HTC One camera improved thanks to firmware update

Singapore's Hardware Zone noticed a big change in the pictures taken with an HTC One review unit and a second unit that it swapped out the original phone for. The firmware had been updated on the unit and when comparing the pictures from the two handsets, you can see the differences in the photos. After the update, the pictures were sharper and clearer (except at ISO800 for some reason). HTC says that the final versions of the units that will be released to consumers will contain the updated firmware.

When HTC first revealed the idea behind using the UltraPixel name, it was obvious that the Taiwan based manufacturer was concerned that the public was going to concentrate on the 4MP used on the camera and wonder why HTC was not winning the arms race, the continuously escalating number of MP on a smartphone camera. But if the public simply looks at the pictures that the updated camera takes, the public no longer will be judging the quality of a camera on a smartphone merely by the number of  MP that the camera is promoted as having.

In an amazing bit of forecasting the future, NYTimes tech writer David Pogue wrote all the way back in February 2007, before the Apple iPhone was launched, that the public was getting too hung up on the MP count on digital cameras and that he had seen a 4MP camera take better pictures than an 8MP shooter. And speaking of the future, inabout 30 seconds from now, when you check out the pictures in the slideshow below, keep in mind that the photos taken with the improved firmware are on the right.

source: HardwareZone, Phandroid, NYTimes