HTC One Developer Edition unboxing and hands-on [VIDEO]
I told you guy guys yesterday about the email I received notifying me that my HTC One Developer Edition had been delayed from Wednesday, to a vague “before the end of the month” time frame. Can’t say I was too thrilled about the news but lo-and-behold, the FedEx lady made yet another stop to my house early this morning (it’s almost as if she never left), dropping off my HTC One Developer Edition. Seeing as how I’ve already spent a lot of time reviewing the AT&T version, I was curious to see if anything in the box had change as well as the differences in software and hardware.
Taking a look at both Ones side-by-side, I noticed the issue with the speaker grill gap is now very minimal, almost invisible in the Dev Edition. Also, the small complaint about the volume rocker and power button being embedded into the plastic and impossible to find by touch doesn’t apply to the Dev Edition where they are much more pronounced and easy to locate. Lastly, I hate to even mention it but the display on the Developer Edition has a cooler, almost purple hue, while the AT&T version is a bit warmer. Which display is “better,” I’ll leave for you to decide.
Of course, the Developer Edition comes without any carrier branding or pre-loaded carrier apps (read: bloatware). Comparing the software information found that the AT&T version is currently “up to date” and running 1.26.502.6, while the new Dev Edition is running 1.29.1540.3. I spoke with HTCDev this after noon and they told me they might be looking to bring special, early access RUUs and ROMs to the HTC One Developer Edition via HTCDev.com. While not exactly set in stone at the moment, consider me excited.
Don’t forget that because HTC One Developer Edition isn’t tied to any specific carrier (although it fully supports AT&T’s LTE network, and even a few Canadian networks as well) there’s no longer a middle man getting in the way of updates. If/when HTC is ready to push out a software update, there wont be the normally long wait from carriers testing OTAs for weeks/months before pushing them out to their customers. Not too many people remember but the international model of the HTC One X received Jelly Bean almost a full 5 months before the AT&T version. Just some food for thought.
“My Android is better than your Android” debate aside, it’s all these reasons why I’ve made the HTC One Developer my next personal Android device and see great things for it in the future. Cheers.