A review by Ryex the Bird of Programming.
In the late october of the year 2014 I acquired a mobile device that was so well designed I can definitively say I've never held it's equal.
There is a pinnacle to reach in the design of technology and it is contributed to by many factors outside of raw specs. Apple has long been credited with reaching it by combining refined user experience with aesthetically pleasing design aimed at the masses. I however would argue that they have merely obtained a highly marketable balance of development investment to ease of manufacturability.
With the One, HTC has gotten closer to the true pinnacle than I've ever seen.
first off I'll list some general specifications
- Screen: 5.0 inch 1080p Super LCD3 ~441 ppi + Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801
- CPU: Quad-core 2.3 GHz (US/EMEA)/ 2.5 GHz (Asia, China) Krait 400
- GPU: Adreno 330
- Mamory: 2 GB dual-channel LPDDR3 @ 933 MHz
- Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
- Coms: GSM/HSDPA/LTE, GPRS, EDGE, WLAN, Bluetooth, NFC, Infrared, USB, Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Camera Primary: Dual 4 MP, 2688х1520 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash \w 1/3'' sensor size, 2µm pixel size, automatic simultaneous video and image recording, geo-tagging, face/smile detection, HDR, panorama 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR, stereo sound rec.
- Camera Secondary (front facing): 5 MP, 1080p@30fps, HDR
- Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 2600 mAh battery
Stand-by Up to 271 h (2G) / Up to 496 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 14 h (2G) / Up to 20 h (3G)
- Weight: 160g
ok thats a lot of tech speak but now I'll break down the experience.
First off the phone is dam beautiful. I got the gunmetal gray version and the brushed metal finish is both resistant to fingerprint smudges and shiny at the same time. It has a full aluminum unibody. heck even the slots for the micro SD and sim card are aluminium trays that slide into slots on the outer edges. the back is all one piece of solid aluminum. the front is completely taken by the 5in display and the two metal speaker bars, there is a small strip still under the screen glass but not part of the display with the HTC logo (my research indicates that this was only included as they needed more hardware space by extending the display was not an option.). The glass of the screen actually bulges up slightly from the rest of the body and has a slight bevel down into the body. the result is extremely impressive screen clarity at angles.
The phone is solid. at 160g it not the lightest phone I've ever held but it just feels solid (it does not bend). if I whacked you over the head it would hurt. the all metal body give it some superb structural integrity, all the ports like the usb and headphone jack are solid, absolutely no flex like you would get with a plastic body. Those metal trays that hold the sd card and sim? and slide in and snap flush with the body (you need a little pin tool to press in a tiny hole beside them to pop them out for access, provided with the phone so keep it safe). the power button and volume rocker are glass and metal respectively. you heard me right. there is no external surface on this phone that is not either metal or glass. back? solid metal, front? metal speakers and glass screen, sides? unibody metal with the back. top edge? Ir Sensor glass with power button built in on the right side. bottom edge? again, unibody metal with cutouts for the ports. volume rocker? metal. It's a clean modern design that was built to last.
Performance. I'll be honest, I've been spoiled in my experience of computer performance ever since I built my computer I've never waited for it to do any thing, opening an application or webpage or game was near instant. I actually hate using other computers now as I notice the lag. (to think I came form a Gateway running a 256 MH pentium II built in 97, gods that thing was slow.) Phones how ever I haven't been so lucky with. I've had two rather cheap smartphone previously that were while not prohibitable slow I was still waiting on the phone when I switched tasks. the most recent 1.2GH LG was tolerable but still slow when switching screens. The M8? it's a freaking beast.
the quad core snapdragon in this thing clips along without stopping or stalling and I've yet to see it struggle with anything. heck the thing has a freaking video editor as one of the default software and it doesn't even notice.
HTC's Sense UI is beautiful. Stock Android is clean and functional but it's perhaps a bit rough on the edges. HTC Sense is like what stock android would be if they hired a few UI designers from apple (not the style mind, but that same fluidity and consistency of concepts). it all just flows and makes perfect use of the screen space. it's completely intuitive as well.
HTC is also known for innovating on seemingly pedestrian tech. The two features of note on the M8 are the Boom Sound speakers and the Ultra Pixel camera.
Boom Sound: I have NEVER heard sound this crisp and clear from anything this small. it CAN vibrate your table at full volume. but it's not just overblown base as seems to be the trend with things like beats audio. the speakers on this phone can genuinely fill a room with real sound that is truly crisp. Ok I know what you thinking "if the speakers are that great then everyone will hear my conversations!" no, the exact opposite actually. the speakers retain their clarity so well through volume ranges that call volume can be low enough to to carry no more than a whisper past two inches from the speakers and still be clear as a bell when you hold it up to your ear. no more listening in on cell phone conversations from 4-5 feet away. arguably the best part of the phone.
the Ultra Pixel camera while a good idea does not live up to it's hype, the only negative I can give the phone. the idea is that if you make the sensor size for each pixel large and capture more light you get better pictures. and while this is theoretically true it's not true to the extent hyped. the HTC's camera is a mere 4MP and while it's a far cry better than my old 6MP cannon on picture quality it just can't compete with the detail level of the 10 and 16+ MP cameras on other flagship phones. it does do better in adverse lighting conditions though, much less noise.
in all I'd call it adequate and perhaps a bit above average but not quite at the level of the flagship
market.it's not a show stopper but the camera is not for avid photographers (I'm not much of a photographer so thats fine by me)
all in all Id rate this phone a 9.8/10 on a complete experience index with a perfect 10 being a truly perfect "I can find no flaw in this"