Big-screened phones are nothing new at this point. Samsung, which currently dominates pretty much every price band of the Android market, wasn't the first to market but it did prove that the category could be extremely lucrative. The Galaxy Note was a runaway success, leaving other manufacturers racing to play catch-up.
HTC has had a bad few years, and has in the past relied on software customizations to help it distinguish itself in the market. Last year, it tried to project cheap plastic construction as Samsung's Achilles' Heel, and introduced the all-metal HTC One. The One should have been a runaway success, with its gorgeous looks, full-HD screen and Snapdragon 600 processor, all of which were either industry firsts or pretty close. Still, the beleaguered Taiwanese company faced a lukewarm response from the market, while its Korean rival raced ahead.
So now, HTC has gone back to doing what everyone else is doing, which is where the One Max comes in. It's a huge phone, because everyone else is making huge phones. It's made of plastic, because, well, that's what everyone else is doing. And it has a fingerprint scanner because, err, that's what at least one competitor is doing and it might have seemed like a good idea to just toss one in just in case.
Look and feel
The HTC One Max trades on the One's name and reputation, but unfortunately doesn't do it any justice. HTC isn't in a position to create or market a beautifully crafted flagship device right now, and the company has cut a lot of corners in manufacturing the One Max. Although it has a strong family resemblance to the One, this phone is constructed out of plastic like the One Mini. The front face is nearly identical to that of the One, but you'll immediately notice an unsightly white plastic band around it. Even on the back, it's clear that the metal pieces are only for decoration. The odd combination of plastic, metal and glass gives this phone a very awkward look. It's hard to think of this as a premium device when we know its smaller, older sibling is so much better constructed.
The large aluminium backplate pops off when you press down on a tiny tab that's located, oddly enough, on the phone's upper left edge where control buttons usually reside. You'll notice that the backplate doesn't really sit well in its plastic frame, and the sharp corner nearest to the clasp stays raised enough to be annoying when you hold the phone in your hands. You only ever need to take the panel off to access the SIM and microSD card slots, which seems like a shocking waste. Since the battery isn't accessible anyway, the entire body could have been a lot thinner and better construction could have been applied if the slots had simply been accessible from the phone's exterior.
The One Max is pretty bulky, at 217g and over 10mm thick, but its curved back and slim proportions help mask that fact well. You'll find a prominent camera cutout and sensors along the top of the front panel, and there's a battery status and notification LED hidden in the speaker grille as well. The power button and volume rocker sit on the right side, with a microUSB data and charging port on the bottom. There's no camera button, which is perhaps understandable for such an unwieldy device. The left side has only the aforementioned clasp, while the top hosts a standard 3.5mm headset jack as well as an infrared emitter used by some of the bundled apps. Most interesting is the back panel, where the camera and flash share the spotlight with a large square fingerprint reader. Lower down, a set of three electrical contact points seem designed for docking with accessories, though even HTC's own site doesn't offer much information about which accessories use them. We're actually glad to see that HTC has stopped printing giant red Beats Audio logos on the back of its phones -- this is perhaps the sole area in which the One Max looks better than the One.
Samsung's defining feature for its Note line is the S-pen, an active stylus that works in concert with the customized Android UI and a few third-party apps to let users take advantage of the available screen space. HTC has no equivalent feature in either hardware or software, so you'll be using it with your thumbs just like any other touchscreen phone.
Specifications
On the inside, the HTC One Max finds itself at a disadvantage compared to today's flagships from competing manufacturers. The SoC is a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, which is a step lower in both CPU and graphics performance compared to the Snapdragon 800 used by most of its peers. There's 2GB of RAM, which is perfectly fine. In practical terms you aren't likely to notice much difference right now except in the most intensive games and apps, but it's worth noting for future compatibility.
The screen is sharp and bright, and we had no trouble with it even in sunlight. 1920x1080 is the current standard resolution for premium smartphones and we're glad to see that HTC has not skimped in this regard. Videos are generally smooth, and viewing angles are as good as anything we've ever seen. Games, of course, make the best use of the large surface area. We're also happy to note that the screen is protected by toughened Gorilla Glass 3.
