HTC One M9 Review
Last year, HTC gave us one of the finest smartphones ever made. It was lovely, elegant, had exquisite performance, mature, clear software, and people welcomed this smartphone with open arms.
This year, HTC made an extremely unusual selection that left a number of us a chunk stressed. Basically, The HTC One M9 attempts to replace the matters that didn’t quite paintings on M9 while preserving and refining the whole thing that made the M8 this sort of fantastic phone, however, the cease product would not seem to be plenty exceptional than the preceding version.
This might not be an awful issue, in yet again… However considering 2015 is such an awesome year for phones, complete with innovations and such fiercely competitive market, we wonder if HTC M9 has what it desires to head against the likes of Galaxy S6, iPhone 6 or LG G4.
Design
As predicted, HTC has extraordinary attention to detail. The HTC One M9 has a polished, elegant design, with an angular body, a high best matte finish on the steel case (does not maintain fingerprints) and now proposing an unmarried metal piece this is placed with the precision of watchmakers into the rear casing.
The M9 is manifestly smaller than the M8 (simpler to apply one-surpassed), but a bit bulkier (2 × Eight×0.Four×5.7 inches) and heavier (5.28 oz). Still, the cell phone may be very properly balanced, the tender matte end makes it much less slippery, feels softer in hand, and it’s far easier to address thanks to the sharp rear line.
Also, the telephone has a scratch-resistant coating.
Some changes made from the M8 are the now rectangular-shaped digital camera, and the energy button no longer rests on the pinnacle of the telephone. Instead, it is now located on the proper aspect, underneath the volume controller and the microSD slot (sure, it has a microSD slot!). Also, the phone functions a microUSB and three.5 mm jack that rest on the lowest of the phone.
The hassle is that each one of the buttons looks and feels the same, and the extent controller and energy buttons are too close together, so it is easy to miss the right button.
The model comes in a few interesting versions: silver on gold, gunmetal gray, gold on crimson and gold on gold.
Audio is provided with the aid of the front, dealing with the BoomSound stereo audio system (with Dolby optimization), which is considered to be the best audio system on smartphones so far.
Note: You can use the M9 as a far-off controller for your TV.
Samsung Galaxy S6 is thinner and has a similar layout, as each telephone feature glass and steel casing, however, we felt that the HTC M9 layout is better searching and loads greater interest to detail become worried.
Display
The M9 functions a 5-inch Super AMOLED LCD three show with a resolution of 1920x1080p, a 16: nine component ratio and a pixel density of 441ppi.
Is 1980x1080p enough? Or would a 2k resolution screen be higher? Well, a 2k decision is constantly a pleasant addition (even though a battery drainer), however, the human eye can rarely distinguish among the 2 on a 5-inch screen and with a 441-pixel density, this phone is sharper than the iPhone 6.
Overall, the display featured wealthy, natural and correct colorings, with respectable black stages and reasonable evaluation. Under direct sunlight, the show remained seen (with a few reflections).
When looking at a film, the darkish scenes appeared deep and remained distinct.
While the show looks reasonably precise (now not much one-of-a-kind than the M8), it became not as shiny or vivid because of the competition within the equal rate variety.
Performance
HTC One M9 sports activities a sixty-four-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset (four cores clocked at 2.0GHz and four at 1.5GHz), subsidized by way of 3GB RAM, 32GB native storage, and as much as 128GB outside storage available via the microSD.
Thanks to this setup, the telephone is potent enough to play higher-end video games (Asphalt eight or Assassin’s Creed: Pirates), run apps easily, and even run Adobe Photoshop with no lag.
Because of the Android Lollipop, the cell phone does lag on multitasking the first time it’s far launched, the rest of the time, we had genuinely no hassle.
Does the HTC One M9 suffer from overheating? Not quite. The smartphone does get heat and way to the metal frame it could seem greater than it truly is. The most we have been capable of attaining was approximately one hundred tiers F and that from going for walks Asphalt 8, which is higher than a lot of different phones.
Software
HTC One M9 functions the new version of HTC Sense (on a pinnacle of Android five.1 Lollipop), the Sense 7. Like the Sense 6, the (extremely) new UI remains as awesome as its predecessor.
Still, there is a relatively large number of non-detachable apps; however, unlike ASUS Zenfone’s UI, most of those apps are really useful. Take for instance the Clouds (pulls all images into one folder), the Peel Smart Remote, BlinkFeed or Kid Mode.
Some progressed capabilities are the Android’s interruption gadget, the extent manipulate is handled better (set a proper volume before beginning a loud app or game) and there’s the brand new themes app. You can upload custom subject matters, you can configure shades, patterns, fonts, and more.
Also, there may be the Sense Home: apps are set via three classes – home, work, out – and populate as a consequence.
The Sense 7 is fast, solid, responsive, and arguably the best UI you can get, no longer thinking about the inventory version of Android Lollipop.
Camera
The M9 has a 20.7-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 lens. In the daytime, the M9 captures some truly incredible pix, macros, and near-u. The images aree sharp, the shades are saturated, andthe automatic white balance is notable.
One minus is the shortage of optical photograph stabilization that translates into now not-as-accurate-as-it-should-have-been low-mild photos.
Another unpopular choice HTC has made is to do away with graininess. At first, you’ll assume this is a good idea, but what it does is to eliminate some element from snapshots. Take iPhone 6 for example images do have an honest quantity of grain, but it maintains a super quantity of detail.
Also, evaluating the iPhone 6, we can see that whites might have been whiter and blacks, deeper.
A wonderful addition (via an update) is the up-to-date digicam app that adds support for RAW photo files. More or less, the digital camera app is easy to apply, fairly speedy, and permits a huge amount of customization.
If the rear digital camera might have been higher, the 4-megapixel UltraPixe,lthe front digital camera (formerly the rear digital camera of M8) is one of the best front cameras to this point. It is remarkable for low-mild selfies and usually becomes capable of seizing some of the quality snapshots eager about a front-facing camera.
Note: HTC One M9 can shoot 4k videos with 120fps gradual-motion mode.
When situations are proper, the M9 can seize a few awesome, memorable photos and even though no longer on par with what iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6 can offer, the cameras are nonetheless correct enough for the common client.
Battery Life
The non-detachable 2840 mAh battery gets you via a day on medium to excessive utilization. But on very heavy, good sized use, the battery only reached about 4 hours.
The M9 takes advantage the Quick Charge 2 Technology.
Conclusion
An extremely good function is the M9’s assurance. You get a one-time replacement if your phones get damaged and yes, it consists of unintentional damage as properly.
In the past, HTC fashions had been usually ahead of the competition; however, this 12 months its flagship telephone doesn’t appear to be as good as other telephones presented by the competition.
Don’t get us wrong, the HTC One M9 is a splendid telephone; it features a fantastic design (one of the best up to now), a great performance, and remarkable sound. However, the digital camera still appears to be the Achilles’ heel for HTC.
We assume some brilliant improvements inside the destiny from HTC (as it has achieved earlier than), however, within the interim, Samsung Galaxy S6 seems to remain the king.
