HTC has launched the One Max in India today. We spend some hands on time with the device and tell you our first impressions
HTC today officially launched the One Max Android phablet in India. The smartphone/phablet has an MRP of Rs. 61,490 and MOP of Rs. 56,490.
Starting off with the specifications of the device, the HTC One Max runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5.5 and BlinkFeed. The smartphone/phablet is powered by a Snapdragon 600 chipset with a 1.7GHz quad-core Krait 300 CPU along with the Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. It has 16GB of built-in storage, and memory card support for up to 64GB additional storage. The smartphone has the Ultrapixel rear camera and 2.1MP front-facing camera. A 3300mAh battery powers the entire package.
In the Indian market the HTC One Max will take on the likes of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and LG Optimus G Pro which are all large screen devices.
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Moving to the build, the HTC One Max has a beautiful 5.9-inch display in the front and the rest has a silver grey finish that we have seen on the HTC One and the HTC One Mini. The right of the smartphone has the power button and the volume rocker. Considering the size of the device, the placement of the buttons is quite convenient. The body is made entirely of metal.
The biggest addition to the rear of the smartphone is a finger print scanner. It is located below the camera and it is convenient to use with the forefinger. The fingerprint scanner can register all 10 of your fingers and you can assign a particular function to each finger swipe. For example, the forefinger on the right hand can be used to unlock the phone, the forefinger of the left hand can be used to launch the camera, and the right hand thumb can be used to launch a particular app, so on and so forth. If you are one who uses a set of apps/features a lot on the smartphone, it is a nifty way to launch the app by simply using your fingerprint.
Coming back to the front, the device has stereo speakers on either side (when held in landscape mode). It shows off the HTC BoomSound, which was a big deal on the HTC One. At the event we heard the speakers for a bit and they sound really good. Watching videos on the smartphone was a treat but the display was susceptible to a lot of glare under direct sunlight.
We navigated the device's UI, used some of the apps, did a bit of typing and the experience of using the One Max was comfortable for a two hand experience, as comfortable as the Note 3 and the Xperia Z Ultra, to put things into perspective.
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The rear camera on the One Max is the same UltraPixel one that we have seen on the HTC One. HTC has the Zoe app on the smartphone that brings with it a set of features such as all smiles, picture perfect result, sequence action shots, Hollywood effects, the ability to make GIFs and more. The app is really good for those that are into image editing and like to create slideshows with the pictures and videos they shoot with the smartphone.
With the BlinkFeed, you now have the ability to customize your feed with the content at your disposal. You can segregate it based on the RSS feed, your social networking feed, news feeds and more. It is an upgrade to the original BlinkFeed on the HTC One and the improvements look promising.
Overall, the HTC One Max looks like a promising device. It has impressive features on offer and the build of the device is really good too. If there is one drawback, it’s the price of the phone. At an MRP of Rs. 61,490 you may want to scrutinize your options more carefully. Stay tuned, as we will bring you our final verdict of the smartphone in our full review soon.
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Sameer Mitha
Sameer Mitha lives for gaming and technology is his muse. When he isn’t busy playing with gadgets or video games he delves into the world of fantasy novels. View Full Profile
