I'm a phone enthusiast. I've owned pretty much a variety of one flagship phone or another since 1999 when I had a Motorola Startac with Sprint on their brand new CDMA network (worked at circuit city at the time, in highschool). One of Samsungs first the SGH-500 also Sprint. I owned a Nokia 8810. A Nokia 6110 Ultra. Both through 'Bell' (now Verizon???) I believe.
The first color phone on Nextel the i95. The first Blackberry's on Nextel the 7510 and 7520. The great Blackberry Bold's 1&2. Even the BB Pearl and the 8800. I even dropped major loot on an unlocked Nokia N95 8GB. Also the iPhone 3G, 4, and 4S.
The HTC One is the best cell phone I have ever used. Even when we consider the context of time and available technology.
The build alone makes it so. The gimmicks on the S4 aren't enough to overcome the build quality of the HTC One.