With so many Android phones on the market to pick from HTC had to step-up to the plate and produce a device that could stand-out amongst the competition and I think - for most purposes - they pretty much nailed it with the HTC One M8!
Compared to the Samsung Galaxy S5 you really do feel like you are holding a premium handset! For example its brushed aluminium finish has a grade of quality that I have only seen previously on the Apple devices. While the additional touches, such as the stereo BoomSound speaker grills mounted at the top and bottom of the 5” (1080 x 1920 pixels ~441 ppi pixel density) SuperLCD display feel like they belong to the handset, rather than simply being bolted on.
At the top of the phone there is also the front facing 5MP/1080p camera and at the back you have the HTC Logo beautifully etched into the chassis; while directly above this you have a 4MP camera with dual lenses and dual-led's (dual tone-flash).
Black bars at the top and bottom are also etched at the back to finish off the premium feel!
microSD card slot
What’s also great to see is that HTC have added a microSD card slot to boost the internal storage (16/32GB). The microSD card slot (situated on the right side) supports up to 128GB cards so this handset has a lot of storage potential! However to complement the design the latter card slot is hidden behind a faceplate which is seamlessly integrated into the right side of the case. Similar to the left nano-sim slot you need a small tool (supplied in the box) to remove it.
While this is awkward for fast access it does act as a handy dust shield and it also maintains the aesthetic quality of the phone. To be honest just having a microSD card slot in the first place (HTC were renowned for removing this) is a big bonus!
Handling
Despite the 5” display the latter screen dimensions are in a widescreen ratio so this helps give the device a slimmer look (a bit like the Apple iPhone 5s does) and it feels a lot easier to handle as a result - in comparison to the larger Samsung Galaxy S5. Surprisingly, despite the brushed aluminium finish it did not feel that slippery either (well I did not have any issues). However in heavy use the phone (see battery tests) can get pretty warm at the back. But on the whole I think HTC have done a great job with the design.
Setup & Interface
The HTC boots – from a powered off state – really quickly, but first you have to do some basic setup which involves the option of configuring a HTC account. Thankfully you can now link this to your Google Account to speed up the operation. Having a HTC account is useful for tapping into the software that comes with the device, such as HTC blink feed.
Additionally for the privilege of setting up an account you get 50GB of online storage (used as well to backup/restore your phones settings), which makes the M8 pretty much a solid platform for storing documents/multimedia - both locally and online - on the fly!
As for the Interface this uses the latest HTC Sense 6 which feels more streamlined than previous incarnations and thanks to the 2.3 GHz Quad-based processor and 2GB RAM the operation i.e. multi-tasking, swiping between screens and manipulating applications, is pretty much effortless.
HTC have also provided a pretty useful notification bar, so with a touch of the top right icon from the latter screen you can access a host of features quickly such as turning on the Wi-Fi or heading to its dedicated settings. Alternatively you can adjust brightness, turn off your Mobile data, enable power saving options (more on this later) and that sort of thing.
You can also access several phone functions from the lock screen, so you can quickly head to the new camera interface for example.
HTC Software
On top of the Android 4.4.2 OS HTC have provide their own software. As mentioned earlier one of these is the HTC Blink feed which can be accessed from the lock screen or via a swipe from the left side of the Home screen.
In HTC Blink feed you get a series of news highlights by default, but you can also add additional feeds to the Blink interface via the top left menu. For example apps like Facebook, Restaurant recommendations, Twitter, Instagram images or even use the Add content option to insert Game related content, that sort of thing.
It’s a pretty useful app if you want to keep up-to-date with what’s happening. It also links to your Google+ account - if you have one - so if you follow a YouTube user you can see their videos.
HTC Guide
HTC Guide is a portal from where you can find options to help diagnose problems with your phone. The trouble shooting section for example gives you several icons, such Camera, with a list of Q&A responses to help resolve most known issues.
But the most useful option is found under the 'Contact US' option as the support representative has the ability to remotely connect to your Phone (I think it uses LogMeIn Rescue) to help resolve problems.
Parenteral Controls
There is even Parental Control software onboard called Kid Mode which provides the option for parents to lock down the phone i.e. what apps and browser activity they can do.
Of course HTC do provide some standard style apps and the Music variant in particular is pretty good. Not only can it handle missing Album art, but it also provides you with a visualiser, lyric support and a fantastic pair of stereo BoomSound speakers!
Sound quality is definitely one of the M8's main strengths and the quality easily outperforms my monitor’s speakers, no problems! They are also loud to, but the only downside is that you don’t have an equaliser. Mind you when a pair of headphones are attached this will enable a BoomSound profile to boost the base a touch. However the quality is good without any need to mess about with an equaliser, so to me this is not a major downside.
I could spend more time talking about the HTC software but on the whole it’s a good bag. You even have apps such as the Car mode which provides huge chunky icons to access the phone dialler or navigation software while you are inside your vehicle. Additionally there is a TV app which turns the phone into a remote control for your TV/Cable box.
The only omission is a dedicated video app so you have to open videos from the Gallery and this only provides basic playback controls. However it’s not that difficult to add a 3rd party alternative from the Google Play Store.
Note: While you can’t remove the pre-installed apps, the interface does allow you to hide them if you don’t want the icon(s) cluttering up your display.
