Htc one m9 is there an IR port. HTC One M9 - Specifications. Well, what about performance?
I have been using this smartphone for three months now, and I will say for sure - this is the Flagship! Great phone with great features and stylish design. With it, you don’t think that you don’t have enough memory or something won’t work, it’s enough for everything! Of course, many will say that this brand is not as famous as large corporations.. I would say that it is perfect for those who like the design of an apple, but from the operating system, the user prefers Android. Enough philosophy, I'll tell you about the device itself. The design of this smartphone practically does not differ from the M7 and M8 models, which is not bad at all, because its shape is neat and looks expensive. And of course, a huge contribution to the cool design is the aluminum case, which comes in several colors. I don’t really like golden “artsy” colors, but I chose the device in this particular design. The gold metallic HTC looks amazing! There are also no complaints about the assembly, everything is done very monolithically. As for smartphone control, it has three touch buttons on the screen (back, home, dispatcher), when pressed, the phone vibrates slightly, which makes them very informative. The device also has 3 mechanical volume and power keys, they are pressed very clearly and are located immediately under the fingers. The phone uses nanoSIM and has a microSD card slot, so you can expand the memory even further. And now let's move on to desserts, there are a lot of them here). For example, the display, 5-inch Super LCD3 with FullHD resolution and maximum viewing angles, it's just great! Natural color reproduction, excellent brightness, excellent readability in the sun, work with gloves and multi-touch for 10 touches do not leave anyone indifferent. The second dessert is the camera.. 20mpx, not every flagship has this! In fairness, I’ll say that it’s not megapixels that still take good pictures, but the general parameters of the camera. The HTC M9 has an excellent camera that many will like, but it is inferior to the flagships from Samsung and Apple. The front camera is also very good, selfies are obtained with a bang! The third dessert is sound! No... SOUND! It's very good and the stereo sound feels good. The headphones also have a high-quality sound, and the headset in the kit is not bad. As for the rest of the characteristics, they are also on the level. The smartphone has a large 3000mAh battery, which allows you to easily use it for a couple of days without recharging if you make calls and use the Internet. The technical filling of the device is at a high level, a fast 8-core processor and 3GB of RAM allows you not to think about any restrictions in the choice of applications. 32GB internal memory is more than enough. HTC has a lot of pluses, and to be honest, I want to point out a few drawbacks. Compared to competitors, the device has fairly wide side bezels (3-4mm), which is certainly not critical, but it could have been smaller. , but it does not cause discomfort. In general, I will speak for myself, I have never regretted that I bought this particular smartphone, it is a pleasure to use it!
The announcement of the HTC One M9 was received, to put it mildly, coolly - the company planned to update the hardware platform and camera of the smartphone, and left everything else unchanged, at first glance. On the other hand, modern wisdom says - it works, don't touch it! In addition, the average user has long lost interest in the annual updating of smartphones, and with flagships, in principle, there is no such need - they have enough performance margin for several years. So maybe you should not try to come up with something new and minor improvements are enough to win the heart of the consumer? Let's figure it out.
If you put HTC One M8 and M9 side by side - last year's and fresh flagships of the company, only an employee of the company can distinguish them from the first time. But the difference is really minimal - this is not Samsung with their Galaxy S5 and S6, which look like products from different manufacturers, maximum continuity is preserved here.
The general idea of design, design and arrangement of elements remained almost unchanged. The body of HTC One M9 is made from a single piece of aluminum, and the texture of the back cover retains the natural look of the metal.
Not much space is given to the display on the front side - there are wide plastic grilles on the top and bottom, under which the famous stereo speakers are hidden, and the company logo still flaunts above the bottom, extending the case by a couple of extra millimeters.
Under the top grill is a small indicator light. To the right of it is a slot for sensors and a large front camera lens.
Trays for a memory card and NanoSIM are located at the top of the sidewalls, MicroUSB and 3.5 mm are crowded at the bottom, and a glossy black insert on the top hides an infrared port for controlling household appliances.
Important changes compared to HTC One M9 can be listed point by point.
First. The power key fell into place after many years, it is located under the separate volume buttons on the right. So using a smartphone is much more convenient - you do not have to reach for the key on top. Of course, I would like the button to be located a little higher, just under the thumb, but this place is already occupied by the volume keys.
