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As you all know by now, today HTC and Sprint announced the release date for the HTC EVO 4G LTE.
I am excited as anyone about this phone. However, there is one area that I am VERY disapointed about: video recording quality.
In my opinion, HTC has so far been un-able to make a cell phone that can record good quality HD video. It's even more puzzling since apparently both HTC and Sprint were really promoting the camera on the phone at the press event today.
I have no issue with the quality of the still photos - my original EVO takes pretty good stills.
I saw a sample of video shot with the European version of One X, and it suffers from the same issue as my EVO - jerky video!
Shot in 1080p outdoors, at the highest quality setting, the video looks as if it were shot at around 20fps rather than 30fps. Pans and objects moving across the screen were jerky.
My EVO has always had this issue, which has prevented me from shooting much video with it. The camera is great, but I want to be able to carry a camcorder with me always. My mom's two year old Epic Galaxy S has been able to shoot smooth HD video from day one, and I've always envied it.
There is no video I can shoot with my EVO that I would want to burn to DVD or shoot important events with, like birthdays, holidays, etc.
Some bigwig from HTC was quoted comparing the One X's camera with that of the iPhone 4S. But I know the 4S shoots smooth HD video as well.
I'll probably at least go into Sprint and check it out myself, but I don't expect to have different results then that fromthe reviewer.
Have any of you (who can review video quality with a critical eye) noticed what I'm talking about?
I don't understand why HTC can't get video recording right!
Didn't notice the recording problem on my EVO, but could be the ROM I'm using. Also on the new One X, the videos I've seen look amazing. Don't know which one you saw, but I thought it looked great. Perhaps issues uploading or the video stabilization was turned on in the video you saw? It's not going to be like a 60 fps camcorder, but if that's what you are expecting out of a tiny phone camera, your expectations may be too high.
What other phone has better video? Looks the same as iphone 4S video and no one complains about that. A small sensor has limitations and it isn't going to get better when you post it to youtube and they compress it. No phone is going to make quality DVDs for your events. What's wrong with getting a camcorder with a sensor twice the size or a triple sensor if you have the funds? Seems they are getting video recording done just as well as any other phone to me. These are phones.
Well, maybe I'm a bit more critical than most. I work in video and perhaps my eye is more sensitive to the various aspects of video.
I'm not talking about sharpness, contrast, color saturation, etc.
As I mentioned, both the iPhone 4/4S and Samsung's Galaxy line of phones do not have this issue.
Try this: film 20 seconds of either relatively close fast moving objects like car traffic, or else pan in a circle at a somewhat faster than pleasing speed.
If you look closely, you will see very slight jumping in the video. It's not going to jump out at you (excuse the pun).
It's not a compression issue, that would result in a more blurry or pixelated image.
I realize we're talking cell phones. But both Apple and Samsung do not have this issue. I REALLY want to love the EVO LTE, I'm eligible for an upgrade in June!
Video recording on my evo was horrible as well ...like unusable horrible ..super choppy and laggy all the time. My brothers was exactly the same. My phone was rooted flashed multiple roms, video was always choppy... brothers phone never rooted...video was always choppy
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
No I gotcha, I'm critical as well. That's why I wouldn't use ANY phone for capturing video for an important event. A camcorder is the only thing that will do.
However the samples I've seen look every bit as good as the iphone 4s or samsung videos. Of course the One X does seem more geared towards photos and have to say it definitely beats the others there. Also if you pause the One X videos you can still clearly see everything and even grab a frame as a picture. The Samsung videos get blurry so I wouldn't try it with the Nexus. Can't say I notice any change in fluidity from iphone 4S videos to One X videos, but again I don't know which video you are talking about. If there is any difference it is slight. All phones have this issue as they are just not going to match the smoothness of a quality camcorder and definitely not professional camcorders. Even then I notice the difference with motion interpolation on high refresh 120 hz and 240 hz TV's so I know what you are saying.
Perhaps best to withhold judgment about video on phone that isn't out yet. Once it's on youtube it just isn't going to look as good.
EDIT: I did find a One X video that looked horrible, it was a close up and the exposure was constantly changing, but did notice jumpiness when panning. Can't tell if it was due to being uploaded on youtube, but if it did happen on the phone it looks like it is having trouble with quickly writing to memory. It doesn't do it constantly so that may be the issue. When you have trouble with your EVO 4G are you directly shooting video to the SD Card? That may be your problem. The lag causes a frame to be skipped here or there. A larger buffer would correct this issue (well until it fills) or higher memory bandwidth. This also happens when uploading videos or converting the file format. Perhaps a result of poor conversion from RAW to 3gp. Still I wouldn't worry about it as there is a way to go until June and the hardware version may change. If there is an issue I'm sure they are aware of it.
htc-ppc said:
When you have trouble with your EVO 4G are you directly shooting video to the SD Card? That may be your problem. The lag causes a frame to be skipped here or there. A larger buffer would correct this issue (well until it fills) or higher memory bandwidth. This also happens when uploading videos or converting the file format.
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Well, yes. the EVO has so little internal storage, and video file sizes are large compared to other file types.
But then, my mom's Samsung also wrote directly to the SD card, and it's still very smooth.
I will try to find that example I was speaking about and post a link. It was shot outdoors in daylight, near a flower stand if I remember correctly.
And for sure I will definitely check it out myself before writing the phone off.
