Review HTC One (M8). First Look

Initially, some clarifying points. I had a few hours to explore the novelty and the sample for testing, I’ll get in the next few days. However, even two hours is enough to make a first impression of the smartphone, albeit very brief. I also want to remind readers that the material was written ardent fan (still) of HTC, and in the article, you can find my subjective assessment. However, I try to be discreet.

Let’s start with the most important – the prices and start dates of sales.

Price and Availability The

In Russia, sales of the new HTC One starts today (March 26), the cost of 16 GB version will be 32 990 rubles. Do not rush to close the page immediately, expressing his “phi” relatively high price, HTC tried to make a very new flagship so that a user or a potential buyer saw at a glance, for that kind of money he asked for. And it has succeeded.

Name of the smartphone

As I expected, the company did not invent new names and went the right way – a novelty called exactly the same as the previous model, – HTC One. Of course, in the surveys, various references to the smartphone and even on the box on the reverse side will add M8, but in general, the novelty – just HTC One, and rightly so, I think. The series is already popular in its advertising money invested, and smartphones in this series for the most part successful, and the choice of a simple name for the next flagship very logical.

Features

• Class: the company’s flagship


• Form factor: classic


• Materials: aluminum unibody-body


• Operating system: Android 4.4, HTC Sense 6


• Network: GSM / EDGE, WCDMA, LTE (nanoSIM)


• Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801


• Processor: 2.3 GHz quad-


• RAM: 2 GB


• Data Memory: 16/32 GB memory card slot microSD (supports cards up to 128 GB and above)


• Connectivity: Wi-Fi (a / b / g / n / ac), Bluetooth 4.0 (A2DP, aptX), jack microUSB (USB 2.0) for charging / synchronization, 3.5 mm headset jack, HDMI (via microUSB), DLNA, NFC , Infrared


• Display: 5” capacitive, 1920×1080 pixels (FulldHD), automatic backlight adjustment


• Camera: dual camera HTC Duo: 4 MP main camera (maximum image resolution 2688 x 1520) with technology UltraPixel (use “ultrapikseley” size of 2 micrometers) sensor 1/3”, f/2.0, 28 mm, optical stabilization. Additional camera for capturing data about the depth of the scene. Record video in 1080p (1920×1080 pixels), dual color LED flash (works like a flashlight)


• Front camera: 5 megapixel, f/2.0, wide-angle (without autofocus), video recording at 1080p


• Navigation: GPS / Glonass (support A-GPS)


• Sensors: Accelerometer sensor, position in space, light sensor, gyroscope, barometer


• Battery: removable, Li-Pol, 2600 mAh capacity


• Dimensions: 146,4 x 70,6 x 9,4 mm


• Weight: 160 grams

Design, materials, housing, assembly

Here I need to catch my breath. The fact that a year ago I was delighted with the design and quality of execution of the first HTC One, and now, when I took the hands of the new One, found himself on a simple idea: as far as he is better in all that concerns the design and materials! Still, a surprising property has human memory – what else looked recently and was seen as the acme of perfection, obsolete, and you are experiencing new sensations and impressions of the new device / technology. Exactly such a situation I have developed with the HTC One (M8). In the photographs, renderers, and even video smartphone looks like the previous One, it seems that the differences between them in detail almost there. In reality, this is a brand new machine, and nothing in common except the hull shape and the location of some components with HTC One of the previous generation is not here.

First, the new HTC One body is made almost entirely of aluminum, no plastic inserts on both sides but only strip of plastic under them due to location of antennas. That is, it is aluminum, plastic pair of grooves and glass Gorilla Glass 3 – all. Secondly, the assembly, it is very high quality, even the test sample is made on five points: the finest work, no gaps, places where dust can get clogged, all very high quality.Third, the excellent basic body colors and beautifully crafted metal surface. Color noble, not boring, but not colorful – dark gray (pictured) and light silver. Golden HTC One will have later, perhaps, this color is also made without excessive brightness.

First, the overall impression of the device is formed in humans is when he takes a smartphone in hand for the first time, and here HTC One spotless. The new flagship of the company’s workmanship, materials, and the overall feel of all these elements together is one emotion – “wow.” Compare with other models of smartphone based on Android is meaningless, it’s just a different level of performance, design and materials used, even compared with the previous generation HTC One will not be relevant, although last year’s One was stronger competitors when it comes to design and materials.

