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HTC Android Smartphones and Tablets

A Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer, HTC has produced a large number of Android phones including the Droid Incredible, HTC Sensation and HTC Evo, as well as Android tablets like the HTC Flyer and HTC Jetstream.

In addition to manufacturing handsets and tablets, HTC customizes the Android operating system on their devices by using their HTC Sense user interface.

HTC was the first company to build a Nexus device. Released on January 5, 2010, the Nexus One was a flagship Google phone that utilized a version of Android that was not loaded with the HTC's Sense interface.

HISTORY

HTC was founded in 1997 by Cher Wang, HT Cho, and Peter Chou. Initially a manufacturer of notebook computers, HTC began designing some of the world's first touch and wireless hand-held devices in 1998. The company has a rich heritage of many "firsts", including creating the first Microsoft-powered smartphone (2002) and the first Microsoft 3G phone (2005). Their first major product was made in 2000 and was one of the world's first touch screen smartphones. The Palm Treo 650 and the iPAQ were created by HTC. They started producing 3G-capable phones in early 2005 and made the world's first Android phone in 2008, the HTC Dream (also marketed as the T-Mobile G1). It was first released in the United States for pre-order through T-Mobile USA on September 23, 2008, and became available in U.S. T-Mobile stores on October 22, 2008.The G1 was available in the UK several days after its USA launch, and has since been introduced in many countries including Australia and Singapore. In 2009, the company launched the HTC Sense interface for the platform with the HTC Hero.
In March 2010, Apple Inc. filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission claiming infringement of 20 of its patents covering aspects of the iPhone user interface and hardware. HTC disagreed with Apple's actions and reiterated its commitment to creating innovative smartphones.HTC also filed a complaint against Apple for infringing on 5 of its patents and sought to ban Apple products imported into the US from manufacturing facilities in Asia. Apple expanded its original complaint by adding two more patents.
In June 2010, the company launched the HTC Evo 4G, the first 4G-capable phone in the United States.In July 2010, HTC announced it would begin selling smartphones in China under its own brand name in a partnership with China Mobile. In 2010, HTC sold over 24.6 million handsets, up 111% over 2009.
HTC was named the "Device Manufacturer of the Year" for 2011 by the GSMA at the Mobile World Congress on 16 February 2011. In April 2011, the company's market value surpassed that of Nokia to become the third largest smartphone maker in the world, behind only Apple and Samsung.
On July 6, 2011 it was announced that HTC would buy VIA Technologies' stake in S3 Graphics, thus becoming the majority owner of S3. On August 6 2011, HTC acquired Dashwire for $18.5M. In August 2011, HTC confirmed that HTC will be entering a strategic partnership with Beats Electronics by acquiring 51 percent of Beat's shares.
In the 2011 Best Global Brands rankings released by Interbrand, HTC was listed at #98 and valued at $3.6 billion.
Based on researcher Canalys, in Q3 2011 HTC Corporation became the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. by 24 percent, ahead of Samsung's 21 percent, Apple by 20 percent and Blackberry just 9 percent. HTC Corporation made different models for each operator.

HTC Android Smartphones:

    HTC One
    HTC One X
    HTC One S
    HTC One V
    HTC DNA
    HTC Evo 4G
    HTC EVO Shift 4G
    HTC EVO 3D
    Droid Incredible
    Droid Incredible 2
    Droid Incredible 4G
    HTC Amaze
    HTC Thunderbolt
    HTC Rezound
    HTC Sensation
    HTC Sensation XE
    HTC Sensation XL
    Inspire 4G
    HTC Merge
    Google Nexus One
    myTouch 4G
    myTouch 4G Slide
    myTouch 3G
    myTouch 3G Slide
    Holiday
    HTC Aria
    HTC ChaCha
    HTC Desire
    HTC Desire s
    HTC Droid Eris
    HTC Hero
    HTC Legend
    HTC Rhyme
    HTC Salsa
    HTC Wildfire S
    G1
    G2
    Hero S
    Wildfire S
    HTC Vivid

HTC Android Tablets:

    HTC Flyer
    HTC Jetstream

Samsung Galaxy S4 Quick Review

If the HTC One was a glimpse of Android's promising future of thoughtfully crafted hardware paired with elegantly designed software, the Samsung Galaxy S4 represents its poorly conceived and shoddily constructed past. Like countless Android handsets before it, the Galaxy S4 is spec and feature-rich, but limited by its cheap, flimsy hardware and unnecessarily bloated suite of proprietary software. It's not a bad phone — in fact, there's plenty to like — it simply lacks the level of polish and consideration found in a growing number of its competitors.