As far as the phone not having the same quality as a "real" camcorder, sure. but you know the old saying, "The best camera is the one you have with you". My phone is ALWAYS with me. And I do think the quality is getting to the point where I can shoot casual everyday stuff that I may want to archive for the future, even edit.
Here is a link to the sample I was referring to.
This is from the HTC One X, which I believe has the same camera as todays announced EVO LTE. Pay particular attention to the panning at about the 1:10 mark.
And this phone has no SD card, so it was recorded to the internal memory.
Also, while you may wish to blame YouTube, this is how video recorded on my two year old EVO looks.
http://youtu.be/xOv4tjB7HMQ
Better than the one I found, but SD Card or not that is still the issue. I know that the version of the One X used for this does not have an SD Card. The Sprint one will. Either way, uploading it to youtube can cause this problem as well. And if you record to your SD Card on your 2 year old EVO and use a slow card you will see this as well. That may be your issue though it isn't for the One X. If it's internal then another phone might be your best option.
These are frames that get skipped either due to trouble encoding, small buffer, or memory speed problems. The iphones never seem to have this issue like Androids do (probably due to all the stuff running in the background and iOS's control over apps). Can tell when it happens in the video and it starts skipping. It's the same as when you are video conferencing and frames get dropped due to bandwidth. This isn't normal and guessing they would be on that. As far as the rest, still looks as jagged as any other phone with motion. If you use post processing it can help.
Here's on I saw that looked about as decent as other phone videos
One X 1080p sample
with cars going by like you mentioned. Have to say it looks clear when you pause on passing cars. Fast pans aren't going to impress on any phone (or many camcorders in my experience) and I don't know what else to say about it. Hopefully they fix what is bothering you and if not I guess you gotta go with another phone.
OK, you got me motivated to check out several youtube videos. I will give you the YouTube effect. Even though I have seen Galaxy and iPhone 4S clips Played back on the phones without the jumping, the YouTube samples did exhibit the issue.
While I wait for the EVO LTE to arrive at Sprint, I will change the video recording folder on my EVO and see if that makes any difference. I will also test the new EVO and cross my fingers. Everything else looks great and I'm hoping the video recording will pass my stringent tests!!!
So I checked, and I can not find any setting on my EVO to have the camera record video files directly to internal storage. In fact, there is no setting at all as far as location of recorded video and photos. Apparently the EVO is designed to record directly to the SD card and there is no other option.
However, in thinking about this studdering or "jumping" issue, it doesn't make sense that it would be related to the SD card anyway.
The phone would buffer recorded video before it writes it to the card. If the buffer ran out, perhaps video would jump or skip, but it would be at random times. The issue I'm talking about happens consistently during the video, like I said, it looks like video shot at about 20 fps.
Besides, I've used the same SD card in my mom's Samsung Galaxy, and video is very smooth.
So it's not the SD cards fault.
OP I'm with you. Camcorder on my Evo or better yet HTC phone if pure crap. Low light shooting is the worst I've seen on a phone. My Xoom, wife's ipad and daughter's Epic all take great low light and non jerky videos. People need to compare on hand with different devices before saying the Evo is okay, because it's not. That's my only peeve with htc phone and my next phone I'm going to make sure the video department is almost as good as the iphone 4s if not better, because iphone 4s take stunning video especailly low light.
I have been scouring the web looking for a fix for my Evo 4G video quality.
If anyone finds a fix please post it here.
Phone is rooted with CM7.1.0
HamdiR HTC One Semi Review, vs HTC One X - extras: Double Flip Cover & Media Link HD
This is my semi review for the HTC One
Batch Date: HT33W, Made in Taiwan 28th of March
Firmware: 1.28.401.7
Region: EMEA, French unlocked unit
update: HTC just issued a statement about an upcoming update dealing with few camera issues mentioned in the review
HTC One updated with camera enhancement suite and more in Europe (1.29.401.13)
• Noise reduction in slow motion movie capture
• Improved color reproduction and dynamic range (reduced over-exposure in non-HDR images) in certain conditions
• Fix to display correct ISO in EXIF information when ISO settings are manually changed by the user
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This device is still not widely available in my country, given that we still don't have official HTC presence in Lebanon it's up to sub dealers to import HTC devices, some of which are registered with HTC, the device can be purchased for around 1100$ which is a crazy price at the moment, my cousin bought the device along with the media link and double flip cover accessories and i was able to spend some quality time with the device.
