Gadgetory

the HTC one matures a little InDesign in software and shifts the ultrapixel focus but is it enough to differentiate itself from the rest including its own past iterations well it's Josh regard from Android authority what's going on everybody and this is my full review of the HTC One m9 few people have argued in the past couple of years that HTC really has the design of the one down and in the m9 this same design language continues perhaps bringing what people loved about the m7 and molding it together with the changes that were made in the m8 almost quite literally as you might see in this close-up of the frame a sharper edge returns and rises to meet the panel up front the result of being a deliberate separation between the two sides the frame also has been given a coat of paint and the main version of this phone sports a subtle hint of gold that isn't too gaudy and blends in well to make the phone actually quite neutral in its coloration but that new edge does mean that the phone is a little bit meteor than before the general elements are the same with the front-facing speakers being the design headline of the HTC one bringing a great audio experience for media consumption and yes the HTC Barr is still on the bottom of the front panel but this is something that has never really bothered us here at Android authority though we know that it is still a sore point for some users coming around the back the brush male design makes a return but has also been given that subtle tone down from the m8 its material feel is a little better this time around so slippage is not as much of an issue as it was last year couple this with the new edges on the sides and ergonomically this just might be the best HTC One phone in terms of handling and now there was a much larger camera optic package on the back as well with the 20 point seven megapixel camera coming without the dual camera this year which removes the extra eye that was on top of the One m8 speaking of the sides the button layout now falls in line with general Android lexicon with the power and volume rockers now housed all on the right side the power button is textured differently from the others which helps with recognition but one thing that we did notice is that it is a bit low on the phone this might not be an issue for let's say left-handed users but when trying to wake the phone with the right hands you might have to reach down a little bit lower than is fully comfortable all in all the HTC continues with this design language and it is the shining perhaps literally example of how a fly device could be and probably to some people should be constructed even if it is a little bit thicker than before and has that edge on the side that can cause a little bit of a pinch still there's no denying how good the phone looks how much better it feels now and how the old adage of the today broke don't fix it applies here and we applaud HTC for sticking to their guns and keeping the design of the one pretty familiar for that very reason HTC also sticks to a tried-and-true display experience with a 1080p panel that will look and feel incredibly familiar to flagship phone users of the past say year or so at five inches this screen also pumps 441 PPI adhering to the standard that we've been enjoying for quite some time now though quad HD is the new fad these days HTC seems to understand that it could hurt the battery life and they prefer not to risk that happening with their one that being said you'd be hard-pressed to have a bad time with a 1080p display like this compared to the overachieving 2k screens filling the market right now colors still look quite rich though the blacks on the Super LCD three screen might fall low short of the contrast found on say AMOLED panels but it isn't far off by any means our unit at least shows a warmer display than previously observed in HTC One devices which isn't a detractor but we felt was a worthy detail to mention text looks as sharp as it should and everything still does justice to the forms of media consumption and gaming at least in my experience perhaps one day we'll get an HTC one with a quad HD resolution but given the experience that we have here we're not looking at raw specifications really driving this device it's more about what you get to do in the user experience and given the display that we have here are still performing as well as we would like well there are no complaints here speaking of performance the HTC One m9 already impressed us in our first look as one of the fastest iterations of android available thus far and if this is a trend we're going to see in current flagships we're excited to see it all happen in the case of the m9 the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 makes a reappearance and brings the Adreno 430 and 3 gigabytes of RAM for graphics and multitasking and we got to tell you this phone is a speed beast this has as much to do with the Sense UI as it does with the processor itself which has had a bit of a bad go of it since its inception but HTC does well to showcase the power of this device by putting an operating system that is Spartan enough to consistently go transitions in and out of the general interface are smooth and noticeable somewhat shortening of the certain animations further lends to the flying speed of this interface even multitasking is a breeze as HTC opted to keep their grid layout instead of the cards as the default two recent apps screen I do feel like I have to address one of the concerns that have come up in the past week or so about the one m9 and it's processing package the idea that it gets really hot under heavy Bunch marking now I don't really do heavy benchmarking for reviews as much nowadays because I'd rather give you the day-to-day experience but I will tell you that the phone did get pretty warm under certain types of load in my case it was one gaming for extended periods of time and when using the phone on a turbocharger it actually wasn't enough to make me put the phone down in discomfort but it was enough to really make me take notice Hardware takes on a pretty similar outlook is found in previous iterations with the media consumption experience still taking center stage and that starts with the expandable storage found at hop D 32 gigabytes already built in the boom sound speakers returned and are now backed by dolby enhancements which can be easily found in the settings screen and this front facing speaker combination still stands as one of the best out there for everything from music to gaming to videos they even work well for speaker phone calls but the call quality is still in general as good as it should be with no dropped calls or complaints on t-mobile from me though I have to mention that this is an international model of the one m9 and as such I haven't been able to use it on LTE networks with it turning on the phone from the prone position can still be done using the motion launch gestures which detect the phone being brought up first after which you can double tap the screen to wake swipe a number of ways for other functions or hit the volume down button to quickly get to the camera we do like this functionality but we wish that we could double tap the phone to wake while it's sitting on a table and finally in battery life an embedded 28 40 million power battery brings the somewhat above-average battery life to the phone typical day to day moderate usage makes the phone go for up to a day and a half with few problems though this example comes from a day full of gaming and picture taking after which the phone conked out at about 10 hours basically we're still looking for a better outlook in the battery life Department and it seems fast charging is going to be the consolation prize will be given until that time comes finally we make it to the camera which was a big point of contention with the previous version of the one this time around we don't get ultra pixels nor there claims of good low-light performance like we did before as now these claims are relegated to the front of the phone for better self-portraits and you know what that was a pretty good move though you won't be able to use a flash