At first glance, the Galaxy S4 appears to be near-identical to the Galaxy S III, and even upon closer inspection, the variations may be tough to notice. Both are constructed almost entirely of plastic and despite a screensize increase from 4.8-inches to 5-inches, the Galaxy S4 is only slightly bigger thanks to its slimmer bezel. Instead of rounded edges and accents, the Galaxy S4 uses flat surfaces and straight, faux-metallic trim, giving it a more modern look. But any perception of the Galaxy S4 being a premium device is lost the moment you touch it. At 4.6 ounces, it's light, which in most cases would seem like a positive quality, but when combined with its thin plastic casing, makes the S4 feel almost like a toy. What's worse, it's coated in a high-gloss finish, which feels slippery in your hand and gathers dirt and smudges easily.

With devices from Apple, HTC, and Nokia brandishing anodized aluminum and ceramic casing, the Galaxy S4 looks cheap and unimaginative.

But despite its lackluster industrial design, Samsung never skimps on specs and the Galaxy S4 comes loaded with some of the advanced components on the market. While the processor type will vary by region and model, versions sold in the U.S. come equipped with a 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600-series CPU with 2GB of RAM. In benchmark testing, it delivered performance gains of 22% over the HTC One and outpaced even tablets like the Nexus 10. The 5-inch display is a gorgeous 1080p Super AMOLED panel with a pixel density of 441ppi — just shy of the HTC One's 468ppi screen — but boasting some of the brightest, most colorful visuals you can find on a smartphone. One of the drawbacks of Super AMOLED, of course, is that colors can appear oversaturated at times, but ultimately it's a matter of preference. Despite all of its high-end specs, however, the Galaxy S4's battery life is exceptional, making it through a day's use without having to recharge — even with rigorous data consumption.

The S4's highlight feature, however, is its camera. While the front-facing camera is expectedly mediocre, the rear-facing 13-megapixel camera is by far the best of any smartphone I've used. It produces images with an incredible level of detail and fantastic color balance. Like most mobile cameras, it struggles with low-light conditions and can be slow to focus, but in most other settings it performs exceptionally. Samsung has also bundled in a suite of photo modes that not only enhance photos for night, portraits, and HDR, but also new enhanced features, like dual-shot which captures images from both the front and rear cameras for a picture-in-picture composite. There's also modes like Best Face, which takes five frames and allows users to find and meld those with the best expressions for a perfect shot. Best Photo acts similarly but instead of combining multiple frames, allows users to capture several images instantaneously and pick the best. Sound & Shot allows you to record a few seconds of audio with your photo, which is fun for novelty, but not especially useful.

But the Galaxy S4 also uses its cameras for more than just photography and video recording. Utilizing the front and rear cameras along with other sensors, the Galaxy S4 is capable of detecting a user's face and certain hand motions to control apps. Smart Pause, for instance, automatically pauses a video whenever the user looks away from the screen. Air View and Air Gesture scroll through windows with just a wave of the hand or preview an item by hovering your finger over the screen. But as futuristic and cool as these features might sound, they don't quite work as well as one would hope. The face and gesture detection tools only work with certain apps, and there's often a delay between your motions and what appears on screen. When you wave your hand, the on-screen action lags behind and in most cases scrolls too far. Smart Pause struggles to keep track of the user and only really works when you look at the screen dead-on and turn your head sharply. All incremental motions and angles in between cause issues.

The biggest problem with the face and gesture-detecting software, however, is that it's attempting to solve issues that don't really exist. As a handheld device, the Galaxy S4 is most commonly resting in your palm, where a quick flick or tap of the thumb is the fastest and most precise input method. Is waving your hand or tilting your head really a better way to scroll? In all but a small array of use cases, probably not.

