Gadgetory

for the past few years the best design phones have all been made out of aluminum whether it's the iphone 5s the lumia 930 or HTC One the best designs always come hand-in-hand with the best materials but as bad as the reputation of plastic phones is there are a few that stand up against the very best on the market they have the same care and attention to detail and the experience of using them has been just as good HCC's new one the EI tries to be just that it recreates almost everything about the company's flagship 2014 phone except it's cheaper and it's plastic de 8 has the specs and the same basic shape of the One m8 but the soul of what makes that phone appealing ends up lost in the translation d8 is the exact same size but its curves aren't as soft or refined its edges aren't chamfered and don't glint in the light and it's lighter weight makes it feel somehow less substantial it feels closer to the utilitarian Nexus 5 than it does to HTC's real flagship aluminum phone d8 also loses that elusive sense of authenticity that's so hard for these cookie cutter smartphones to have the middle ma it reacts to the environment around it and it feels a lot more natural than the plastic counterpart which feels alien and organic really good plastic phones either solve for their design problems or use them productively but in making a direct plastic copy of the metal ma HCC is neglected to do that the only thing that's adding is the selection of bold new colors while taking away the subtle or of exclusivity that the one m8 maintains maybe that's good enough in fact for HTC it might be perfect it can sell a cheaper version of its premium phone without sacrificing any sales of the m8 but for a company's taking its future on design the e8 is a disappointing missed opportunity it could have proven that premium design is more than premium materials but instead it's a phone that Samsung might be proud of the first step in the right direction is to design plastic like it's plastic and not stitched leather or brushed metal or super shiny chrome HCC avoids those pitfalls but in the process it avoids being innovative in almost any significant way for now at least the finest design continues to be the exclusive province of aluminium phones