Second. HTC has changed the shape of the side faces of One M9. In M8 they were rounded, but now they are sharper. As in the Galaxy S6 Edge, you need to get used to the relatively sharp sidewalls, I personally stopped paying attention to this feature after a couple of days of use.
Third. The main feature of the One M8 was the dual camera. They decided to abandon it, and replace it with a conventional module. It protrudes slightly from the lid, but it looks worse in the photos than in real life. In addition, the lens is protected by a sapphire crystal, so you don’t have to worry about the safety of the camera.
An additional change is the new colors of the case, to which fashionable gold has been added. HTC One M9 can be completely gold (Gold on Gold), silver with gold sides (Gold on Silver), or completely black (Gunmetal Gray). All colors have the same lid texture.
Otherwise, One M9 is one of the most metallic smartphones on the market, the abundance of metal is clearly felt in the hands. As before, it is larger than other models with 5-inch screens, but it can be operated normally with one hand.
Display
HTC did not pursue high resolutions and installed a traditionally good SuperLCD3 display with a diagonal of 5 inches and a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (441 ppi) into their flagship. The screen is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
The screen brightness varies from 8 to 418 cd/m², the measured contrast ratio is 1:773. The quality of the factory calibration is at a good level - the color gamut corresponds to the sRGB space, the color temperature is slightly too high, and the gamma curve has small differences.
The screen supports operation with gloves, which is useful in the cold season. The ability to control gestures has not gone away - a double tap is enough to turn the screen on or off. In addition, with a simple swipe, you can immediately unlock the screen, open the BlinkFeed feed or start voice control.
The screen makes a very pleasant impression. Automatic brightness control works correctly in most cases, the backlight supply is enough for both working in the dark and for a bright sunny day, the oleophobic coating allows you to quickly remove fingerprints. The display has a very calm color reproduction - the colors are as close to natural as possible, there are no flashy bright colors that are characteristic of AMOLED displays and individual IPS matrices. From the screen of HTC One M9 there are only pleasant impressions.
Hardware platform
As a basis for their flagships, HTC, as a rule, uses the latest developments from Qualcomm. This year, the company did not change traditions - the heart of One M9 is the eight-core 64-bit Snapdragon 810. It is complemented by 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory, the volume of which can be increased using memory cards.
There is also support for all current mobile network standards, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.1 (apt-X), GPS+GLONASS, NFC, infrared, and even FM radio. For a “full set”, the HTC One M9 only lacks the possibility of wireless charging, but given the all-metal back, this is not possible.
Naturally, with such a filling, the smartphone occupies the first lines in most benchmarks and works as quickly as possible during normal use. Adreno GPUs always get good optimization in different games, so there will be no problems with them either. Moreover, for most tasks, the available performance will even be excessive. There is no 2K screen, so there is nowhere to use the existing “power” either (except for games).
The only negative point is the heating of the case. Under normal use, the M9 stays cold, but after playing a few resource-demanding games or running a couple of benchmarks, it warms up noticeably. Of course, the hand does not burn, but the heating is felt.
Calls, multimedia
The appearance of BoomSound speakers in the flagship HTC smartphones allowed them to stand out among their own kind. In One M9, the speakers remained in place. Subjectively, they have not changed in a year. They are still the best solution if you like to watch YouTube videos or play fast-paced games without headphones. They play loudly, quite voluminously and cleanly. Things are also going well with music playback through headphones - the sound is clear, voluminous, without extraneous noise and with a good volume margin.
HTC One M9 also has no problems with phone functions, with the only exception that you need to choose a melody a little more carefully - when the smartphone is in the pockets of your trousers, the sound is muted, so you can accidentally miss a call. The vibrating alert is average in strength, it is felt in pockets and when the device is lying next to it on the table. In talk mode, the loudspeaker has a normal volume, in most situations it turns out to be enough, there is a small margin. There were no problems with network signal reception during testing.
Operating system and shell
The smartphone is running the latest version of Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with a proprietary HTC Sense 7.0 interface. It may seem that in a year there have been no visible changes in the shell, they are just hidden away.
