HTC is back with the HTC One M8 , its new flagship smartphone for
2014. Here's our in-depth, full review of the new HTC One M8.
HTC's aim was to take the original HTC One , codename M7, and make
everything better – an all-round upgrade job. One thing's for sure:
there are no major leaps with the M8, but we're seeing a similar trend
with all new flagship smartphones this year. The Galaxy S5 , for
example, adds a couple of new features while the Sony Xperia Z2 is
barely different to the Z1.
Let's take a look at the new HTC One M8 in more depth.
HTC One M8 review: Design and build quality
As you can see, the HTC One M8 looks a lot like the original. However,
there are some differences.
Once again, the Taiwanese firm has used a uni-body aluminium design
but the metal wraps around to the front rather than having a plastic
strip around the edge. The corners of the phone are also more
rounded. It has a brushed look and has been treated to gain its glossy
finish. The device now uses around 90 percent metal compared to the
M7's 70 percent. See also: 18 best smartphones: The best phone
you can buy in 2014.
A larger screen (see hardware, below) means that the phone is both
taller and wider than its predecessor - predominantly taller - but it
doesn't feel too large in the hand. It's also a few grams heavier at
160g compared to 143g, making it one of the weightier flagship
smartphones but again, it doesn't feel overly weighty. Instead it has
that reassuringly heavy feel to it.
HTC puts design first and you can certainly tell that with the M8 in
your hand. It feels like a premium smartphone which is something
Samsung has failed to achieve, in our opinion, with the Galaxy S5. The
new HTC One is ergonomic, but also sturdy.
This is important because, as well as feeling like a device which has
been carefully designed and put together, it doesn't feel overly delicate
which is a downside to the iPhone 5S and previous metal versions.
Visit: New HTC One (m8) 2014 price and where to buy in UK
However, if you do want to protect you precious M8, then HTC has
come up with a rather cool flip-style case. It's called the DotView case
- for obvious reasons as you can see below. A nice feature is that the
time and notifications appear when you double tap on the case when
it's shut. You can also use other gestures to perform other tasks such
as answering a call.
Viewing the screen through the holes creates a cool LED dot-matrix
effect. The DotView case cost £35 and is available in seven different
colours.
From launch, the M8 itself is available in three different colours. The
most popular is likely to be 'Metal Grey' but there's also 'Artic Silver'
and 'Amber Gold' – a line-up reminiscent of the iPhone 5S colour
options.
The eagle-eyed will already have noticed that HTC has ditched the
dedicated navigation buttons in favour of on-screen alternatives. We'll
talk about this in more detail in the software on page two.
One thing to note compared to rivals (namely the Galaxy S5 and Xperia
Z1) is that the HTC One M8 doesn't come with any dust- or waterproof
credentials. This may or may not be an important feature to you.
HTC One M8 review: Duo Camera
With Sense 6.0 the camera app has had a redesign and we like the
stylish and minimalist approach. It's easy to use but there are plenty
of settings to play with if you're feeling adventurous. They're easy to
find if you're looking for them. HTC splits the camera app into
different modes with the front camera even labelled as 'selfie'.
The back of the HTC One M8 is home to two camera lenses. HTC calls
this the Duo Camera and it's one of the main new features of the
smartphone. You might think they are for taking 3D photos, like the
old LG Optimus 3D but that's not the case.
The first camera, the one closer to the middle of the phone, is the
Ultrapixel camera found on the M7 – with some improvements.
According to HTC, the ImageChip 2 means the camera can shoot faster
and capture sharper images. And this seems to be true from our
preliminary tests (click the images to enlarge).
At 4Mp, there isn't as much detail in photos compared to the M8's
rivals but becuase its pixels are bigger the phone is better suited to
low-light situations.
Here's our typical test shot of St.Pancras which has come out well in
automatic mode.
Here's a 100 percent crop of the above image
And here's a close up shot of a lightbulb using the Macro mode:
The second camera is an interesting addition and is there to capture
depth information. This 'metadata' is attached to the photo taken with
the main camera and can be used later on. Similar to the Lytro
camera, the HTC One M8 Duo Camera allows users to refocus a photo
after it's been taken.
Unlike the Galaxy S5, which offers three preset focal points, the M8's
second sensor means users can refocus anywhere they like. We've had
a play with this and it works pretty well, although it's quite difficult
not to cover the second les with you finger. Luckily a message pops up
on the screen to say you're blocking it. We've been playing around
with the Duo Camera and here's what it looks like.
Here's the initial photograph we took using default settings.
Tapping the refocus button means the background goes out of focus
making your subject stand out more. It gives an DSLR-style shallow
depth of field effect.
Here we've focused on the man standing in the background. The
software has effectively sectioned off the main subject (look
particularly at the hair to see how the agorithm has selected the
'object'). Rather than genuinely altering the focus of the image, it uses
the depth information to know which objects should be in or out of
focus. Unfortunately, it means edge detection has to be used to blur
objects and close scrutiny reveals it can't deal well with hair like this.
Similarly, in the photo below, it's easy to see that the software doesn't
feather the blur, leaving a nasty hard line across the decking (click to
see a bigger version).
However, with the right image, Ufocus can do a fine job as shown
below (the edited image is the bottom one, of course):
Refocusing is only available for still photos, not videos. The M8 can
record video in Full HD, not 4K. HTC's Zoe (now an separate app for
automatically editing video) has had an update with more of a social
aspect and will be made available for non-HTC phones later this year.
Video quality is unimpressive. There's no stabilisation and footage
wasn't as sharp or detailed as we'd have liked (and certainly not a
patch on the Samsung Galaxy S5's video quality).
The Foregrounder app allows you add effects in tandem with the
refocusing. A strange 3D effect makes photos come to life in a sort of
house of mirrors way – i.e. a gimmick - and you can also cut and paste
parts of photos, such as a person, with minimal hassle although again,
this is more for creativity than something genuinely handy you'll use
regularly.
Like the iPhone 5S, the HTC One M8 has a dual-LED flash. It works
reasonably well, but images are still obviously taken using a flash and -
in most cases - you won't need it as the Ultrapixel camera does a
grand job when there isn't much light around. The image below was lit
by only a cooker hood fluorescent bulb. It isn't the greatest photo in
the world, but it does show decent white balance and - importantly - a
lack of noise.
A cool feature which we've not seen elsewhere is the ability to not
only manually adjust settings, such as ISO, but then save them as
presets to use later. This means you can come up with your own
modes for different situations.
The front camera is a 5Mp f/2.2 shooter with a wide-angle lens so it
should be easier to fit several people into your selfie.