With the new HTC One company several steps ahead of all the manufacturers of Samsung and LG even say nothing, these companies have not practiced the work on the design (in the normal sense). Either do not have, which is good, or is present and this is worse.Comparison with smartphones from Sony is more appropriate, the Japanese manufacturer is trying to do at least unusual products using non-standard materials, but also in such a comparison, in my opinion, the new HTC One remains far ahead, it designs and materials combined with great practicality total housing it invisible traces, non-staining it (as far as I can judge from two hours to use the machine), which is not the smartphones Sony, made of glass.

Overall, the design, materials and overall build quality – these are the things by which the new HTC One can and must be sold, and in a good, in this story about the new product can be ended. Before us is a vivid example of the smartphone, which looks plays a major role, and it is also likely to be many deciding factor in choosing this device, and not the size, characteristics or soft, so impressive got a new One.

Dimensions

New HTC One on paper are much larger and heavier than last year’s model, in reality, the difference in size is almost invisible due to three points – the rounded corners of the body, the general integrity of the structure (there is no skirting with plastic inserts, and the edges smoothly into the back of the unit) and the width of the preserved housing. In his hand is the new HTC One just like the previous one, no differences, increase in height is barely noticeable in reality.

If we compare with other smartphone Android-devices, the difference in size seems sensible, but as I wrote above, in reality there is no feeling shovel smartphone. I am writing this not because HTC fan and do not like Samsung (and this is true), but only because in his hands and the new HTC One, and the old, as well as many smartphones from Samsung, and simply describe their feelings.

Platform and memory

At the heart of the new HTC One is the platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core 2.3 GHz. The company notes that did not use the overclocked (2.5 GHz) version of the platform in order to optimize the battery consumption. RAM 2 GB of internal memory for storage of 16 or 32 GB. There is a slot for memory card format microSD, the device works with cards of any size, guaranteed a job card 128GB.

Card tray is located on the right edge of the device, SIM-card format nanoSIM – on the left. Judging from the width of the tray under the “Simcoe”, the company plans to release versions DualSIM smartphone in the near future.

Talk about the performance and speed of your smartphone, based on the results of benchmarks, I will not. For two hours with the device I have not noticed lag or “loose”, everything works smoothly and quickly, so I’m just not paying attention to what you need to estimate the speed of the interface, and it is perhaps the most important indicator of its smoothness.

Screen

In HTC One (M8) installed 5” display with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The display is protected by glass Gorilla Glass 3. I have nothing more to say – in the machine quality screen with maximum viewing angles, brightness and a good supply of natural color.

Screen can be operated with gloves fingers, stylus, a display responsive to touch the cover with the lid closed, talk about it below.

Camera

Here all sad, I say immediately. The company persists in developing the idea of ​​”ultrapikseley” simultaneously inventing new and interesting things, but for me it makes a low-resolution images, but here it is again limited by the camera module chetyrehmegapikselnoy.

Yes, a camera with aperture f/2.0, with a larger “pixel”, there is a secondary camera for capturing data about the depth of the scene and technology uFocus, allows to change the focus point is the picture taken. And here, this technology really works – you shoot a subject and then you can by editing the picture, change the point of focus from a subject in the foreground on some distant object. There is a dual LED-flash that illuminates the frame is not necessarily bright white light, and the luminance and chrominance varies depending on the shooting conditions. There is a function «Copy & Paste», allowing to cut a piece of the frame and insert it into another picture. Finally, there is a huge opportunity for “rassharivaniya” photos and entire albums, albums able to watch friends and other things. Camera interface itself has become easier and more enjoyable, it is also important.

But here’s the problem – we’re talking about all these things, and they really made the new HTC One conscience, they work, but when it comes to the main parameter – as the photo is look down at the floor, if you are the owner HTC One (I’m talking about last year’s model).Apparently, the new HTC One photo quality will be about the same as in the previous model, and it saddens me personally. I work I can not understand what the second consecutive year the company is trying to hook all these interesting soft karaoke chips and solutions to 4 MP camera. After all, their value becomes much lower than if HTC used them along with the usual 12-13 megapixel camera.

I do not know what else to add. Of course, I’ll be the last to believe that the image quality has improved, we carry out a comparative phototest new champions, and in the review of HTC One I ask to help me with photofraction Roman White, but so far everything is going to ensure that the camera in the new HTC One would be the weakest link.

By the way, the front wide-angle camera in a smartphone with a resolution of 5 megapixels, autofocus is not here, but without it you can get good shots only through permissions and capabilities to fit into the frame, not only themselves, but also a couple of mates. So for fans of “fotochek himself in an elevator” unit can be very attractive.