Design and Build quality: Pristine and Flawless
The device finish is exquisite, the metal parts are laser cut to perfection and the injected plastic bands are completely flush with the device, both the plastic parts and metallic back plate are "one" piece they are cut and molded together hence a zero gap uni-body shell, the independent frontal metallic speaker covers are perfectly flush as well, unlike some reported early cases of misalignment or gaps, this more recent unit had an almost zero gap speakers covers, you can visually identify its not as microscopic zero gap as the unibody shell but both covers are so rigid and tightly fit there are no gaps, no overhangs, the screen and its metallic protection sides are also perfectly fit and finished
Curiously it has a French warning sticker about speakers' loudness
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The white plastic band had no imperfections to the USB or earphone ports however you can detect some micro imperfections to the interior of the earphone port and the SIM tray hole, i have to say without close inspection this can not be seen from any distance and returning such a device on this account is just being bitter
The volume button looks and feel like a brushed metal but i actually suspect its plastic with metallic finish
Unlike what you would assume from online photos, the device physically looks very different than the iPhone, it looks much slimmer due to the tapered sides, the mixture of black screen glass and metallic sides plus silver metal plates and white plastic inserts gives a very polarizing effect, it actually feels more male than you would imagine, the aluminum parts project a more premium metal feel, in other words the device has a machinery stainless steel feel due to the beveled machined metal parts, combine all this with the slim profile and the resulting look is a very sleek yet bold and edgy
In terms of ergonomics the moment you hold the device you are surprised by how well it slips into the palm of your hand, it holds very well, I commend them for not going with a bigger screen since due to the extra speakers space the device lost a little percentage of it's one hand usability coming from the One X, the screen is very comfortable to use however and i found it still manageable with one hand, the device is just barely bigger than the One X as I was able to fit it in the same tight pouch I use for my One X
I found reports of a slippery finish surprising since the device was really easy to juggle around even when rotating it constantly for the different tests I've done, perhaps it's a different story for sweaty hands or black finish?
Speaking of black finish, I recommend going with the genuinely colored silver version, I can see the One is clearly not itself in any other color
In terms of durability, we have to remember this is not really rugged device, with such pristine metallic finish, it's not hard to imagine how easy it would be ruined with one drop, I am not talking about breaking the device but actually dents to the fit and finish will clearly go less easy than it does on the single piece single colored One X, any sort of protection is highly recommend, I would go with a transparent slim cover or simply a pouch so i can both enjoy the design while protecting the device.
Screen: 4.7" 1080p 468ppi screen Laminated and Bright as the One X
The screen like the One X before it is laminated to the glass, there is no air between the glass and LCD, hence it appears floating on the surface, a laminated screen would not suffer from the old dust under screen concerns
Within the first few moments of use you realize the famed 720p screen on the One X is now outdated, its hard to describe, the difference isn't so obvious but for me I was always able to detect density when reading in low light, not anymore! pixel density eye detection on a phone is now history, the screen is sharp and pristine, a perfect reflection of the sleek device design and build material
I actually found the color accuracy on the One a little better than the One X, yes it's clearly a cooler calibration but in actual use it was obviously whiter than the warm saturated One X screen (again perhaps due to my low light environment), it was also a little less saturated which is a good thing in terms of Apple like accuracy but might disappoint saturation lovers
The full brightness on both devices was surprisingly a match, i couldn't tell any difference between brightness, blacks and view angles as you can see in this photo taken by a Desire SV
One thing was clear however especially in view angles, the One screen had little more glass reflections, this is why it appears to have darker view angles in some photos which is not the real case, I assume it would perform slightly less in outdoor visibility than the One X
A reminder: As reported by Anandtech, OEMs are known to use different panel sources which can differ in calibration, it's also worth noting the HTC One is using a sort of dynamic contrast which might influence white point tests.
Audio Quality: "BoomSound" Stereo speakers and HDR sound recording
This part will not take a long write to describe, the speakers on the HTC One are beyond anything you have experienced on a mobile device, it's not the loudness or actual deep bass but the quality of the output, its crystal clear you simply can not fail to notice how clear and crisp it sounds whenever an audio plays even the tiniest of notifications tons or how clean it remains with the loudest of music, one thing to note however is that Beats audio is enabled by default, when disabled the sound quality is significantly worse, it's good know HTC finally made real use of it's Beats deal, whether its by HW alone or SW as well is not clear (it might still be a counter trick just to emphasis the importance of beats branding)
What's even more impressive is audio recording quality, just phenomenal, I tried two tests:
- First is recording straight from TV, the results were excellent, crisp but not very loud due to the distance from TV
- The second is re-recording the audio captured by the One from this video while playing on my One X! very impressive, it played back almost as crisp as we have it on youtube (I will upload this test once i get the chance)
