With a built-in amplifier, Beats Audio and two front-facing speakers the HTC One delivers a big sound with or without headphones. And in the box you get a pair of surprisingly decent in-ear headphones. They are black and red in a style suspiciously like Beats phones, although they are not those. HTC has equipped the HTC One with what it calls studio-quality sound with Beats Audio. In our tests the bundled headphones combined with the HTC One’s audio subsystem provided a sound that is clear and well-rounded(we often find Beats branded audio to be over bassy).
In the demonstrations we saw - or heard - at the HTC One launch the dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers delivered a decent sound in a reasonably sized room full of people. It’s not like having a proper sound-bar, but the handset alone will suffice in plenty of social occasions, which is saying something.(What is less socially acceptable is the marketing term HTC has appended to this audio set up:’Boom Sound’. Give me strength.)
The music player software has also been given a revamp. In essence you can see the lyrics while music plays. Which is, you know, nice. We saw this and can confirm that it works as advertised. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, but I used to buy my CDs and tapes from our price, so it’s possible I’m not the desired demographic.
It’s razor sharp - not quite as colorful as the Super AMOLED displays sported by the top Samsung handsets, but brilliant at rendering details in photos and video even under the spit lights of a room with no natural light. Viewing angles are good - a couple of people could probably watch a movie together at a push. The touchscreen is very responsive, too.