Of the innovations, it became possible to customize the on-screen keys, which can add a fourth button. In addition, a theme store has appeared. They allow not only to change the appearance of icons, but affect absolutely everything - wallpapers, melodies, fonts, and even the design of the system control keys.
One of the innovations is hidden on the desktop. This is a widget that collects frequently used applications and newly installed programs. The location of the icons changes depending on the frequency of use of specific programs and your location - this solution turns out to be convenient.
Working hours
From the built-in 2840 mAh battery, HTC One M9 confidently works a day at an average load, showing three to four hours of screen operation. This is a normal indicator for modern flagships, which will probably improve a little with the release of updates.
cameras
The potentially interesting Duo Camera with ultrapixels turned out to be the main drawback of the One M8, the HTC One M9 uses a regular module for the main camera, and the ultrapixels moved to the front camera.
The main camera is a BSI sensor with a resolution of 20 megapixels. Dual tone LED flash, 27.8mm f/2.2 lens protected by sapphire crystal. The front camera has the following specifications: 4 MP, HTC UltraPixel, BSI, f/2.0, 26.8mm.
Compared to the M8, progress is visible - the quality of the images has really improved, at least due to the increased detail.
In practice, in ordinary non-ideal shooting conditions, everything is not so simple. We can definitely say that the camera in HTC One M9 is inferior to the best modern photo flagships of the Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6 level. In difficult conditions, the device can miss focusing, mistakenly determine the white balance. In addition, you need to work on focusing speed - in this parameter, the smartphone is also inferior to competitors.
The above will be important if the quality of the smartphone camera plays an important role for you, and the pictures are studied and processed on a computer. Pictures taken in clear weather look good. Plus, you should not write off the fact that the smartphone is just entering the market, for sure, the quality of shooting will be improved in future updates.
The front camera, on the contrary, can already be called one of the best.
The average quality of the main camera by the standards of flagships is slightly compensated by the software. You can add new shooting modes to the existing shooting modes, there is a functional built-in editor.
Results
HTC One M9 really does not present any surprises - this is an evolutionary development of the smartphone introduced a year ago. The company was able to improve the main drawback of the One M8 - the camera, albeit not so much that the new flagship could compete on equal terms with the best competitors. It is important that nothing was spoiled. There are the same high-quality case materials, speakers, screen, productive platform and excellent speed. Ergonomics have improved due to the power button that has moved to its side. But a completely preserved design robs the feeling of novelty that you expect from any smartphone that is proudly called the flagship. From this purely emotional point of view, the HTC One M9 looks boring. Owners of One (M8) new product may be interested mainly in improved camera. For users of the first HTC One released in 2013, the hero of the review will be much more interesting, but it is worth remembering that One M8 has remained quite relevant, and even more affordable.
Liked:
Housing materials
Quality screen
Platform and speed, memory card slot
stereo speakers
Front-camera
Did not like:
- Case dimensions
- Average main camera by the standards of flagships
- Heating of the case under load
 | Operating system | Android 5.0.1 (Lollipop) |
| RAM, GB | 3 | |
| Built-in memory, GB | 32 | |
| Expansion slot | microSD/SDHC (up to 2TB) | |
| Dimensions, mm | 144.6×69.7×9.61 | |
| Weight, g | 157 | |
| Protection against dust and moisture | — | |
| Accumulator battery | Li-Ion, 2840mAh (non-removable) | |
| Operating time (manufacturer's data) | talk time up to 25.4 hours in 2G networks; up to 21.7 hours in 3G networks | |
| Diagonal, inches | 5 | |
| Permission | 1920x1080 | |
| Matrix type | Super LCD 3 | |
| PPI | 441 | |
| Brightness sensor | + | |
| Touch screen (type) | capacitive | |
| Other | Corning Gorilla Glass 4 | |
| CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 MSM8994 + GPU Adreno 430 | |
| Kernel type | Cortex-A53 + Cortex-A57 | |
| Number of Cores | 4 + 4 | |
| Frequency, GHz | 1,5-2 | |
| Main camera, MP | 20.7(f/2.2) | |
| autofocus | + | |
| Video filming | + ([email protected] f/s, [email protected] f/s, [email protected] f/s) | |
| Flash | + (dual LED) | |
| Front camera, MP | 4 (f/2.0) | |
| Other | sapphire lens coating | |
| WiFi | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot | |
| Bluetooth | + (4.1) | |
| GPS | + (A-GPS, GLONASS) | |
| IrDA | + | |
| NFC | + | |
| interface connector | USB 2.0 (micro USB, MHL, HDMI) | |
| Audio jack | 3.5mm | |
| MP3 player | + | |
| FM radio | + | |
| Type of shell | monoblock (non-separable) | |
| Housing material | aluminum | |
| Keyboard type | screen input | |
| More | stereo speakers (HTC BoomSound with Dolby Audio), fast charging, magnetic sensor, accelerometer, compass, gyroscope |
Accelerometer(or G-sensor) - device position sensor in space. As a main function, the accelerometer is used to automatically change the orientation of the image on the display (vertical or horizontal). Also, the G-sensor is used as a pedometer, it can be controlled by various functions of the device by turning or shaking.
