34 REVIEWS DEVICE REVIEW
HTC One (M8) The all-new One is good enough to make a grown Apple or Samsung executive weep
handsets. They weren’t great, at least by today’s standards, and Apple’s iPhone overshadowed them. But they were the first with Android. And if they didn’t put Android on the map, they at least gave it a compass and pointed the way. A few years later and HTC’s fortunes
F
have dived. The company was guilty of the cardinal sin of many breakthrough acts – stagnation. HTC presumed that being first to the party would be enough to keep it ahead of the game, but its products bounced from one forgettable mid-range handset to the next – about 50 of them in five years. Last year HTC decided enough was enough. While the Goliaths of Samsung, Apple, Motorola and LG weren’t looking, David loaded his sling with the One M7 – a smartphone that surprised everyone with its quality. It was genuinely good, objectively
good – HTC had set about creating a market-leading smartphone and it actually pulled it off. Sales lagged in comparison to the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5, but that was arguably down to HTC’s lost reputation. The One was as good a smartphone as any released up until then. With HTC’s reputation as an
innovator restored, can it win you over once more?
Design & Build Now we have the One (M8) – the successor to the One. The handset’s details had leaked online countless times in the build-up to the official reveal, with images and videos showing it from every conceivable angle. Fans could be forgiven for being sick of the sight of the M8 before it had even been unveiled. However, the gut reaction upon handling the M8 for the first time is that this is a truly outstanding smartphone. It sticks largely to the same template as the One. It has a unibody construction like its predecessor, meaning the phone is one solid, undissectible build, much like the iPhone. While some people dislike not being able to take the back off their phone, it cannot be denied that it lends the handset a much more solid feel. The phone has a reassuring weight (at 160g it’s still lighter than the Sony Xperia Z2, and only 15g heavier than the plastic Samsung Galaxy S5), and its metal case feels much nicer in hand than plastic alternatives. The One (M8) comes in three
or many people, their earliest memories of Android smartphones will be of HTC
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2.3GHz of processing power
metallic colours: amber gold, glacial silver and gun-metal grey. A brushed finish gives it a pleasant matted effect. But it’s the front of the phone
that’s truly striking. Its display is a comfortable five inches, large enough to optimise the user experience
HTC smart cover joins the dots
HTC put a lot of emphasis on one of the handset’s accessories at its launch, which it’s calling the Dot View Cover. It might look like a rubbery plastic case, but it does much more than just cheapen the look of your extremely expensive new smartphone. The front of the cover is perforated
all over with a grid of small circular holes. If you double-tap or swipe down on it (yep, through the front of the case), your phone wakes up and shows you the time, weather and temperature where you are. It’s great not having to open the
cover just to check the time, but the convenience doesn’t stop there. You can also answer calls by swiping up on
the case – you don’t even need to open it. Notifications for missed events like texts and calls also show through the case. If you do choose to open it, the phone knows that you’ve done so and awakens the screen and unlocks automatically. It always seems a shame to cover
your smartphone’s beautiful design with a plastic case, but you might not be able to resist the Dot View Cover. Plus the retro Lite-Brite style effect of viewing notifications through the cover is pleasing to look at. They come in a vast range of colours, but it’ll set you back £35 should you want one.
microSD card slot for 128GB of extra storage
without approaching phablet-sized awkwardness. The display has a full HD 1,080p resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. That’s the same as the resolution found on the S5 and the Z2. However, as the displays on those handsets are
Unibody aluminium body is pure quality
nominally larger, the One M8 actually boasts a higher pixel density of 441 pixels per inch.
The difference is barely noticeable. What is noticeable is just how brilliant it looks, with colours brighter than ever and edges razor sharp.
Performance & processor It’s a good thing that the One (M8) has the processing power to back-up the visuals. With a 2.3GHz processor, it’s a huge step forwards from the One’s 1.7GHz, and it shows. Using the handset, it initially feels like it’s set to some sort of demo mode – or as if I’ve pressed a fast-forward button. Every app opens instantly. Animations such as windows expanding and screens scrolling are impossibly smooth. Processor-heavy games like Frontline 2 run as well as any home console title, thanks to the 2GB of RAM on the One (M8). Now, 2GB might be the standard in RAM for flagship smartphones, but depending on the software it powers, the differences in performance can be stark.
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