The HTC One (M8) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Joshua Ho on March 26, 2014 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Mobile
- HTC One
Video
Since the rear facing camera only has a 4MP sensor resolution, there’s no support for 4K video recording - the maximum supported video resolution is 1080p. The available video modes are: 1080p30 (20Mbps High Profile H.264), 1080p60 (also 20Mbps High Profile), slow motion (720p) pand HDR video.
The camera preview in the video modes is pretty good. I noticed some dropped frames when recording 1080p30 but nothing substantial. The preview window when recording HDR video definitely dropped frames, to the point that it was fairly distracting. The resulting video itself was consistent in frame rate but not smoothly responsive to changes in dynamic range.
Extreme Power Saving Mode
This is a feature that seems to be all the rage these days. HTC now includes support for an Extreme Power Saving Mode that can be manually or automatically set to turn on when your battery reaches 20%, 10% or 5% remaining capacity. In the Extreme Power Saving mode you’re locked out from all but five apps (phone, messages, HTC Mail, HTC Calendar and Calculator ). The display brightness is clamped to 170 nits and max CPU/GPU frequency is limited to 1.2GHz and 320MHz, respectively. All four cores remain capable of being plugged in. Background data is also restricted - only SMS/MMS and phone calls will come in automatically. Emails need to be manually refreshed, and all other apps are quit upon entering the mode. The sensor hub is powered down, which disables features like the Motion Gestures and Pedometer.
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The Extreme Power Saving Mode features a large, simplified UI. The 5-inch display is evenly divided into large touch targets for each of the five apps as well as a button to exit the mode. The notification shade is disabled as well. You’ll still get alerts for things like open WiFi networks, but you’ll have no way to join/dismiss them while in this mode.
HTC claims up to 15 hours of standby time on the new One when running in Extreme Power Saving Mode (with 5% battery remaining). I still haven’t devised a good battery life test for these modes but I plan on measuring screen on standby time as soon as I get an opportunity to do so.
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Grooveriding - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
The best just got better!Only on page 2 so far, but it's looking excellent.
dylan522p - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
While it's got flaws, all around best phone IMO. One weird thing is that even though HTC didn't advertise it, the One has passed water proofness tests in a sink for 2 hours..fokka - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
i almost couldn't watch it... air slowly escaping out of the headphone port, like a fish slowly drowning. (wait a minute...)blanarahul - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
Disappointed in the camera department. The camera is the single most important factor for me when buying a smartphone, so the One is a no go.blanarahul - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
Btw, I am referring to the rear camera.HTC did a really awesome job by putting the power button on the top on a phone this tall.
They should have gone with capacitive buttons IMO. Atleast you wouldn't have to stare at the logo.
The S5 is the only remaining good phone for me (I have bad experiences with Sony's quality control, so Z2 is a no go). I just have to find a good back cover for it.
Cptn_Slo - Saturday, March 29, 2014 - link
actually, I think HTC is one of the few smart phone manufacturers to invest in specs that will actually make a difference rather than to impress idiots.shaolin95 - Tuesday, April 1, 2014 - link
Or fool idiots that think they are too smart...theduckofdeath - Tuesday, April 1, 2014 - link
The reality is, HTC cuts back on the internals simply to make up for the cost of vanity. Calling that "specs that makes sense" is a poor excuse, I think. :)noel_newell - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
I agree, HTC One M8 is one fantastic phone and most sources seem to agree (my favorite source on the topic is http://www.consumertop.com/best-phone-guide/ ). The people that prefer Samsung or iPhone really haven't tried the M8. When my friends try out mine they are amazed.jonup - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
Can we turn off the broken record!? Listen, consumer does not need 8+MP camera other than for bragging rights. I bet you we can show a daylight picture taken on a One and S5 to 95% of the people on the street on a ~5" display and they will not tell which is higher resolution. Then we can do the same with a low light picture. You see what I did there!? ;) All I hear about every review out there is "oh the camera is only 4MP", especially the once paid off by Samsung. And all the people like you repeat it all day long. I have someone with an HTC M7 in the office along with iPnone 5s and my Nokia 925 and N5. Side by side shots with all 4 of them look pleasing to the eye. If you are into photography that you care so much about picture detail, you won't be using you phone to take pictures. You can overanalyze the picture quality but It's a mute, geeky point that makes for great marketing. When in reality, the way most of us use their phone camera, the HTC setup is the best camera setup out there. (obviously exaggerating a bit but you get the point) At the end of the day as Anand said it will end up compressed on social media and most likely will be displayed on a phone.