The Los Angeles Times has posted an unboxing video of the new HTC One smartphone a full week and a half before it's available in the United States. Pre-orders are open, but the devices won't ship until late next week.
The L.A. Times covered the design and features of the flagship smartphone while fielding questions from an audience over live chat earlier this afternoon. I've also handled the HTC One in person, and their version looks much the same; HTC is releasing nearly identical versions of the phone to all American carriers who will offer it.
The One features a body made entirely of aluminum, milled from a single block. While this gives the phone a sleek and polished look, it does make it very hard to open or repair. You can't pop out the battery, and much like the iPhone, which features a similar "look but don't touch" aesthetic, it lacks an SD card slot.
That makes the amount of internal storage more important than it is for other Android phones that offer more expandability. In general, the 16GB version of the One runs about $200, with the 32GB version $50 more. A 64GB version is $50 more than that, but it's only available from AT&T.
You can see the dual speakers at the top and bottom of the front of the phone, giving the One better sound quality than most other mobile phones. The UltrPixel camera mostly delivers on its promises on better shots in low-light settings, though there is some pixilation in small details at large sizes.
The HTC One features a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 4.7-inch 1920x1080 pixel widescreen Super LCD 3 display, a 2300 mAh Li-Po battery, a 4-megapixel "Ultrapixel" camera with enhanced low-light sensitivity with 1080p HD video, up to 64GB of internal storage and runs Android 4.1.2.
Check back for the latest updates on the HTC One as they become available.
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