HTC One M8 Review

The HTC One was one of my favorite pieces of hardware from 2013. It was the first time we had really seen a company succeed at producing an Android smartphone with a premium look and feel that rivaled Apple’s iPhone. The zero-gap, curved aluminum construction looked simply astonishing, and remains one of my favorite phone designs thus far.

The design wasn’t the only impressive aspect of the HTC One. BoomSound brought powerful front-facing speakers to the handset, plus the Zoe-powered, UltraPixel-laden camera had a strong feature set that largely made up for merely average image quality. BlinkFeed was another major feature touted by HTC, integrating news and social media sources into an interesting, yet largely overlooked homescreen panel.

In 2014, HTC is releasing the HTC One. Not the same HTC One from 2013, but the all new HTC One. Or the HTC M8. Or the 2014 HTC One. Or, officially, the HTC One (M8). It’s a confusing naming choice from HTC, who want to show that this device expands on the concepts introduced last year, and is not a completely overhauled flagship. It’s evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Design
The evolution of the HTC One takes many forms. There’s more aluminum than the original model; the display size has been bumped from 4.7-inches to 5-inches; the Ultrapixel camera has morphed into the all new Duo Camera array; there’s a faster Snapdragon 801 chipset inside replacing the Snapdragon 600; there’s a refined Sense 6.0 interface atop Android 4.4; and much more.
Nothing is ever a straight-up win in the smartphone universe though: HTC can pack all the fancy features it wants into the all new One, but poor execution can keep the phone from succeeding. How does the new HTC One (M8) stack up? Let’s find out.



What’s even more compelling about the HTC One M8’s design is that it feels slimmer than the One M7, despite coming in 1mm thicker. You can barely notice the extra 11 grams of weight added to the smartphone either.
The beautiful One M8 design isn’t without a few oddities though. The physical buttons found around the edge feel very solid to operate, but I don’t understand why HTC continues to put the power button on the top. The One M8 is a tall smartphone, and the power button is tricky to reach, especially when you’re trying to turn off the display.



The BoomSound speakers are now 25% louder than in the original HTC One, and combined with an improved DSP, software and amplifier, sound even better. The One still suffers from a lack of bass from the speakers, but it produces by far the best sound I’ve heard from a smartphone; it delivers enough depth that I can actually listen to music without wanting to immediately die.
Hidden in the top right of the upper speaker grill is the ever-handy notification light, which continues to be one of my favorite features of Android smartphones. As far as I can tell this light only glows yellow-green and red.

Display: Super LCD 3 Returns
On the HTC One (M8) the company has gone for a 5.0-inch Super LCD 3 (IPS Pro TFT LCD) panel with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. As the display uses LCD technology, there’s no fancy subpixel matrix to deal with, instead we’re left with the tried and true RGB matrix. With total screen area of 68.9 sq. cm packing 2.07 million pixels, the display has a density of 441 pixels per inch (PPI).


Software: Sense 6.0 and Android 4.4
With each smartphone since the HTC Hero, the company has improved the design and usability of Sense, the skin slapped atop Android on their products. Sense 6.0, which is found on the HTC One M8, is easily the best version yet.
For the first time in the history of Sense, HTC’s custom experience actually blends in well with the other elements of Android 4.4.2, which the handset runs out of the box. The designers at HTC have finally realized that the gradients of Sense don’t mesh well with the flat, modern look of Android 4.0+, so you won’t find one in the software of the HTC One. Everything is now flattened and looks surprisingly slick.




