WHEN HTC released the first One device in 2013, it had a
hit on its hands. The smartphone was praised for its beautiful aluminium
design, brilliant screen and blazing speeds.
Thankfully,
HTC’s third iteration has stuck to the same formula. The One M9 was supposed to
keep doing what it did right but fix two things wrong with the device: the
incredibly slippery, hard-to-hold design and the lacklustre camera. However, it
only managed to fix one of them.
Let’s start off
with a quick run down of the device. From the front, it looks almost identical
to last year’s One M8. It has a gorgeous five-inch full-HD screen and has two
huge speakers at the top and bottom of the display. It has lost its slippery
rear, but managed to keep the stunning brushed aluminium design, albeit a tiny
bit thicker than last year’s. A trade-off that I’m happy to see happen.
Craftsmanship is
second to none, and somewhat makes you feel better about the $1099 you just
spent on your phone. It genuinely feels like one of the best, if not the best
phones I have ever felt.
HTC’s
BoomSound speakers are back, and just as good as ever. While you might think
quality phone speakers have become redundant, being able to watch a few YouTube
clips with proper, deep audio is a luxury I can no longer live without.
Using the phone
is also great. HTC’s software is one of the best on any Android devices,
offering a clean, well-designed skin over the top of Android 5.0. Little
additions like double tap to wake up and its smart folders on your home screen
are genuinely useful.
It’s also really
fast, thanks to an eight-core processor and a huge 3GB of RAM, meaning you
don’t have to worry about closing your apps down to keep it working smoothly.
The colours of
HTC’s Sense software are rich and beautiful on the full high-definition
display, even working well in direct sunlight. It’s not quite as dazzling as
the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4, with its higher resolution display, but
is still impressive.
There are
of course two faults with the One M9. Two pretty big faults.
Its camera and
battery life.
Battery life on
the One M9 isn’t bad by early 2014 standards. But everyone has now picked up
their game, including Apple, which notoriously had average battery life on
previous iPhones.
With the One M9,
I constantly found myself searching for the charger before my usual sleep time
of 10pm. That was after a day of above average usage involving text messaging
and a few phone calls
But the
camera is where the device hits its lowest point. HTC had previously offered
4MP Ultrapixel cameras that, despite their low resolution, were meant to take
great lowlight photos. They delivered on that promise; I’ve often taken photos
at night that my iPhone 5s at the time couldn’t touch. In the daytime though,
they lacked the detail that could only be picked up by a camera with higher
resolution.
This year, HTC
has gone the opposite direction by chucking in a 20.7-megapixel camera. The
same one as the excellent Sony Xperia Z3, actually. But somehow they it is let
down by its software. Pictures are often washed out, colours aren’t anywhere
near as natural as they should be and lowlight is almost unusable. HTC had 12
months to work on the camera and make it great. It was its one job, and they
let us down.
At least the
front-facing camera, which is the old 4MP Ultrapixel sensor, works well for
selfies.
So should you
buy it? If you want to have a half-decent camera on you, whether it be for
social media or to keep memories, the camera on the One is just too
disappointing to make up for everything else great about the device. But if the
camera isn’t important to you at all, the rest of the One M9 is brilliant.
No comments:
Post a Comment