HTC One vs Sony Xperia Z

Introduction

Sony Xperia Z and the HTC One will be one of the main flagship competitors this season, so a thorough comparison is warranted to help you choose.

The HTC One flaunts novel ideas like the UltraPixel camera and stereo speaker system at the front, to which the Xperia Z responds with a thin and light waterproof body, so which one is for you? Read on to find out...

Design

The phones weigh about the same, but One is shorter and narrower than the Xperia Z, which should help for better one-handed control, if its pretty aluminum unibody wasn't so slippery compared to the rubberized edges of Sony's phone, that allow for a much better grip. Moreover, the rubbery feeling of the Xperia Z has a perfectly good reason to be there, as the phone is waterproof, if you are looking for rugged before pretty, and still thinner than the One, despite the watertight body.


HTC, however, has graced the One with a timeless precision-cut aluminum chassis that sticks out like a sore thumb in the sea of plastic Androids. Not only that, but we get two amplified stereo speakers at the front, and also an IR blaster integrated in the power/lock button up top.

This same button Sony has placed in round metal form on the right where it belongs, directly under your thumb, while you have to stretch each time to reach it on the One. The overly thin volume rocker of the Z, however, is right smack in the middle of the right side, making it uncomfortable to feel and press, compared to the jagged one-piece metal key of the HTC One.


Display

Both handsets sport Full HD 1080x1920 pixels displays, with the HTC One having a slight edge in pixel density, as it sports a 4.7” panel, compared to the 5-incher on the Xperia Z. The pixel densities, however, are more than you need, and not the main advantage of the HTC One's display before the screen on the Xperia Z.

The colors and contrast of the 5” panel in the Xperia Z look much worse than on the HTC One. Even when looked at head-on, the Xperia Z exhibits washed-out tones and pretty greyish blacks in comparison to the vibrant colors and high contrast ratio of the One. Tilt the Z even a little, and the picture becomes significantly paler and even more washed-out, whereas the One sports one of the best viewing angles we've seen on a mobile display. Thus the screen on HTC's phone excels in everything compared to the one in the Xperia Z, save for the all-important brightness category, where both phones are pretty close, with a slight advantage of the HTC One in terms of outdoor visibility.











Interface and functionality

The phones run Android 4.1.2, and Sony has reworked the former Timescape UI a bit to highlight its new Socialife app integration, merging your social networking activities with other info feeds and local reminders in chronological order.

HTC, however, has introduced a similar feature called BlinkFeed, which curates topics of your choosing for relevant news on one of the homescreens, seamlessly integrating them with your Facebook and Twitter updates, as well as calendar entries and reminders in a Flipboard style pattern.



It has also completely redone the Sense 5.0 interface on the One, making it simpler, more minimalistic, yet still upholstering every menu and submenu you have on the phone, for the most sophisticated and uniform-looking manufacturer overlay out there.

Processor and memory

The One is ran by the newest generation Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, clocked at 1.7 GHz, whereas the Sony Xperia Z sports Qualcomm's previous-best quad-core – Snapdragon S4 Pro at 1.5 GHz – which easily explains why the One scores almost double in synthetic benchmarks.

Both phones, however, run Android and chew through apps with ease, and have 2 GB of RAM for having many open at once. Many, as long as it's up to nine, said HTC, and again restricted the number of apps that can run simultaneously – from seven to nine this time - arranged in a pretty but limiting 3x3 grid, accessible when you double-tap the home key.

Sony starts you off wit 16 GB, while HTC gives 32 GB of internal memory, but the Xperia Z has the significant advantage of offering a microSD slot for easy storage expansion on the cheap, protected by a tight rubber flap.



Internet and connectivity

Using browsers on such large high-res displays is a joy, and both phones have no issues scrolling, panning around and zooming with ease while surfing the Interwebs. Sony, however, just uses Chrome that comes with Android Jelly Bean, which is not the fastest rabbit in the hat, and doesn't support Adobe Flash, whereas the HTC browser even has a handy on/off key in the drop-down menu for the times you run across a site with Flash.



The One and the Z sport integrated baseband radios that support LTE networks, where available, but also 42.2 Mbps HSPA+ downloads, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, DLNA and NFC, the works. The HTC One has the added advantage of an infrared beamer at the top, that allows you to control the TVs and set-top boxes around you from the phone.

Camera

Sony Xperia Z sports a 13 MP Exmor RS camera sensor, whereas HTC put its foot down and ended the megapixel war with the so-called UltraPixel camera – about 4 MP in count, but with optical image stabilization, and having 2 micron pixels that are twice larger than the ones in the Xperia Z, though its sensor is the same physical size.

