HTC One M9: A More Refined Design and Experience

The HTC One M9 is a device that promises to build upon the success of its predecessor, the HTC One M8. The phone's design is a key area where it shines, with a 5-inch display featuring full HD resolution, ensuring a crisp experience for users. While competitors are adopting Quad HD displays, HTC is content with Full HD for now. However, the M9 does have one notable difference from its predecessor - the temperature of the display.

In our testing, the M9 shows a much cooler temperature compared to the warmer colors of the M8. This may seem like a small distinction, but it's an important one for users who spend extended periods using their phone. The M9 is also powered by the new Snapdragon 810 chip from Qualcomm, featuring 8 cores and a 64-bit architecture. This significant upgrade in hardware should provide a noticeable boost in performance.

The M9 also comes with 3 gigabytes of RAM, which is an increase over the 2 gigabytes found on last year's model. Storage is still at 32 gigabytes, but it will be expandable via microSD cards. The phone's software experience has been upgraded as well, with HTC Sense 7 providing a more refined and user-friendly interface. One of the standout features of Sense 7 is its ability to keep up with demanding tasks and multi-tasking.

In our testing, we found that Sense 7 flies through its elements without any issues, even when pushing it to its limits. The camera app on the M9 has also been upgraded, featuring a conventional camera sensor for better low-light performance. However, this improvement is not without its drawbacks - the 20-megapixel rear-facing camera struggles with low-light performance, and we've seen some grainy results in video footage.

Despite these issues, the M9 does offer some improvements over last year's model. The front-facing camera, which features a new 20-megapixel sensor, is designed to bring great selfies to the table. However, the rear-facing camera still needs a software update to address its low-light performance issues. We'll be keeping an eye on this and will provide an updated review once the necessary fix is rolled out.

In terms of software, the M9's Sense 7 experience is similar to last year's model, but with some notable differences. The new theme engine allows for a much greater degree of customization, enabling users to change not only colors, but also various aspects of the operating system. This includes adding a custom wallpaper and having the interface analyze it to find matching colors. Overall, Sense 7 provides a more refined experience than its predecessor.

In conclusion, the HTC One M9 is a device that builds upon the success of its predecessor while introducing some significant upgrades. While it's not perfect - the camera still has room for improvement - the phone offers a more refined design and experience, with a better software interface and improved hardware. Whether or not this upgrade is worth it for users will depend on their individual needs and preferences.

Mobile World Congress 2015 Coverage

The HTC One M9 was just one of many devices showcased at the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. As part of our extensive coverage of the event, we'll be bringing you updates on all the latest news and announcements from the show. From new smartphone releases to innovative technologies and trends, we've got you covered.

In the coming weeks, we'll be publishing a series of articles detailing our experience with the HTC One M9, including its camera capabilities, software features, and overall performance. We'll also be comparing it directly to last year's model, the HTC One M8, to see how much of an improvement the new device offers.

