Nokia Lumia 925 vs HTC One

What’s the difference between the HTC One and the Nokia Lumia 925?

Nokia Lumia 925 vs HTC One

The HTC One and Nokia Lumia 925 are two of the classiest looking phones around. This is primarily thanks to one common factor – their aluminium finishes. In a world where many manufacturers still opt for plastic casings, the metal design gives these two flagships the edge when it comes to aesthetics. This article takes a look at the other similarities between the two, their differences, and how their spec sheets stack up against each other.

Design

Not that its predecessor, the 920, was lacking style, but Nokia has made some big improvements when it comes to the 925: the 920 weighs a whopping 185g and is 10.5mm thick; the 925 has been slimmed to 8.5mm and weighs only 139g. It just about edges the One in both these aspects, with the HTC handset weighing 143g and measuring 9.3mm. Of course we would expect the One to be slightly heavier, what with it being the larger of the two in terms of screen size and dimensions.

While both handsets have hit the nail on the head in terms of industrial design, the HTC remains the best-looking device available. Its all-metal finish really does ooze class and although the Lumia 925 comes close, its rear is still made of polycarbonate. Previously such metal designs have been a problem in terms of signal reception, but HTC’s engineers have managed to sidestep this obstacle and the aluminium frame of the 925 actually serves as its antenna.

Sound

There’s no doubting that these two devices offer a superb audio experience by smartphone standards, particularly when it comes to recording.

There was a fair bit of media coverage recently over the dual-membrane microphone used in the HTC One, which Nokia had an exclusivity period on having co-developed it. In brief, the HTC One uses the same dual-membrane microphone as several Nokia devices. This dual-membrane microphone enhances noise-cancellation during audio recordings and was heavily marketed as part of HTC’s BoomSound feature for the release of the One.

A court ruling has declared that HTC is free to deplete the stock it has outstanding of the dual-membrane microphone, but after that it’s unclear as to which microphone technology it will use and the feature has since been removed from HTC’s official spec sheet. Conversely, the same feature gets a quiet mention on the Nokia’s 925 spec sheet as ‘two microphone uplink noise cancellation’.

Nokia is free to use the dual-membrane microphone on an ongoing basis, so there may come a time when the feature is available in Nokia devices, but not the HTC One.

That being said, it’s not just audio recording that’s important on a smartphone, but playback as well. On the HTC One there are dual front-facing stereo speakers – another important feature of HTC BoomSound – which are further enhanced by built-in amplifiers and HTC’s Beats Audio technology. The Nokia Lumia 925 has its single speaker grill on the rear (the same as the vast majority of smartphones), meaning that it needs to be placed face-down on a flat surface to achieve optimum audio volumes. The HTC One, on the other hand, has both speaker grills on the front – one at the top and one at the bottom – meaning you can still have good audio for music and ringtones without the need to turn the phone over.

Camera

HTC ImageSense vs Nokia PureView, Nokia Smart Camera vs HTC Zoe and Carl Zeiss Optics vs the HTC UltraPixel Sensor – what do all these mean and what’s the difference between them? Read

There are many aspects to cover when it comes to the cameras of these two handsets, which both specialise in low light photography,  so we’ve written them up in our Lumia 925 vs HTC One Camera comparison. This take a look at the specs on paper, but we’ll add some comparison photos once the Lumia 925 has arrived with us.

Display

The preference implied by the continually increased screen sizes of flagship devices is that the bigger the screen, the better.  However, with screen size being very much a subjective decision, that’s not necessarily the case. Neither of these handsets quite hit 5” screen size that’s featured in the likes of the Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4, but still offer plenty of screen real-estate.

HTC’s device offers a 4.7” display, which truly is stunning to look at. It has a pixel density of 468 ppi and its HD resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels makes for an amazingly crisp picture. The Lumia 925 doesn’t quite match up on this front, but it’s not far behind. The Lumia’s 4.5” display has a pixel density of 334 ppi and has a resolution of 1280 x 768, which is the highest supported by Windows Phone at present.  Both handsets also have Corning Gorilla Glass 2 to protect against bumps and scratches.

One advantage that the Lumia 925 does have is that it uses AMOLED technology, whereas the HTC One uses LCD. With AMOLED less power is consumed and blacks are deeper. Nokia has also included a tool (with 11 different settings) that enables users to tweak the contrast settings of the display.

Finally, the Nokia Lumia 925 has Super-sensitive touch technology, which is a nice feature. It makes the screen extremely responsive and means that it can even be used with gloves on.

Storage

The debate of internal storage, user-accessible storage and microSD slots (or lack of) is raging more than ever, especially with the Samsung Galaxy S4 having recently been featured on BBC’s Watchdog show. Unfortunately neither the One nor the Lumia 925 offer a better solution than Samsung’s latest handset.