Gyroscope- a sensor that measures the angles of rotation relative to a fixed coordinate system. Able to measure rotation angles in several planes simultaneously. The gyroscope together with the accelerometer allows you to determine the position of the device in space with high accuracy. In devices that use only accelerometers, measurement accuracy is lower, especially when moving quickly. Also, the capabilities of the gyroscope can be used in modern games for mobile devices.
Light sensor- a sensor, thanks to which the optimal values of brightness and contrast are set for a given level of illumination. The presence of the sensor allows you to increase the operating time of the device from the battery.
Proximity sensor- a sensor that detects when the device is close to the face during a call, turns off the backlight and locks the screen, preventing accidental pressing. The presence of the sensor allows you to increase the operating time of the device from the battery.
Geomagnetic sensor- a sensor for determining the direction of the world in which the device is directed. Tracks the orientation of the device in space relative to the Earth's magnetic poles. The information received from the sensor is used in mapping programs for orientation in the area.
Atmospheric pressure sensor- sensor for accurate measurement of atmospheric pressure. It is part of the GPS system, allows you to determine the height above sea level and speed up the location.
touch ID- Fingerprint identification sensor.
Accelerometer / Geomagnetic / Gyroscope / Illumination / Proximity
Satellite navigation:
GPS(Global Positioning System - global positioning system) - a satellite navigation system that measures distance, time, speed and determines the location of objects anywhere on the Earth. The system was developed, implemented and operated by the US Department of Defense. The basic principle of using the system is to determine the location by measuring the distances to the object from points with known coordinates - satellites. The distance is calculated from the signal propagation delay time from sending it by the satellite to receiving it by the GPS receiver antenna.
GLONASS(Global Navigation Satellite System) - Soviet and Russian satellite navigation system, developed by order of the USSR Ministry of Defense. The measurement principle is similar to the American GPS navigation system. GLONASS is intended for operational navigation and time support for ground, sea, air and space-based users. The main difference from the GPS system is that the GLONASS satellites in their orbital movement do not have resonance (synchronism) with the Earth's rotation, which provides them with greater stability.
- retained the design of its grandfather (HTC One), received hardware typical of a modern flagship (with the possible exception of a QHD display), software (i.e. Android 5.0 and a new generation HTC Sense interface) and finally a camera with the usual human megapixels. Whether all these improvements are worth buying this particular flagship device this year, we will see in the review.
What's this?
One M9 is HTC's flagship smartphone of the first half of 2015. Equipped with a 5-inch FullHD display, a top-end 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, running Android 5.0, and with all its look and content, it claims to be one of the main devices of this year.
How to distinguish a brand new HTC One M9 from last year's HTC One (M8)?
HTC consistently exploits the names of its lines - One for flagship devices, Desire - for those that are cheaper. The design that this year's main One flaunts comes from a 2013 device. Yes, HTC One M9 has freshened up a lot and even grown a little compared to the year before last HTC One, but it looks like One (M8) in such a way that you can’t tell without an experienced eye and a tape measure with weights. This year's flagship is slightly larger, but lighter than last year's. On the one hand, repeating the ingenious HTC trick with a metal case and speakers on the front panel became a bit boring for the third year. On the other hand, the design is good, you can’t say anything. The new one is not lying on the road.
