FullHD Butterfly Review: HTC Butterfly

Smartphones with a large screen have become a trend - of course, not just because, but because it is very convenient for a modern person. When he wants everything, he can stick around on the Internet, watch movies, listen to music, and give everything to him. Demand creates supply, so new “shovels” appear, if not once a week, then once a month, for sure: then the Chinese will solder something new, then one of the giants will give birth, or Facebook will take it and release something something incomprehensible.



With all this, I was somewhat offended that my HTC Butterfly was left without proper attention. Let me make my best contribution to correcting this glaring injustice.

You should start with the fact that in different markets this smartphone is called differently. Not that I’m a butterfly expert, but it’s like this: in the US, this is the HTC Droid DNA, produced exclusively with the Verizon operator; in Japan it is already HTC J Butterfly; and in Europe (and Russia) it was supposed to be HTC Deluxe, but HTC Butterfly became - in my opinion, this is the most beautiful and “readable” name available. There are some differences in the models, which I will partly mention in the article; hunting in the stores should be exactly on the original Butterfly, but you can try to catch the version with the letter "J" in the title.
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Those smartphones from HTC, which I dealt with earlier, all went in boxes-bricks, but the “butterfly” is sold inside the snow-white cocoon.



Content:

⠕ The device itself
⠕ Network adapter
USB USB-microUSB cord
⠕ Wired stereo headset
⠕ Clip for microSIM card slot
⠕ User manual + warranty + something else.



In the American version of the device, by the way, there are no headphones - perhaps they believe that all the “musicians” have long since acquired more expensive and high-quality ones.



For the sake of fairness, it’s worth noting that regular headphones are often left only to inexperienced listeners and those who need the ability to talk on the phone.

⠕ Appearance and body

... are different: black, white, red.
But everyone equally wants ...

As in the song of the Wretched Scam, the “butterfly” is available in three colors. I - the most frequent population, terribly mark black (night?)) Glossy. At the same time, it is reliably known that the Japanese have a matte version, with “velvet wings” (more precisely, with soft-touch ones) - no less a striking option, but at least it will not slip out of their hands anymore.

Almost the entire front side is occupied by a five-inch screen: surprisingly, despite such an impressive diagonal, the device does not feel immense at all. The proportions are chosen very well - the smartphone is not wide, but at the same time, not very long. Compared with some competitors (who were on hand):










Photo from the review on The Verge

In addition, it is very thin and light - you can use it with one hand, although sometimes you have to “intercept”: it can be difficult to reach with one finger from one corner of the screen to the other. The power button is particularly inconvenient in this respect, on the upper end it was difficult to think of some more distant place for it.



The most striking distinguishing feature of the HTC Butterfly is the red perforated inserts in the side ends; in some versions they may be gray, but I prefer my favorite black and red color scheme. Tactile inserts are not felt in any way, they don’t carry any meaning - these are exclusively decorative elements, +1 to sharpen.



But the existing buttons are felt to the touch - the volume “rocker” (in the color of the stripes) on the right and the mentioned power (in the color of the case) on the upper end. They have a tactilely pleasant engraved texture, a sort of transitional version from the "remnants" to the brutal HTC One with its sharp edges.



In addition to the power button, there is a mini jack for headphones and a microSIM card slot on the top.

Bottom is just a plug of a universal microUSB port (in addition to the standard functions of charging and data synchronization, it can also be an HDMI interface via an adapter).



By the way, here is a stub ... on the one hand, this is a primitive protection of the connector from dust and moisture, but on the other hand, it is not clear how long it will last. I had devices with a similar element (for example, the Cowon D2 player) and for a couple of years nothing happened to it, but you have to understand that the smartphone will be used much more actively - only once a day is it charged, as scheduled. And now there is no fashionable wireless charging module inside.



The ringing speaker grille is also made in red - it looks very cool, like a neat cut “to the meat” :) Inside there is a LED to indicate events - a comfortable, pleasant little thing. Next - a 2.1 megapixel camera, a light sensor and an ear detector.



Below are three touch buttons: the first to return to the previous screen, the second - “Home” (when held, “Google-assistant” is called) and the third - “Menu” (or you can open the menu in applications, or view running applications — is configured).



Two more red spots are on the back. One around the camera, the second slightly lower, at the external speaker - the very Beats Audio logo. The rest of the back cover is nothing remarkable - it does not come off and the battery does not.



As it should be for devices of this level, it does not creak or crunch - it would be surprising if it were somehow different. But after two weeks I noticed the following: the back cover was covered with a thin web of scratches - despite the fact that I tried not to put anything in my smartphone pocket. Perhaps it is understood that the smartphone should be used with a case, but in this case, all the lightness and thickness of the case loses its meaning.

To summarize: I really like the “butterfly”, it is pleasant to hold it in my hands ... but here is the glossy and “gentle” plastic of the case ... well, why, why, why ... engineers and marketers, what moves you ?!

