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
Battery Life
The new One features an integrated 3.8V 2600mAh battery (9.88 Wh), a 13% increase in capacity compared to the previous model. The battery comparison isn’t that simple however. The M8 has a larger display (5” vs 4.7”) but it also has a higher performing and more power efficient SoC (Snapdragon 801 vs. 600). To find out how the new One stacks up against its predecessor, we turn to a mix of old and new battery life tests to help better characterize the device.
We’ll start with our standard browser based battery life tests. Keep in mind here these tests are as much about replicating a particular CPU profile as they are about loading specific web pages in order.
We saw a substantial gain in battery life with Snapdragon 800, and 801 extends that even further. For the same, relatively light (yet constant) workload, the M8 improves battery life over the M7 by as much as 71%. On WiFi the advantage drops to only 38%, but we’re still talking about absolutely huge generational gains.
A constant workload is only one part of the story though. More often than not, when you’re faced with faster compute you end up doing more. To see what the other extreme of battery life looks like I turned to two canned tests: BaseMark OS II and GFXBench 3.0.
I ran both of these tests under the same controlled conditions we always use, with all displays calibrated to 200 nits. BaseMark OS II runs through a bunch of CPU and storage benchmarks (basically the same tests used for the BaseMark OS II system and memory tests), as fast as possible, until the battery dies.
I like this benchmark as it gives us an indication of worst case battery life if you’re absolutely hammering the CPU (and storage) relentlessly.
Despite the faster CPU cores, the M8’s battery life actually goes up compared to M7. Here we’re really seeing the benefits of 801’s updated 28nm HPm process compared to the Snapdragon 600’s 28nm LP process.
GFXBench provides a similar test, with effectively uncapped performance (on today’s devices at least since we’re not hitting v-sync limits), but stressing the GPU instead of the CPU. Here we’re running the T-Rex HD benchmark, onscreen, until the battery dies.
This is the first and only test we’ve got here that shows a regression in battery life compared to M7. The M8 loses about 6% of runtime compared to the M7, despite having a larger battery. Now look at what happens if we look at performance at the end of the run:
Now the M8’s battery life regression doesn’t look so bad. You give up 6% of runtime but you get almost twice the performance compared to M7. Snapdragon 801 is just a huge upgrade compared to 600.
Charge Time
The M8 features a Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 enabled PMIC, which enables faster battery charge times through higher voltage charging. Unfortunately the in-box wall adapter is only Quick Charge 1.5 compliant so you'll only pull 7.5W from the wall. HTC expects to offer a Quick Charge 2.0 compliant power adapter later this year.
The M8's charge time is a bit slow compared to what we've seen from other devices with larger batteries.
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HangFire - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
The problem with creating an "absolute best" (in all respects) phone is time-to-market; by the time you get all the top-of-the-line components sorted out, it's obsolete in some way, a competitor just bested one aspect or another.deskjob - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
I agree that the M8's camera is less than ideal. I personally would've taken OIS over the second sensor. If I had my pick - a 8MP @ 2um with OIS, and they can throw in the second sensor if there's room.That being said, I think you have to keep in mind, a big chunk of photos taken with phones are strictly shared digitally, and most likely via social networking sites. I have never printed out a photo taken with my phone. I make sure to have a "real" camera, whether a decent pocket or DSLR, for those situations where photo quality really matters.
Of course it all boils down to each person's unique priorities. And again, I agree they should have gone up to a 8MP main shooter @ 2um. The current 4MP doesn't not leave much spatial resolution for down-sampling.
HangFire - Friday, March 28, 2014 - link
Thinking about it, 8MP @ 2uM might require more focal length and glass then the phone's profile would allow, and I don't want to carry one of those big ugly phone/cam hybrids like Samsung and Sony have made. Nokia has shown us how it's done. I don't care exactly what the MegalPixel count or sensor size is. I just want a cam that takes a really good pic within 1/4 second of being triggered, on a flagship phone.itsthesun - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
OK guys whatever about this phone... Where is Briankevith - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
Great review!One question: Is the camera lens still covered with a soft plastic, that will scratch very easiy?
Taracta - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
Anand,How about a running (side) list of the cellular bands that carriers support, not just what the phones support, in each of your reviews?
We would like to see the bands that the carriers uses and whether they support carrier aggregation (CA) where applicable and compare that to what the phones actually support and whether all feature of the carriers are implemented or just some. There could also be times where carriers add additional bands which could make a difference in buying decisions.
jk1 - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
people have different priorities in choosing a device. for me, i care about call quality both incoming and outgoing [not addressed], sound quality as a music player to headphones- choice of dac, fidelity of output [not addressed]. and i'd prefer a replaceable battery and the ability to use a micro sd card. [specified in the review]. then comes input options: ocr for documents or for handwriting for a note-type device.the review seemed to be mostly about the camera and - essentially- the phone's ability to play games. and of course, it's ability to make android users look almost as fashionable as apple users.
when i care about pictures i use a real camera- it produces better output than any phone camera. i don't play games. and i don't think of my phone as a fashion statement. thus the review left out the content that would have been most valuable to me.
JacksonSparks - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
This is a depressing comment. In summary, booooo.evonitzer - Saturday, March 29, 2014 - link
God I wish there was upvoting on Anandtech comments. +1I leave my phone in my pocket, get dirt in my pocket, and then have to meticulously clean my phone off, none of which was addressed in this review. Why do I even go on living?
sevenmack - Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - link
I understand your point, jk1. From where I sit, camera and build quality are both important. But not so important that other matters -- including call quality, and sound quality as a music player -- are rendered unimportant. A top-notch review should cover all of those issues, and this one doesn't; I would also say the same for reviews of the M8 by Anandtech's competing sites.Based on my own handling of the M8, the phone actually does well on all those counts. The call quality is actually quite solid, and the sound quality is more than good enough for audiophiles; like the M7, the M8 can also play lossless audio such as FLAC and does so well. The BoomSound speakers do the job and this generation's version is louder than that on the M7. But put in your Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headsets and the sound is sublime, as good as you can get on a smartphone.
The camera? Not perfect, but it is also better than most reviewers will admit; the big problem has more to do with the inability of many users to do something as simple as adjust settings than with pixel counts. If pro shutterbugs such as Colby Brown think the M8 is good enough for their work, then the rest of us should stop carping. And the phone is definitely nice to hold; even though it is longer than the M7, it is still easy to handle with one hand. You don't need to worry much about getting it dirty or scratched.