The most beautiful phone available today, the aluminum-clad HTC One ($199.99 with contract) is also the first truly compelling smartphone of 2013. Its strong design perspective won't be for everyone, especially Android purists. But it's a major step forward, and should satisfy those who think Samsung's plastic-based Galaxy phones look and feel a little chintzy. It's an easy Editors' Choice for smartphones on Sprint.

We're going to see a lot of Android software experiments this year. Choosing your smartphone will more than ever come down to whose software ideas you think are most intriguing. HTC is focusing on less-technical users with an easy setup strategy, content-heavy default screens, and multi-window multitasking, both here and on its "Facebook phone," the HTC First. Samsung's grab bag of features in the Galaxy S4 strongly suggests that you buy other Samsung products, like cameras and TVs, for ease-of-use bonuses. And if Amazon and Motorola release rumored handsets, we should see a seamless Amazon media experience and a "pure Google" offering as well.

Physical Design

The HTC One is the best-built phones I've ever seen. It's a very rare aluminum unibody, in silver or black. With its 4.7-inch screen, the phone is rather large at 5.4 by 2.7 by .37 inches (HWD), but that's just part of the current trend of big phones led by the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy S4, which are both wider, although a touch slimmer than the One. My thumb can't cross the One's screen diagonally when held in one hand. I long for a flagship Android phone that I can actually use with a single hand, but they're hard to find.

At five ounces, the One is also slightly heavier than its Samsung rivals, but it's a very satisfying heft: solid, but not heavy. The phone's back panel is smooth, curved, and just a touch slippery; it settles very well into your hand. The screen's glass falls over the sides, and the top and bottom of the front panel are beveled metal. Broad speaker grilles dominate the top and bottom, with a little red notification LED peeking out of the top one. The phone has no removable parts and only one slot, a pop-out SIM tray.

 

Some people, including my editor, say the One "looks a lot like an iPhone 5," but that's only if you say any metal unibody handset looks like an iPhone. The One has a very strong design perspective: The large speaker grilles, the wraparound screen glass, the centered camera, the convex back, and the prominent HTC logo show that this phone is a design innovation, not a copycat.

One of those strong design decisions I don't really agree with: HTC has messed with the three standard Android touch buttons below the screen, reducing them to two (Back and Home) with an HTC logo in between. To get to the multitasking screen, you double-tap Home. I found myself unconsciously tapping the HTC logo to get Home pretty often, just because it's large and centered.

The 4.7-inch, Super LCD 3 screen shows very little reflectivity and looks gorgeous in sunlight. At 1,920-by-1,080 and a startling 469 pixels per inch, it now holds the crown for densest screen in the land. The pixels are completely invisible. 

Sprint's HTC One comes with 32GB of non-removable memory. AT&T will have a 64GB model, but it's apparently exclusive to that carrier.

Calling and Networking

Sprint's 3G network is very slow, as we showed last year in our Fastest Mobile Networks tests. Sprint currently offers LTE in 67 cities, but the carrier clearly needs more high-speed network coverage. Sprint hasn't launched LTE in New York yet; while I saw plenty of LTE signal while testing the phone, speeds on the network clearly aren't ready for prime time at 1Mbps-4Mbps down. The 3G network, meanwhile, was even slower, with speeds of 300-400Kbps down near our offices in midtown Manhattan and 700Kbps-1Mbps near my home in Queens. At least I'm happy to say there's no 'death grip,' and that signal reception is excellent.

This model of the One supports Sprint's 3G (CDMA 800/850/1900) and LTE (1900 only) networks, along with GSM/EDGE on 850/900/1800/1900 and HSPA 14.4 on the 1900 and 2100MHz bands. That means this phone will roam internationally at 3G speeds. In theory, you could unlock it to work poorly on AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks, but it wouldn't be able to take advantage of fast speeds on either.

Voice quality was mostly good in my tests, but hurt by some persistent problems with Sprint's network in Manhattan. Too much background noise made calls skip and cut out both on this phone and a Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note II in the same location. Earpiece volume is moderate, and transmissions from noisy areas sound a bit computerized as the phone's noise cancellation kicks in. The noise cancellation isn't as elegant or fast-acting as the Audience-powered solution on the Samsung Galaxy S III and S4, but it gets the job done. The speakerphone, on the other hand, is excellent: It's very loud and clear.

The HTC One supports Sprint's new HD Voice system, which is available in cities where the carrier has launched LTE, and currently only between its HTC One and HTC EVO 4G LTE phones. That's a real pity; Sprint could have been first with HD Voice, but has lost the momentum to T-Mobile, which is offering it on more popular devices like the Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple iPhone 5.

I was able to trigger voice dialing with both Plantronics Voyager Legend£66.99 at Amazon UK and Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headsets, but voice dialing is extremely basic—not comprehensive voice commands, just a request to say "call" and a name.

Battery life was very good—it better be, because the big 2,300mAh battery is sealed in. I got 11 hours, 25 minutes of talk time and 5 hours and 48 minutes of YouTube streaming over Wi-Fi with the screen set to maximum brightness. These are both solid results that suggest a full day's use, but heavy users will still want to pick up an external battery solution.

This is the first phone we've tested with 802.11ac Wi-Fi (along with 802.11 a, b, g, and n); the wireless connection easily maxed out my 15Mbps backhaul. Also on board are Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and GPS with Qualcomm's new Izat location-technology enhancements, which gave me unusually quick and accurate GPS locations—even indoors.