HTC One M9 review: familiar on the outside, fresh on the inside
Robert Zak 2015-03-26T02:00:00Z1 month ago
Robert Zak A tech aficionado since he first picked up a NES controller, Robert has written about technology, videogames, and film across a range of sites and magazines, including Den of Geek, Gamasutra, and Computeractive. At AndroidPIT, he'll be bringing you the latest Android news and reviews from the front line in the UK. The wait is finally over for the HTC One M9 - one of the most eagerly anticipated flagship smartphones of 2015. The HTC One M8 won hearts and minds last year with its stunning design, neat interface, and powerful internals. The big question in our review is whether the One M9 can?do the same this year. With an octa-core processor, much-improved 20.7 MP camera, and some nifty features that come with the latest Sense UI, the HTC One M9 has taken big steps in some areas, while in others - such as the display and design - remained unchanged. Read our HTC One M9?review to find out whether this is for better or worse.
c ANDROIDPIT Good?? ?Eye-catching design?HTC Sense 7 UI looks great and has handy apps?BoomSound speakers do a great job?Powerful processorBad?? ?Disappointing camera?Battery should last longer?Over-familiar design lacks 'wow' factorThe HTC One M9 release date was March 31, so it's readily available in the US and UK now. The HTC One M9 price stands at?$649 in the US and ￡580 in the UK, which is around the same price we expect its main rival - the Galaxy S6 - to cost when it comes out. The HTC One M9 price is pretty standard for a flagship, but the main question is whether the One M9 is enough of an improvement on the M8 (which will soon drop in price dramatically) to be worth it.?
The HTC One M8 was a beautiful phone, raising the reasonable question of whether the HTC One M9 really needed to make many (or any) external changes to still be considered one of the best-looking phones. HTC clearly thought that it didn't, and they weren't entirely wrong - although it's hard?to be impressed by a design that's so familiar.
The HTC One M9 is enclosed in a two-tone?aluminum chassis, with the?same curved back and rounded corners of its predecessor (it even fits into the M8's Dot View case). On the front, there is a speckled aluminum texture above and below the display, which is the same texture?as the entire chassis of the M8. Above the screen is a 4MP UltraPixel camera, demoted from its prime position on the back of the HTC One M8.?
The brushed metal finish on the sides and the finely textured power button are deft design flourishes. / c ANDROIDPIT The sides of the One M9 are a different tone to the rest of the phone, while retaining the brushed-metal finish.?The sides also have a more noticeable 'step' than the One M8. The left side houses only the SIM card slot, while on the right are the volume and power?buttons, and microSD slot. The positioning of the power button - which has a lovely fingerprint-like texture - below the volume buttons is easier to reach than having it on the top of the phone, although its proximity and similarity to the volume buttons does lead to mis-presses.
The camera's had an overhaul, with a new square shape, sapphire crystal glass and 20 MP resolution. / c ANDROIDPIT On the back we have a 20MP camera with a large square sensor. The square camera lens protrudes slightly, but is bordered by a plastic frame, which prevents the glass from directly touching surfaces. The lens glass is made from scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. Despite all these precautions, there is something unwieldy about a phone that leans on its camera whenever it's on its back, and the protruding sensor is the one notable downside of an otherwise?classy exterior.
All in all, the One M9 has?the feel of a luxury item - even a status symbol - rather than a mere accessory, and HTC's comparisons of it to a Porsche are not unjustified. With that said, externally it's essentially a sheenier version of the One M8. With aluminum flagship?phones steadily becoming more common, the One M9 simply lacks that 'wow' factor of the?One M8, and particularly the One M7, when they first came out.
The One M9 is still a head-turner of course, but that can be attributed to a shinier design that draws the eyes in more than a matte one. Some people will question whether they want a phone which causes people to peer over their shoulders?on the Tube (London?subway), but if you're not shy about showing off your phone, then you certainly won't mind the One M9.