Differences in appearance between generations can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The One M9 has a slot for a memory card. The screen diagonal remained the same (5 inches), and the speakers are now the whole Harman Kardon, but you can read about this only in a press release, there are no mentions on the case. The sound of the smartphone, as it was beautiful both in the speakers and in the headphones, remained the same. The HTC One M9 has moved the screen lock key to the right side under the volume buttons. I liked this, but I didn’t like the fact that the shape and size of the screen lock button does not differ from the other two - so I often click in the wrong place. However, the gestures supported by the interface allow in many cases to refuse the button.
A large black strip appeared on top - obviously, it hides the communication modules. It is so large that it is noticeable even on the front panel. In addition to her, nothing on the upper end did not fit.
The front panel, in addition to color, does not differ from One M8 in any way. The top and bottom are decorated with speakers, because of them the case turned out to be traditionally long. Near the front camera (4 ultrapixels, the right solution for a front camera, which usually accounts for photos from an arm's length and night selfies - just the things in which such a camera module is strong) are light and proximity sensors. Somewhere between the speakers, an LED gleams, alerting you to missed events and a low battery.
There was one camera instead of two at the back, the flash is still two-color LED.
This is where the uninteresting differences end and the interesting begins - the difference in color. The smartphone that we had on our hands could be called both silver and gold at the same time. And even a little (at a certain angle and lighting) pink. In fact, this color according to the HTC nomenclature is gold. The edging of the smartphone is clearly yellow, but the front and back sides are of a mysterious iridescent color. The metal gives the impression of being precious. The stroke of the keys tells that in the hands of a very, very expensive thing. Even from the iPhone 6, the impressions are not nearly the same. One M9 looks more expensive and smarter. But the body of the iPhone 6 is more versatile, or something.
HTC One M9 lies in the hand no worse and no better than its predecessor. Compared to competitors, the smartphone is elongated and has too large bezels at the top and bottom. Due to its length, it constantly looks out of jeans pockets. I would like to see the thickness in the next models less - if other manufacturers can keep within 6-8 millimeters, then it's time for HTC to take this height. According to the first impressions, the smartphone case has become less prone to scratches. In any case, compared to the HTC One Mini 2 for sure, and it is, in theory, made of the same aluminum as the One (M8). When the HTC One Mini 2 turned out like this:
HTC One M9 left like this:
True, HTC One M9, unlike the younger model, did not get to the sandy beach with me.
Is he really warm?
There have already been complaints on the Internet that the HTC One M9 is overheating. Metal body, top Qualcomm processor, untested software. Therefore, it is not surprising that the temperature of the device under load can exceed the desired values. In fact, the HTC One M9 doesn't just get hot. After half an hour of talking on Skype, for example, I literally got burned when I tried to move my smartphone from the table to another place. In comparison, the main competitor, the Samsung Galaxy S6, after the same load, becomes slightly warm at the back and noticeably warm at the edges where the metal is used. But the story of HTC heating is temporary - in the final version of the firmware, which has already flown to Western users, but has not yet reached our latitudes, the problem, according to journalists, has been solved. In everyday tasks, I did not observe problems with temperature.
How long does he work?
HTC One M9 is equipped with a 2840 mAh battery. Its predecessor had 240mAh less with similar screen specs and a less energy efficient processor. In fact, the autonomy of the smartphone has not improved. Although I expected the HTC One M9 to last longer. With a Bluetooth accessory connected and with GPS, the smartphone works for about a day, while for some reason in standby mode it does not treat the battery charge sparingly. It seems that this is not due to the fact that the processor is very voracious (it should be even better than in its predecessor), but due to the fact that the company should work a little more on the firmware. Surprisingly, the HTC One M9 is even slightly inferior to the Samsung Galaxy S6 in battery life both in the test and when streaming video (under the same conditions, the smartphone worked half as much, about 4 hours). If you turn off GPS, then the smartphone will last about a day and a half. As a result, neither Samsung nor HTC showed a battery life revolution in their current flagships. In my typical usage scenario, the iPhone 6, by the way, also works for a day. We are waiting for Apple to make everyone sweat again.
There are several power saving modes in the HTC One M9 settings, and although I usually turn off power saving on all tested smartphones, here I had to change my habits so as not to be left without a smartphone at the wrong time.
