For what it's worth, Leo Laporte "The Tech Guy" has tried all the latest high end smart phones, and while he readily admits "there is no perfect smartphone," he also has called the Galaxy S4 "a piece of junk."
He was using the HTC One and loving it except for the battery life, until the S4 came out. He used that for a week or two, and even kept a spare battery with him like a good geek would.
But he gave the S4 to someone else and went back to the HTC One.
Then, upon release of the Moto X, he gushed over that for about a week.
However, now he's rocking the HTC One yet again.
Not a bad showing for the HTC One if you ask me.
I'd agree with everything he's said (I'm a big TWiT network listener, too). Been using the One since launch. I'm running MoDaCo.SWITCH right now, which is dual boot GPe and Sense 5. There is no discernible difference in speed or performance between the two in my usage. That tells me HTC - whether you like the look of the UI or the extra features or not (I love Blinkfeed, Zoe, Highlights, their TV/remote app, and the skin) - actually did the software well.
And now that there are flagship phones that beat the GS4 nearly across the board, the HTC One seems like it was even a better choice as its unique features still separate it from the pack, like the dual front-facing speakers, aluminum body (feels great to hold naked... I mean the phone is naked, not me ), best low-light Android camera, and a display that is still competitive. Any smartphone is pretty much beat by specs of new phones after 6 months, but I'm still plenty happy with my One and don't have a burning desire for a new phone (except the Lumia 1020, but I've resigned myself to not buying it).
The only thing HTC failed big at was marketing. Just think about it: if the HTC one wasn't an HTC product,
but simply had the Apple logo or Samsung logo on it, how many people would have raved about it and purchased it (microSD card and removable battery lovers aside), and thought it a value at $600 off-contract vs the more expensive iPhone 5 and GS4? Especially since the preorder came with a wireless HDMI streamer that works really well? And an additional $25 Google Play credit later on? I'm not saying it's a flawless device, but it really has been overlooked because people buy into what they are told. Even after it was revealed Samsung had a "benchmark booster" tweak on the GS4's, and that TouchWiz made the phone slower and laggier than it should be, people are still buying them up.
I know I've said this all before in other threads, but it really bothers me that Samsung can garner this much support even from tech enthusiasts who should realize that once Samsung locks up 70% or more of the Android market, they can start acting like a monopoly and force LG and HTC out of their way. Then all they have to do is release "good enough" phones ever year instead of innovating. This will be especially true if Apple continues to lose ground internationally.
The Moto X looks good. It would have been a tough choice between it and the One had both been released at the same time, but the Moto X arrived too late and/or expensive for me to consider buying.