HTC One camera features and Zoe mode walk-through (video)
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, we come to grips with the extensive camera options on HTC's new smartphone.
The Ultrapixel camera is the jewel in the HTC One's smartphone crown, but camera hardware is only half the story.
Click through the photos below to check out the torrent of filters, modes, and editing tricks that come stuffed inside this new smartphone's software.
The camera app features two modes -- normal camera mode and Zoe mode. In normal mode, you'll see a number of filters along the bottom of the display. These allow you to see your photos with Instagram-esque image tweaks before you hit the shutter button. Handy.
Tap the top left of the screen and you'll see a slew of extra options, including HDR mode and the power to tweak technical aspects of your photos like ISO and image resolution. On the video side you get HDR video and an impressive slow-motion mode that will come into its own when you're watching sports or -- more likely -- filming your pets.
Zoe mode
You'll have the option to shoot photos in HTC's Zoe mode, triggered by tapping a small camera icon on the screen, which turns blue to let you know Zoe is enabled.
This app shoots 3 seconds of video, containing 20 images. Once shot, you can use a slider to go through this video frame by frame, saving the most interesting stills. Zoe mode gives you interesting editing capabilities too, like the option to merge several frames from the clip to make one multistage action shot. Again, cat owners will be delighted.
My favorite feature, however, is a gallery tool that automatically edits your photos and clips into a 32-second video, with options for a range of music types and visual-effect filters. You can shuffle the clip if you're not happy with the random selection. It's a very quick way of getting a compact clip to summarize your snaps and is short enough that sharing online shouldn't be too much hassle.
The number of options, filters, and editing tricks is very impressive. My sole reservation is that the features are so numerous, I found them a little overwhelming at first, and I suspect anyone who buys this phone will need a few hours with its camera before they can flit through the modes and editing screens quickly.
Preliminary camera tests suggest the 4-megapixel Ultrapixel sensor in the HTC One takes decent shots that are roughly on par with the iPhone 5's in most situations. We'll be putting the camera through its paces during the full review though, so stay tuned.
Flick through the photos above to examine more software features, and let me know if you're excited about the HTC One in the comments. Once you're done, be sure to check out more of our exhaustive coverage from Mobile World Congress.