HTC One M8 - Drey_P's experience

[drey_p]

I received an HTC One M8 yesterday and thought I would create a thread with pictures and my opinions of the device. I will keep adding to this thread as and when I get the time.  In the meantime, I hope that some of what I post is going to help those of you wondering if this is the device for you.  

[Tink-GB]

Great article.

Everyone can correct me but htc do not advertise the htc one m8 as waterproof, as written in your article.

otherwise do. you want to balance it out a bit with your niggles.. both hardware and software.?

cheers
Tink

[thesoupdragon]

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@Tink-GB wrote:

Everyone can correct me but htc do not advertise the htc one m8 as waterproof, as written in your article.

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The HTC One (M8) has an IPx3 rating, which means it's protected from water spray up to 60 degrees at 10l per minute, with a pressure of 80-100kN/m2 for up to 5 mins.

HTC chose not to advertise this because it's not really water proofing as such, but it is resistant to rainy weather,

:smileywink:

source: http://www.androidauthority.com/htc-one-m8-waterproof-361910/

[Tink-GB]

What a Clanger...(pun intended)

Learn something everyday.

Thanks TheSoupDragon.

Tink.

[Tink-GB]

My only ongoing trouble is the charge lead.
I have had three now break, OEM ones too, just below the male connector end where it meets the main wire sleeving. Seems too inflexible so goes the same way as our iPhone leads.

Also one of my M7 power supplies has failed... wouldnt throw out enough charge when the phone was on, only off.

[hrym]

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@Tink-GB wrote:
My only ongoing trouble is the charge lead.

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I've always been very careful with micro-usb plugs as the body seems a lot stronger than the connector or the socket.   The socket on the HTC seems tight and the plug needs to be dead straight on when you insert it.  The other factor is the much thicker lead on higher current chargers, which is much less flexible and needs care coiling up for travel.

This is why I like Sony's magnetic option.

[bartonbank]

My gripe with the M8 is the shortage of internal storage. 16GB is half of what was available in it's predecessor, the One X. It doesn't take much to fill up either.

[hrym]

It does have an external sd card slot, though.  The problem with this is that, if you can't direct downloaded storage to it, you can't move files there either as the latest version of Android doesn't allow 3rd party apps to write to the card for security reasons.  Samsung have always included a file manager app and, as this is part of the system, it can do this.   If Google persist with this restriction (which may be a requirement of banking security), other manufacturers are going to have to follow suit.

You can set you camera to save to the sd card and KitKat also allows you to move apps to it, though.   You can also manage files normally if you connect the phone to a pc as mass storage via a usb cable.

[dlorde]

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@hrym wrote:

It does have an external sd card slot, though.  The problem with this is that, if you can't direct downloaded storage to it, you can't move files there either as the latest version of Android doesn't allow 3rd party apps to write to the card for security reasons.  

As I understand it, third party apps can write to the SD card, but they're restricted to their own private directory. They can read from anywhere on the SD card.

This means third party apps can read documents and play media written to the SD card by other apps, but they can't edit it (unless they copy it to their own directory). This means that you can't put photos on the SD card with  one app and edit them with a different app, etc. This has got a lot of app developers very upset. Google says they should use the system file management services to request access to other app's data (or write their own generic API for apps to query for data, which doesn't seem terribly practical). It's a security thing - although those restrictions don't apply to system-level apps and don't apply to internal storage.

[hrym]

Yes, you're right.  I was specifically thinking of file managers.  ES File Manager has found a way round the restriction, but unfortunately it doesn't work on HTCs (though you can erase files with it, which is occassionally useful if you want to do a bit of clearing up).

[drey_p]

I am sorry that I didn't have a chance to take more photos before having to hand the phone back - work got in the way. :smileyfrustrated:

Overall I found the phone to be really good.  It felt great in the hand and was easy to use, especially as I am very used to Android devices.   Here are some of the highlights and downsides for me:

Screen:  the 5 inch full HD display is crisp and clear and the colour rendering is quite good to - there wasn't too much oversaturation of colours.  It is Gorilla glass so is more resistant to scratches.  I personally think that a screen size of around 5 inches is the perfect balance.... it's not too small that you struggle to watch movies but it isn't so bit that it doesn't fit into your pocket.  I didn't like the fact that the back, home and options buttons took up screen space - I would have prefered them to be below the screen

Sound: the forward facing speakers with HTC Boom Sound are REALLY good. Often mobile phones sound tinny when playing music using the loudspeaker.  Not this one!  I really liked the quality and clarity of the sound coming out of this device.  The speakers are forward facing to which is great - you don't have the sound going away from you. I'd recommend that you hear it for yourself!

Power:  I didn't activate any of the power saving features in order to get a real idea of the phone's processing power and battery life.  The battery life wasn't bad, about average for a smartphone with a larger screen.  I could comfortably get just over a day and a half on the 2600mAh battery.  For me, not being able to remove and replace the battery myself is a big issue - I would rather not have to send my phone away for a week or two just to have a battery replaced - I prefer to be able to do it myself.

Size and weight:  the phone is slightly larger than other phones on the market.  It is slightly longer and thicker than the S5 for example but slightly narrower. Being slight longer and thicker isn't a bad thing - the curved back makes the phone feel slimmer than it is. Weight wise, the phone is 160g which is heavier than a lot of phones on the market  I didn't think that it felt that heavy, in fact that weight was just right for me and just added to the premium feel of the device.  

Blinkfeed: there is a lot of hype over Blinkfeed and I really, really wanted to like it.  It is a really great way of displaying info from various sources like Facebook, your calendar, news etc.  But I just couldn't get on with it.  I wish there was a way of customising where in the feed your info pops up.  I had calendar info appear randomly in the middle of Facebook updates so not the easiest way of seeing everything in one place.  I ended up having to go to my calendar to see what was coming up which kinda defeats the point of everything in one place.  The good thing is that you can disable it if you don't like it. 

Contacts:  I really like the way HTC have integrated social media like Facebook directly into the contact cards. It makes it really easy to see what's happening the life of a particular contact as well as clearly see when you last were in contact with them.  

Camera:  I am going to focus (no pun intended) on the main camera on the back of the phone.  It is a mere 4 MP, which isn't a huge amount in this day and age.  Despite this, I felt that the photos were good.  Because there are actually 2 rear cameras, you can get some great effects, like being able to change the depth of field in you picture after it has been taken - it makes me look like I know what I am doing! LOL  Plus you can add a filter in to change how your picture looks. In low light, the camera seems to take better pictures than during the day which I felt was quite odd. Macro mode also gave some pretty decent results.

Storage:  the phone came with 16GB of internal storage and a micro SD card slot so if you run out of space, you can always add to it.  It also means that you are able to move things like documents and photos between devices and back up your data to the micro SD card. 

One thing I really loved about the device is the ability to pick up the phone and simply swipe up which both turns on the phone and unlocks it.  Much quicker than having to turn the phone on and then unlock it! :smileyhappy: