Remember when the Galaxy Note first hit the scene and some people complained there's no way anyone will want a phone that big? Yeah, time has proven them wrong. In fact, the big-screen smartphone market has evolved into a very profitable niche. HTC made their official entry into giant screens with the HTC One Max. Like many handsets in the same category, it comes with premium pricing to go with that super-sized screen real estate. Is it worth maxing out another card for?
Design
The handset embraces HTC's metallic design language, with styling lifted from the HTC One Mini. For some reason, though, the result looks odd on a supersized slab, making the whole thing look no more elegantly designed than other phones with admittedly inferior construction in the same category. Like many large phones, getting comfortable with the width takes time (this feels wider than the Note 3, actually).
Display
The HTC One Max sports a huge 5.9 inch display with full 1080p resolution and a 367 ppi. As you can guess, sharpness is not going to be an issue here. What makes the display stand out, though, are the super accurate colors, high levels of brightness and wide viewing angles. In short, display is great, although we feel the AMOLED on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 still edges it in side-by-side comparisons.
Camera
It uses the same UltraPixel camera as other high-end HTC phones. As you know, we're big fans of that tech, which takes pictures super fast, with excellent quality. As with previous UltraPixel-equipped phones, performance falls slightly behind the cameras on phones like the iPhone 5S, but it will be nitpicking to say I'm not compeletely satisfied. Pair that still quality with the multitude of features and solid video recording, and you've got yourself one of the best camera modules in a smartphone today.
Features
Like the iPhone, the One Max gets a fingerprint scanner. Unlike it, the thing sits in the back panel, with some nifty features (e.g. using up to three fingers in place of having a lockscreen PIN). Implementation is far from as well-designed as Apple's, though.
It runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, along with all of the features the second-the-latest version of the platform brings along. The brand new Sense UI 5.5 runs on top, bringing with it a whole new set of features and refinements. The rest of the phone is standard HTC high-end fare, with BoomSound, Beats Audio, and all the connectivity options your heart can desire.
Performance
CPU is a bit disappointing -- only a 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600, rather than the Snapdragon 800 all the high-end phones are running under the hood. Performance is good enough, of course, although you'll definitely see the limitations with some of the newer, resource-intensive games.
Calls are great. They're not entirely flawless (not always natural-sounding), although voices went through clearly enough with plenty of volume. Those on the other end reported the same. The speakerphone performed similarly well. The 3,300 mAh battery should last you most of the day, although the Note 3 appeared to manage power better under the same test.
Overall
Priced at $249.99 from Sprint (with two-year agreement), the HTC One Max sells just $50 cheaper than the Galaxy Note 3. Considering the Note 3 is thinner and lighter, apart from having a better processor, a better display, and an arguably better camera, HTC is probably going to have a hard time making a case as the supersized phone of choice for a majority of people.
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