Performance: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
ARM hardware partners are moving at an ever-rapid pace, seemingly releasing a new, faster chip every few months. At MWC 2014, which concluded just over a month ago, popular ARM hardware vendor Qualcomm released their latest high-end SoC – the Snapdragon 801 – to tide us over until the Snapdragon 810 and 64-bit chips are ready. This SoC is what you’ll find inside the HTC One M8 and other Android flagships launching at the start of 2014.
If you’re thinking that the Snapdragon 801 isn’t a huge step over the Snapdragon 800, you’d be correct. The 801 expands on the foundation laid with the 800 by packing the same quad-core Krait 400 CPU, the same Adreno 330 GPU, and the same 32-bit dual-channel LPDDR3 memory controller. Clock speeds for all these items have increased, but the effects of this shouldn’t be massive.



In Peacekeeper, the HTC One (M8) is the new fastest Android device we’ve tested at TechSpot, falling 30% behind the iPhone 5s, but 28% ahead of the next-fastest device: the Snapdragon 800-powered Galaxy Note 3. The Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AC’s clock speed is only 10% higher than the 800, and there’s 16% more memory bandwidth, so gains are a little higher than expected. The One M8 is 49% faster than the One M7 in this test.

Duo Camera and Camera Features

Perhaps the biggest upgrade that can be found on the HTC One M8 is the Duo Camera. The ‘Ultrapixel’ camera from the HTC One M7 can still be seen on the rear of the M8, but it’s now accompanied by a dedicated depth sensor which you can see above it. The sensor itself is nothing more than a 1080p, 2-megapixel OV2722 unit from OmniVision, which provides extra data that the device’s software uses for a selection of effects.

The information from the depth sensor is stored in each photo’s EXIF data, so every shot that’s taken by the HTC One M8 is in JPG form, but contains everything necessary to apply cool effects. The data appears to take up an extra 500 kB of space, and there is no way to disable the depth sensor in automatic shooting mode.

Battery Life

Packed into the HTC One M8 is a 2,600 mAh 3.8 V battery for a total capacity of 9.88 Wh, which is 13% larger than the HTC One M7. In HTC’s documentation for the all new One, the company claims this battery can last 40% longer, which is an interesting claim considering the physical difference. This difference could be attributed to the more power efficient Snapdragon 801 SoC, or improvements in display technology, but it’s something I’ll be testing.

Generally I experienced better battery life from the One M8 than I did from the M7. With typical usage I would end a day with around 40% of the juice remaining to be used, which is a decent result. This is comparable to what I achieved with the Sony Xperia Z1 and its 11.4 Wh battery, but not as good as the LG G2’s highly efficient usage of its own 11.4 Wh battery contained inside.

Dot View Case

Normally I don’t discuss accessories in my smartphone reviews, but HTC provided me with a Dot View case along with the HTC One M8, and it’s certainly a very cool addition to the package.The Dot View case is a hardcover plastic shroud for the HTC One M8, complete with a flip-over rubberized cover for protecting the display. The grey unit I received is a fairly standard color, but it also comes in blue, green, red and orange so you can spice up the package if you so choose. It feels tough and well made, and is sure to protect the back from scratches and the front from glass fractures.

Final Thoughts

HTC didn’t need to reinvent the smartphone with the all new HTC One. The handset that preceded it established the company as the maker of high-end, premium Android devices, so all that was needed was to build on this solid base. And that’s exactly what HTC did in creating the One M8; this is a smartphone filled with improvements.

The design of the One M8 may not be as striking as the original One, but HTC has put in some serious polish to how it feels. The polished gunmetal grey aluminium, which now covers 90% of the non-screen surface area, not only looks fantastic, but it makes the One feel like a flagship product in your hand. A more curved design also makes the M8 more ergonomic than before.

A Super LCD 3 display, now five inches in size, is once again the centerpoint of the M8’s front panel, and it’s one of the best. Viewing angles are truly magnificent from the panel, as is color saturation, plus its 1080p resolution makes images look sharp and text look printed. HTC is facing increased competition in the display space, especially from LG, but the One M8’s display is still one of the best.

The HTC One M8 is a truly fantastic smartphone, and its few shortcomings can easily be overlooked in favor of a solid feature set in a premium body. Well done to HTC for once again showing what its engineers can do.