There was some kind of low a frequency hiss with these video in their playback on the One but not nearly as audible when those same videos played back on the One X, my guess is that this noise was being exaggerated by the BoomSound speakers, I didn't get the chance to try disabling Beats during playback which might resolve this issue
Unfortunately I also had no chance to test earphones performance, this will have to go till my my next time with the device
Video Recording: 1080p at 20MB per second
The default video quality was excellent, it recorded 1080p video at constant 20Mbps, Anandtech noted this is the maximum ability of the s600 SOC, the resulting one minute H264 mp4 file was 150MB, and as reviews has stated optical stability during video recording is impressive as well, I was doing tests in indoor low light and colors were an accurate reflection of the real scene, much better than the redness of the One X during low light, the video runs at locked 30fps which is very impressive considering the One X video lag in low light
Unfortunately the same can not be said about both slow motion and 60fps modes while both modes functioned probably in terms of frame rate the image quality was very bad, HDR however was a mixed bag it actually works, dynamic range and especially colors are much improved but in my low light environment there was some strange flickers, I expect this mode to work better during daylight, the good news encoding in HDR mode is as good as the standard mode, the following screenshots will tell the story:
Standard mode, 30fps(indoor low light), 1920x1080, 20Mbps
HDR mode, 29fps(indoor low light), 1920x1080, 19Mbps
Slow motion mode, 24fps(indoor low light), 768x432, 2.5Mbps
60fps mode, 43fps(indoor low light), 1280x720, 8.5Mbps
Download full size screenshots
Ultrapixel Camera: 4MP 4µm F2.0 wide angle, aka Advanced Night Vision Goggles
As we've observed in the photo thread, the default camera settings had two slight issues: aggressive digital sharpness and lack of contrast due to the brightness loving (2.0µm x 2.0µm) sensor, thankfully both are within our control due to the honestly deep options in the camera UI, sharpness can be reduced by setting it to -1 or -2 for disabled while contrast can be boosted in few ways like setting contrast to +1, exposure to -1, apply auto enhance from gallery > edit > effects (you can also drag the preset to customize it) or third party apps
Again my environment was low light indoor, so i was only able to test it within this context and compare it with the 8MP (1.0µm x 1.0µm) F2.0 One X, in general I still found results to be only missing a little contrast punch and naturally based on my own recommendation I reduced sharpness to -1 on all the shots
Here I found all the tweaked results better than the default settings, low light color capture was a lot better than the redness on the One X, in terms of 1:1 detail the 4MP results were clearly better than the noisy One X results:
There are four One vs two One X samples in this comparison
The One X is weak in it's low light default capture, but it's still F2.0, there is a special mode on the One X allowing for great low light capability and that is HDR + Auto flash, the same mode can be used on the One, it captures three shots along with two quick flashes for combined HDR exposures without tinting the colors, the One HDR capture is dramatically faster than the One X, sometimes you don't even see the "processing" notification, this means HDR results form the One have a tremendously less chance of blurring than the One X, as you can see it's almost night vision:
There are three One vs three One X samples in this comparison
There are four One vs two One X samples in this comparison
There is something very odd about the first standard results, first in this dark white scene the automatic camera settings struggled, I could clearly see it in the view finder as it's struggling to setup, the first shot is the one above (exposure 1/7 ISO 1922) the second capture (not displayed above) was weirder it used exposure 1/30 ISO 235, the results were noise free but curiously low ISO seems to apply more aggressive detail smudging, more about this later
In the following I attempt again to tweak camera settings in order to boost contrast:
It seems contrast +1 and auto enhance can often achieve similar results, sadly it sometime feels too harsh, a middle ground would be more ideal like auto enhance from perfectly clear app, examples here
In conclusion contrast + 0.5 would have been ideal
Comparing 1:1 Detail:
HTC One, ISO-193, 4MP 1:1
HTC One X, ISO-800, 8MP downscaled
iPad 4, ISO-250, 5MP 1:1
HTC One, exposure 1/60 ISO-104, 1:1
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-125, 1:1
If a good light source is nearby, the camera will choose a very low ISO + extreme shutter speed and those noise free slightly smudgy results will appear again, colors are way off on the One X meanwhile it's a perfect shot from the HTC One
HTC One, exposure 1/60 ISO-104
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-125
One last time, macro, light source away, resulting in noisy high ISO
HTC One, exposure 1/10 ISO-1027
HTC One X, exposure 1/20 ISO-1000
Download full size HTC One samples
Download full size HTC One X samples
In general I found the camera an amazing performer in low light, especially when it comes to color accuracy, shutter speed and most important power, those settings are empowering but as a side effect it definitely has a learning curve, those expecting point and shoot awe inspiring results might struggle
For the average user much of this photographic power might remain unseen
Last thing to note the camera view finder, shutter, UI and processing speed is absurdly fast, it totally out-dates the already fast One X camera
The front camera is similar to the "full frontal" ultra wide angle camera as the HTC 8x. Shutter speed and viewfinder fps is a lot better than on the 8x, but after reinspecting indoor photos i previously took with my 8x i noticed the quality is indeed reduced on the One.
HTC Zoe:
This is the most fun feature of the HTC camera, lets get to the negatives first, the Zoe trigger is actually just an icon without any label, this alone might keep this feature unseen to many! once you click the icon the shutter button will have a Zoe label over it and it starts caching images, when you click it collects few pre frames and the remaining captures until the red bar runs out.