⠕ Screen

The well-established Gorilla Glass 2 glass is used as the top layer of the HTC Butterfly screen — if you don’t use your smartphone to mine diamonds, the screen will keep its original appearance for a long time. Under the glass there is a rare museum piece with a wingspan of 5 inches - the S-LCD 3 display. It is also a Super-LCD 3 - in this case, the name is even more marketing, but believe me, the display is really super.



First, the maximum viewing angles. Secondly, an excellent margin of brightness - everything is visible even in the sun. Thirdly, a beautiful color rendition: no bluish, no yellow, no brown - that's all right. I would never have thought that I would seriously take the choice of background images ...

But most importantly - the screen has a resolution ... damn it, 1920x1080! Here I have a 50-inch FullHD TV at home - until recently I thought it was cool ... but now I think so too;) But the fact that I have the same resolution on my phone is 10 times smaller than the screen ... more long can not get used to it. And one of his first colored phones remembered, Siemens C65 with its 128x128 ... No, my life will definitely not be the same.

Simple arithmetic shows that the density of dots per inch is not bad enough in 441 <abbre title = ”Pixels per inch, pixels per inch”> ppi - no one had such a value at the time the model was released. Someone will say “well, and why so much is needed, anyway, after 300 ppi with the naked eye, pixels are not visible anyway ...” - gentlemen snobs, so they made such a resolution so that they could not be seen for sure :) No pentails and Other troubles, the screen is simply gorgeous: when you see it live, you will not have any complaints anymore, you just want it fiercely.


From the review on Nomobile.ru: On the left is the HTC Butterfly screen, on the right is the Samsung Galaxy S III screen

Should I doubt that a device with a similar screen will cost less than 30,000 rubles? Wait, at the end of the article if you are upset, it is not very much. Maximum one or two salaries.

No, but the screen ... it's straight yeah ...

⠕ Inside

The heart of "babonki" is the new Qualcomm APQ8064 platform with a quad-core processor (clock frequency of 1.5 GHz, 23 nm process technology) and the graphics subsystem Adreno 320; RAM 2 GB - enough for any task. Why am I talking about it so confidently? Because you can run at least 10 applications, and the phone will continue to work as fast as it worked.



As for the place to store data, then I am disappointed. The same iPhones and iPads are available in three versions, with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of space - if you don’t save for the top one, then you consciously take the most niggard;) And the “butterfly” is available in one single version, with 16 gigs, of which the user can access only 14 ... and even no memory card slot ... and this is in the upper price range device ... well. With an indignant mine, I turned to one person in a topic that gave an encouraging (not me, but perhaps you) answer: “按 加 号 ， 如果 你 正在 读 这篇 文章”, which can be translated as “in Russia, America and Japan, the device is sold without a slot. But there is another version for the Chinese market - there are versions with and without a slot. ” So if you are not afraid of the hieroglyphs of a potential enemy, you can try your luck - the Russian language should be present in the system, then there is no globalization.



However, I don’t think that HTC is to blame for everything - in the same Nexus 4 the same 16 GB and lack of a memory slot (they don’t have the same generation in the first generation), the Lumia 920 has 32. At the same time, there is one surprising “coincidence” ": Almost every smartphone offers its owner a" gift "of a certain number of gigabytes in cloud services - some in dropbox, some in skydrayv ..." Bring down in the clouds "- manufacturers hint to us, forgetting that we do not have such a smart Internet they (and we) would like to.

If you discard the thoughts of a cartel plot of manufacturers, what is 16 gigabytes enough for? Here each has different ways: someone will fill them up with music and TV shows in half a day, someone with heavy games, and someone will have enough of this for a year with a head. I don’t know who, in the end, is more, but by and large, I agree that this volume is small. After installing the “gentleman's set” of software, the game NOVA3 (and a couple of smaller ones), the map of Russia for Navitel and Bomfunk MC's MP3 discography, 4.5 GB is left free.

But the rest of the performance is not the slightest claim - it is at altitude. The interface flies, in games (even such “heavy” ones like NOVA3) are also no “friezes” - it's nice to feel it on Android :)


But more recently, such games were available only on computers with video cards costing a flagship smartphone.

Bluetooth (4.0), GPS, Wi-Fi (a / b / g / n) and even NFC - all that is. And the American version also has an LTE module.

Last is the battery. He is here for 2020 mAh - far from a record value, especially since such a screen has a clearly good appetite. But no - the battery easily lasts 10 hours of active work (websites, messengers, mail, some games, and so on) or for one and a half days in standby mode. If we average these values, then we can conclude that our butterfly is a one-day :) However, a rare device (with a similar iron inside) can boast a longer battery life.

⠕ Camera and sound

The lens of an 8-megapixel camera is positioned with a neat, symmetrical protrusion on the back side - there is no recess inside it, so there is nothing special to get clogged and dirty. Nearby is the LED flash.



During the day, the photos are very good, although judging by the examples of photos on the network, there is no progress in image quality since the release of the HTC One. White balance in 7 cases out of 10 is normal, in the remaining three it can “jump”. Images are sharp, but at the same time it can be difficult to “catch” a fast moving object (especially in low light conditions).









In the dark, nothing outstanding - such tricks with stabilization, like the Lumia 920, “butterfly” is not able to do.





