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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fokka - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
same here. i had hoped they keep it the same size and the bigger screen will be compensated by the on screen buttons. but seeing this huge black bar with the htc logo under the screen just about puts me off considering the new one is almost 1cm taller than the old.the problem is now that the m8 is here i would also feel dumb for buying an m7, the battery and sd slot alone are big selling points for me. but man is this thing big...
madwolfa - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
Remaining happy camper with my M7.. M8 is not a worthy upgrade for me.. Guess shoulda wait for M9. I have another year of contract anyway.hangfirew8 - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
My feelings as well, the M8 is a good fast phone, but I'm happy with my fast-enough M7. I still wish for a better still camera but the video is indeed good and it looks like we'll have to wait for the M9 to get the 6-8MP we need to make UltraPixel both sensitive and detailed.puremind - Saturday, March 29, 2014 - link
Take the new HTC One Mini. It will probably fit thebillhangfirew8 - Saturday, March 29, 2014 - link
Considering how much less the original Mini was compared to the M7, I doubt the new Mini will be better than my M7- which would make it better than the One M8.UltraWide - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
HTC needs to make sure to follow up with prompt Android updates and not drop support for phones like the ONE X+, etc.At the end of the day, I will probably check out the HTC One M8, praise it for all the great points highlighted in this article and just buy the Galaxy S5 because it makes less sacrifices in the name of design.
tipoo - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
They did really well with 2013 One updates, I don't know as much about the One X but I think that got pretty good update speeds too.sigmatau - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
"HTC clearly saw design where others were more focused on cost optimization."Not sure if that matters when "cost optimization" is not passed on to the customer. When they came out, the Galaxy S4 cost more than the HTC One.
Death666Angel - Friday, March 28, 2014 - link
That's almost solely a function of hype/demand. After the great success of the Galaxy S2, Samsung had its bed made and simply needed to offer the new phone with everything a bit improved. Because of HTCs horrible marketing and naming scheme, they didn't have the same level of branding, so their new releases aren't nearly as covered, hyped and sought after.But as I said in my own comment, now the HTC M7 is the priciest of the former flagship phones, coming in at 410€ for the 32GB version, with the other brands bein 300 to 330€ for their 16GB versions. If you compare like to like, it is a bit closer.
hangfirew8 - Saturday, March 29, 2014 - link
Savings from the cost optimization goes into Marketing.