Gadgetory

the wait for HTC's new flagship phone is finally over hey in Strasbourg our firm and Roy thority what's going on everybody and this is the HTC One m8 when it comes to the look and feel the overall design language stays the same with the new edition sporting a more curvy design especially when you look at the corners and besides the all metal body sports a brushed metal design that looks even better than the original it's more refined and very sophisticated and is definitely a premium looking and feeling smartphone but the main feat here was being able to bring the brushed aluminum wrapped around the sides without losing any antenna fidelity comparatively taller than a competition though it also doesn't get that much wider thankfully when you compare it to the original HTC One m7 which makes it easier to hold due to the curve on the back and the smooth sides that are definitely an improvement over the more rigid profile of the original now of course there is still that girth on top and at the bottom mainly due to the boom sound speakers and that HTC blackbar and it does make reaching up and down the main handling gripe when it comes to this phone but overall it is still a pretty easy and also very stylish experience when you come to the display the very same Super LCD 3 display that came in the original HTC One gets a bump in size to 5 inches with 441 pixels per inch we saw no issues with the brightness the great viewing angles and the sharp colors that were exuding from the screen so while this might be largely the same display experience as the original HTC One only somewhat beefed up it is still one of the better ones out there when it comes to the all-important bits underneath the hood the current top-of-the-line hardware in the 2.3 gigahertz Snapdragon 801 in the West or the 2.5 gigahertz Snapdragon 801 in the East bring performance that is as smooth as ever as the sixth version of Sense moves very smoothly through all of its elements blinkfeed and all in response to a growing consumer demand also the 16 or 32 gigabytes of on-board storage are now bolstered by a micro SD card slot found near the volume rocker the battery is also bigger than its predecessor at 2600 milliamp hours and a Snapdragon 801 should be more powerful when it comes to its battery consumption so battery performance should be better this time around the sensors within the phone have also been somewhat Sallah dated in order to create a suite of jesters that can be used to easily open up a number of functions when any motion similar to bringing the phone up to your face is detected double tapping the screen to turn it on or pressing the volume down key while in a horizontal position to open the camera name just a couple of these functions now boom sound returns and brings the front-facing dual speaker setup that distinguished the original from the rest in this iteration the amplifiers have been even more improved making them 25% louder and capable of an even better soundstage with better mids and lows the same goes for the headphone jack performance which has been given the same improved audio treatment when you go to the camera you get the same four ultrapixel camera that might bring the same specifications but the actual bits and pieces themselves are new and updated to improve the quality not only will you get the great low-light performance but you'll also get even better higher light performance in that you won't get as many washed out photos as before if you noticed dual LED flash helps with getting a better skin tone when using the flash as it can detect ambient light in order to perform under five different shades of the flash in order for you to get the best out of the situation as far as the software goes Zoe returns but not just in the form we already know it as but also as an upcoming app and network for enhanced sharing with your peers other modes included are consolidated in a very easy to use an elegant mode selection screen that can be bolstered by an array of manual controls that you can find if you delve in far enough selfie and video chats over the phone get some importance too with the five megapixel front camera sporting in 88 degree wide angle lens but of course the main story here is the inclusion of a second camera unit whose function is purely creative and actually quite undeniable the dual camera as it is called works in congruence with the original in order to capture depth data which then can be used to create real DSLR level depth of field effects among some other ones that are available as it is a hardware based solution to a multi focused capture and selection the long processing time that generally plagues other software based solutions is eliminated it's a feature that in our testing already worked incredibly well and is probably the best implementation of depth manipulation available now for some real style in your photos and finally in software sense 6.0 on top of android 4.4 kitkat brings not necessarily a full UI overhaul as changes seem to be more under the hood however while much of what you remember may seem to return subtle changes helped to consolidate the experience colors now designate the experience that you're in for example blinkfeed is green and media apps are orange but these can be changed with a number of themes that on one case would it be able to bring back to full muted black dark motif that you probably remember from the original blinkfeed does return and is now a full scroll rather than a paginated layout of the original adding content is largely the same as it was before but integrations with apps like the Fitbit fitness tracking and also Foursquare peer recommendations and help continue to add to the experience and then apps like the HTC Gallery and also HTC TV for taking advantage of the infrared sensor up top are also included and then as we mentioned before the motion launch takes advantage of the sensors within in order to bring you an easy experience waking up your phone for various functions you can double tap to wake swipe left to go to straight to the widgets panel swipe right to go straight to the blink feed and also put the phone in a horizontal position and press the volume down button in order to go straight to the camera all in all sense is getting better and better and in its sixth iteration HTC further simplifies the experience without losing any of the features that really distinguish it at the release of this video and subsequently the announcement of the phone itself the HTC One m8 it will be available at Verizon stores and then online shortly after to be followed by store releases for the other major carriers in a couple weeks so you can get your hands on this phone about as fast as you really need to and get your hands on HTC sleights flagship that brings a lot of enhancements to their platform and so there you have it your first look at the HTC One m8 stay tuned for a full review coming quite soon as the phone is already going to be released and we're really excited to put the camera through its paces and also see how this phone deals with the daily drive so keep it tuned to android authority for all of the best coverage because we are your source for all things Android