Once you have a Zoe you can do great things but yet again those abilities are a little hidden, in order to apply sequence shot for example you have to go to edit > enhance,Ii struggled few times to find it since it only appears if it's a Zoe and sometimes I confused its location with edit > effects, either way "sequence shot" and all Zoe abilities like "always smile" are the perfect party camera features, tons of fun if you are using these abilities with a couple of friends or your family
In Zoe capture many options including sharpness controls are actually disabled, I also noticed captured quality can be different than normal capture, for example all my Zoe still shots appear to be the most in lacking contrast
Now for the best Zoe part "highlights" again it's confusing at first since you see those moving zoe thumbnails and a still thumbnail with a play icon, once you press play you realize it's a highlight reel being generated in realtime, I was spending the whole evening with my cousin and wife trying out this phone, when we finally arrived to the highlights part it caught us by surprise, it was video recap of the entire evening with the neat default "vega" theme, it was hilarious seeing all our tests, videos, zoes, expressions and beer photos come together, there couldn't be a more perfect "memory capture" of the evening
A word of warning a highlight is not automatically saved and they will change once you capture more content, so if you see something you like hit menu and save in order to keep it as a video, you can also share it to HTC Zoe website, it's wise to clean up your zoe's once your done, if you don't want to overwhelm your camera folder
Sense 5.0, Blinkfeed and Buttons layout:
The new UI is all about less is more, there is much less UI and a lot more functionality, from the get go I changed the app drawer grid from the default 3 columns and i've a set a normal homescreen as my default, although there were few accounts loaded like Facebook, I was not fuzzed by blinkfeed it was left there to the left and harmless, if those feeds have ugly or low res photos expect the phone to greet you with them, so it does what it does and that is providing feeds but it should not be the default homscreen
As for the rest of the UI its just minimalist, clean and a lot more AOSP in terms of cursor and buttons etc, most importantly its so fast and locked triple buffered 60fps JB smooth, so smooth you really don't care about it anymore, you can be busy multitasking, jumping back and forth and the UI will never break a sweat, it's never in your way, after this my One X feels a little "old fashioned"
Not once did I confuse the HTC logo for a button, I was perfectly adapted to the new home button location and double tapping for multi view, in fact I have enjoyed the change
If I was to be picky, I can say I have noticed some fps drops in folders' animation inside the app drawer, otherwise the OS is scorching fast and liquid smooth
Gaming:
update: check the following 3D games reports
3D Games Performance Report Part II>>
3D Games Performance Report Part I>>
As a recap here is the current HTC One GPU situation:
http://gfxbench.com/device.jsp?benchmark=gfx27&D=HTC+One
in T-Rex offscreen 1080p:
Tegra4 project shield @18fps
554MP4 iPad 4 @16.8fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz OC @18fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 450mhz OC @17fps
Adreno320 s600 SGS4 (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz stock @17ps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 400mhz stock @15fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 400mhz stock @14.8fps
544MP3 Octa SGS4 @12.5fps
Tegra3 HTC One X @4.1fps
in Egypt HD 2.5 offscreen 1080p:
Tegra4 project shield @54.5fps
554MP4 iPad4 @54.4fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz OC @45fps
544MP3 Octa SGS4 @43fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.2.2) GPU 400mhz stock @41fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 450mhz OC @40.4fps
Adreno320 s600 SGS4 (4.2.2) GPU 450mhz stock @40fps
Adreno320 s600 HTC One (4.1.2) GPU 400mhz stock @37fps
Tegra3 HTC One X @12.5fps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also the T-Rex results are reflected in the 3D mark tests
The HTC One is currently lacking the latest Adreno 320 drivers with Open GL ES3.0 support, these drivers require Android 4.2.2. Thankfully HTC and Qualcomm demonstrated then promised these drivers in an upcoming update, which is good sign since few other Adreno 320 s600 devices running on 4.2.2 are achieving better GPU performance
Be sure to check my gameplay videos analysis, the HTC One runs Modern Combat 4 smoothly in native 1080p with full effects engaged
Finally with S600 you need to be aware of thermal throttling so check my [GUIDE] How to easily unleash your HTC One gaming powers ★ root>>
Battery and Temperature:
Throughout my time with the device, I had the brightness cranked up to full, I tested the device heavily for four hours, it was connected to wifi but not mobile networks, there was few accounts in Blinkfeed and most of my tests revolved around the camera, impressively in those non stop full brightness four hours the battery only fell from around 90% to 50%, coming for the One X limited screen on time this is a significant leap
The HTC One metal back plate did get warm, but never hot, it was clearly getting warm but quickly dissipating the heat
IR Remote: Who would say no!
I tried this quickly on my Sony bravia and LG LCD TVs, it worked perfectly, there was only one negative is that it requires you to setup the TV mode first by choosing a limited list of countries and your cable provider, needless to say non of this is supported in my country and all i wanted is to access the remote function, once i skipped through the setup, i chose my TV brands, it quickly downloaded the profiles, worked instantly (and yes I did try a practical joke with this)
Conclusion:
I was left speechless, it's not that the HTC One masters one specific element but it is the global quality of this device as a whole that is mouth watering, there is not one area left out or neglected, the entire abilities of this device combined working in harmony to give you a truly unique, sleek and "next level" experience, it continues the work started by the HTC One X and in the same time renders it obsolete, compared to the early life of the One X where many areas were still unfinished, taking a while to reach it's promise (through both hw and sw revisions), the HTC One is a fully refined out of box experience
After HTC's track record of software improvements on it's flagships of 2012 (X/S/XL) from which the One X was remade, I can only imagine where the One will be a year from now
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Accessories: Official Double Flip Cover, pretty but flimsy
I am angry at this cover, first I never expected to like the color combination but as you can see, it is actually pretty neat
The kickstand concept works perfectly as well, sadly so sadly there is one jarring omission and that is a lock mechanism when the cover is closed, you would imagine with all this metal at the front HTC would have used a magnet to snap the cover to the body once it's closed (like the iPad kickstand cover), sadly it's not the case, the flip is left clumsy and loose
In terms of quality, the clipping parts have a matt finish, these are rigid but have a tender finish meaning they slide easily out and can not do damage to the device, meanwhile the bendable parts have a fake leather finish, the texture is good quality but i found the HTC engraving a little cheap as well as the uneven back side
All in all a great concept, great design especially when it's in kickstand position but for a device with the quality of the HTC One, an "official" cover should do better
Accessories: HTC Media Link HD, an excellent tool but not as sleek
Note I wasn't able to confirm which model but the best part is that it is so easy to setup, just plug it to TV and charger, it will instantly appear on screen, all it takes is a swipe gesture and your UI is onscreen (if you disabled the gesture for multitouch reasons you can immediately enable media link from the settings or notifications menu)
The moment you connect to wifi the device will also alert you about Media Link's presence
I tried it on both the One and One X, Videos and photos are easily played back on your TV in 1080p24, the One was clearly faster than the One X which had a laggier UI due to the 3D launcher and had to pre load 1080p films before they play, the One never had to pre load those videos, they played from the moment you press play, you can also keep playing the video while you continue using your UI
In conclusion it's neat tool however there is a main issue and that is performance, the liquid smooth UI is not reflected on screen, its running at lesser frame rate, so eventually I found it hard to enjoy photo viewing for example and preferred to simply stream them through my PS3
You can also play any game through your media link, i tried RipeTide on both the One X and One but both performed badly even if the resolution was reduced in-game, the game was running liquid smooth on both phones but not on the screen there was also evident compression, I guess it has to do with wifi streaming speed
I'm not sure if this version supports the faster wifi on the HTC One but it's not hard to imagine an updated model will be released sooner or later
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If you find my work helpful in some of your unanswered questions please hit the thanks button
Don't forget, a lot more info here:
HTC Flagship 2013 - HTC One - Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600 - Mega Information Thread>>
Great review hamdir and as detailed as I expected it to be.