The interfaces that front these camera modules are intuitive and easy to use on both handsets, with numerous scene modes and color effects to choose from. Sony has the upper hand in scene selections offering separate ones even for shooting food or pets, if you are willing to bother. Both handsets have the stills and video shutter keys on one and the same screen, so you don't have to switch – a feature that debuted with the HTC One series initially.



HTC, however, offers more exotic ways to spice up your footage, like the Zoe software that automatically merges pics, video and music with special effects for a memorable collage. The One also offers slow-motion video, as well as Fast HD video capture with 60fps.

The photos from the Xperia Z come out a mixed bag – it sometimes produces very good details, and sometimes all gets lost in noise-reduction and processing. The color saturation and contrast are higher than in reality, but not to the point of gaudiness.

The HTC One produces a more natural color representation and often captures as much detail as the Xperia Z despite the much lower megapixel count. We didn't notice any glaring white balance or exposure measurement omissions from any of the handsets.

Indoors the Z performs well, capturing enough light to tell the details, and doesn't overexpose the bright spots as magnificently as your average handset. The HTC One has the natural advantage of an OIS mechanism inside that allows slower shutter speeds without blur, thus taking in more light, and the night scenes look as if they are taken on a cloudy afternoon compared to the Z. It does overexpose the light sources, however, to the point of strong halo effect around anything bright.

In video recording the HTC One also has an advantage. While both phones shoot 1080p video with 30 fps, and are able to do HDR footage, the OIS mechanism inside the One makes us wish every flagship came with one – it produces ssmooth, shake-free footage with distinct highlights and excellent sound in all circumstances.



HTC One Sample Video:



Sony Xperia Z Sample Video:



Multimedia

The galleries on both the HTC One and the Xperia Z are in the usual grid format with thumbnail previews of your pics and videos, and sport basic photo editing built directly into the interface. Pinching the tiled grid on the HTC One, however, just sifts through the thumbnails chronologically, as an alternative to scrolling, whereas on the Xperia Z pinching can zoom the thumbs down to a single picture preview or back up to the tiled thumbnail grid.

Sony uses its famed Walkman branding for the music player, and has graced it with a pretty minimalistic interface that goes out of your way visually when you listen to something. The Xperia Z sports equalizers and sound modes that can be accessed directly from the app, whereas the music player of the HTC One offers just the Beats Audio preset when you plug in the headphones, or are listening to music through the dual speaker system at the front.

The loudspeakers on the HTC One are amplified and pump out strong and clear beats in stereo, whereas the traditional single speaker on the rear that the Xperia Z has, sounds somewhat muffled and distorted.

Both handsets play 1080p videos with ease, but the Xperia Z supports all popular formats from the box, whereas you'll be slightly inconvenienced having to download a 3rd party app to watch DivX videos on the HTC One.



Call quality

The Xperia Z doesn't shine with voice quality in the earpiece, producing sound with average strength and clarity that is not up to par with flagship expectations. The HTC One, on the other hand, uses its amplified boom box at the front top for an earpiece, whose loud and clear output ranks up with the best out there.

The noise-canceling microphones on the handsets separate your voice from the background noise successfully, yet the setup the HTC One mics have manages to relay clearer and more recognizable voices to the other end.

Battery

The phones have sealed batteries with almost equal capacity – 2300 mAh for the One vs 2330 mAh for the Xperia Z – but HTC doesn't give official talk times for the One. Sony, however, claims 5.5 hours of video playback for the Xperia Z, which is a tad below the average endurance, whereas 3rd party tests peg the HTC One at about eight hours, yet overall both phones should last you through the day with moderate to heavy usage, and day and a half to two days if you are gentle on the screen time.



Conclusion

All in all, it shouldn't be a tough pick between the HTC One or the Xperia Z for you. Sony's flagship might look a bit rough around the edges, compared to the sleek aluminum One, but there's a perfectly good reason for that – its waterproof chassis will be a godsend for many a careless or outdoorsy owner, and it is easier to hold and operate with one hand with the rubberized sides.

If you are the type that babies their handset, though, the HTC One will offer a better screen, faster processor, stellar audio experience, IR blaster and superior video capture, on top of what the Xperia Z delivers. Both handsets cost around the same, and are likely to keep value in a similar manner, so it mostly depends on whether you need the elements-proofing of the Z, or the extra features of the One.

HTC One vs Sony Xperia Z: