HTC One Max review: Specs of the Android KitKat running phablet include a 5.9-inch display, 4MP UltraPixel camera and a Snapdragon quad-core processor. Though the unit is well designed like similar HTC One handsets, the biggest differentiator for it is purely the oversized look.

Under the hood, the HTC One Max has a quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip and 2GB RAM and initially runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with an Android 4.4.2 KitKat available OTA. It sports the customized platform HTC Sense 5.5. Sense infuses the Android platform with numerous other features including the BlinkFeed, which is a Flipboard-like homescreen.

The oversized Android smartphone is available from Sprint and Verizon, and can be had for $250.00 (from Sprint) on a 2-year service agreement. But though the device is well-built, bears premium design and is impressive in performance, it’s being “Max” in size is it’s only unique virtue.

As GigaOM notes, the HTC One Max doesn’t offer much in the way to do with all the additional display. The bigger display in the HTC One Max only makes everything larger compared to the Note 3 which not only offers a large display but also a built-in stylus for drawing and taking notes. Samsung also has a multi-tasking feature that allows you to open more apps than one app on the screen at once.

In terms of physical look, the HTC One Max follows it design cues from the original HTC One. When compared side-by-side, they pretty much look the same. A closer inspection of the phones though reveal that the HTC One Max don’t have the industrial, unibody design that the HTC one has; making it feel less premium. Giga OM notes that the One Max features aluminum on the front and back, broken up by chunky plastic band around the edges of the phone.

A central frustration on the HTC One Max is the camera, which GigaOM says is the “biggest disappointment” for the device. The device uses the same 4MP “UltraPixel” cameras as the HTC One. The concept for UltraPixel is to use larger pixels rather than most pixels, to compose images. It’s expected that it would result with the camera having a good performance in low-light conditions, but regular shots just don’t look impressive compared to competing devices. HTC has also dropped the optical image stabilization, but instead uses software-based electronic image stabilization. The reason for the change is to preserve battery life.

Overall, the HTC One Max is a larger device, however it’s uniqueness compared to its flagship model seems to have ended at size. If pitted against specs of competing bigger devices, namely the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, it falls short of having an edge in key specs.