The HTC One is an excellent smartphone, one of only three phones to ever earn a five-star rating from us. Despite our unmitigated endorsement of the device, we're still curious about a of couple things.
First off, why did China and Japan get a version with microSD? A lot of users would love to bolster the device's storage with an additional 64GB.
Second, why isn't the best Android phone of the year on Verizon? Will it ever come to Big Red, or should we quit holding our breath?
At CTIA 2013 we had a chance to sit down with HTC and ask them just that. Senior Global Online Communications Manager Jeff Gordon - not the NASCAR driver - fielded our burning questions.
Smaller radio bands made room for microSD
Apparently, the inclusion of microSD in Asia's HTC One came down to one factor - space. Gordon explains:
"Because the Chinese version of the One is designed specifically for the smaller Chinese radio bands, we do have additional space inside the device we were able to use for the microSD slot. That space isn't available to us in the global version."
We're assuming this is also the case with the Japanese version, which has a microSD as well. We're still green with envy, but at least there's an explanation.
Gordon's reasoning would seem to be supported by an iFixit teardown, which found the One to be harder to repair than the iPhone 5. Given that the iPhone 5 was notoriously hard to assemble, there's probably not a lot of room in that thing.
The Big Red One
As for the lack of love from Verizon, Gordon couldn't say as much."It's always a great thing to have our phones on as many operators as possible, but we've got nothing to announce in terms of Verizon."
In the past, Verizon has always carried Droid-branded devices from HTC. It carried the HTC Droid DNA, but not the HTC One X or the One X+. Perhaps it wanted its own special version of the One and HTC wasn't willing to comply?
Still, rumors are flying about the HTC One coming to Verizon. Maybe it'll breakdown and carry that red version of the HTC One we glimpsed briefly online? It sure is pretty to think so.