Well, what about performance?
HTC One M9 is the flagship for that, so as not to experience performance problems either in life, or in resource-intensive applications (tested on all kinds of Cardboard games), or in benchmarks. At the level of synthetic tests, it is inferior to the Samsung flagship. In terms of interface smoothness, the Korean competitor also managed to do the impossible and outdo HTC and catch up with Sony's flagships. But the difference is so insignificant that only geeks and IT journalists can notice it.
For those who want to know more
The HTC One M9 has a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with four Cortex-A57 (2 GHz) and four Cortex-A53 (1.5 GHz) cores and Adreno 430 graphics. All this is seasoned, as in the best houses, 3 GB of RAM memory. A typical picture for a 2015 flagship device. The new processor is made on a 20nm process (although CPU-Z sees it as 28nm), so it should be more energy efficient than its predecessor. So far, there is no difference for the better, but I hope that this problem will also be solved in the next firmware update.
What's new in the interface?
Most of the innovations in the HTC Sense interface came from Android 5.0. Manufacturers try to make the interface of smartphones on the current version of the OS as close as possible to the bare OS. HTC has the same shell - with BlinkFeed, a small number of pre-installed proprietary HTC programs and vertical scrolling of the application menu. The old fonts remain, but personalization options have been added. For example, a widget with applications that change depending on where the user is - at work, at home, on the road. To be honest, I don't understand why this is necessary. Personally, I need everything in the smartphone to stay in place when I arrange the applications in the order I need. So I didn't use the Sense Home widget. But with pleasure I changed the order of the icons on the on-screen keyboard of the smartphone. Now it is allowed. My favorite Motion Launch gestures for unlocking the screen remain: double tap and swipe in different directions.
Sense introduced the ability to personalize themes, which is a nice thing, although not one for which someone would buy a smartphone. Themes can be downloaded from the Internet (to get to the right place, you need to go to the Themes application) if you have (or if you have) an HTC account. In addition to themes, you can download fonts, pictures, templates for HTC Dot View (i.e. for the case), sounds, and icons. This place also has a social component - you can subscribe to designs, you can share your inventions. I think that the young part of the audience should like all this and even take it for a while. True, due to the motley variety of icons for third-party Android applications, the result of custom design sometimes looks silly. For example, yes.
In addition to the themes, HTC significantly improved the photo editor - they added a lot of filters and effects to it, made it possible to overlay images one on another. The editor's menu was redrawn in the style of Android 5.0 - with a side menu and a sliding curtain. Anyone who likes to take pictures on a smartphone for the sake of filters should like this thing. A pure hipster app, and I think that among all the interface improvements, it is the most interesting for an audience that chooses HTC smartphones for design and non-pop.
In Android 5.0, the notification system has been improved, now there are more of them, it has become more comfortable to move between them. But if you do not want strangers to read your messages on the lock screen, all this can be turned off in the settings. The new event LED can also be turned off when the device is in use. In general, of course, now you can configure an incredible number of things.
Is the screen good?
HTC didn't take the path of increasing the resolution or screen size and installed exactly the same display that was in the previous model. It is made using Super LCD3 technology, the diagonal is 5 inches, resolution - FullHD, work with gloves is supported. In numbers, the brightness of the display in our sample is less than in last year's flagship (368.177 cd / m 2), the contrast ratio is worse (733: 1 vs. 2088: 1) and the black color is slightly lighter (0.502 cd / m 2 vs. 0.22 cd / m 2). But in fact, under the sun, the One M9 screen behaves the same way. It reads well, but it is difficult to take photos and check their quality in the sun. The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a similar story. Alas, to date, not a single Android smartphone has been lying next to the iPhone in terms of behavior under the sun.
Is the new camera good?
The HTC One M9 has a 20-megapixel main camera, and our old familiar ultra-pixels have migrated to the front camera, where they belong (ultra-pixels are good for macro, close-ups and night shots, just what you need for selfie lovers). The camera has definitely become more consistent with the title of the flagship. The "native" aspect ratio for the matrix is 10:7. The interface is familiar to us from HTC Desire Eye. A new shooting mode has appeared - “Bokeh”, and “Photo Kiosk” and “Dual Shooting” (you can learn more about them, as well as about the camera interface from this material) must be downloaded additionally. The camera has become noticeably better at shooting during the day and has caught up with competitors in terms of detail. Even from the previous flagship model, it starts quickly (in the interface settings, you can enable launch by pressing the volume key in the horizontal position of the smartphone) and quickly shoots. But unlike the cameras of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6, the HDR mode in it must be turned on separately.
