The successor to the HTC One has finally made it out in the form of the HTC One M8. But what has it brought to the table that is new?
The aluminium unibody design was one of the main things that attracted people to the HTC One. The device still manages to shine when compared to competitors and it is thin and light, but solid at the same time. Perhaps the only downside to the handset is that the chassis can scuff very easily and this detracts from the premium look of the device.
When designing the HTC One the company went back to the drawing board and while the shape and design of the HTC One M8 does look very much like the HTC One, the new device has some refinements. HTC re-shaped almost every surface of the device. The edges along with the corners have been contoured to fit comfortably in the hand. The appearance of the phone can be likened to a high end sports car. The unibody extend to the sides in a single piece and this gives the handset rigidity while at the same time makes it look neater. The coating is smooth and clear while at the same time having a brushed texture and this gives the handset a look that is higher grade.
The end cap design has made a return and so has the punched speakers. The HTC One M8 is available in colours which support and highlight the metallic finish; these include Amber Gold, Metal Grey and Arctic Silver.
On their high end phones, HTC always offer fancy displays. On the HTC One this was a 4.7 inch Super LCD3 which offered a stunning 1080p full HD resolution with 469ppi. The display is bright and has white that is very pure, while the clarity of it is superb. The colours offer plenty of pop and text stands out well.
With the HTC One M8 the display is 5 inches and has the same 1080p resolution with 440ppi. The display has been improved but HTC didn’t give any details. It offers the same punch and is vivid and clear.
The processor has been update from the original. The HTC One arrived with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad core and this came in at 1.9GHz and had 2GB of RAM. The HTC One M8 has the latest Snapdragon 801 quad core along with 2GB of RAM.
The HTC One offered a 4MP back illuminated sensor with Ultrapixels, designed to allow more light through. It has the f/2.0 aperture along with optical image stabilisation. The end result is that it takes superb photos in low light. Video capture is 1080p with LED flash, while the camera on the front is 2.1MP and it has optical image stabilisation.
The HTC One M8 has a depth sensor above the lens of the main camera instead of optical image stabilisation and this offers U-Focus which means the owner can choose to re-select a focal point at any time. There is a dual LED two tone flash with white and amber LEDs. HTC said that the overall imaging performance has been enhanced. The front facing camera is 5MP and has the f/2.0 aperture.
The HTC One comes in choices of 32GB and 64GB for storage but there isn’t support for SD expansion. It has support for 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi, DLNA, GPS, NFC and MHL. The HTC One M8 has the same connectivity choices but it support SD card and is available with 16GB of storage on-board. Specific regions will get a 32GB version but this won’t be available in the UK, not at first anyway.
The HTC One M8 offers a built in amplifier, otherwise known as BoomSound. The speakers seem to be the same and they are at the front of the device and they are around 25% louder.
The HTC One M8 comes with KitKat 4.4 installed and the Sense 6 UI. This brings with it many improvements, including the transparent notification and navigation bars, new fonts and muted colours for the status icons. HTC also allows you to change the font and colour and the handset comes with BlinkFeed, which means you can mix news, social networking and photos in a customisable stream of tiled updates.
HTC have said that the One devices will get KitKat and Sense 6.0 UI updates, but it’s not clear when this will happen. Of course don’t expect all the features on the M8 UI to be in the jump.
Motion Launch gesture will be in Sense 6.0 on the HTC One M8 but it will not appear on the original due to the hardware limitations. The update will bring new BlinkFeed and a cleaner interface.
The HTC One is a great device that looks great and packs in a lot of features. The upgrades to the display, the processor and the camera do give a boost to the HTC One M8. It’s a shame that optical image stabilisation was lost but then the device has been fitted with more innovation for the camera. This means it is a step up from the original.
