HTC One Google Play Edition review

Fully covered connectivity

The HTC One Google Play Edition starts off with the basics - quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band 3G, and LTE compatibility for AT&T and T-Mobile US.

Google's latest Android flagship uses Bluetooth 4.0 alongside Wi-Fi support which includes a/b/g/n/ac band compatibility.

The HTC One Google Play Edition allows you to share all sorts of media via NFC by simply touching the device and other NFC-capable devices back-to-back.

Unfortunately, the IR port functionality is not supported on the Google Play Edition HTC One out of the box. It's one of the main Sense features missing in the Google Play Edition.

And finally, for wired connectivity we have the MHL 2.0 port. By all appearances it is a normal microUSB port and works as one (a charger port as well). But the MHL 2.0 port enables video output by using a MHL-to-HDMI dongle. Once you plug the dongle into the phone you also need to plug a charger into the additional microUSB port on the dongle and the HTC One Google Play Edition screen will be mirrored on the TV.

Google Chrome is in charge of web browsing

The HTC One Google Play Edition comes with Google Chrome as a default web browser out of the box, replacing the generic Android browser, which isn't even present. The interface hasn't changed since Chrome's launch for Android and is clean and minimalist.

At the top there's an URL bar with a refresh/stop buttons next to tabs and settings buttons. You can switch between tabs with a wide swipe from either the left or right.

Opening the tabs area reveals a list of tabs which can be closed again with a left or right swipe. The animation accompanying this action is neat, too.

Google Chrome

Chrome is running on the WebKit rendering engine, so underneath the minimalist UI it's basically the same as all Android stock browsers.

Of course, one of Chrome's strengths is its ability to seamlessly sync with its desktop version, using nothing but your Google account. This allows you to open an article on your PC and finish reading it on your mobile phone. It also syncs your bookmarks and favorite sites.

Google Chrome is generous on settings as well. You can control almost every aspect of your web browsing from choosing what content you want to allow to load like JavaScript, images, cookies and pop-ups.

If you are out of Wi-Fi access, you can, for example, choose temporarily not to load images. Digging into Chrome's options, you'll also have the option to turn the auto-fill of forms and storing passwords on or off.

Switching between tabs • settings

Unfortunately, while Chrome excels in many areas, it falls short on the one that could be a deal-breaker for many of Android users and this is Flash. Sadly, viewing Flash content is the one thing you won't be able to do here.