Glad to see that you like it and to see the detail on the camera (which is something I don't generally know much about apart from taking standard photos).
Will be adding this to post #2 of the review thread later today
Dude, you are allmost at same level with Brian.
Thank you so much! I'm hoping to get mine in next few weeks (Finland).
review
Good review...thx
Thanks a lot. Awesome review. Only sad thing is how cheap flip case looks. I mean seriously, nillkin and other chinese brands are much cheaper but much better in terms of quality. This should have been better.
Great comparison review, Hamdir. Do you still intend to keep the One X until the launch of One + or your will got weaker with these few hours with the One?
myself11 said:
Great comparison review, Hamdir. Do you still intend to keep the One X until the launch of One + or your will got weaker with these few hours with the One?
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I'm already weaker
Just a note I will soon be uploading full scale photos samples from this review as well as my audio recording test
Great review, i wish the buttons weren't visible when the screen is off
DynamicRam said:
Great review, i wish the buttons weren't visible when the screen is off
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This is an incredibly minor nitpick. But I agree with you - that would have been nice.
Great work hamdir, a priviledge to read your post. Now I see why you are a reference across many worldwide technology forums when the subject is HTC
(...) the HTC One is a fully refined out of box experience
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This is something very dear to me, thankfully you pointed it out.
Thanks guys
I have added fill size video screenshots and photo samples to the review
Wow. That's one hell of a review! :thumbup:
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
updated this part
The front camera is similar to the "full frontal" ultra wide angle camera as the HTC 8x. Shutter speed and viewfinder fps is a lot better than on the 8x, but after reinspecting indoor photos i previously took with my 8x i noticed the quality is indeed reduced on the One.
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I'd totally forgot about adding the IR Remote to mine until I read it in here.
Our reviews are a bit too big I think
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
KidCarter93 said:
I'd totally forgot about adding the IR Remote to mine until I read it in here.
Our reviews are a bit too big I think
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
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like Brian said there is just so much to cover with this device
hamdir said:
like Brian said there is just so much to cover with this device
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Couldn't agree more. When I originally wrote mine, it was much longer than it is now but knew I had to cut it down a bit otherwise I'd use up the 30,000 character limit.
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
KidCarter93 said:
Couldn't agree more. When I originally wrote mine, it was much longer than it is now but knew I had to cut it down a bit otherwise I'd use up the 30,000 character limit.
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
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did you forget to add your review and mine to the second post?
hamdir said:
did you forget to add your review and mine to the second post?
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Not forgot, I just haven't got around to doing it yet
I'm too lazy at the moment but will defo get it done soon-ish
Sent from my HTC One via XDA Premium
Excellent write-up! You touched on a few things I was wondering about. Thank you and cheers!!
1080p contend is supported more often from apps because of the amount of supported devices, I wondered if downscaling the tablet's screen resolution to 1080p is supported by any rom and if it would save a few hours of extra usage to the tablet?
vodred said:
1080p contend is supported more often from apps because of the amount of supported devices, I wondered if downscaling the tablet's screen resolution to 1080p is supported by any rom and if it would save a few hours of extra usage to the tablet?
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I am no expert but I know that when you give the command to change the resolution it doesn't actually change it, it's more of a virtual/spoofing, to make the system think it's changed. So all the pixels will still be there. But when watching videos in 1080p the "upscaling" won't take much of your battery, if any at all. You won't notice it.
A digital screen only has 1 resolution. To use any alternate resolution it must be scaled to the screens native resolution so if you were to somehow force a resolution other then the native it would have to re-scale it to the native in order to display it which would require additional processing...
You could get better performance, in 3D applications for example but not better battery life.
I am asking for the SoC power consumption,logic says less effort saves more energy,current pixels to handle are about 4 million instead of the half that 1080p are
Though there might be needed optimizations as a modded kernel with different clock speeds
vodred said:
I am asking for the SoC power consumption,logic says less effort saves more energy,current pixels to handle are about 4 million instead of the half that 1080p are
Though there might be needed optimizations as a modded kernel with different clock speeds
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"Logic" that's ill-informed can be just as fallacious as a random guess. Your particular brand is working off of some very silly assumptions, and your second sentence really just highlights that. A modded kernel with different clock speeds? Please.