The One has 32GB internal storage (around 25GB user-accessible)  while the Lumia 925 has 16GB. We’re yet to confirm how much the system install of the Lumia takes up, but you certainly won’t have the full 16GB available for file storage. Neither handset has a microSD slot to enable you to expand the storage, so you are somewhat limited, especially with the 925.

As always there are the usual cloud storage options available: the Lumia 925 comes with 7GB of free SkyDrive storage, while the HTC One comes with 25GB DropBox storage, which is free for two years.

Being an Android handset, the HTC One also has good integration with Google’s services, which also offer some free storage space.  Google recently announced that users will have 15GB of storage to manage across Gmail, Drive and Google+ and its paid-for options for further space are also reasonable.

If you like to keep a lot of files on your phone (e.g music, movies, etc.) then you’ll be better off with the One than the 925.

Battery

You should get reasonable battery life out of either of these handsets. The HTC One has a slightly larger battery (2300mAh) than the Lumia 925 (2000mAh), although it does have a larger screen to power.

The battery life of the HTC One has been well-regarded amongst reviewers and you should find yourself getting through the day from a single charge. You can view our HTC One battery life roundup here and we’ll also compile a similar roundup for the Lumia 925 once it has been thoroughly tested.

A nice feature that is included with the Lumia 925 but not the HTC One, is the option of Qi wireless charging.  This feature was built into the Lumia 920, but Nokia has removed it on the 925 to keep the weight down. To use wireless charging with the 925 you’ll need to buy the wirelss charging shell, as well as a wireless charger, such as the Fatboy Pillow.  Otherwise both handsets are charged via microUSB

Software

The HTC One comes with Android Jelly Bean plus HTC’s custom skin, HTC Sense. Overall it’s more feature-rich than the Lumia 925, with Windows Phone leaving less flexibility for Nokia to customise the operating system. However, Nokia has added its own software where possible, namely in the form of its navigation apps and Smart Camera. HTC matches the camera software with HTC Zoe, while the built-in Google Maps is as good a navigation system as any.

HTC Sense also comes with features such as BlinkFeed, which is HTC’s new approach to homescreen layout and news delivery. This can be disabled should you choose not to use it. There are many other features to Sense as well which bring subtle adjustments to the Android OS.

Overall Android also has more third-party apps available and its access and integration to Google’s ever growing (and improving) portfolio of services is definitely a bonus. That being said Windows Phone is growing rapidly and now has some great apps available as well. Microsoft also has an impressive portfolio of apps to offer, so with either choice you won’t be sold short.

In terms of software the One does edge the Lumia 925, but mainly because of the number of apps available for Android

Other features

GPS – the two handsets offer both GPS and GLONASS and will provide strong navigation performance in terms of both hardware and software. The HTC One comes with Google Maps preinstalled, while the Lumia 925 has Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport. Both have the ability to store maps offline.

With the Lumia 925 there is also public transportation guidance available in certain areas. Nokia Here maps will suggest interesting places for you to visit and there’s a similar Android app that can be downloaded for the HTC One called Field Trip.

Video Out – The HTC One has the option of video out, the Lumia 925 doesn’t (it’s not possible on Windows Phone yet). With the One you can use either the MHL (wired) or Miracast (wireless) set up to achieve video out. MHL requires an adaptor, HDMI cable and microUSB cable, but offers the more reliable connection of the two methods.

Power – The HTC One has the more powerful 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, compared to the Lumia’s 1.5GHz dual-core processor. For most this won’t make a huge difference – Windows Phone does need as fast a processor and it’s mainly for gaming that the quad-core is needed – but th option (as well as the availability of games on Android) is there for One owners should they want it. The HTC One also has more RAM, with 2GB compared to 1GB for the Lumia 925 and also has HTC ImageSense 2 chip for faster image processing.

Connectivity – As is the case with most marketing-leading handsets, there are not huge differences to draw here. Both handsets feature NFC technology, a 3.5mm audio jack and of course Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The One does have a newer version of Bluetooth – 4.0 compared to 3.0 on the 925, but this isn’t a big enough difference to affect a buying decision. It also have DLNA for (for media sharing), but then it’s already won that battle with the 925 thanks to MHL and Miracast.

IR Blaster – This feature is currently unique to the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4. The IR blaster enables the handset to be used as a remote control for various household appliances. Its most obvious use is as a TV remote and HTC has therefore included HTC Sense TV, a detailed TV guide that can add reminders to your daily schedule.

Conclusion –

There’s no denying that both manufacturers have delivered a stunning form factor with these two devices. Unfortunately for Nokia, it’s let down slightly by the shortcomings of Windows Phone, such as screen resolution, no video out and the lack of apps compared to Android and iOS.

Choosing between these two handsets will mainly be a decision of Android or Windows Phone, but either way you’ll end up with a great handset. There’s not really anything that the Lumia 925 has that the HTC One doesn’t, but the One does have a few features that give it a bit more of an edge.

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