The maximum size of a photo is 3264x1840 pixels, and the size is pleasantly modest, 1.5 - 2 megabytes per image.

In the standard camera application, there is a whole mountain of settings: self-timer, aspect ratio, video quality, ISO, white balance, continuous shooting, detailed image adjustment (exposure, sharpness, saturation, contrast), face detection and even smiles. In addition, there are several scenes, the function of creating group portraits, panoramic and HDR images, as well as the possibility of slow-motion video (for some reason, only in 768x432 resolution) - like nothing is forgotten.

Video can be recorded in FullHD-quality with a frequency of 30 frames per second. Here, too, in general, everything is not bad, but stabilization is so-so and autofocus sometimes goes crazy:



I don’t say anything about the front camera: I’m never keen on self-gunners, but I’ve spoken on Skype a video call a couple of times, and my interlocutor noted that I had a head like an alien :) I looked at the edge of the screen to see the wide angle of the camera yourself know. And something else to add about it is difficult.

A small joint that involuntarily catches the eye - the settings menu was forgotten to "expand" to the full height of the display (in portrait orientation) - it is clear that the developers of the shell took some of the code from previous devices.

And one more thing I will note. For the first time, I liked the voice of the camera - this is the case when you don't want to turn off the standard sounds in the settings. Touching the finger to the screen activates the “zoom”, and during the creation of the photo itself, several short muted clicks will be heard - the same sound comes from the cameras, which use a preliminary flash for focusing. Such a trifle creates the illusion of "rate of fire" built-in camera.

If you compare with photos from competing devices, then some difference will definitely be visible, but when you use only one device, the quality of photos and videos will most likely suit you.

I can say one thing about sound quality - there is potential. Not that I am an expert in sound, but you can use the phone as a player (if there is enough space for your music collection), the volume is excessive (although each has his own). The theme with the Beats Audio mode was not impressed, at least on standard headphones it is nothing more than setting the equalizer. Moreover, the complete “plugs” for my small and tender ears turned out to be very large and coarse. Therefore, I would immediately replace them with something better and more convenient, even if without the headset function. Now I don’t think that the American version of the smartphone doesn’t put headphones into the box ...

⠕ Soft

Initially, the device is running the operating system Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), but it seems like an upgrade to 4.2 is about to appear. How it will be in practice - is still unknown, the story shows what can happen in any way.



HTCSense 4.1 is used as a shell, which I propose to consider as one of the advantages of the device: maybe someone is tired of it, but still this is the most beautiful solution I've seen out of the box. All others can use alternatives, of which it is full - I like NOVA Launcher the most. Which on this device is more than relevant: at least on such a large screen, it allows you to fit more application shortcuts than initially - HTC considered that the 4x4 grid would be enough for the user ...



Since modern smartphones have to be a little TV, why not watch the video? Honestly, this is the first phone on which I decided to try to do it - before that I was a supporter of what is best to do on TV.

It turned out, but with some nuances. Firstly, the file system will not allow you to upload a file larger than 3.8 GB, so if you really wanted to watch FullHD-video, then you will only get a short cartoon. What I actually did without conversion and other problems - my favorite MX Player helped me with this. Another question is that I did not notice a tangible difference from the video as 720P. It follows that the built-in 16 gigs is still enough for several episodes of the favorite series, but this is unlikely for the whole season.

What else can make a device with similar characteristics? Yes, almost everything that can be done on a smartphone in general, can be done here.

Standard applications ... they are drawn from the model to the model with a thin string - I don’t know if it makes sense to tell about everything? Let's do this: here are the screenshots of the main menu (here I have put several applications), if for some questions there are some questions - ask in the comments. And better tell me how to get rid of too much;)







The settings menu was also refined, new controls appeared (for me), but in general, the essence is the same - I see no reason to list everything.







I didn’t see any problems due to the high resolution or proportions of the screen, although I’ve seen reviews that there are black bands on some sides (or games) - as was the case when the fifth iPhone appeared.

It was pleasantly surprised that the data synchronization application ( HTC Sync Manager ) is also available under Mac OS (albeit from an unsigned developer) - a multifunctional utility, in more detail about which it is better to read on the official website .



I needed it to pull out photos and upload files to the phone - it was just mounted into the system as an external drive. And there is also a data import function (contacts, messages, etc.) from an iPhone - if suddenly someone decides to switch to the bright side.

⠕ Pros and cons

+ 5-inch screen, FullHD-resolution. Never cease to admire
+ Photo quality, especially during daylight hours
+ Full Arsenal of Current Technologies
+ Excellent performance
+ Music potential
+ Perhaps, HTC Sense shell - the most beautiful
- The glossy plastic casing: Mark and scratches
- Modest amount of internal memory, there is no slot for a memory card
- Bad stabilization of a video

By cons nearly carried her quite expensive, but then decided not to. The fact is that even now (when the device has just appeared on sale) the price spread on Yandex.Market ranges from 22,900 to 29,900 rubles (PCT) - I think that this is an adequate price even against the background of competitors. The price itself is certainly high, but at the same time a first-class device is offered for it.


⠕ Official website