There is a lot riding on the new HTC One. The Taiwanese company has struggled mightily as of late, watching its revenue fall month after month over several years as its mobile devices fell out of consumer favor. While Apple and Samsung wage war over the global smartphone market, HTC is behind them, desperately seeking a hit that will stabilize its fortunes.

    For that reason, the late March debut of HTC's new One wasn't ideal. Samsung's new flagship model, the Galaxy S5, was announced in February and is set to arrive in stores on Friday, casting a long shadow over HTC's festivities. But HTC had a trick up its sleeve: It made the One widely available on the same day of its announcement.

    As they say in comic books: "Kapow!"

    The look of the new One -- code-named M8 -- is similar to its predecessor of the same name. It has a metal exterior (available in three colors: gold, silver and gunmetal), runs the latest version of Google's Android operating system (4.2.2 KitKat), has an additional camera over the previous model, and carries a five-inch, 1080p-resolution display.

    Inside, there's a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and two gigabytes of memory. The combination provides a much-needed speed boost over last year's model. In testing the new One, I rarely experienced any significant stuttering or sluggishness, with one exception: when I was switching between open apps. When I tapped on the multitasking button, there was a two- to three-second delay before the nine different app thumbnails would display.

    Most versions of the One come with HTC's proprietary Android skin, which it calls Sense. The new One is the first device to run version 6.0 of this software, and there are some new features worth mentioning. Owners of HTC phones are already familiar with BlinkFeed, which brings together your social feeds, your calendar and top interests into one, condensed stream of information; the feature now comes with the ability to view fitness stats using the Fitbit app. (Even if you don't own a fitness tracker of your own, the One doubles as a step counter.) Sense now integrates restaurant recommendations from the local-focused social network Foursquare. And Motion Gesture gives you the ability to use six different gestures to carry out certain mundane tasks -- for example, you can launch the camera app by lifting the device in landscape mode and pressing the volume-down button or you can see missed alerts, time, and weather by double-tapping the display. It's my favorite new feature, and I found myself using the gestures constantly during testing.

    全新HTC One被寄予厚望。台湾公司HTC最近一直在苦苦挣扎，由于它的手机产品受到消费者的冷落，近几年这家公司收入每个月都在减少。当苹果（Apple）和三星（Samsung）正在全球智能手机市场捉对厮杀的时候，远远落后的HTC却只能拼命寻找一款拳头产品，来稳定自己的收入。

    因此，三月底推出新HTC One手机并不是理想的时机。三星的新旗舰手机Galaxy S5二月份刚刚发布，并将在本周五正式发售，给HTC的庆典蒙上了一层阴影。不过，HTC有自己的杀手锏：新HTC One将在发布当天同步上市。

    正如漫画书中常说的：“看招吧！”

    HTC One M8的外观与上一代类似。机身采用金属外观设计（有三种颜色可供选择：金色、银色和青铜色），运行最新版谷歌（Google）安卓（Android）操作系统（4.2.2 KitKat），比上一代增加了一个摄像头，配有5寸1080p显示屏。

    M8配备四核高通（Qualcomm）骁龙801处理器和2G内存。这个组合使M8的运行速度远远超过去年的型号。在对M8进行测试时，笔者没有遇到任何卡顿的情况，只有一次例外：在已打开的应用之间切换时。笔者点击多任务按键时，在显示九个不同应用的缩略图之前会出现两至三秒的延迟。

    大多数版本的HTC One都采用专有的安卓皮肤——HTC Sense。M8首次运行HTC Sense 6.0版，其中有许多值得注意的新功能。HTC手机用户对于BlinkFeed肯定已经非常熟悉，这个功能将用户的社交摘要、日历和最喜欢的主题聚合成一个扼要的信息流：而新版本还支持用户通过Fitbit应用查看健康统计数据。（如果没有健身记录设备，M8还可以用作计步器。）此外，新版Sense中整合了Foursquare（注重本地的社交网络）的餐厅推荐。通过手势操作，用户可使用六种手势来执行某些日常任务——例如，在设备水平模式下按向下的音量键可以打开相机应用。双击屏幕，可以查看未读提醒、时间和气候。这是笔者最喜欢的新功能，在测试过程中一直在使用手势。

    One of the most impressive features of the new One is its battery life. At its introduction, HTC claimed it had improved battery life some 40 percent over the previous model. After using the new One as my main device for two weeks, I can confirm the battery life is markedly improved. My typical day begins at 6:30 a.m. and ends around 10 p.m. During my testing, not once did the One's battery run out of juice before the end of my day -- and on only one occasion did I experience a battery level below 10 percent. This performance comes with frequent use of Twitter, Gmail, Music, SMS, Hangouts, Chrome, Foursquare and other applications, and without the use of HTC's Power Saving Mode, which allows you to disable non-essential features such as vibration or background data transfer. (HTC says it is working on an Extreme Power Mode and claims that it will squeeze 15 hours of life from a battery with just 5 percent charge.)

