhone 4S as we would have liked. The specifications are improved in many areas but in some areas, they are just the same. When you look at the Samsung Galaxy S4, you see a phone that has leapt far ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S3. Nowadays, it is good value to get an iPhone 4S on iPhone deals in order to benefit from a really good phone and the Apple brand without having to fork out quite as much as for an iPhone 5.
iPhone Deals:
Indeed, many people are wondering whether to actually go for an iPhone 4. The fact is that the iPhone 4 is a midrange phone with lower specifications than the iPhone 4S. It only has a single-core 800MHz processor and is some way behind the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5. The gap between the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 means that iPhone deals between the two and the relative value that the consumer can get by going for the older model really does make sense in many situations.
The Verdict:
The HTC One, for me, is streets ahead of the iPhone 5. The next iPhone, the iPhone 6, or iPhone 5S, will surely have to innovate a lot more in order to stay ahead of the pack and really maintain a quality reputation in the industry.