Stay tuned to Android Authority for more in-depth coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2015, and don't forget to follow us on social media for the latest news and updates from the show.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's a battle of pass versus present in this a look at the htc one m9 and it's earlier brethren the htc one m8 is joshua from android authority and here's your quick look in this versus video if you happen to be one of the people that wanted a much different design in the htc one m9 well htc opted to follow the m8 and the m7s design almost to a t putting the two together in order to create a whole new dna and of sorts whether that's good or bad depends on how you feel about the m8 and the m7 but you're going to get elements of both in the brand new one m9 because this two-tone coloration not only has a different hue on the rim as you can see in this gold rimmed version of the silver edition of the htc one m9 but you'll see that the elements also include a shell of sorts that comes from the back comes over to the sides and then it tapers in to provide the front panel that concaves a little bit into the sides and it also makes the device a lot easier to grip especially considering the rear the back rather whose material is definitely not as slippery as it was found in the htc one m8 now the biggest design difference between the two phones is going to be the camera module in the back because the one m9 features a squared camera module that is protruding slightly out but is much larger than the camera found in the one m8 and as because of a 20 megapixel larger sensor on the m9 which we'll get into a little bit later htc also gave up on the depth sensor from the m8 and relocated the power button to the side which is a welcome change you no longer get a dual camera on the top but you also don't get that power button on the top either but if the designs of the phones are very similar the displays are downright identical both feature full hd resolution in a 5-inch package ensuring a very crisp experience and while competitors are adopting quad hd htc is content with full hd for now but the only real difference between these two displays is the fact that the m9 at least in our testing thus far shows a much cooler temperature compared to the warmer colors of the m8 the one m9 is one of the first devices to be powered by the new snapdragon 810 chip by qualcomm featuring 8 cores and a 64-bit architecture htc also upgraded the memory to 3 gigabytes of ram and storage stays at 32 gigabytes though it will be expanded by micro sd cards if you sew shoes and on the other hand last year's m8 was not really that far behind with its snapdragon 801 and 2 gigabytes of ram but the real story here is that sense 7 the new version of sense on the htc one m9 absolutely flies through its elements even with a couple of the added elements that they put into this new version of htc sense as you can see in this little video right here i'm really trying to multitask and go pretty nuts on the ascent 7 interface here and it is able to keep up with me without any problems and in camera hsc is going back to a conventional camera sensor on the m9 but if you do miss the ultrapixel camera has been brought over to the front in order to bring great self portraits to the fray nonetheless though the 20 megapixel rear facing camera is supposed to bring a lot of good enhancements to the camera experience from the m8 but in our testing so far we have seen that it's a little bit uneven low-light performance on ultra pixels already proving itself on the m9 in its front-facing iteration and it did do a bit better of a job uh on the m8 from last year but the 20-megapixel facing optics on the m9 do have a bit of a troublesome time trying to get low light performance uh but ultimately you do get some good shots out in broad daylight but it's in the low light situations that we do have some problems and even the grainy results coming from video now we do have to preface this by saying that the m9 will get a software update in order to fix the camera issues as we were told so we are going to hold our reservations until we get that particular uh software update in our review unit in the coming weeks and finally in software you wouldn't really be blamed if you saw the sense on the m9 and thought it was much like the one on the m8 after all a lot of the elements do remain the same despite the lollipop editions which you will already see in the notification drop down and in the recent app screen if you choose to use the card view but there are a few main additions to the m9 that we went through in our first look and it includes they include rather the sense home widget that is a contextual app launcher up front that will change the apps that it shows you based on your gps location it's kind of a nice interface that allows you to get your apps pretty easily but it's also nice that it's just a widget so you can put it away if you really don't want it and after that the theme engine is really probably the biggest part of sense that we really like already and even in this first iteration it is a nice way of starting off a theming engine on what was originally just changing colors in the m8 this time around you can change a lot of aspects of the operating system even going as far as putting a picture inside ideally your chosen wallpaper and it will analyze the picture in order for you to find the right colors to change the elements in order to match that wallpaper but all in all you do get a very similar experience from one to the other and whether or not these two devices are really a big step from one to the other is going to be up to you to decide and we will go through a much fuller versus video once we get our hands on a review unit of the m9 to bring you our assessment of that very question but nonetheless we do like what the m9 brings to the table it is a more refining of the design inside and out from htc where the only real weak spot at the moment is in the camera and if you used the m8 from last year and you liked what it was able to do with this camera well that is exactly what we're going to really find out in our future comparison if the cameras really show a big improvement but until then keep it tuned to android authority for even more coverage of