Gadgetory

if you're stuck choosing between Android and Windows Phone you better know what the best of each has to offer on the Android side the jury's still out on the Samsung Galaxy s4 but we do have the device that's going to beat it to market in our studio today the brand new HTC One and even though it's five months old at this point we still consider the Nokia Lumia 920 the king of windows phones so let's put them head-to-head I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is HTC One versus Nokia Lumia 920 we've already reviewed the international version of the HTC One and compared it to the HTC Droid DNA and Apple's iPhone 5 and we've posted some exhaustive camera comparisons at pocket now as well to see those and to make sure you don't miss anything else HTC One related follow us on social media and subscribe here on YouTube in this comparison we're going to be covering build quality specs UI the camera and a few test notes in terms of build quality these phones almost couldn't be more different we've always given the Lumia 920 a bit of flack for its extra punch at ten point seven millimeters it's a little thick and at 185 grams it's heavier than most any modern smartphone out there by contrast the HTC One is a sliver of a device at 9.3 millimeters in the center narrowing to even slimmer dimensions on the sides and despite its all-metal construction it weighs in at just 143 grams that metal is aluminum by the way broken up by injected polycarbonate on the backside and machined drilled holes for the front firing speakers above and below the Gorilla Glass protected display the Lumia 920 also packs polycarbonate a lot more of it because its entire body is cast in the sturdy stuff glossy or matte finish the Nokia phone can take a pounding as we demonstrated in our Lumia 920 durability report that helps make up for its added heft as does its pure view camera which we'll get to later in terms of the design nokia employs many more curves in the Lumia than HTC does in the one from the Nokia Smile to the rounded sides to the displays Gorilla Glass which almost looks ready to spill over its edges there's also the total lack of flare on the Lumias backside is completely blank with the exception of the camera cut out these foams are the product of two very different design approaches but there's a lot to like in each whether you prefer the added convenience of a hardware camera key on the Lumia or the IR blaster on the one there are nuances and touches that captivate in the build of both of these devices that's true in the specs as well and that's especially visible in terms of the display there's no real contest here the one is packing a powerhouse of a screen shoehorning a 1080p s LCD three display into a 4.7 inch footprint resulting in a ridiculous 468 pixels per inch that's astounding pixel density for a smartphone screen many would call it overkill and indeed you do have to squint to even try to make out pixels by comparison the 4.5 inch IPS LCD on the Lumia 920 is only 1280 by 768 producing a pixel density of only 332 PPI yes those are huge quotation marks we're putting around these onlys the 920 s display is still perfectly suitable for most users and it's gorgeous in its own right producing colors that are a tad warmer than on the one and very readable and daylight where the Lumia suffers by comparison is inside visibility and of course the difference in resolution is highlighted by Windows Phones larger rendering of text and icons you'll have to get your own eyes on each of these screens to decide for yourself which you prefer the ones display is amazing one of the best we've ever seen but the Lumias is still nothing to sneeze at under the hood there are significant differences in CPU and memory a dual-core Snapdragon s4 at 1.5 gigahertz on the Lumia and a quad-core Snapdragon 600 at 1.7 gigahertz on the one there's also one gig of ram on the Lumia to the two gigs of ram on the one and for storage both of our units here pack 32 gigs but the one is also available in a 64 gig variant the Lumia is not neither device offers additional expansion by way of memory card so you have to make do with what's on board and the batteries on each are also sealed in 2000 milliamp hours on the Lumia and 2300 milliamp hours on the one charging them is a different procedure to both devices include micro you SB ports but the Lumia offers Qi based wireless charging as well the HTC One does not but it counters for that deficiency on the connectivity side adding 802 point 11 AC to the Lumias more typical a b/g/n Wi-Fi support we've been through the differences between Android jellybean and Windows Phone 8 quite enough at this point but the salient comparison here is between Sense 5 and Windows Phone it's pretty easy to draw comparisons between HTC blinkfeed and Windows Phones modern UI concepts and to be sure they include similar elements in terms of square blocks containing images and text but that's really as far as the comparison goes Microsoft's modern UI is minimalism taken to the extreme and it pervades the OS blinkfeed with its image centric approach and erratic tile sizes is much more akin to Flipboard and it's confined to a small section of the phone you can choose not to use blinkfeed by sticking to the more conventional Android experience most of the time then while HTC has really changed the flavor of jelly bean in some significant ways the comparison ultimately comes right back down to Windows Phone versus Android a Spartan stock experience or a busier customizable one the question of which you prefer remains philosophical other considerations like fluidity aren't as big a deal anymore because the HTC One has the power to keep the experience lag free while the Lumia features an OS famously optimized for smoothness app launch and resume times tend to be a little quicker on the HTC One so if you're a real speed demon you'll want to think about that also Android offers some old favorites like text wrapping in the stock browser and of course if you don't like that you can download a new browser very easily but once again we've fallen into the platform question the question you should have answered before choosing devices the bottom line is that each of these devices runs its particular platform with extreme alacrity as mentioned before we put these cameras head-to-head in a previous feature at PocketNow which contained many side by side examples and which we encourage you to check out since then though the HTC One has received a notable update to its camera software so we decided to briefly put it to the test against the 920 once more results were similar in our brief rematch with both cameras delivering very good performance and standard lighting conditions with default settings the one delivered much warmer tones than the Lumia 920 overall an HD sees aggressive exposure adjustment remains in evidence when tapping to focus on the viewfinder both units had trouble with brightly lit subjects and darker surroundings but each also excelled in more balanced low-light situations the Lumia still produces more authentic shots on the whole but either of these smartphone cameras certainly does well enough overall for day-to-day social media photos and even the occasional high profile landscape or portrait the front-facing camera is another story Nokia's front-facing camera resolution might not lag too far behind the ones 2 megapixel shooter but it's much narrower field of view and the dusty lens problem reported by many lumia owners on forums across the internet make the 920 s FFC a real dud compared to the ones those holes above and below the HTC ones display aren't just for show boom sound might be a somewhat tacky brand name but it's accurate in terms of media playback the ones sound quality absolutely destroys the Lumia 920's let's be clear the 920 speaker isn't bad necessarily it's a tad on the quiet side but it's about average for a smart phone HTC's boomsound blows it away because it's so far above average it's incredible bass is deep the sound is rich and it's loud after a few minutes of this you wonder how you ever managed to listen to your media on another device the ones audio superiority doesn't stop at playback phone calls are also much better than on Vilonia on both sides our one provided fuller less tinny sound in the earpiece with fewer compression artifacts in a quiet room callers said we also sounded much better and clearer on the one than on the Lumia some of that might be due the network differences between AT&T and Sprint but based on our own and other reviews we have to give most of the credit to the one here HTC's Sense voice is much more than just a brand name we have more observations on the Sprint version of the HTC One including battery endurance and benchmarks and more detailed notes in our full review at pocket now the one certainly has a lot going for it but it hasn't left its Windows Phone competitor too far behind in terms of sheer performance both of these devices run smoothly and deliver a bevy of features in a robust beautifully designed casing you'll be a winner either way you go here the only question is whether you prefer Microsoft or Google as your mobile platform provider of choice plenty more coming on the HTC One and other devices so stay tuned to pocket now in the meantime throw us a like if you liked the video drop us a comment if you have something to say and thank you for watching we'll see you next time