HTC One M9
The One M9 is HTC’s flagship smartphone for 2015. Similar in design to its predecessor, the M8, it’s more a case of design evolution than revolution. New features include a scratch-resistant coating, machine drilled buttons and a sapphire glass lens on the rear camera. The power button is now on the side instead of the top and has a textured finish, so you can feel the difference next to the smooth volume buttons.
Colour options are similar, but HTC has employed a new two-tone look with the back and sides getting contrasting adonisation.
We were hoping for a thinner and lighter design, and although HTC tells us the device is slightly lighter than its predecessor, we weighed them both at 158g. It’s also marginally thicker at 9.7mm compared to the M8’s 9.6mm.
The M9 has the same Full HD 5in display, with a resolution of 1080x1920. This might seem lower grade than Quad HD devices such as the LG G3, but HTC told us that higher resolution isn’t needed on a display this size and would mean a sacrifice in the battery department.
Other things that remain the same include the 32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot capable of accepting up to 128GB cards. A 64GB model is available, but there’s no news as to whether this will be released in the UK.
Wireless setup remains strong, with 11ac dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, NFC and an IR blaster. It also supports 4G (and LTE-A) networks via the nano-SIM slot if you have the right tariff.
The One M9’s memory has been increased by 50 percent to 3GB and there’s a new processor in the form of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810, which is both octa-core and 64-bit (quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 and quad-core 2GHz Cortex-A57). It comes with the Adreno 430 GPU and we can’t fault the performance – see our table below.
The BoomSound front-facing stereo speakers are still a key feature, now with Dolby Audio. Once again they sound amazing and offer the best experience you’ll find on a smartphone.
The One M9 no longer has the Duo Camera setup consisting of two camera lenses. Instead, HTC has opted for a 20Mp rear camera with the same dual-LED flash.
On the video side, it can record video up to 4K resolution and uses a ‘dynamic exposure algorithm’ to mimic the human eye. Default is Full HD, and to rival the iPhone there’s a Slow motion mode that can record up to 120fps.
The One M9 has a 2840mAh battery, which in our tests lasted for a couple of days between charges. The phone comes with an Extreme power saving mode to extend its battery life. This puts the M9 into a basic mode, allowing access to a small selection of simple functions like phone and messages.
The handset runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop. HTC has, however, put its own skin or user interface over the top. The M9 introduces Sense 7.0, which means you get HTC’s style including icons and apps but there are also some new features.
HTC largely does things its own way, with BlinkFeed to the left of the main homescreen, a grid view recent apps menu and a vertically scrolling app menu. However, the stock drop-down notification bar is in use (with some HTC style added) and the good news is that you can customise which quick settings you want.
Luckily, you can tweak the way you want to use the phone, so the BlinkFeed panel can be removed. You can opt for the stock Lollipop card system for recent apps, and although you can’t make the app menu scroll horizontally, you rearrange around, hide them and adjust the grid size.
Customisation is the main emphasis of Sense 7.0, so there’s a new Themes app that allows you to download various user interface themes. You can, however, edit the details yourself such as icon styles and fonts. The software will also generate a theme for you based on a photo.
Motion Launch Gestures are still part of Sense and mean you can do handy things such as double-tap the screen to turn it on and off. Up, down, left and right swipes will unlock, turn on voice dialling, launch the widget panel and open BlinkFeed respectively – all with the screen off.
Verdict
The One M9 is a desirable phone with the best design and build in Android land.