In HDR, it shoots noticeably slower, although the result is mostly better than that of competitors. For macro photography, you should also run the appropriate mode. In good conditions, the HTC One M9 camera is ready to match the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6, but in low light it is frankly weak. She is also predicted to improve performance along with updated firmware. This is how the HTC One M9 camera shoots in different conditions (photo in original resolution).
For comparison, this is how the Samsung Galaxy S6 camera shoots (photo in original resolution).
And these are pictures taken on the iPhone 6 (photo in original resolution). In the dark, it produces about the same photos as the HTC One M9, and the Galaxy S6 noticeably outperforms both devices.
What about others?
HTC One M9 enters the market at the same time as Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, where they are already waiting for iPhone 6 and Sony Xperia Z3. A little later, the flagship of LG will appear. About which much is already known. But despite the abundance of interesting top-end devices, One M9 will continue the long tradition of competing with Samsung's top-end smartphone. From a purely technological point of view, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge turned out to be more interesting - smartphones have software and hardware tools to protect personal information, they have a better camera and a more agile interface. HTC contrasts this with a more interesting (albeit old) case design and interface features that will be appreciated by the younger generation rather than mature people with serious business. Although I do not believe that users will choose such an expensive device based on the ability to use wireless charging or change menu themes. Most likely, the choice will again lie in the plane of design, camera and brand trust - after all, there should be a lot of all this in the top segment. And in these cases, gadgets are almost equal.
Apart from the main characters of the spring of 2015 is the Sony smartphone - Xperia Z3 and its smaller copy of the Xperia Z3 Compact. A Sony smartphone, in turn, for a user who is hungry for flagship devices, can offer a more interesting price with no less interesting performance. And at the same time - interesting body colors, protection from dust and moisture, excellent autonomy and close relationship with the PlayStation (I remind you that you can play remotely from a smartphone, for example, while lying in the bathroom). Although, after contact with two ambitious new products, the meeting with the Xperia Z3 is no longer so exciting: the smartphone is large, less interesting in classic black, its screen is blue. But even with all these physical shortcomings, he should not be discounted.
Can HTC One M9 and iPhone 6 be considered competitors? I don't know, HTC has always been more of a geeky brand after all. iPhone - on the contrary, a smartphone for those who do not want to bother with anything. But HTC can offer the user not only a complex and intricate Android, but also an equally expensive case. But the appearance in the purchase of an expensive smartphone plays a key role.
HTC One M9 video review
In the dry matter
This year, the HTC flagship was a little less lucky than the Samsung flagship. Over the years of its existence, the company managed to accumulate less dissatisfaction from users, and therefore was forced to correct a smaller list of errors. And partly because its new flagship does not come across as something that has become better in literally everything. On the contrary, HTC diligently preserved previous achievements (design, materials, accessories that no one will see in our country, interface design style. And they increased only those that were considered not good enough - the camera (hooray!), the capabilities of some branded applications (and here not everyone will notice this) and gave the user the opportunity to embellish the menu. It doesn’t seem like a revolution. But if you are a fan of the HTC brand and your last update was the HTC One, then it’s time to replace the flagship. If your smartphone is the HTC One ( M8), then you should only change the device if the camera really bothered you.Updating to Android 5.0 should reach last year's flagship, which means that some software chips should appear without extra money.If you are not a fan of the brand, but a fan expensive and new smartphones, then wait until the decision is made - we have conceived a detailed material on choosing a flagship device, where everything will be sorted out. One M9 is what you need, but maybe not.
4 reasons to buy HTC One M9:
- you love the brand and haven't updated your HTC One yet;
- you enjoy creating and controlling the look and feel of the things you use;
- beautiful metal case of unusual colors;
- improved front and main cameras.
