HTC ONE 2013

The One isn't just the best smartphone HTC has ever made -- it can legitimately lay claim to being one of the best smartphones ever made. Beyond a certain point, determining what's "best" comes down to matters of personal preference, but there's so much that's superlative about the One that it's hard not to walk away incredibly impressed by it. Gadget sites often talk about how Apple sets the bar for device design and the One is one of the very few phones that matches -- and arguably even exceeds -- the iPhone in this area. HTC sweated a lot of the small details here, from the unibody aluminum casing to the absolutely phenomenal 4.7-inch 1080p screen, to the milling on the stereo speaker grills. They didn't cut corners or cheap out anywhere, and it's clear that HTC's designers and engineers put a lot of time and attention into crafting this phone. There's a similar amount of thoughtfulness and care when it comes to the software as well. There's been a good deal of streamlining of the UI and improvements in the overall design (fonts and icons are generally better-looking, animations and transitions are smoother, stock apps are cleaner, etc.). The biggest new feature is BlinkFeed, which turns your homescreen (or at least one panel of it) into a Flipboard-like stream of updates from social services like Twitter and Facebook and a whole host of content partners. It's slick, well-designed, and, like the Live Tiles in Windows Phone, you'll either love it or hate it. The One's camera, which HTC claims offers better low-light performance than a typical smartphone camera, does take excellent images, and HTC's Zoe feature, which lets you simultaneously shoot brief videos and a burst of 20 stills, is a great way to capture just the right moment -- though your phone's memory may fill up rapidly if you use it often and don't prune your rejects. Battery life is also very good, though we haven't tested it with LTE networking -- which can rapidly drain even the best batteries -- enabled. Overall, the One is an incredibly impressive device and one that hits all the right notes. The fit and finish of the hardware, the quality of the display, the camera, the speed of the OS, even the changes HTC has made to the UI, all come together in a way that you rarely see in a gadget. If you're in the market for a smartphone, you should absolutely check out the One before you make your purchase