Several examples of the photo with the main camera (the pictures are taken on an engineering sample):

Sound

Developments from using Beats Audio company refused to apply the new HTC One “improvers” sound of its own design, everything else is the same as it was in last year’s model. Two high by the standards of any smartphone, powered speakers, technology HTC BoomSound and very clean and very loud with the sound. Judging by the fact that the new flagship of Samsung, LG and Sony does not offer anything new in terms of sound external speakers, HTC One (M8) in this parameter will again be the only leader.

Separately, I note the transfer of 3.5 mm jack on the lower end of the body, that’s what I did not like HTC (M7), is its location on top. Now everything is correct and convenient. At the top end left the power button (it will now be used much less frequently, but more on that later), and the “window” of the IR port.

HTC Sense 6

Improvements around HTC Sense are mostly nature accurately correcting errors earlier in the development of this interface, and rightly so. Service BlinkFeed no longer occupies a central position, the screen can do with it to remove if you do not use the service. Now you can add news sources from different countries (previously it was impossible to immediately view the news from such sources), to do lists, and some other things.

Themes now not just change the color scheme and pictures desktop and lock screen in HTC went ahead and did colored “caps” for different types of programs. That is, applications for communication can be a “cap” blue browsers and connect to the Internet – red, system – green, and so on. The idea is interesting, but how much will be useful, yet I can not say.

The general style of the interface has not changed significantly – neat icons, drawn font that you can now change, calm color scheme without bright contrast spots – all very familiar and comfortable.

Motion Launch

Function Motion Launch – this recognition smartphone environment thanks to the information from different sensors and sensors, collected and processed separate coprocessor. As they say in the company, this technology – contribution to energy optimization unit. If every program in the usual smartphone interrogates each of the sensors, when necessary, the new HTC One program simply refer to these data without polling detectors and sensors.

Practical applications of the technology are also many. To activate the device is sufficient to lead finger on the screen, and depending on the direction in which you spent your finger to open a specific screen – BlinkFeed, the main desktop, or something else. To get to the lock screen, you need twice “tapnut” across the screen. To answer the call is enough to bring the device to the ear, and to start the camera – hold any key and deploy volume smartphone in portrait orientation.

The presence of different sensors allows HTC One as a pedometer program paired with Fitbit (for Russian application appears at approximately mid-April), the smartphone allows for steps, running and other “movements.”

Case HTC Dot View

Along with the new HTC One company presented an interesting case called Dot View. Chip cover – in its appearance, it is perforated holes in the surface of the front cover, the back is made of plastic. And most importantly – it is the display format of the notification in the form of pixel elements. It looks like this is very unusual for my taste, cool, but someone certainly seem strange or uninformative.

On the screen, a cover for cover, the time and the weather, as you can see information about new messages, mail, incoming call will also be displayed here in the form of pictures.

Online Case Dot View will be presented in six colors.

Opening hours, battery

One of the most important innovations – serious work in the field of energy conservation. According to the HTC, the new flagship of a better time to work, not only by increasing the capacity of the battery (2600 mAh vs 2,300 in last year’s model), but also by optimizing the energy consumption in different applications, the use of a coprocessor to collect information from all sensors, use overclocked , but still efficient processor.

In addition to the classic power-saving mode when turned off vibration, reduced brightness and other parameters, a new – Extreme Power Saving Mode. In this mode, turn off all interfaces except cellular and mobile Internet (only works for applications mail), vibration, reduced brightness and are available for only a few programs – telephone, text messaging, a calculator and a couple more. With 100% battery charge in this mode smartphone capable of up to 14 days, according to the company, while taking calls, text messages and e-mail (to what extent – not reported).

How good for the battery life the new HTC One would actually know very soon, in the review I will try to elaborate on this point.

Conclusion

HTC’s good at everything that touches the outer side of the device – design, materials, housing, assembly. Overall impression of the new HTC One great thanks to these components. In this case, HTC and even plays on the contrast, while almost all other manufacturers strive to improve the software (or simply put more programs), use more cores and set into a lot of memory in the HTC make a beautiful, spectacular smartphone. This is the main point that determines the attitude to the new HTC One. If you take it in your hand and feel the same as I do, then most likely be thinking about buying, despite the huge cost that would place new flagship in the premium segment on a par with Apple iPhone 5S.

If no special “feel” of the new HTC One after the first ten minutes of the meeting you will not have smartphone hardly anything will hook you in the future. There is a high-quality display, excellent dynamics, neat and not overloaded with the amount of software interface and advanced features, but almost all of it is now in any smartphone value of 20, 000 and above, and discussing the new HTC One, we’re talking about a device with a base value of 32 990 rubles, and in fact appears later 32 GB version.

Therefore, HTC is betting on the design and the first impression of a new leader, I do not know, whether consciously or not. I hope this works, it worked for me!

Review HTC One (M8). First Look