Gadgetory

is there a sweet spot between logical progression and change for changes sake HTC thinks so and it thinks the 2014 edition of its premium HTC One flagship is it but does the new one live up to the legacy of its award-winning forbear let's find out I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is HTC One versus all-new HTC One it was touted as the Android device for iPhone users last year's HTC One redefined the concept of a premium Android phone fusing polycarbonate and metallic components into a beveled precision milled block of straight-up smartphones sexyness 70% of its casing was made of aluminum and it backed up the handsome face with razor sharp wits a Snapdragon 600 processor with 2 gigs of RAM a 4.7 inch SL cd3 display and speakers so good that HTC audaciously called them boom sound and got away with it because their performance lived up to their bombastic name with the next generation 1 HTC builds on almost all of those most of the plastic is gone the new casing 90% aluminium with a brushed hairline finish on our gunmetal grey unit here the increased metal ratio and the units larger size make it a few grams heavier and it's a little more awkward and one-handed use but the wider radius corners and wraparound construction gives it a smoother feel against the palm the display is still SLCD three and still 1080p but it's seen a boost to five inches that results in a small hit and pixel density but it's not noticeable the boomsound grilles at top and bottom are similar but behind them sit new speakers with new amplifiers and larger chamber size HTC claims they're 20% louder and that plus the richer bass ear sound makes the m8 the new king of smartphone audio beneath all that the processor has been boosted to a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 801 and while it's still backed up by two gigs of ram a crucial functionality gap has been filled in addition to the 16 or 32 gigs of on-board storage there's now a micro SD card slot capable of accommodating cards up to a hundred and twenty eight gigs in size last year's one brought us an entirely new HTC Sense experience and while the m8 doesn't need or try to be nearly as revolutionary it does introduce some changes with sense version 6 most visible are the alterations to blinkfeed which is now much more customizable and much richer in terms of content there's also more color throughout sense with accents bolder and more prevalent than on sense 5 some of that is welcome it does brighten things up but we're not necessarily sold on some of the hues HTC has chosen fortunately there's the option for a monochrome theme if you want to recover some of that hip minimalism of 2013 and no matter what color you choose sense zips along under a finger just as quickly it's probably the most fluid Android skin we've ever seen a notable annoyance of the m7 has been eliminated by the new motion sensing package of the m8 while the standby key is still pretty far out of reach on the top of the device it's less annoying here because the phone can be unlocked using a variety of on-screen gestures some of which offer direct shortcuts in to preset apps and the polarizing capacitive keys of the m7 have been replaced by more conventional on-screen buttons in the newer device much of the Sense 6 feature set will eventually come to the m7 and we've covered the other software improvements more extensively in our full review of the new HTC one available right now and linked in the description below go check it out after you finish this comparison not all improvements have been so sweeping almost unbelievably HTC chose to stick with the same resolution for its primary camera this year 4 megapixels that's actually a lower resolution than mas front-facing camera and if you're a speck head it gets worse there's no longer optical image stabilization HTC's official stance is that OS is no longer compatible with its new stereoscopic camera arrangement and that the combination of new features in the m8 makes OAS unnecessary whether you agree will depend on what kind of lighting condition you're shooting in and how sharp your eye is in brightly lit situations the output here can be quite similar between the m7 and m8 as with many smartphone view finders exposure and focus are linked and they swing pretty extremely with only minor adjustments which is still annoying the m8 looks to be a bit better at processing the images with its HDR mode usually avoiding the sometimes washed out look of the m7 low-light photos from each camera are impressive in terms of how much detail they can pull from the darkness but they're still noisy in the m8 with areas of blow out where the camera tries too hard or over exposes the m8 has definitely improved on the white balance in low-light situations though and its new smart flash definitely helps with grabbing focus in pitch-black situations where the real improvements come is in the software HTC has completely rethought the camera viewfinder on the MA with a straightforward mode select screen than a bunch of new features from longer Zoe films to preset manual shooting modes to a new array of fun effects to a totally rethought gallery the software brings enough to keep any recreational photographer busy that said we did miss the persistent camcorder trigger okay so about that second eyeball that gives the duo camera its name it makes the m8 substantially weirder looking than its predecessor so is it worth it well that's going to depend entirely on how much you care about shooting with boquete effect the second eye is a depth sensor allowing for variable focus after a shot is taken and it also reduces the time necessary for the camera to get focus HTC plans to open this hardware to developers for future improvement so maybe we'll see something a bit more compelling come further down the line for the moment it's a somewhat neat trick for creating dramatic depth of field then there's video well on the plus side the new m8 delivers better sound and richer colors than the m7 and it has less trouble maintaining focus on the minus side the software stabilization doesn't provide quite as smooth a ride as the old OS rig finally the front-facing camera has seen a boost from 2 megapixels to 5 while preserving the 88 degree wide angle lens the added resolution is nice and we see some white balance correction here too with a Snapdragon 801 going up against the Snapdragon 600 it's no surprise that the m8 beats the m7 on benchmarks that don't matter more to you if you frequently play graphically demanding games or visit very elaborate websites but just having that degree of power available is nice for everyone and it helps future-proof the device call quality seems substantially improved on the m8 though to be fair that may be due to some deficiency in our Google Play edition m7 in any case the new phone's noise cancellation is excellent and the quick shortcut of just bringing the phone to the ear to take a call is very nice we didn't notice a difference in signal strength using diagnostic mode but it should be noted that our HTC One m8 is a UK edition will retest with a US model when we receive one what about the removal of Beats Audio to be honest we didn't notice HTC has included us stand-in to fill its place which you can toggle on and off in the settings menu when you plug in earphones to our ears the sound produced by the new EQ is almost identical to Beats those looking for that added bit of oomph won't be missing much we go into battery life in more detail in our full review so for now we'll just say that the combination of new processor larger power pack and extreme power saving mode in the m8 makes the newer device the clear winner in the endurance Department so in relation to its forerunner the 2014 edition HTC One is a substantial step up in some areas and a more modest upgrade in others aesthetically it lacks some of the pizzazz of its trailblazing predecessor but from where we're sitting it's still probably the most attractive Android smartphone on the market it may not be enough to sway em7 owners into upgrading but the HTC One m8 does an admirable job of living up to its storied brand name I know I said it a few times in the video folks but one final reminder this is not our HTC One review our all-new HTC One review is available right now on our youtube channel page here on YouTube and at pocketnow.com there's a link down the description to our full written review go check that out for all the details you could ask for about the new m8 also down in the description a like button please click it if you enjoyed this video and follow us on social media and leave a comment down below letting us know whether you are planning to pick up the all-new HTC One or not and give us your reason why until next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow thank you for watching and we'll see you on the next one