HTC has had a bad few years, and has in the past relied on software customizations to help it distinguish itself in the market. Last year, it tried to project cheap plastic construction as Samsung's Achilles' Heel, and introduced the all-metal HTC One. The One should have been a runaway success, with its gorgeous looks, full-HD screen and Snapdragon 600 processor, all of which were either industry firsts or pretty close. Still, the beleaguered Taiwanese company faced a lukewarm response from the market, while its Korean rival raced ahead.
So now, HTC has gone back to doing what everyone else is doing, which is where the One Max comes in. It's a huge phone, because everyone else is making huge phones. It's made of plastic, because, well, that's what everyone else is doing. And it has a fingerprint scanner because, err, that's what at least one competitor is doing and it might have seemed like a good idea to just toss one in just in case.
Look and feel
The HTC One Max trades on the One's name and reputation, but unfortunately doesn't do it any justice. HTC isn't in a position to create or market a beautifully crafted flagship device right now, and the company has cut a lot of corners in manufacturing the One Max. Although it has a strong family resemblance to the One, this phone is constructed out of plastic like the One Mini. The front face is nearly identical to that of the One, but you'll immediately notice an unsightly white plastic band around it. Even on the back, it's clear that the metal pieces are only for decoration. The odd combination of plastic, metal and glass gives this phone a very awkward look. It's hard to think of this as a premium device when we know its smaller, older sibling is so much better constructed.
The large aluminium backplate pops off when you press down on a tiny tab that's located, oddly enough, on the phone's upper left edge where control buttons usually reside. You'll notice that the backplate doesn't really sit well in its plastic frame, and the sharp corner nearest to the clasp stays raised enough to be annoying when you hold the phone in your hands. You only ever need to take the panel off to access the SIM and microSD card slots, which seems like a shocking waste. Since the battery isn't accessible anyway, the entire body could have been a lot thinner and better construction could have been applied if the slots had simply been accessible from the phone's exterior.
The One Max is pretty bulky, at 217g and over 10mm thick, but its curved back and slim proportions help mask that fact well. You'll find a prominent camera cutout and sensors along the top of the front panel, and there's a battery status and notification LED hidden in the speaker grille as well. The power button and volume rocker sit on the right side, with a microUSB data and charging port on the bottom. There's no camera button, which is perhaps understandable for such an unwieldy device. The left side has only the aforementioned clasp, while the top hosts a standard 3.5mm headset jack as well as an infrared emitter used by some of the bundled apps. Most interesting is the back panel, where the camera and flash share the spotlight with a large square fingerprint reader. Lower down, a set of three electrical contact points seem designed for docking with accessories, though even HTC's own site doesn't offer much information about which accessories use them. We're actually glad to see that HTC has stopped printing giant red Beats Audio logos on the back of its phones -- this is perhaps the sole area in which the One Max looks better than the One.
Samsung's defining feature for its Note line is the S-pen, an active stylus that works in concert with the customized Android UI and a few third-party apps to let users take advantage of the available screen space. HTC has no equivalent feature in either hardware or software, so you'll be using it with your thumbs just like any other touchscreen phone.
Specifications
On the inside, the HTC One Max finds itself at a disadvantage compared to today's flagships from competing manufacturers. The SoC is a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, which is a step lower in both CPU and graphics performance compared to the Snapdragon 800 used by most of its peers. There's 2GB of RAM, which is perfectly fine. In practical terms you aren't likely to notice much difference right now except in the most intensive games and apps, but it's worth noting for future compatibility.
The screen is sharp and bright, and we had no trouble with it even in sunlight. 1920x1080 is the current standard resolution for premium smartphones and we're glad to see that HTC has not skimped in this regard. Videos are generally smooth, and viewing angles are as good as anything we've ever seen. Games, of course, make the best use of the large surface area. We're also happy to note that the screen is protected by toughened Gorilla Glass 3.