to fill in the darkness the ultra pixel camera proves itself in plenty of situations when used as a front-facing camera it is the twenty point seven megapixel optics that are the real story here as HTC has moved into the realm of very large picture taking experiences you have split capture and photo booth returning from the desire line bringing a couple of fun ways to capture your memories and if you actually do miss the dual camera for its depth of field capabilities there is still a bouquet mode that tries to alleviate this by using the more conventional method of taking multiple shots of the same scene in order to make the subject pop it works pretty well and the speed of capture further proves this is a better method than last year's oddly uneven duo camera video capabilities include 4k recording now though the lack of optical image stabilization could result in some shaky footage so what does a move to 20 megapixels mean for HTC's newest phone sadly it doesn't amount to too much more because the way the fun processes picture data is about the same as before and that's not a very good thing even smaller pictures from ultra pixel optics from before would be fine if the noise was processed in a better manner but the poor post-processing of the data into 20 megapixel pictures are exacerbated when zoomed in now an F 2.2 aperture is actually not too shabby but the camera still has to opt for the highest ISO limit of 1600 to fill in the darkness and this will always lead to noise as you can see here pictures are full of it to begin with and that's to be expected but zoom in to the photos and you'll see a lot of artifacts accompanying the noise including a smudging effect that is supposed to help but only makes the photo look less accurate in detail though a higher megapixel count might be nice for the general user the camera still suffers from the same low-light issues as predecessors in much better lighting situations more usable photos can be had but there aren't issues there as well mainly with exposure HTC opts for the typical metering based on the point of focus but this doesn't take into account what is around that point the results can lead to often blown out portions of pictures or the opposite if you choose to focus and expose on a shinier portion of the scene it's almost as if the scene itself has to be perfect or even have even lighting in order to yield a great shot and that can be the case as good photos are definitely possible with the m9 but because of these issues they're not as common as we would like HDR helps a little bit to even out the exposures but it isn't a practical feature to use especially when the shutter speed has to be very slow already to get a decent shot and then you have to be steady for a long time before processing even begins now one thing we're eager to test out is the supposed pro mode that is coming to the m9 where photos will be taken in RAW format but that mode won't be made available until later the reason why I want to test out the pro mode and I'm really eager to is so that I can take the raw photos and process them myself in a program like Lightroom and perhaps I can find a way of creating the photos that have the post-processing needed that HTC doesn't seem to get in the m9 yet finally in software I already mentioned that this is a simply fast version of sense powered by the Snapdragon 810 but the new version of HTC UI has a few new tricks up its sleeve but first a general look at the still familiar interface vertical Abbe drawer for example darker tones all around and the inclusion of the blink you can hunker down into the actual publications or phoebs that you choose to get new stories and updates from but now there are a few contextual additions like food recommendations especially around meal times of the day certain blocks will appear suggesting places to eat this might not be useful for everyone but at least the effect isn't too invasive the one that might be a little intrusive is the feature that puts these recommendations on the lock screen in a morning bundle while it is something you can turn off I've had it on since receiving this unit and I actually haven't seen it pop up which is a little bit odd since itself updates to version 7 but this basically means two big enhancements the home widget and the themes engine the home widget is basically a place where you can find your most used applications and it changes based on your contextual location it works fairly well keeping in mind how often you use certain applications in multiple locations the folders that accompany it provide an easy spot for your most recently downloaded applications and a folder for suggestions on what to install next which could be useful but thankfully can be turned off if you don't want it there and the theme engine is perhaps our favorite addition to sense as it changes more than just the colors of parts of the UI and is one of the most customizable first-party iterations we've seen on a flagship device while there are already a bevy of themes available in the store you can also create your own by taking your home screen wallpaper and letting the theme engine find the colors to match it this is a pretty powerful and actually really cool customization tool that we feel many users may take advantage of and even without these key additions sin still remains one of the most Spartan versions of Android that we've seen yet and its speed and its ease of use make it one of the more accessible versions of Android that we would be glad to recommend to people who are looking for a new phone official price points for the HTC One m9 are trickling in and the phone is available for pre-order now we expect the price of the m9 to come at the premium price for contracts and at least $600 off those contracts which is typical for flagship devices competitors in the same bracket include the different flagships coming out this year like the Samsung Galaxy s6 though we will provide a mention to its predecessor the HTC One m8 this is because the previous HTC device might still be of a good value if you think the m9 hasn't really done enough to distance itself from its past and so there you have it the HTC One m9 a beautiful package with lovely software that really only has one gaping hole the camera experience while it isn't the worst shooter in the high-end market it does feel a few steps behind the competition and for many users this feeling might permeate throughout the device as much of the m9 feels perhaps too familiar for some but that isn't really a bad thing to us for the design and software as the refining of what made the One m7 nmh so desired keeps this phone looking and feeling great on the inside and out underneath the surface users can be sure that they're getting a top-notch user experience in the speedy functional and not too cluttered Sense UI for a daily driver this is still a compelling choice as long as the budding smartphone photographer can look past the camera deficiencies though a rethinking of the camera processing might be in order we fully applaud HTC for sticking to their guns and basically all other aspects of this phone as veterans and newcomers alike can enjoy the best that HTC has to offer in the HTC One m9 so as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the HTC One m9 while it is still a beautiful package and personally I love the way that it looks and feels and runs given the processing package and the combination with Sense UI unfortunately for a lot of you users out there you might need to look past the camera deficiencies to find what might be one of the best-looking flagships this year but we still have even more to tell you about the HTC One m9 as we've hit it against its competition we're going to put it against the Samsung Galaxy s6 for example so you can keep it tuned to Android authority for all of that great coverage drop us likes on our videos and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already when you're done with all of that don't forget to head over to our forums at Android authority comm and then stick around and read some more in-depth coverage because we are your source for all things Android