The HTC One M8: A Phone Ahead of Its Time

The design of the HTC One M8 is still one of its most touted features, and for good reason. The phone's rounded sides add a touch of elegance to its overall aesthetic, making it stand out from other smartphones on the market. However, despite its sleek look, there are some areas where the phone falls short. The bar at the bottom of the device is still a sore point for many users, with HTC often citing that it helps accommodate the sheer amount of tech packed into the phone's body. While this may make sense in theory, it's hard to ignore how it can sometimes feel like a hindrance.

The Boom Sound speakers on the One M8 are another notable feature of the device. As one of the most widely regarded ways of consuming media on a smartphone today, they remain a staple for many users. However, despite their functionality, there isn't much to say about them beyond that. The HTC Scene app is also worth mentioning, as it continues to improve with each iteration. While it's not without its flaws, it remains one of the easiest to navigate Android interfaces available.

One area where the One M8 truly shines is in its user experience. The device's stock Android interface has been refined over time, resulting in a clean and intuitive design that many find appealing. The vertical app drawer was an unusual feature at first, but HTC eventually decided to drop it in favor of a more traditional approach. BlinkFeed, the news feed component, remains a nice touch, allowing users to stay up-to-date on the latest headlines and social media updates.

However, the camera is a different story altogether. The One M8's ultra-pixel construction is still used today, but low light performance has always been an issue with Android flagships. HTC hoped to alleviate this problem by focusing on better images, but unfortunately, it didn't quite deliver in this regard. Even when getting good photos was possible, it often came at the cost of accurate color reproduction or proper exposure, resulting in blown-out or underexposed images.

The Duo Camera capability is another feature that shows promise, but ultimately falls short. While the idea of capturing depth information for every single photo is a great one, its execution didn't quite live up to expectations. When shooting a subject, the duo camera effects would sometimes find the spot and try to stitch it up for a nice bokeh effect, but this would often bleed into the wrong parts of the image. The added effects on top of the bokeh further exacerbated these issues.

Despite these missteps, the HTC One M8 still has its fans, particularly those who appreciate its unique design. For users looking to make a statement with their phone, the One M8 is certainly a great option. However, for those seeking a more straightforward camera experience, there are other options available that may better suit their needs.

In conclusion, the HTC One M8 is a phone that still holds up today, despite its age. Its design remains one of its strongest suits, and while it has some flaws, they don't detract from its overall appeal. However, for those looking to upgrade or simply seeking a more refined camera experience, there are other options available.

The HTC One M9: A Further Refinement

In the meantime, HTC's next flagship, the One M9, is on the horizon. This device promises to refine the design of the previous model, while also packing in some significant upgrades. The most notable change comes in the form of a 20-megapixel camera, which marks a major departure from the ultra-pixel construction used by the One M8.

The One M9's design is still sleek and refined, but it seems that HTC has finally found its footing when it comes to designing Android flagships. The phone's aesthetic is clean and intuitive, making it easy for users to navigate. However, details about the device are scarce at this point, as we can only expect a full review of the One M9 in the near future.

