So soft, so fresh, and so clean
Looking at pictures of the HTC One M8, you will not be impressed. There's nothing all that exciting about it. Seeing it in person is a different experience. Like the iPhone, the One M8 is built with incredible attention to detail that you literally have to touch to appreciate.
The new One is the most comfortable phone we've held, thanks to its aluminum case that's so brushed and buffed that it's actually soft to the touch. It's so smooth that the few seams it does have are undetectable by human fingers. You'd have to be an alien with extra sensitive feelers to find a crack in HTC's shell, and we can't verify that such an alien exists at all.
We don't intend to gush, but the One M8 has better "hand-feel" than the Moto X and anything Samsung or Apple have to offer. Thanks to its roughly 90 percent aluminum shell, it feels sturdier than most devices, too.
HTC's front-facing "Boom Sound" speakers also got an upgrade this year. They sound clearer and a little louder than the One. Don't sell your Bluetooth speaker out of excitement, but do know that the One M8 probably has the best sound you're going to get on a smartphone.
A few design downsides
HTC still hasn't figured out that placing the phone's power button way up top does make you stretch your hand a little to use it. Luckily, there is a new way to unlock the phone: touch. (We'll get to that next.) And though we like the larger 5-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel screen on the One M8 (the One had a smaller 4.7-inch screen), the bezels around the screen are thick compared to the LG G2 and other LG products. HTC could have fit a larger 5.2-inch screen on the M8 or shrunk the size of it.
The big tradeoff with HTC's design is its lack of water resistance. Both the Galaxy S5 and the Sony Xperia Z2 come with full waterproof bodies, but if you drop the One M8 in the water, or it rains particularly hard, you're in trouble. Apple and LG also haven't addressed waterproofing yet, but we expect it's going to be a big selling point for Samsung this year.
Bring on the gestures
We haven't had time to dive deep into Sense 6, HTC's new interface that some of its execs lovingly call "Sixth Sense," but some of its big ideas are impressive, especially its gestures.
The new One is the most comfortable phone we've held.
Last year, LG introduced a feature called KnockOn. Instead of having to press the power button to turn the LG G2 on, you could tap your finger on the dark screen, waking it up like magic. HTC has borrowed this idea and introduced four new ways to unlock using swipes from the top, bottom, left, or right. These open different apps directly from unlocking. Oh, and if you want to use the camera, simply hold the phone up in a camera position and press the volume rocker like a shutter button; the camera app will open right up.
There's another cool gesture, too. You can swipe three fingers from the left side at any time and quickly access all the video and audio devices that the One can connect up with.
Outside of gestures, Sense 6 has more of a minimalist vibe to it than previous versions. It looks more like stock Android and is speedy like stock Android, too. The other big area of divergence is HTC's built-in BlinkFeed.
Think of BlinkFeed like a built-in version of Flipboard. You access it by swiping from the left on the home screen. This time around, BlinkFeed does more than just aggregate news. It is becoming a place to find notifications. Currently, Fitbit and Foursquare connect up and will send you notifications through BlinkFeed.
Processing power to back up its good looks
There's nothing revolutionary about the specs of the new One M8, but it's competitive. It has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor as all the hot high-end phones this year, including the Xperia Z2, Galaxy S5, and LG G Pro 2. And like all those phones, it's loaded with a 5-inch (ish) 1920 x 1080 pixel screen, about 2GB of RAM (some have 3GB), on-screen navigation buttons, and Android 4.4, the latest and greatest new operating system from Google. Sadly, base models only come with 16GB of internal storage. This won't get you far. We recommend a 32GB model.
BlinkFeed is like a built-in Flipboard, but now HTC uses it to send notifications.
What does processing power get you these days? Well, for starters, it's how the M8 performs all its fancy new camera features, including Ufocus, which adds Lytro-like refocusing abilities to pictures. Every big phone has this, but thanks to HTC's dual-rear cameras, the M8 does it right. But we'll get to that in a minute.
Did we mention the 2,600mAh battery and the MicroSD slot? HTC added MicroSD back into its flagship after it went missing on the One last year. We assume this is due to complaints by good readers like you. Though the battery isn't a lot bigger than the One, HTC says this phone will get 40 percent better battery life. We chalk this up to Qualcomm's new battery-friendly Snapdragon processor as much as anything else.
It has three cameras?
Yep. Three cameras. HTC has upped the ante with a very nice 5-megapixel front-facing camera (much like the Huawei Ascend Mate 2), but there are two cameras on the back of the One M8. The first is an Ultrapixel camera, which is an HTC-branded invention. The idea is that the pixels take in more light, so they're called Ultrapixels. Bottom line: The rear camera works very well. On top of it is a new camera that's used to add depth.
Using these two cameras in conjunction, the M8 can produce shots with actual depth to them, allowing you to focus on almost any object in frame and defocus (blur) everything else. It's what our eyes do all the time … if only our eyes had some of the fun filters and effects that the M8 does. Imagine being able to easily turn everything in a shot that isn't you black and white. That's the kind of thing HTC has made easy – no more Photoshop required.
We still need to do more testing on the rear camera. It has some neat effects, but overall doesn't appear to be a massive revolution over what's out there right now – evolution is a better word for it.
Conclusion
We need to spend a lot more time with the One M8, but it's a gorgeous, fantastic phone. We wish it had better water resistance, and really wouldn't recommend that current One owners drop all their things and buy this immediately (especially since HTC is going to send HTC One phones an Android 4.4 update), but if you're looking to upgrade, this is one of the best superphones around. Best of all, its already available on Verizon and is coming to AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint soon, not to mention more than 230 other carriers around the world. The full rollout starts in April.
Highs
Apple-level design detail
Excessively comfortable to hold
Great sound from front-facing speakers
Dual-rear cameras lead market on Lytro-like effects
MicroSD card support
5MP front camera
Lows
No water resistance
Only 16GB of internal storage
Uncomfortable power button placement
Expensive $600+ price
No Google Play Edition (yet)
From BEN Latest News: www.benlatestnews.com
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/benlatestnews
0 comments:
Post a Comment