When you downscale an image, you have less pixels to handle only in the sense that the image becomes smaller. The actual display still requires that all of the physical pixels be addressed before it can display anything. The only reason that you see graphical performance improve in say, a computer video game when you're playing on a lower resolution is when the bottleneck is the graphics card rendering an image. If your computer is struggling with the output, then you have a different set of problems.
On a tablet, a game that's not built to the screen resolution (let's say it's designed for a 720p panel for the sake of argument) will keep load fairly light on the GPU for rendering, but the same amount of work as normal to display (although this is a simplification, it'll work for these purposes). That's because whether the content is 720p or 1080p doesn't matter-- the GPU still needs to figure out how to stretch it to the dimensions of the physical screen.
Bottom line, you're not going to save "a few hours" of usage. All the work you'd need to do normally will still be there, plus the chicanery of trying to transform all video output to 1080p again only for the physical screen to demand its normal resolution.
How do you explain the 3rd ipad (that your sighn shows you have) overheat from the SoC?The amount of retina display pixels caused it and overheat means power loss as far as I know.Anyway your ironic first setence made me loose any interest for rest of your post.
brees75 said:
You could get better performance, in 3D applications for example but not better battery life.
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This! I know I was playing Dead trigger and you can enable the advanced graphics for tegra gpus, and it was laggy, but after reducing the resolution (the game doesn't allow this, or didn't the last time I played it) the game was buttery smooth.
And no, video decoding doesn't care what resolution your screen is. It still has to decode the whole video and display all the pixels, weather they are upscaled or not. your battery won't be affected by that. Apps on the other hand, like games, are another story.
vodred said:
How do you explain the 3rd ipad (that your sighn shows you have) overheat from the SoC?The amount of retina display pixels caused it and overheat means power loss as far as I know.Anyway your ironic first setence made me loose any interest for rest of your post.
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Not sure what's worse, clueless people on a site called XDA-Developers or clueless people who refuse to listen to advice.
Whether the iPad has some kind of overheating issue is a completely different matter and can be caused by a number of things. The fact is that changing your screen's render resolution has almost no impact on your battery life. The GPU still has to upscale whatever is rendered to the Nexus 10's native resolution. The biggest drain on the battery is the display itself; it takes a lot of energy to light up a display with such a high pixel density and still be bright enough to see.
Irony is the worst of all,at least some people know what a question is as this thread is
When you ask a question you need to be able to accept an answer that isn't on your liking. You've had 5 people telling you in different ways that it won't help, if you don't want to believe us, then here you go this doesn't work on 4.3, just 4.2 and maybe earlier. You can change it and use it for a week and see for yourself. Just make sure you don't let autosuggestion cloud your judgement.
It's not the answer but some persons that give them that's not my liking
vodred said:
It's not the answer but some persons that give them that's not my liking
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Ahaha, says the new member who has demonstrated 1) that they don't know what irony is, and 2) that they have no idea how to ask for help. Hint: it's not "please validate my preconceptions." The only irony here is your reactions to the thread that you spawned.
My iPad has never overheated, or even come close, really. It's the same crowd of people who will complain any device "overheats" when they're doing something that is going to create thermal load. Newsflash: that will be just about any game or long-term video ever. The 1080p Nexus 7 gets warm under use as well-- oh wait, 1080p is some magical resolution that will fix all your woes, right?
Protip: overheating doesn't mean power loss unless your circuitry gets pushed outside of standard operating conditions and loses conductivity due to thermal deformation. On a desktop PC, it might mean power loss from running the fans up, but as mobile SoCs use passive dissipation, this is a non-starter. Heat buildup is a byproduct of using a processor to do things.
Hi community.
One of the major reasons I got this phone is its claimed 60fps video capture capabilities which I was told was comprable to the iphone 5s'slowmotion mode. Thing is, I have come across something that I was wondering if other G2 owners could confirm.
60 fps video seems to only work under optimum lighting conditions. When indoor or under low light conditions, it drops to as low as 15 fps captures. Thus something Ive confirmed when importing into Adobe premiere. Capture fps is actually variable and depending on lighting conditions, the file is recognized at its slowest framerate. This is very disappointing and raises other questions for me:
1. 60fps is interpolated by cpu and not sensor capable?
2. Sensor cannot compensate hfr with autofocus/shutterspeed?
3. My cpu is too underclocked (24k antutu) to handle hfr.
Any insight would be much appreciated since i have only one more week to exchange for a iphone 5s.
Have you checked out this thread?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2471900
also constant 60fps issues will cause light issues - likely the cause of the problems here : http://www.imore.com/how-quality-your-iphone-5s-low-light-video - check out morac's comment at Nov 12, 2013 at 9:19 pm
Thanks Andybites.
I didn't expect to be relying on mods to get capabilities they have been marketing to function properly. Nice to see I would have encountered similiar low light issues with Iphone 5s, though their frame rate is still constant as opposed to framerate AND low light issues of the G2's stock camera.
15fps is unacceptable and would rather have consistent framerate so when my footage moves outdoor to indoor within the same shot, my footage won't look like its chugging like a video game being run with a bad gpu.
I'll try the camera mod you suggested and report back. Thanks again.
Rumor has it that both Google and LG are working on a software fix for both their cameras.