While we wait for the official review, we'll have to keep an eye on HTC's upcoming flagship, knowing that it may finally mark a turning point for the company's Android offerings. Will the One M9 prove to be a worthy successor to the One series? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: this reviewer can't wait to dive in and see what HTC has in store for us.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlast year htc's follow-up to an already well-received metal clad phone continued to receive awards for its now refined design and underneath it hoped to be everything that would make people choose this one over other flagships and though a lot of people took to the eye-catching design and snatched up this particular phone that was then and this is the htc one m8 now one thing we will always give htc when it comes to their announcements of phones is that they usually keep it pretty simple the same could be said about their marketing strategies especially with this particular ad that they used but that is a different issue that we would talk about probably another time but the same could also be said for what was offered in the m8 itself this time around the second eye appeared on the top of the phone above the four ultrapixel optics that htc was still touting as the best low-light experience but this time around the second camera module was going to bring depth data to photos and the end result would be better depth of field similar to dslr shooters this was a bit of a swerve considering what once was rumored to be a dual camera shooter no the dual camera edition wasn't for 3d picture shooting but instead it was for adding effects and an unfocused effect to just about any picture after you take it aside from the phone one nice aspect of this new flagship that i will mention was the addition of many in-house accessories for the one which wasn't always the case with android devices and given the out-of-box thinking with the dot view case in particular the htc one m8 felt more like an experience rather than just a raw power device for the spec hungry masses once we got our hands on the actual device what impressed us about the phone at the announcement and during our first hands-on continued to impress us and the htc one m8 still continues to be one of the most beautiful phones that are available today and also this particular design became quite desired from a number of people who wanted their flagships to be constructed very similarly to this with its metal body and a great design all around and the design continued underneath with a sense ui that was actually pretty simplistic but still very elegant and because you didn't have to fiddle too much with the user interface in order to get the day-to-day experience down this was a phone that could please a lot of the common users but it didn't come without its detractions the brushed metal is still one of the most slippery services to use and complaints about the phone slipping about have been observed though the rounded sides add to the look we still don't think they provide the best grip but that is alleviated somewhat by the narrowness of the phone itself and though we might not see any changes to this in the near future the htc bar at the bottom remains a sore point for many users and we've been constantly told that this bar helps accommodate the sheer amount of tech in the body which does make a little bit of sense and speaking of that tech there's not a whole lot that you can say about the boom sound speakers because they are still one of the most widely regarded ways of consuming media on a smartphone today htc scenes continue to get better and though it is a pretty different take on the stock android experience it is also one of the easiest to navigate out there a vertical app drawer fell odd for a little while blinkfeed was still a nice way of getting the general headlines from the news or social media feeds and it is still considered a better second home screen edition than the competition though adding contextual colors to sections of the interface sounded like a good idea it was kind of moot because i preferred to have everything in monotone or black once i found that option was available for me it just matched the general dark look of sense better where there was some real contention was in the camera it's an iteration from htc that still used the ultra pixel construction while low light performance was always an issue with android flagships htc hoped to alleviate their smaller megapixel pictures by trying to remedy this very problem and in some cases it proved to be true but my biggest gripe with the one m8 was really its exposure often i would get pictures that were simply not of an accurate color reproduction or of a proper exposure opting for either blown out or darker images depending on where your focus and exposure were tapped in the viewfinder when you took the photo while getting good photos is definitely possible with the one m8 it just didn't happen as often as we would have liked which is where we get into the duo camera capability in short getting depth information for every single photo was a very nice idea but execution didn't really do it justice when shooting a proper subject in a photo the duo camera effects would definitely find the spot and try to stitch it up for a nice bokeh effect but often times the effect would bleed into the wrong parts of the photo with this first step already causing some issues trying to put extra effects on top of the bokeh actually exacerbated the issue not to mention the fact that many of the effects htc put in the one m8 were more or less hokey or just plain impractical one part we did like about the camera experience was the highlight reel made possible by zoe in the gallery though you might sometimes forget that you can use the zoe camera to get short clips or even burst shots of your scene doing so could result in a really nice recap of an event or day in your life and when done well it was a nice little surprise to come back to in this quick revisit to the htc one m8 it still looks like the phone everyone wants because of its nearly flawless design it certainly is different from all of the other phones in the space and if you're the kind of person that wants to get a bit of attention for your let's say fashion choice of a phone the one m8 is certainly the best bet it's just a disappointment that htc couldn't exactly get the camera right and even today it is overshadowed by other cameras that forego tricks and perhaps gimmicky additions in order to provide an easy to use and effective photo taking experience despite the day-to-day user experience of the m8 remaining one of the best this is only one side of the story and the camera experience is the shadier or sometimes blown out other side all of that changes in the htc one m9 which has a further refined design a sign that htc knows where their flagship line has its strengths and there is also a much more powerful 20 megapixel camera that makes ultrapixel a front-facing iteration this time which is a great idea and sense is getting even better without trying too hard to change what makes it highly accessible but you're gonna just have to keep it tuned to android authority until that review comes out which is actually coming very shortly and you can see what our verdict is on the htc one m9 it just might be the refining that the htc one line has needed but until then keep it tuned to android authority and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already and don't forget to check out all of the other content from my colleagues in