The philosophy of, "if it ain't broke..." has also been applied to the HTC One M9 display, which is a 5-inch Full HD IPS offering, squeezing in a pixel density of?441 ppi. This places the One M9 just behind the likes of the Google Nexus 5 and Huawei Honor 6. It outdoes those phones?with its vivid colors and flawless viewing angles, but it's noticeably less bright and colorful?than last year's?top-end phones, such as the Galaxy Note 4 and Google Nexus 6?- which is really what we'd expect the One M9 to be competing with.
HTC's justification for keeping the same display as the One M8?was that it would result in better battery life. While this is a sensible idea and the One M9 battery is acceptable (more on that in the Battery section), it's not longer-lasting than that on the LG G3, for example, which has a QHD display. All that said, it's a solid mid to high-end?display that - while unable to impress due to the fact we've seen it before in the One M8 - does a sturdy job.
The HTC One M9 has an infrared sensor, allowing the phone to be used as a universal remote. While infrared may seem a bit '2005', this feature is easy to set up and actually comes in very useful. You can set it up to work with several devices, then simply swipe between the devices to control them all?(see Software section).?
BoomSound is?back with a bang, this time with?Dolby Audio, which?can emulate surround sound through the front-facing stereo speakers and the headphones (see Audio section).
The HTC One M9 runs?Android 5.0.2 Lollipop and HTC Sense 7. Sense 7 takes a few page out of Cyanogen's book, and is hugely customizeable thanks to the HTC Themes app. Using this, you can download hundreds of themes, which change the colors, icon styles and fonts on your phone. You can also create your own theme by taking a picture of the background you want, then letting Themes choose the most appropriate color scheme and fonts to match that background (see picture below). It's a nice touch that makes Sense 7 one of the most personal Android UIs around.
HTC Themes (left)?lets you download whole themes, or create them based around an image, such as the wooden table you see here. Peel Universal Remote (right)?gives you advanced control of any HD TV using your phone. / c ANDROIDPIT When you first set up the HTC One M9, you'll get presented with a smart widget that lets you choose your homescreen apps depending on your location, so you can quickly switch between 'Home', 'Work' and 'Out' homescreens for example. A great touch in this is the inclusion of a smart 'Downloads' folder, which displays anything you download right there on your homescreen.
The Peel Universal Remote app is an upgrade on the HTC One M8's TV app. Using the infrared sensor on the One M9, the app easily turns your phone into a universal remote. What's special about it is that you can use it to browse shows on your respective TV service (so Sky, Freeview etc. here in the UK), then set reminders, record shows, and switch your TV?straight to your favorite shows using your phone.
It goes without saying that all this runs smoothly, and the Lollipop-meets-Sense UI is a great combination in terms of both looks and usability. Of course, we'd expect no less from a flagship phone.
At last, we come to the point in this review where we start seeing the big differences between the HTC One M8 and M9. The One M9 specs include a?Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor with a next-generation clock speed of four 2.0 GHz cores and four 1.5 GHz cores. In conjunction with 3 GB DDR4 RAM, this ensures buttery smooth performance, just as you would expect from a flagship in this price range.
The demanding racing game, Asphalt 8, runs smoothly on the HTC One M9 and sounds great through its speakers. / c ANDROIDPIT In AnTuTu benchmarks, the HTC One M9 initially scored an anomalous 44385 - lower than the HTC One M8. Resisting the urge to immediately report this shocking score to the world, I tested the One M9 specs several more times, when it scored between 53,000 and 54,000, placing it above the Galaxy Note 4. I attributed the initial score to the fact that the phone was going through its first-time setup process when I did the test.
But the clinical numbers of AnTuTu don't tell the full story, so I took the One M9 - with its Adreno 430 GPU - for a spin with Asphalt 8 and a blast with Shadowgun: Deadzone. Both games worked perfectly smoothly, suggesting that the graphics power in the One M9 should handle any Android game out within the next couple of years without a problem.