Similar issues carry over to Samsung's array of pre-installed apps. As part of Samsung's efforts to market the Galaxy S4 as a "Life Companion," it has developed a collection of baked-in software to track your exercise and diet, share media with other Galaxy users, offer translation services while traveling, and maximize productivity. S Health acts as a pedometer, calorie counter, and exercise tracker, while S Voice is Samsung's Siri-style voice assistant. S Translator allows you to convert written and spoken words into a select number of languages and Group Play pairs multiple Galaxy devices together to share media, photos, and more. There are also other Galaxy series staples like S Memo and Multi Window, providing hand-drawn notes and the capacity to run two app windows simultaneously in a splitscreen mode. Like the HTC One, the Galaxy S4 comes with a built-in IR blaster for control of your home entertainment center.

While each is great for bulletpoints on marketing materials, their utility, performance, and quality varies drastically. S Health offers an impressive range of functions for tracking your daily activity and diet, it lacks the powerful food and exercise data found in popular third-party apps, like Nike+ and MyFitnessPal. S Translator is also limited to only select supported languages, whereas other apps available on Google Play are more robust. My favorite of the pre-installed software is OpticalReader, which can digitize text that's captured in a photo, translate it, or even read it aloud, but even it is only useful for very specific scenarios.

But whereas downloadable apps allow you to install and uninstall based on your needs, Samsung's software is impossible to remove without rooting and consumes precious storage space. All told, Samsung's software takes up nearly half of the 16GB capacity, leaving little room for media and other apps. Overall storage can be expanded via microSD and select carriers have begun offering 32GB models, but it's still less than ideal to have valuable storage space wasted on apps you don't use.

The Verdict
The Galaxy S4 is an ambitious smartphone with powerful specs and a laundry list of features. But in its pursuit of creating the "everything" device, Samsung has neglected crucial areas, like build quality and software polish. If you're in the market for a smartphone, the Galaxy S4 isn't a terrible choice, but for your several hundred dollar investment, you deserve better.

Specifications

DISPLAY     Size     4.99 inches (12.67 cm)
Technology     Super AMOLED, 16M colors
Resolution     FHD ie. 1080 X 1920 pixels @ 441 ppi
Type     Capacitive, Multitouch
Protection     Corning Gorilla Glass 3
EXTERIOR     Dimensions     136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm
Weight     130 gm
Sensors     Proximity & Ambient Light Sensors, IR remote & temperature sensor
Colors     Black Mist, White Frost
PROCESSINGPOWER     Processor     1.6 GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 & 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 (India)/ 1.9 GHz Krait 300 [depending on the region]
Chipset     Exynos 5 Octa 5410 (India)/ Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro [depending on the region]
GPU     PowerVR SGX 544MP (India)/ Adreno 320 [depending on the region]
MEMORY     System Memory     2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM
Internal Storage     16 GB (India)/ 32 GB / 64 GB
Expansion     microSD, up to 64 GB
SOFTWARE     OS     Android v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
User Interface     TouchWiz UI
CONNECTIVITY     SIM     Micro SIM, single slot
Operatingfrequencies     GSM – 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHzUMTS – 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHzLTE – 800, 900, 1800, 2600 MHz
GPRS     Yes
EDGE     Yes
3G     42 MBPS HSDPA, 5.76 MBPS HSUPA
4G     LTE Cat 3 [100 MBPS downloading, 50 MBPS uploading]
Wi-Fi     Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac[HT80], DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct
GPS     Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
Bluetooth     v4.0 [BLE]
USB     microUSB (MHL) v2.0, USB Host
NFC     Yes
CAMERA     Primary     13 megapixels
Secondary     2 megapixels
Video     Up to 1080p @30 fps (Primary), 1080p @30 fps (Secondary)
Flash     Single LED
Features

    Drama Shot [take more than 100 shots in 4 seconds]
    Erase mode
    Cinema Shot
    Zero shutter lag
    BSI sensor for better low light photography

OTHERFEATURES

    S-voice drive
    Optical Reader
    Adapt Display
    Glove friendly display glass
    Group Play
    Dual video call
    Air gesture [navigate without touching the display]
    S Health
    Air View [using fingers]
    S Translator
    Group Play
    Samsung Knox
    Samsung Home Sync [1 TB]
    Smart Scroll
    Control TV & play games with the integrated IR Remote
    Other sensors: Accelerometer, RGB light, Digital compass, Gyro, Barometer, Temperature & humidity sensor

PRICE     Approx. 38,990 Rs ~ 720 USD

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HTC Android Smartphones and Tablets

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