The HTC One M9 Review: Part 2
by Joshua Ho on April 6, 2015 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Qualcomm
- Mobile
- Snapdragon 810
- One M9
WiFi Performance
Fundamentally, a smartphone is defined by its ability to connect to the internet. Although cellular data is important, WiFi performance is crucial for anyone on a limited data plan and in areas where cellular data is slow or nonexistent. To this end, HTC has outfitted the One M9 with Broadcom’s BCM4356 WiFi/BT combo chipset, which we’ve seen before in the Nexus 6. This chipset supports 2x2 802.11ac, but the One M9 only supports a maximum 433 Mbps physical link rate, which means that it’s only using a single spatial stream. I haven’t been able to find any information on the antenna configuration of the One M9, but it’s likely that HTC is only using a single antenna for WiFi on the One M9 which would make it similar to the One M7 and One M8 in that regard. In order to test how this configuration performs, we use IPerf on Android connected to a PC to see how rapidly the device can send UDP packets.
As one can see, there’s a reasonable performance uplift when compared to Qualcomm Atheros’ WCN3680 WiFi/BT combo chip, but it isn’t as big as moving to a 2x2 MIMO configuration. The lack of MIMO also has implications for WiFi range, but WiFi signals degrade quickly enough that this wouldn’t be a massive difference.
GNSS
As the One M9 uses a Qualcomm modem, it's a pretty safe bet that it also uses the modem for GNSS location services. In practice, this means that the One M9 locks on to satellites quickly any time it's possible to download assistance data to speed up GPS.
Without assistance data, the One M9 seems to have worse performance than expected, although weather conditions can always affect overall performance. Time to first lock took a minute and 42 seconds, and accuracy wasn't quite as high as one would hope, tending towards 30 foot accuracy rather than 10 foot accuracy. It's likely that local weather conditions were responsible for this issue, as subjectively it seemed that GPS performance was comparable to other phones tested at the same time.
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avs234 - Sunday, April 12, 2015 - link
An inadequate review.Not a _single_ positive, just a bunch of some negative comments from a person who, for some reason, really disliked the device. Expecting he was advised in doing so.
I DO OWN an m9, and dare say this review is thorough crap. Each author's argument (e.g., performance, screen, camera, etc.) just doesn't stand my experience whatsoever. I have no time nor reason to dispute these, just wanted to say fuck for the well deserved site.
vampyren - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
Strange that the most important competitor (S6) is not in the list. Most people are deciding between these 2 phones so leaving it out is sloppy.evolucion8 - Wednesday, April 15, 2015 - link
Saying that HTC needs a good camera to be relevant on the phone market is a bit of a bold statement. I don't think that the camera alone is the main reason for people to buy smartphones, people who are aficionados at taking pictures they will use a digital camera instead. As far as the camera is able to offer good/usable image quality, I think is enough.FlushedBubblyJock - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
It's another elite snob issue - they just MUST have the best possible artistry - otherwise their glorified selfie may be - king and queen forbid - plebian in nature...It's just like the constant desire for thinner as if they are a heroin doused runway queen wannabe - couple with the "feel" it must have as they coddle it in their refined paws ...
Thus .... we will have a twisted groupthink stinky mind melded horror as the top tier, thanks to all the primping tards
HangFire - Wednesday, April 15, 2015 - link
HTC has traditionally done well with battery life? Huh? Someone has already forgotten the existence of the HTC Thunderbolt.Such a disappointment. The M9 won't be replacing my M7. My search continues.
FlushedBubblyJock - Friday, April 24, 2015 - link
don't you just love the angle iron heads - oh it must be metal or she feels so cheap in my hand -yet metal feels very uncomfortable in the hand compared to plastic
metal is a harsh object on the hands - then after begging for metal and glass and industrial design - and absolute thinness which means sharp corners not smooth bends - we get the sharp edge whine....
YES IT'S GOING TO CUT AND HURT AND EVEN PHYSICALLY DAMAGE YOUR HAND WHEN YOU HAVE TO HAVE AN APPLE CLONE METAL GLASS HORROR BECAUSE SOME GROUPIE TOLD YOU IT IS THE KING OF ELITISM AND YOUR MIND CANNOT GET PAST IT
adsingh - Sunday, June 21, 2015 - link
Worst hardware companyI had bought htc desire x and wifi/host-spot problem occurred within a year. I gave it to the service centre and they changed motherboard because in case of any hardware issue they have only one option which is replacement of motherboard. And when they changed motherboard of my phone then 3 and half months later camera stopped working first and then phone get dead within one month. So this is htc (Htc Third Class). And again they asked me to replacement of motherboard (what the f**k they people) and motherboard cost is near about Rs.7500/-. Even htc dosn't trust on their hardware more that 3 months cause whenever they change motherboard they only gives an extended warrenty of only 3 months. Shame on you guys(htc team).
There are lot of smartphone companies are there having more features as compare with htc in less price.