PHONE SUMMARY

The HTC One M9 is a genuinely desirable smartphone, with the best design and build available in Android land, even with Samsung upping the ante. It’s good to see the powerful Snapdragon 810 and more memory, though some key hardware remains the same, meaning M8 users are unlikely to be tempted to upgrade – and the old model is now an attractive buy at around £350. The fact the Samsung Galaxy S6 (page 87) is the same price with more impressive specs is also not a good thing for HTC. Full review at tinyurl.com/z8gskha

Internal sound quality

The One M9 provides a decent internal audio sound reproduction, but is slightly let down by its average low-end performance and its soundstage. Overall, we feel the HTC is nothing to get too excited about, but it offers a decent internal output.

SoC Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810. We believe that it uses the Qualcomm WCD9330 audio codec.

We recorded a very small amount of hissing and interference when the HTC One M9 was used alongside an amplifier. The hissing and interference was hard to hear though, and we felt it was negligible for most users.

We found the HTC One M9 to be sufficient in loudness for most people, however if the phone were to be used with headphones that require more power, an external amplifier would be required to fully drive them. Score: 75- to 80 percent

We found the sub-bass to reasonably extend well, but it cuts off in the lower sub-bass regions. Despite the One M9 portraying a decent mid-bass slam, we feel it could have been improved with a little more control.

Its mids are well presented, but due to the slight hiss and distortion there is a slightly odd reproduction that is conveyed in the mid-range frequency.

The highs are very well presented and extend extremely well. We found them to provide a good amount of sparkle, which did lead them being a little sibilant.

Its soundstage is average and we found it to portray a duller, more boring sound signature. The HTC One M9 offers a decent decay, but due to a slight bit of distortion has some odd blimps when playing high-tone frequencies. We feel its overall soundstage could have been a little wider and slightly deeper sounding to provide a better overall audio listening experience.