It has been quite some time coming, but it has happened, finally. The Taiwanese manufacturer announced the HTC One Max, with a huge, 5.9″ display and Snapdragon 600 processor, clocked at 1.7 GHz, and a fingerprint scanner. (oh yes, it’s happening.)
- Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with Sense 5.5 UI on top
- 5.9″ IPS LCD display, 1080p (1920×1080 pixels), ~373 PPI
- 1.7 GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, Adreno 320 GPU
- 4 MP Ultrapixel camera, LED flash, 1080p recording; front facing 2.1 MP camera
- 2 GB RAM, 16 / 32 GB internal memory, expandable with a microSD card
- Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC, Infrared, MHL, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA, Hotspot
- 3,300 mAh battery, micro-SIM
With the One Max, HTC has done away with the Beats audio stuff, and there’s only BoomSound now, which actually is quite good. The One Max also debuts with an update to its Sense UI, Sense 5.5. On the hardware front, there’s a resemblance to the HTC One Mini, announced earlier. There’s also a fingerprint scanner – a first for HTC – on the back of the device, just below the camera sensor.
The HTC One Max loses Optical Image Stabilisation, which is quite baffling, apart from the decision to stick with the paltry 4 MP camera. There’s no camera button, on this huge a device, but thankfully, the power button has found a place on the right side of the device.
There’s a better version of BoomSound on the One Max, one of the highlights of the HTC One. Apart from that, the HTC One Max’ fingerprint scanner will allow you to unlock the phablet by swiping your registered finger on it. The placement of the scanner is sort of ridiculous though, seeing as it won’t be in your view when you want to unlock the device.
In the next week, the HTC One Max will be available in Asia and Europe, with US availability scheduled for later in the year. No pricing information has been revealed yet, but expect it to cost around ₹45-50,000 in India.