the htc one m9 and remember to keep it tuned here for even more coverage of the mobile world congress 2015 in barcelona spainit's a battle of pass versus present in this a look at the htc one m9 and it's earlier brethren the htc one m8 is joshua from android authority and here's your quick look in this versus video if you happen to be one of the people that wanted a much different design in the htc one m9 well htc opted to follow the m8 and the m7s design almost to a t putting the two together in order to create a whole new dna and of sorts whether that's good or bad depends on how you feel about the m8 and the m7 but you're going to get elements of both in the brand new one m9 because this two-tone coloration not only has a different hue on the rim as you can see in this gold rimmed version of the silver edition of the htc one m9 but you'll see that the elements also include a shell of sorts that comes from the back comes over to the sides and then it tapers in to provide the front panel that concaves a little bit into the sides and it also makes the device a lot easier to grip especially considering the rear the back rather whose material is definitely not as slippery as it was found in the htc one m8 now the biggest design difference between the two phones is going to be the camera module in the back because the one m9 features a squared camera module that is protruding slightly out but is much larger than the camera found in the one m8 and as because of a 20 megapixel larger sensor on the m9 which we'll get into a little bit later htc also gave up on the depth sensor from the m8 and relocated the power button to the side which is a welcome change you no longer get a dual camera on the top but you also don't get that power button on the top either but if the designs of the phones are very similar the displays are downright identical both feature full hd resolution in a 5-inch package ensuring a very crisp experience and while competitors are adopting quad hd htc is content with full hd for now but the only real difference between these two displays is the fact that the m9 at least in our testing thus far shows a much cooler temperature compared to the warmer colors of the m8 the one m9 is one of the first devices to be powered by the new snapdragon 810 chip by qualcomm featuring 8 cores and a 64-bit architecture htc also upgraded the memory to 3 gigabytes of ram and storage stays at 32 gigabytes though it will be expanded by micro sd cards if you sew shoes and on the other hand last year's m8 was not really that far behind with its snapdragon 801 and 2 gigabytes of ram but the real story here is that sense 7 the new version of sense on the htc one m9 absolutely flies through its elements even with a couple of the added elements that they put into this new version of htc sense as you can see in this little video right here i'm really trying to multitask and go pretty nuts on the ascent 7 interface here and it is able to keep up with me without any problems and in camera hsc is going back to a conventional camera sensor on the m9 but if you do miss the ultrapixel camera has been brought over to the front in order to bring great self portraits to the fray nonetheless though the 20 megapixel rear facing camera is supposed to bring a lot of good enhancements to the camera experience from the m8 but in our testing so far we have seen that it's a little bit uneven low-light performance on ultra pixels already proving itself on the m9 in its front-facing iteration and it did do a bit better of a job uh on the m8 from last year but the 20-megapixel facing optics on the m9 do have a bit of a troublesome time trying to get low light performance uh but ultimately you do get some good shots out in broad daylight but it's in the low light situations that we do have some problems and even the grainy results coming from video now we do have to preface this by saying that the m9 will get a software update in order to fix the camera issues as we were told so we are going to hold our reservations until we get that particular uh software update in our review unit in the coming weeks and finally in software you wouldn't really be blamed if you saw the sense on the m9 and thought it was much like the one on the m8 after all a lot of the elements do remain the same despite the lollipop editions which you will already see in the notification drop down and in the recent app screen if you choose to use the card view but there are a few main additions to the m9 that we went through in our first look and it includes they include rather the sense home widget that is a contextual app launcher up front that will change the apps that it shows you based on your gps location it's kind of a nice interface that allows you to get your apps pretty easily but it's also nice that it's just a widget so you can put it away if you really don't want it and after that the theme engine is really probably the biggest part of sense that we really like already and even in this first iteration it is a nice way of starting off a theming engine on what was originally just changing colors in the m8 this time around you can change a lot of aspects of the operating system even going as far as putting a picture inside ideally your chosen wallpaper and it will analyze the picture in order for you to find the right colors to change the elements in order to match that wallpaper but all in all you do get a very similar experience from one to the other and whether or not these two devices are really a big step from one to the other is going to be up to you to decide and we will go through a much fuller versus video once we get our hands on a review unit of the m9 to bring you our assessment of that very question but nonetheless we do like what the m9 brings to the table it is a more refining of the design inside and out from htc where the only real weak spot at the moment is in the camera and if you used the m8 from last year and you liked what it was able to do with this camera well that is exactly what we're going to really find out in our future comparison if the cameras really show a big improvement but until then keep it tuned to android authority for even more coverage of the htc one m9 and remember to keep it tuned here for even more coverage of the mobile world congress 2015 in barcelona spain\n"