Gadgetory

hey what is up guys I'm Kay PhD here and welcome to this quick review of the Google Play edition HTC One m8 now I always say welcome to this quick video and then ends up being like 9 minutes long so I think this can actually be a quick video review because I've already reviewed at the regular HTC One m8 I'll have that link as the first link right below that like button if you want to check out all the details of that phone in full so I guess what we can focus on now here is the differences between the Google Play edition and the non Google Play edition One m8 let's take a look so on the outside this Google Play edition is the exact same as the other version it's got that same legendary all-metal design same awesome specs and it's still built like a boss so no changes there the only difference is actually the lack of any carrier branding at all on the Google Play edition where you'll likely find some sort of tramp stamp on all the carrier versions here you can see Verizon being the most guilty as usual so that means all the differences lie in the software to where the Google Play edition One m8 is running stock Android 4.4.2 kitkat and will likely be upgraded to the next version of Android before the regular m8 and likely right behind the Nexus updates so with this software that means they're getting essentially the same experience as if you're using a Nexus device but wait what about all the HTC features that could potentially make it better than a nexus only experience well no need to fear your HTC put a bunch of their apps and services here in the Play Store and that's where they can update them and they've made them compatible with the Google Play edition One m8 so even though you tap into it and it says it's not compatible they are installed here and are working perfectly so this phone will work with the dot view case that got so much attention it'll work with the IR blaster and the top of the phone to control your TV with that app and most importantly the Google Play edition One m8 also takes advantage of that duo camera system on the back we talked a lot about this in the regular one and make review but obviously the Google Play edition does not have that same camera app it's rocking that new Google camera app in the Play Store for all devices running Android 4.4 KitKat and above that means it has a different user interface which is not HTC specific so you use the fun stuff like you focus and foreground ER and stuff well basically you take a picture as usual here and then when you swipe over and hit the edit button on that photo you'll have an option to pop up you can do it using the regular google photos editor or the HTC photo editor and it's by jumping in here that you can use that beautiful you focus and foreground ER and all the same effects that you used to with the regular m8 s-- camera that's where it hides so there's actually a really neat little effect now built into the google camera it's called lens blur which is not exactly the same thing but really it lets you get a similar blurred background effect by tilting the phone a bit obviously you focus is a bit easier because you don't have to move the phone while taking the shot but now you have I guess two options on the phone for blurring the background only thing that seems to not be working in the camera is the slow-motion video recording and the little warning that's supposed to pop up if you accidentally cover the depth sensor which actually did a lot maybe I have big hands and that's why but I guess I'm gonna have to adjust the way I grip the phone when taking pictures with it now another thing you might recall from the One m8 review is the ability to turn your phone on without touching this power button with just a double tap or a swipe across the screen these options are present in the settings here they are called motion launch gestures and there's even it's actually simplified here really you can just double tap to wake or sleep the screen on the lock screen you can do the volume button turn to launch the camera or swipe literally in any direction on the off screen to unlock your phone so it doesn't really matter which direction you swipe it's not going to launch any special HTC voice tiling or anything any swipe in any direction just unlocks the phone but other than that this is you know exactly what you would expect out of the m8 with stock Android on it you know simple clean very fast you use a little bit less of the built-in storage but you also keep that microSD card expansion that you actually don't get in nexuses you also use a little bit less of the RAM than you would from HTC Sense and you get an overall really snappy buttery beautiful experience so you have all the perks and good looks from stock Android that I actually prefer over really any skin including HTC Sense 6 so that's really why I've loved using it so much obviously Google Play edition stuff is from the Google Play Store only and a US only store and also it's out of inventory right now as I speak but when it is in inventory it's only available in the 32 gig Silver Edition so no dark charcoal or gold or any of the fancy colors just this exact model is the only one you can get and it's only in the United States because see Google Play Store it's also not available on Verizon in case you were thinking of putting a Verizon same in it it won't work it's GSM only so I have my AT&T SIM in here basically bottom line is this is the phone that I mentioned that I would probably be using most often I put I said on Twitter a couple of days ago this is the phone I think I'm going to have my SIM card in the most often when I'm not reviewing another device what you guys would refer to as a daily driver so I think this Google Play edition one is the one might either way thank you for watching this quick video review hopefully gets the point across and I'm looking forward to reviewing some other phones very soon and as well as getting back to other stuff that's not phone reviews because it's been a while since I've done a video that's not a phone review so thanks for watching and talk to you guys in the next one peace