When the first HTC One made its debut, it was hard to imagine how HTC would do a better job with its successor. After all, the M7 had a lot going on for it: outstanding design; innovative, beautifully loud speakers; elegant UI; BlinkFeed; and the Ultrapixel camera – the latter two features being fodder to plenty of love/hate debate. But regardless, it was a unique phone in every dimension possible.
The M8 builds on the foundation set by the M7 and refines many of its features and shortcomings in both hardware and software. The best comparison I can give between the M7 and M8 is an iPhone 5 running iOS 6 and an iPhone 5S running iOS7.
That is not to say that this incremental update should be overlooked. The improvements are noticeable enough – especially from the software’s side – that the M8 feels and functions as a worthwhile upgrade.
The Hardware
No matter what I say and write as an attempt to explain the hardware, the only way to understand and appreciate how wonderful and natural the phone is is by holding it. Photos are not enough.
But I’ll try anyway. The entirety of the phone is a unibody metallic case, with the only non-metal components being the screen, the power button, and the IR blaster. The phone has stronger curves than the M7 and fits comfortable in the hand. The metal wraps around the sides as well before folding underneath the screen; there is definitely no harsh or hard edge to be felt.
The speakers remain prominent and they are as loud as ever, though they’re a bit soft on the bass. But make no mistake: this is one of the best phones to watch a movie on or listen to music from. Speaking of watching movies, the screen is downright gorgeous. The colours are beautiful and faithful, with the whites more white (or rather, slightly cooler) than the Nexus 5. Colours in pictures, movies, and apps look really well.
My only gripe with the design is the power button sitting on top. For a phone this size, it makes more sense to have it on either side. Thankfully, HTC probably thought about that and implemented a gesture function in the software that allows you to unlock through a double-tap or swipe on the screen.
The Software
Sense UI has been updated, and is as elegant as ever. Custom UI by manufacturers is a personal taste, and not many people are into Sense UI.
The update has refreshed the overall look aligning with the current trend of flat design. It’s the closest UI that resembles stock android, and most apps appear as refined from stock rather than a complete overhaul. The mail app in particular is a delight to use, with different accounts having shades of blue, red, and magenta to my liking.
The overall colour theme of the phone and accents can also be changed in the theme menu, though you’re limited to four presets, one of which is monotone greys and blacks for your formal look, or if the blues, greens, oranges, purples, and reds are too colourful to your taste. What’s missing though is a custom theme builder feature, which I’d like to see in the next update or the next phone.
Battery performance has been greatly improved as well with the new software update, easily giving the phone a full day’s worth of juice. There is an extreme saving mode as well which you can switch on that kills all functions except the most basic phone and SMS.
Camera
The camera is mostly unchanged from the last model, still touting the Ultrapixel technology for better or worse. In my experience though, the camera remains a hit and miss and needs more fiddling to get a good photo than other phone cameras can. The pictures are softer than those taken with other cameras, but the biggest problem is exposure. The Ultrapixels are designed to be hungry for light and this is problematic in indoor situations with various lighting or some outdoor photos in daylight. The camera struggles to get everything correctly exposed, and lamps and other light sources just flare up completely. That is not to say that it always takes bad photos, or that it struggles, but the frequency at which is does is noticeable.
To overcome this glaring problem, full manual control of the camera options is given, where you can change ISO, focus, and shutter speed – which is great for deliberate photography but impractical for on-the-go shots.
The front-facing camera is better at handling light, and with the wide-angle lens, the selfies look better than ever, taking in a big chunk of the scene if you don’t mind the side-effect of having a ridiculously long arm. It sure is the highlight of all the camera features, making photos in gatherings and parties quite fun to shoot.
As for features, there are some really nifty ones thanks to the additional lens on the back of the phone. A fun one is the perspective shot which transforms any photo taken on default settings into a quasi-3D one. You can tilt the phone around and the perspective shifts to a degree, and is certainly a cool feature to have to wow your friends or to have fun and play around with.
The more useful feature though is the focus change (called unfocus) which gives you the ability to tap anywhere on the photo after it has been taken to change focus. How good this performs depends on the photo, but for the most part it pulls of some really good shots, especially for portraits.
Final Words
If there is ever a benchmark or blueprint for what a perfect android phone could be, it is the HTC One M8. The unmistakable design has pushed the envelope and it is by far the best looking android phone on the market, and one of the best looking phones in recent memory. The software is elegant and builds upon the stock android rather than rebuilds. The only downfall is its wild camera, which is unpredictable and requires some effort from your end to better compose to compensate for some erratic nuisance every now and then. It is not unusable but far from being the best camera on a phone.
