The HTC One is an incredible Android, but even its proponents have lamented the lack of microSD expansion and a removable battery. Well, the international and US carrier editions of the One lack such features, but microSD, at least, is indeed present on models like the Chinese One. What gives? An HTC exec offers an explanation for the disparity, but we’re not quite sure we buy it.
According to HTC Senior Global Online Communications Manager Jeff Gordon, “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.”
Because the… bands are smaller? We really hope Gordon misspoke there, because that doesn’t make a lick of sense. After all, “radio bands” are arbitrarily chosen slices of the ethereal electromagnetic spectrum – they aren’t physical objects, let alone ones that take up space inside a phone.
What could Gordon have meant, instead? That due to the nature of the bands used, or the modulation employed by Chinese carriers, the radio hardware is smaller? Maybe, but we’re once again suspicious – there really shouldn’t be so pronounced a difference between various chipsets and RF circuitry.
And the Chinese One doesn’t just get a microSD card, but a second SIM slot as well – that’s a LOT of space to be freed up by these so-called “smaller bands.” There might be a good reason for the lack of microSD on most One handsets, but something really stinks about this explanation.