android including my samsung galaxy s6 review as well so keep it tuned here and remember to head on over to android authority.com when you're done with all of that because we are your source for all things androidlast year htc's follow-up to an already well-received metal clad phone continued to receive awards for its now refined design and underneath it hoped to be everything that would make people choose this one over other flagships and though a lot of people took to the eye-catching design and snatched up this particular phone that was then and this is the htc one m8 now one thing we will always give htc when it comes to their announcements of phones is that they usually keep it pretty simple the same could be said about their marketing strategies especially with this particular ad that they used but that is a different issue that we would talk about probably another time but the same could also be said for what was offered in the m8 itself this time around the second eye appeared on the top of the phone above the four ultrapixel optics that htc was still touting as the best low-light experience but this time around the second camera module was going to bring depth data to photos and the end result would be better depth of field similar to dslr shooters this was a bit of a swerve considering what once was rumored to be a dual camera shooter no the dual camera edition wasn't for 3d picture shooting but instead it was for adding effects and an unfocused effect to just about any picture after you take it aside from the phone one nice aspect of this new flagship that i will mention was the addition of many in-house accessories for the one which wasn't always the case with android devices and given the out-of-box thinking with the dot view case in particular the htc one m8 felt more like an experience rather than just a raw power device for the spec hungry masses once we got our hands on the actual device what impressed us about the phone at the announcement and during our first hands-on continued to impress us and the htc one m8 still continues to be one of the most beautiful phones that are available today and also this particular design became quite desired from a number of people who wanted their flagships to be constructed very similarly to this with its metal body and a great design all around and the design continued underneath with a sense ui that was actually pretty simplistic but still very elegant and because you didn't have to fiddle too much with the user interface in order to get the day-to-day experience down this was a phone that could please a lot of the common users but it didn't come without its detractions the brushed metal is still one of the most slippery services to use and complaints about the phone slipping about have been observed though the rounded sides add to the look we still don't think they provide the best grip but that is alleviated somewhat by the narrowness of the phone itself and though we might not see any changes to this in the near future the htc bar at the bottom remains a sore point for many users and we've been constantly told that this bar helps accommodate the sheer amount of tech in the body which does make a little bit of sense and speaking of that tech there's not a whole lot that you can say about the boom sound speakers because they are still one of the most widely regarded ways of consuming media on a smartphone today htc scenes continue to get better and though it is a pretty different take on the stock android experience it is also one of the easiest to navigate out there a vertical app drawer fell odd for a little while blinkfeed was still a nice way of getting the general headlines from the news or social media feeds and it is still considered a better second home screen edition than the competition though adding contextual colors to sections of the interface sounded like a good idea it was kind of moot because i preferred to have everything in monotone or black once i found that option was available for me it just matched the general dark look of sense better where there was some real contention was in the camera it's an iteration from htc that still used the ultra pixel construction while low light performance was always an issue with android flagships htc hoped to alleviate their smaller megapixel pictures by trying to remedy this very problem and in some cases it proved to be true but my biggest gripe with the one m8 was really its exposure often i would get pictures that were simply not of an accurate color reproduction or of a proper exposure opting for either blown out or darker images depending on where your focus and exposure were tapped in the viewfinder when you took the photo while getting good photos is definitely possible with the one m8 it just didn't happen as often as we would have liked which is where we get into the duo camera capability in short getting depth information for every single photo was a very nice idea but execution didn't really do it justice when shooting a proper subject in a photo the duo camera effects would definitely find the spot and try to stitch it up for a nice bokeh effect but often times the effect would bleed into the wrong parts of the photo with this first step already causing some issues trying to put extra effects on top of the bokeh actually exacerbated the issue not to mention the fact that many of the effects htc put in the one m8 were more or less hokey or just plain impractical one part we did like about the camera experience was the highlight reel made possible by zoe in the gallery though you might sometimes forget that you can use the zoe camera to get short clips or even burst shots of your scene doing so could result in a really nice recap of an event or day in your life and when done well it was a nice little surprise to come back to in this quick revisit to the htc one m8 it still looks like the phone everyone wants because of its nearly flawless design it certainly is different from all of the other phones in the space and if you're the kind of person that wants to get a bit of attention for your let's say fashion choice of a phone the one m8 is certainly the best bet it's just a disappointment that htc couldn't exactly get the camera right and even today it is overshadowed by other cameras that forego tricks and perhaps gimmicky additions in order to provide an easy to use and effective photo taking experience despite the day-to-day user experience of the m8 remaining one of the best this is only one side of the story and the camera experience is the shadier or sometimes blown out other side all of that changes in the htc one m9 which has a further refined design a sign that htc knows where their flagship line has its strengths and there is also a much more powerful 20 megapixel camera that makes ultrapixel a front-facing iteration this time which is a great idea and sense is getting even better without trying too hard to change what makes it highly accessible but you're gonna just have to keep it tuned to android authority until that review comes out which is actually coming very shortly and you can see what our verdict is on the htc one m9 it just might be the refining that the htc one line has needed but until then keep it tuned to android authority and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already and don't forget to check out all of the other content from my colleagues in android including my samsung galaxy s6 review as well so keep it tuned here and remember to head on over to android authority.com when you're done with all of that because we are your source for all things android\n"