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
Display
The new One increases its display size from 4.7” to 5.0”. The M8’s IPS Pro panel (read: IPS) still features a 1080p resolution. There are no funny subpixel arrays here, just a standard RGB stripe. HTC isn’t using in-cell touch, although Synaptics supplies the touch controller for the M8. The display is a MIPI command mode type panel (effectively supporting self refreshing of the panel).
The overall display experience on M8 is near identical to M7 from a color accuracy standpoint. Black levels are higher than our original M7 sample, but max contrast ratio is still a healthy 1300:1.
The M8’s display isn’t bad by any means, but I continue to be disappointed in the lack of attention paid to pursuing greater color accuracy among most Android OEMs. The Nexus 5 and 7 are the targets to aim for in that space - I hope we’ll eventually have more than Google pursuing them.
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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.