Two-Hand Review: HTC One Max

The very first thing I did when I opened this phone and pulled it out was held it up to my face. It was literally as big as my face. The HTC One Max is not for someone with little hands, or a person who isn’t prepared to experience the greatest view of life from behind a camera lense. I actually had to put PopSockets onto the back make it easier to hold onto. The next thing I did was actually named it. I felt that The Incredible Captain Iron Thor was a suitable name because of the all the features, the size and the pure amazingness that was all packed into this phone. Read on to find out what we thought about the rest of the phone.

Obviously, the first thing we are going to discuss is the size of the phone. The HTC One Max comes with a supersized and full 1080p HD 5.9 inch screen. Considering the fact that tablets now come in 7 inches this phone is extremely massive. It is actually being called a Phablet. Which some people think means its a “Phone Tablet” but my associates and friends call it my “Phabulous Tablet”. That being said, at first the phone was too large for me. I thought why would anybody want something this big for their face. It took only a couple days for me to realize that this was the greatest and best phone in the world. Tribute. Points for who ever gets that reference.

Because of how big it is the size portion is getting two paragraphs! The 5.9 inch screen shows your images in such detail I felt like I was looking at my selfies in the mirror. I generally never turned up the brightness above the 1st level, but when I did oh boy did the resolution blow my mind. Images and colors come in extremely rich and full of vibrant life, the games and other applications are just overly beautiful and so smooth when you’re using them. Quality was not sacrificed in the least bit with the size.

Speaking of images on the screen let’s move onto the camera. The rear camera is an HTC UltraPixel Camera which is able to shoot full 1080p HD video in regular speed or even slow motion! Completely awesome feature that I thought would just be silly but actually provided hours of entertainment. It also has smart flash which has 5 levels of flash available to automatically adjust based on how far the target is from the camera.

My favorite part of the camera system is sadly the front facing camera. This is sad because I am addicted to stupid selfies on snapchat. But the fact is that the front facing camera takes extremely clear and high quality photos. It is perfect for that moment you are with your significant other and want to make a memory, or when you want to have a video chat with a loved one who you dont get to see as often as you’d like.

For those people you see all the time however there are security features built in to keep them off your phone and from taking ugly selfies and posting as your background. This includes the facial scan, the password, the pattern and my favorite the fingerprint scanner built right into the back of the phone! Thats right iPhone we put ours on the back, try to sue us on that one! Just kidding, but in all seriousness the fingerprint scanner is actually very accurate compared to what I imagined.

The only down side to it is that if you are out one night and you go a bit overboard and end up using the wrong finger a few too many times it will ask for your password you chose when you programmed the phone. This is all fine and dandy if you can remember the password because you get 10 attempts to get the password right or else it erases the phone back to factory settings. I may or may not have remembered the password I set up and the phone possibly erased itself on me. It is not a fun experience but if your phone is ever stolen you at least know nobody will be able to use your information.

Now one of the most important features of a phone is the battery life. This phone I expected to get about 8 hours of battery at most, even though it says 25 hours on 3G. In actuallity what I got was an average of about 17-19 hours of battery life with fairly heavy use. It literally lasted me from when I woke up at 5 to when I went to bed around 11. This is with the built in battery too, no extenders, no charging through the day, just pure battery life.

The selling point however for me on this phone was the fact that it has front facing speakers built in. All of you know the tricks to increase the volume of the phone. Cupping your hands behind it, putting it inside a cup or a tube, reverberating it off a wall. I’ve done them all, but with this phone you dont need to because they were smart enough to put the speakers on the front! Plus, the speakers sound AMAZING! Not a single complaint on the sound system of this phone.

My final thoughts before I have to send this wonderful phone back for the next lucky person. It is a very large phone but it doesn’t feel overly heavy which is amazing. One thing I was worried about was dropping the phone and destroying it, but to my surprise after a few light drops it didn’t even scratch. Our associate Andrew actually dropped his on his laminate flooring and it dented the floor. They put the power and volume buttons on the same side which is extremely nice instead of having to switch sides and move your fingers around. The cameras are crisp and clear with almost no fuzz or blurry shots. All in all if you can handle the size of it I guarantee this will be the best phone you have ever owned. If you want all the features without the size, the HTC One is also available and just as amazing. Head on over to Verizon Wireless and check it out! Full Specs below!

Specs