Camera App & Performance
The camera app provides an intuitive interface for accessing the core consumer friendly features. For example a quick tap of the bottom right icon (from a landscape view) presents several large circles to access your camera mode, video mode, a panoramic option (which was a little hit and miss), portrait (which it calls selfie!) and the cool Dual capture mode.
I thought the last option was useful as it allows you to take a video of the required object while you have a small window - which you can customise its position - of you overlaid on top of the screen. This could be used to create a more interactive unboxing or review video!
Autofocus performance works pretty quickly as well and the setting menu gives you even more focus options to play with such as anti-shake, HDR and macro, that sort of thing.
ISO adjustment also goes up to 1600 and you have a burst mode option to play with or adjust the device so the volume buttons can be used to either capture or zoom. You can eventually send photos to Zoe, which is an app that is included on the phone (this works like a social network platform for sharing your photos with others) but this was not working at the time of writing.
So the software is good, but what about the quality of the final images? Well for a fun camera i.e to take photos and upload them to social sites, it was fine. However when viewing back the images on the computer I was not as impressed to be honest.
I have to say that the Auto modes will certainly need to be adjusted (such as enabling HDR) or the images edited afterwards to get the best results. For me the M8 struggled with the exposure side of things more than anything (especially in over-cast or over-bright conditions), with images looking a little washed out at times.
Mind you the macro function can be put to good use and most images showcased that it can capture colours OK (mainly outdoors in bright conditions), but the dual camera lens technology - with the secondary camera lens acting like a rangefinder to create a depth of field for your scene – was no match for the Samsung Galaxy S5 in my opinion.
Ironically its front camera (5MP) has a higher resolution than the back (4MP), and this at least should provide a useful platform for those who like to take Selfie’s or shoot VLogs.
Video Quality
Videos can be boosted by a HDR and 60fps option, but its lack of a video stabilisation option does mean that you need a steady hand when shooting videos. As a result most of the latter I took were a little shaky unfortunately, but colour accuracy was again OK.
On another positive note the screen coped fine outdoors in bright conditions during my camera tests.
Screen Quality & Performance
When watching films or streaming content the M8 is superb. You also have plenty of connectivity options on-board to help with streaming, such as dual-Wi-Fi support and 4G support; the Vodafone sim I used picked up a pretty good signal strength indoors/out.
The screen is certainly one of the phones highlights, sporting great viewing angles to. I also liked that when playing games you get a full-screen view as the standard on-screen home, recent app and back buttons are hidden. Mind you only a basic swipe from the top of the screen can be used to bring the latter home buttons back. Thus it allows you to maximise the screen space without interfering with functionality.
Games
The Games that I tried, such as Batman Arkham Origins and Dead Trigger 2, all worked flawlessly thanks to the 2GB Ram and the 2.3Ghz Quad Based CPU/Adreno 330 GPU. Graphically they looked the business as well!
However the only thing to be aware of is that while the top mounted speakers offer superb sound for music or movies, as the speaker grills are not muffled by the bottom of a desk. When you play two handed games your palms do get close to the speaker grills and this can create a drop in quality slightly.
This was not overlay noticeable thankfully and at high-volume you don’t get any harsh shrill noises either.
Similar to Games, web browsing was effortless and the virtual benchmarks that I ran (3D Mark, Vellamo, AnTuTu, CF-Bench and Quadrant) showed that the M8 outperformed the Samsung Galaxy S5 on the majority of tests - see gallery at the base of the post.
Battery Life
HTC only provided a 2600mAh battery for the M8 but they state that they have made the latter more efficient; this is mainly helped by the Battery power saving modes which certainly prolong its life.
However it certainly needs the latter optimisation because it is behind the Samsung S5 in terms of its battery life.
While all of the tests were done with the mobile antenna left on and the backlight set to MAX brightness, the attempts to play a 2 hour film from only 32% battery life failed as the phone died after 1 hour and 30 minutes. This was without the battery saver mode enabled, so it would probably help leaving this option on.
With general use I made sure again that the backlight was on full and then I played games and watched streamed content from YouTube. After 1 hour the battery had drained by 24%.
Of course these are heavier usage tests and with the Battery saving modes turned on it certainly provides adequate life compared to some of the HTC’s I’ve used in the past; especially with all of its battery hitting features.
Mind you the battery takes a while to re-charge, something like 3 hours and 30 minutes to get to a full charge from 0%. The back of the case also gets quite warm to the touch in operation when you are playing lots of games and streaming, though it’s not to the point that makes the phone unbearable to use.
Summary
The HTC One M8 is probably one of the best HTC devices I’ve tested in a while. Granted there are still a few niggles that stop it from being perfect, but on the whole the performance from the CPU/RAM for playing games and the speaker quality for playing music/watching movies was excellent.
Coupled with the premium feel and screen quality this is certainly a device that is on-par with the S5 in some regards.
It’s only let down by the camera, which required more manual intervention than the latter phone and then there’s the battery life. However with those aggressive/functional power saving modes this does negate the battery drain to some extent and with the ability to expand the internal storage by fitting 128GB microSD cards the HTC One M8 should still be a smartphone that is worth serious consideration!
