The HTC One (M8) Review

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• jonup - Friday, March 28, 2014 - link

  My point exactly! I was not arguing that the One has the best or better camera than the other flagships. All I said is that people a bashing the phone over a camera that is good enough (ok if you wish) in the day light but it (the phone) is exceptional in any other way (save for the wasted real estate by the logo). I would give up 600mah of battery to get rid of the black stripe underneath the display. Which brings me to the other Samsung sponsored reviewers argument - on screen keys vs capacitive key. On-screen keys is the Google way. Not the iOS Samsung copy cat way. I wish there is more custom-ability in the GEL and in the OEM laucher to set height of the nav bar, the width of the buttons, and the choice of buttons. As usual my two cents.

• mkozakewich - Sunday, March 30, 2014 - link

  It doesn't take steady video, which is where it's more important. All the regular photos in this article were still shots, except for the video demonstrating the difference between the M7 and the M8.

• sephirotic - Sunday, March 30, 2014 - link

  4k recording is worse than gimmick on any 1/3" sensor. Compression efficiency on smartphones is very low and unoptimized for video, there is simply no way to retain actual 1080p motion resolution with currect processors and pixel pitch of 1/3 sensors. Z2 samples makes this obvious, Actual true resolution on Z2 is worse than a semi-professional 720p video on a 2010's GH1. I'd rather have a more efficient 1080p compression and slow motion than 4k. EVEN IF there was actualy improvement from 1080p videos on 4k recorded from smartphone, 99% of regular costumers woudn´t even have a 4k screen to display it. Using for mastering casual videos? Even less likely.
  4k video on smartphone is just plain idiotic.
  
  However I do agree 4mp is a little on the low side even for 1/3" sensor but no doubt pushing anything beyond 8mp is pure gimmick. it's a shame that sony kept pushing the megapixel race for so long even after the other manufactures stoped with this nonsense and now this is back on Smartphones and Video.
  I do agree removing OIS is sad drawback.

• CoryWeston101 - Monday, March 31, 2014 - link

  Let's get some facts straight. NO ONE NEEDS 4K recording on a smartphone or period. Less than 1 percent of the poulation has 4K TVS or monitors making 4K recording a useless gimmick. You need it that badly go by an actually 4K camera from Sony or Cannon or someone. It will do a better job. But 4K recording is a stupid useless gimmick
  
  They took OIS out because of the 2 camera set up. And also with a 2 camera set up YOU DON'T NEED OIS as it essentially does the same thing only better. The camera is a giant leap forward And no that's not why it is getting knocked. It is getting knocked because of the uneducated people out their like.
  
  You bring the Moto X up? The Moto X camera sucks. The M8 camera makes the X camera look like a childs toy.
  
  The M8 has one of the best cameras on a smartphone. They did not regress. They progressed. You are just to daft to understand.

• CalaverasGrande - Monday, March 31, 2014 - link

  4k recording on your smartphone?
  What phone DOES do that now.

• Anand R - Tuesday, April 1, 2014 - link

  You want 4K recording? What for? Do you have a 4K screen? Besides, even if you do, why not use an actual camera for 4K recording (which would be better in every way) rather than use a phone camera?

• purerice - Saturday, April 12, 2014 - link

  Complaining about lack of recording 4K... on a cellphone... with 16GB total storage...
  Please tell me you forgot the "/sarcasm" tag.
  
  Few cell phone cameras can compare to even a low end PaS camera in good light. Reduce the light level, increase the distance, add some motion, and the point&shoot wins by leaps and bounds. Olympus and Panasonic make decent all-weather cameras that fit in your pocket for 1/2 the price of a flagship cellphone.
  
  If the phone has a good enough camera for video calling and quick snaps, it's good enough for me. I would no more replace a real camera with a cellphone because the cellphone can remedially take photos, than I would replace a computer with a cellphone because my cellphone can remedially edit spreadsheets.

• doosh bag - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link

  I totally agree. The camera is more than capable enough in the opinion of professional photographers, but these nudniks out here, these spec snobs can't seem to find anything better to do than regurgitate the same tired, flimsy rhetoric, they read from some meshuggah reviewer, again and again. Far as I can gather from the comments on this first page, none of these yentas even own a M7 or a M8. It's all third person narrative. I own the M7 and let me tell you something, that camera is boss. For example, I was driving down the interstate in the desert, around 70 mph, driving into a beautiful sunset. I held the phone up to the side window and held the shutter button for a few seconds. Got about 20 shots. In one shot there was a semi truck going by, in the opposite direction, in the farthest lane away from me, traveling roughly the same speed, about 200 feet away, in failing light. So, combined speed between the two of us, about 130 mph. I snapped these photos in portrait mode. The picture looked as if everything were perfectly still. The detail so sharp that, without zooming the photo at all or flipping it to landscape view, I can clearly see and count all the lug nuts on the front wheel of that truck. There is nothing wrong with that camera. That camera does everything it's supposed to do and it does it exceptionally well. It's every bit as good as most, and almost as good as some. Comparison after comparison has proven it to be more than adequate. Someone mentioned 4K recording. Let me explain something to you people. 4K is a gimmick. It's a joke. 4K went be commercially viable for another 5 years, if then. They don't even have proper codecs to deal with it. Still using HD codecs to render Ultra HD source code. No phone can render the 4K video it shoots. Televisions and monitors are extremely expensive.

• puremind - Saturday, March 29, 2014 - link

  I also totally agree. The M7 convinced me more in terms of shooting clean blur free, fast focused pictures. Other phones have let me down big time. MP give you sharper pictures if you are lucky... That's 30% of the time. I have regretted not being able to crop but I liked thetrade off of faster shooting.

• Death666Angel - Friday, March 28, 2014 - link

  "If you are into photography that you care so much about picture detail, you won't be using you phone to take pictures."
  That is such a stupid argument. Considering that smartphones are alround devices capable of many things, you can say that just about every feature;
  - if you care about high speed browsing, you will use a laptop/desktop
  - if you care about listening to music, you will use headphones/DAC/dedicated mobile players
  - if you care about video chat, you will use a 4k camera and a high end beamer
  That do a lot and thus nothing really spectacularly. But that's not the point here, is it?