    On the front of the new One is a 5-megapixel, wide-angle "selfie" camera, and one the back is a pair of cameras (4.1 megapixels and 2 megapixels) that allows you to adjust the depth-of-field of a photograph after it has been captured. HTC calls this feature "UFocus," and in my experience, it takes some time to learn how to use it. The results sometimes left something to be desired, and there's a reason for that: The feature doesn't actually allow you to refocus photos. Instead, the camera's post-processing software is able to differentiate the various layers of a photo and apply a blur effect to add the illusion of depth. It's a nifty parlor trick, and once you figure out what photos best lend themselves to the feature, the end result can be quite impressive.

    The new One's camera application also allows you to add a 3-D effect or various filters to photos, as well as touch them up. More serious photographers will be happy to know that the software allows you to modify ISO, exposure, white-balance and other specific attributes. As for video, the new One allows for the recording of 1080p footage in real time or slow motion, with editing and trimming available immediately after capturing a moment -- about on par with today's field of smartphones. In testing, I found the performance of all these imaging components to be about on par with that of Apple's iPhone 5S.

    So what's the verdict on HTC's new flagship phone? The new HTC One is the best Android phone I have ever used. The Sense 6.0 skin is smoothly integrated with core Android features and not a nuisance. The new features such as Motion Gestures are something that everyday users will enjoy and use frequently -- and if you don't like them, HTC makes them easy to disable. And the battery life on this phone addresses a persistent pain point for so many smartphone users today. There aren't any truly buzz-worthy features on this device, but no matter: A well-rounded phone is often the best phone.

    M8最令人印象深刻的特点是它的电池续航能力。HTC在发布会上称，M8的电池续航能力较上一代提高了40%。笔者在将M8作为主要设备使用两周之后可以确定，这款手机的电池续航能力确实有显著提高。笔者的一天通常在上午6:30开始，晚上10:00左右结束。测试过程中，M8从来没有在一天结束时耗尽电量，仅出现过一次电量低于10%的情况。在此过程中，笔者频繁使用了Twitter、Gmail、音乐、短信、Hangouts、Chrome、Foursquare和其他应用，而且没有使用HTC的省电模式。省电模式可以关闭一些非关键性功能，如震动或后台数据传输等。【HTC表示，这款手机提供极致省电模式（Extreme Power Mode），而且在只有5%的电量时，可延长15小时待机时间。】

    M8前置500万像素广角“自拍”摄像头，后置两个摄像头（410万像素和200万像素），用户在捕捉到图像后可以调整景深。HTC将这项功能称为“UFocus”。根据笔者的经验，要学会使用这项功能需要花费一些时间。拍摄结果有时不尽如人意，原因在于：这项功能实际上并不允许用户重新聚焦。相反，摄像头的后期处理软件可以分辨照片的不同图层，使用模糊效果来创造出深度感。这是一项非常好玩的小技巧，只要能搞清楚哪些照片最适合这项功能，最终就能得到令人叹为观止的效果。

    M8的摄像头应用还允许用户为照片添加3D效果或其他滤镜，以及对照片进行修饰。更专业的摄影爱好者会很高兴地发现，软件支持修改ISO、曝光度、白平衡和其他属性。视频方面，M8可拍摄1080p实时或慢镜头视频，而且还支持在拍摄完成后立即进行修改和剪裁，与目前的智能手机基本保持相同水平。笔者在测试过程中发现，所有图像组件的性能与苹果的iPhone 5S基本不相上下。

    那么，对HTC新旗舰手机的最终评语是什么？新HTC One是笔者使用过的最好的安卓手机。Sense 6.0皮肤与核心安卓功能流畅整合，而且不招人烦。动作手势等新功能易于使用，肯定会让用户爱不释手——如果不喜欢这些手势，轻轻松松就可以禁用这项功能。而且，电池续航能力解决了如今许多智能手机用户一直以来头痛的问题。虽然新产品没有什么热门的新功能，但这并不重要：一款功能全面的手机往往就是最好的手机。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