[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
The site that said a s/w update was coming retracted that and said the first device they received was using pre-production s/w. HTC sent them a second device with production s/w and that's what their testing and conclusion was based off of. There's only one version of production camera s/w. So it is what it is my friend. And just how many camera s/w updates does an HTC device typically need to work the way it's supposed to? ;)

Updated 26/3/13

: HTC has clarified that the second unit which we received "has the final commercial firmware, compared to the original unit which was pre-production and had an isolated hardware issue, which resulted in differences between the two sets of photos taken with both devices." According to our understanding, all the commercial sets which will launch in April will come already updated with this firmware. As such, there will be no second camera update for the One, unlike what we previously wrote below.​

http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/review-htc-ones-camera-tested-updated

And if GSMArena had a pre-production device I think they would have noticed the below and mentioned it. It's not like the differences are subtle.

Here's a great way to prove me wrong. Since your One X doesn't have the issue mine appears to have and you know yours has the latest update, why don't you take a photo at 3264 x 1840 with some detail in it and pull a crop at full resolution? I'd like to see if your One X is performing differently than mine. If your pic doesn't have the same noise and artifacting mine does I'll send you a CR-650 speaker dock I'm not using anymore for your time. I spent a dreary nine months in the One X forum and one bonus of getting a Samsung device was getting away from it. People were either nit-picking crap that didn't matter to death or trying to make people bringing up real issues seem insane by defending HTC and the phone. This is a trip down memory lane. ;)

The only reason I brought up my One X experience is because the One appears to suffer from some of the same challenges HTC's previous phones did. That's why I went back to some past reviews to see if there was a trend. So whether the One X got updated or not doesn't really change the trend HTC's phones have been following since the Desire.

Desire

Generally, image quality of the HTC Desire camera is nice and definitely better than the Legend. But back to the HTC Desire camera, as we look at the samples there's a decent amount of resolved detail and the contrast is good.

Noise levels however have remained relatively high (though tolerable)

and you can easily see a pinkish spot in the center of the frame (like the one on HTC HD2).

Sensation

Unfortunately, image quality is a traditional weak spot for HTC phones and the Sensation is no exception.

Despite its 8MP resolution, the

captured detail isn't all that much - noise reduction is trying too hard at times to offset a noisy image sensor

- and although contrast is good, the colors are oftentimes way off. And

oversharpening is present throughout all samples

. On the other hand if you don't need the full 8MP resolution (and let's be honest - most of us don't) then the results are quite acceptable. And the HTC Sensation probably has the best camera we've seen come from HTC. Most other 8 megapixel smartphones, however, are better than it. The Sensation comes close to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, but the Galaxy S II and the Optimus 2X are better in still pics.

One X

Image quality is not quite the best in the 8 MP league

- the One X

produces rather noisy, if nicely detailed photos.

Colors are nice, but tend to be a bit over-saturated at times.

Sharpening algorithm is a tad too aggressive, too, resulting in occasional artifacts.

The first two charts play to the One X strengths and shows it as a good shooter, though still not the best in the 8MP game. The third chart shows good too, but also some

artifacts due to the sub-optimal processing of the One X

.

One

When used in good lighting condition, the low resolution really takes its toll and while the per-pixel detail level is impressive the

total resolving power is quite limited.

Overall, the gamble HTC took with the ultrapixels certainly doesn't pay off when in good lighting conditions. Just about every other high-end smartphone will produce better stills in that scenario. Colors are quite decent and images generally look pretty nice when zoomed at 100%, but we were surprised to see that

a lot of noise is present

. There is some purple fringing, too, so it's not perfect. The HTC One has made its way to our photo quality comparison tool. HTC's low-megapixel sensor suddenly doesn't feel very comfortable in the controlled environment of our studio and the fact that we had to use the 4:3 mode and waste precious pixels is only part of the reason why. It's just that the first two charts were specifically designed to test absolute resolving power and that's certainly not the low-res sensor's element.​