Steady frames > light compensation. Simply bad software.
"Sony Xperia Z2 won't let you record more than ~5 minutes of 4K video (and neither will Note 3 and S5)"
4K video recording is slowly but surely clawing its way into the mobile scene, and although its adoption is quite limited thus far, some manufacturers who are feeling more adventurous than others are starting to build the feature into some of their premium smartphones. Some of the first models offering 4K video recording are Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 and S5, as well as Sony's Xperia Z2, which recently got released on the market to become what's considered one of the finest handsets money can buy right now (probably until the LG G3 shows up, that is).
However, it turns out that these phones, even though they are officially capable of recording 4K video, cannot deliver an experience we'd consider truly adequate. Why? The answer is simple: they cannot record more than 5 minutes of footage in 4K resolution.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sony...-video-and-neither-will-Note-3-and-S5_id56633
Mine will. I just tried recording 4K twice and stopped it at 10 minutes myself. No excessive heating, no camera force close. The phone gradually got warmer in the area around the camera module, but the temperature rise ceased at around 5 minutes and the temperature remained steady after that.
The new .402 update seems to make a big difference on my device - 4K recording is now lasting around 10mins from cold before it closes down.
The difference however is that it now states that it needs to cool the camera down and will save the video.
I flashed the German unbranded to my UK unbranded phone last night.
Peav said:
The new .402 update seems to make a big difference on my device - 4K recording is now lasting around 10mins from cold before it closes down.
The difference however is that it now states that it needs to cool the camera down and will save the video.
I flashed the German unbranded to my UK unbranded phone last night.
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Same here. I also was able to record the same on Note 3.
How big is a 10" video ? 9 GB ?
higgs_ said:
How big is a 10" video ? 9 GB ?
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3.9 GB (tested by me).
It will be hard to have longer than 10 minute video because of limited capacity od FAT format, which is 4gb. It's just a theory about the videos on this device. Haven't tried formatting card to NTFS or something.
If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me
Peav said:
The new .402 update seems to make a big difference on my device - 4K recording is now lasting around 10mins from cold before it closes down.
The difference however is that it now states that it needs to cool the camera down and will save the video.
I flashed the German unbranded to my UK unbranded phone last night.
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Click to collapse
Mine the same now with the update, only got about 4mins before lasted 10mins now and said the above needs to close to cool camera down.
higgs_ said:
"Sony Xperia Z2 won't let you record more than ~5 minutes of 4K video (and neither will Note 3 and S5)"
4K video recording is slowly but surely clawing its way into the mobile scene, and although its adoption is quite limited thus far, some manufacturers who are feeling more adventurous than others are starting to build the feature into some of their premium smartphones. Some of the first models offering 4K video recording are Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 and S5, as well as Sony's Xperia Z2, which recently got released on the market to become what's considered one of the finest handsets money can buy right now (probably until the LG G3 shows up, that is).
However, it turns out that these phones, even though they are officially capable of recording 4K video, cannot deliver an experience we'd consider truly adequate. Why? The answer is simple: they cannot record more than 5 minutes of footage in 4K resolution.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sony...-video-and-neither-will-Note-3-and-S5_id56633
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Click to collapse
Half true, the Note 3 and S5 are limited to 5 mins by Samsung, the Z2 has no limitation introduced purposfully by Sony, the limitation on the Z2 is the fact that it gets very hot eventually overheating due to the demands on the processor and memory. If your phone wouldn't overheat the Z2 can record until you run out of storage. The article is rather missleading saying how it's overheating right at the end of the article.
Bear it in mind that the time the Z2 can record 4k is highly dependant on the the indevidual phone (some people have seen 15 mins+ whilst others 5 mins, ambient temperature and how hot the phone was before recording 4k.
I have personally recorded 10 mins at 4k, yes the phone's exterior got very hot, but no overheating message.
delsus said:
Half true, the Note 3 and S5 are limited to 5 mins by Samsung, the Z2 has no limitation introduced purposfully by Sony, the limitation on the Z2 is the fact that it gets very hot eventually overheating due to the demands on the processor and memory. If your phone wouldn't overheat the Z2 can record until you run out of storage. The article is rather missleading saying how it's overheating right at the end of the article.
Bear it in mind that the time the Z2 can record 4k is highly dependant on the the indevidual phone (some people have seen 15 mins+ whilst others 5 mins, ambient temperature and how hot the phone was before recording 4k.
I have personally recorded 10 mins at 4k, yes the phone's exterior got very hot, but no overheating message.
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You were able to record 10 mins after the update, right ?
higgs_ said:
You were able to record 10 mins after the update, right ?
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As I bought it, I haven't updated yet. It was only once though.
Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk
Originally, I was only able to record about 5 minutes. After the .402 update, I was able to reach 7 minutes before I stopped it myself. However, after I stopped the recording myself, it gave me the overheating message lol.
I don't know if it was just my imagination but it felt as if my phone did not heat up as fast compared to before the update when it got hot in 3 minutes or so. I honestly don't think the update did much for 4k video recording and that I was just able to get to 7+ minutes of 4k recording due to the cooler ambient temperature. Either way, I'm able to consistently reach 5 minutes of 4k recording before and after the update so I'm quite satisfied.
So it sounds like we all agree that the 402 update did help this problem, yes?
Sent from my LG-E971 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app