2 reasons not to buy HTC One M9:
- the camera is not important to you, and then, in principle, you can buy HTC One (M8), which will cost much less;
- The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a better camera and screen.
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Long time HTC fan. I have been using the phones of this company since the moment when they released damn cool PDAs. Now they are in a very bad place, but I remain faithful to them. I bought this smartphone literally at the moment when it first appeared on the market for 30 thousand rubles. I've been using it for 3 years now and will change soon. I say with confidence that even then this phone was not worth 30 thousand, to say nothing about now. Performance leaves much to be desired. When many applications are running, the phone starts to specifically slow down. You start the game, you need to wait until it loads completely. I don't know why they stuffed this dubious Qualcom 810 in here, which gets damn hot if you run 2+ applications. Therefore, I always went with the power saving mode turned on. This is immediately a question for the battery, which is also not the best here. The volume is small, the charge is spent just madly, it is necessary to root the phone and disable all third-party processes. The main camera does not shine with some super quality, although 20 megapixels are declared. On the street, the usual good shots are obtained. But if you need to photograph something point-blank, in detail and specifically, the camera starts to blunt. Focuses on the desired point through time. From memory, everything is not bad, I can’t fill 32 GB even without a flash drive. About the sound. Just awful. The speakers are not audible, there is no sound. I have not heard such a quiet sound since using htc one v. Regarding the assembly, at least they didn’t screw up here. Yes, the battery is non-removable, but the case is completely steel. The phone fell on the asphalt a couple of times due to inattention, Kotska remained, but nothing critical happened. After such a long time of use, I realized that I made a mistake when I bought this htc. The phone was not worth its 30k rubles. Now the price of such a smartphone is 13-14 thousand.
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I have a dark-colored model, and for 2 years of wearing it in a case, debris that gets into it scratches the case. There is a protective glass on the screen since birth, the phone itself has hung only 2 times for its entire time, for its year the device is very good at the time of purchase it cost 20t. After the release of the 6th and then the 7th Android, the phone became very good at saving charge. Case and screen without cracks. with Wi-Fi turned on, Youtube, Vatsap until the evening is discharged up to 35%
Sergey D. a year ago
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Bought used. Based on performance data from Antutu. I bought it for 5000 (after the fall - a dent and a kotska on the back cover, so they sold it so cheaply). The condition of the back cover does not bother - the phone is a high-performance gadget, not an element of pathos. The first thing that struck me was the sound. He's gorgeous!! I set up a full-fledged stereo with pseudo 3D, guys, this is CLASS!!! The performance is high - 108000 points in Antutu - smart memory, for 3 months it has never hung on native firmware. Yes, because of such a powerful processor, it heats up a lot, but this is already a jamb of manufacturers (a very narrow copper plate is used for heat dissipation - in HTC One X + it is twice as wide, although the processor is 6 times weaker there). And they won’t solve the heating problem - well, they won’t be able to fix the lack of hardware cooling with updates! But the software for the camera can be finalized. Initially - the model of the photomatrix - Toshiba T4KA7 (far from Sony IMX). But they still cannot release normal software for the camera. Of the pluses - the camera shoots in RAW - this is a vast field for photographers. For the rest, I recommend installing third-party software for the camera and you will be happy))) I checked a lot of custom firmware - there are good ones, without unnecessary programs, but some sensors (IR remote control, NFC) do not work correctly. I returned to my native firmware, put custom Recovery and Root rights, turned off unnecessary applications - now I don’t know grief. Everything flies. Battery consumption is high, but fast charging makes up for it. I recommend!
Anton Sh. 2 years ago
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I’ve been using the phone for a month. I chose the Gold on silver option. I didn’t notice any shortcomings except for the camera. The design is excellent, the back is very beautiful. The shell is excellent, the personalization pleases. in power saving mode, but the phone copes with everything with it. The camera suits me, although not the best. In general, I am very pleased with the smartphone.
Marat Abdullin 2 years ago
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This is the worst purchase in my life, after that I have a negative attitude towards HTC products. For this money you could buy an iPhone or Samsung. Maybe someone needs a useless brick for spare parts, for a symbolic price?
Natalia Vasilieva 2 years ago
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I have been using it for almost two years, it began to fail when charging.
Sergey Zakharov 2 years ago
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