The HTC One M9 performed very well in the AnTuTu benchmarks, with scores that reflect its next-gen flagship status. / c ANDROIDPIT The BoomSound speakers deliver on their name, emanating formidable sound from the One M9's front-facing?stereo speakers. Playing Asphalt 8 at full volume delivered crispy high notes and satisfying, crunchy bass. In a quiet environment, it wasn't even necessary to play at full volume. The One M9 speakers will certainly do the job as summer approaches and you'll be looking to take some music to the park with you - no more need to bop down there with a boombox on your shoulder any more!
Call quality is solid, with no noteworthy bleed-in of background noises when speaking with someone in a noisy environment - and vice versa. Voices are crisp and clear, but anything less than that in the One M9 would've been a disaster, so it's simply a case of 'does the job as it should'.
The UltraPixel experiment on the HTC One M8 was a noble venture, but the camera failed to compete against those of other flagships. For the One M9, HTC has returned to trusty old megapixels. The HTC One M9 features a 20.7MP snapper on the rear, with a dual-LED flash, smile detection and HDR. Notably, it lacks?the autofocus capabilities of the likes of the LG G Flex 2, so takes a little bit longer to establish that perfect shot.
The camera software on the HTC One M9 comes straight from the Desire Eye. / c ANDROIDPIT Photo quality on the HTC One M9 doesn't quite match what we'd have hoped for in a flagship. During this review, in low-light conditions?the shutter speed tended?to overcompensate for the lack of light, slowing down to the point where images suffer from blurriness - and quite a bit of graininess. In daylight, images are decent, though with a tendency to be too dark or too ight when you focus on certain areas of image. We also experienced some sun glare in a couple of photos, despite not directly facing the sun at any point (because that wouldn't make us very good photographers, would it?).
See the?gallery for our full HTC One M9 photoshoot.
The 2,840 mAh battery in the HTC One M9 increases slightly on its predecessor, although it's still smaller than that of other major flagship phones. The One M9?will usually need recharging after a day of moderate use - constant internet connection, an hour or so of calls, and some casual video-watching. This is disappointing, given HTC's words that the One M9 was sticking to the same display as the One M8 to help with battery life.
In its defence, the HTC One M9 features Quick Charge, which can inject two hours of life into your phone in just ten minutes, and have it fully charged in around two hours.
SystemAndroid 5.0.2 Lollipop + HTC Sense 7Display5 inches, IPS LCD, 1Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels), 441 ppiProcessorOcta-core?Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (4 x 2.0 GHz cores + 4 x 1.5 GHz cores)Camera20 MP (rear-facing), UltraPixel (front-facing)ConnectivityUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4 & 5 GHz, LTE Cat. 6, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, IR blaster, HDMI MHL 3.0The HTC One M9 is a solid high-end phone, but it does seem like HTC rested on its laurels a bit with the design and display. The One M8 stood out from its rivals mainly through impressive design, but now the likes of Apple and Samsung have caught up, meaning that the One M9 just doesn't stick out from the crowd like its forebears did when they were released.
Day-to-day use of the One M9 is a treat, and the?updated Sense UI certainly has the edge over rival UIs. It's a phone more for sound enthusiasts than visual enthusiasts, as the BoomSound speakers are enough of an upgrade on the M8 to be top of their class. Unfortunately, HTC once again falls short in the camera department, with a 20MP camera that's not as great in practice as on paper.
The One M9 is one of the fastest handsets available, and arguably the most luxurious-looking.?However, it's not as far ahead of the curve as its predecessors were in their time, and risks soon being?supplanted by the likes of the Galaxy S6, LG G4, and Xperia Z4. That's all speculation for now, of course, but we'll be watching with intrigue and revisiting our HTC One M9?review to see if theis slightly over-familiar but still attractive flagship?can keep up with the incoming competition.
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