The HTC One M9, while not a knock-out success, was still a very solid handset. It was also exceptionally good-looking, as a result of it...
The HTC One M9, while not a knock-out success, was still a very solid handset. It was also exceptionally good-looking, as a result of its stunning aluminium unibody design. Part of the reason it was so unaccessible at launch was due to the fact that it was priced way to high to be competitive.
Once, in a time which now seems a very long time ago, HTC was one of the few companies which made the successful jump from being a Taiwanese phone maker producing devices on behalf of other brands, to a legitimate device maker in its own right. That alone made it a bit of a darling of the Android space, producing competetive handsets as an alternative to Samsung's offerings.
Aside from the ill-fated HTC Flyer tablet, the company could pretty much do no wrong, as it wowed consumers with the likes of the HTC One X and One S. Sure, HTC wasn't shifting devices in the same volume as Apple and Samsung, but it was doing well enough and was quite well regarded; things looked positive. Then the HTC One (M7) came along and things shifted up a gear. HTC was now making premium looking phones that gave Apple’s designers a run for their money.
S P E C S
RAM - 3GB
Display - 5 Inch, 1080x1920p
Front Camera - 4MP
Rear Camera - 20.7MP
Storage - 32GB
Processor - Octacore (quad 2GHz and quad 1.5GHz), Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC
Battery - 2840 mAh
Display - 5 Inch, 1080x1920p
Front Camera - 4MP
Rear Camera - 20.7MP
Storage - 32GB
Processor - Octacore (quad 2GHz and quad 1.5GHz), Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC
Battery - 2840 mAh
D E S I G N
The HTC One M9 is a beautiful looking device, just like its forefathers. Encased in a premium-feeling, two-tone gold and silver chassis, the handset exudes class. It also feels great in the hand with its conservatively-sized 5in display and sleek angular body. And this is all excellent stuff, indeed. Par for the course, when you’re talking about a company like HTC. You do not expect anything less. But the one thing you simply cannot get around, in spite of all this, is just how familiar it is to behold –– the M9 is practically identical to the M8.
You can double-tap the display to wake the M9 mercifully, but in order to do this you must first have the handset in motion (in your hand, for instance) or else it will not work and you’re back to fumbling along its sharp, metallic side for the elusive power/unlock key. Beyond this I cannot fault the industrial engineering and design that has gone into making this handset. HTC talks about it like it’s a piece of jewellery and when you look at the gold trim, sharp, machine-edged accents and the huge price tag, I guess it sort of makes sense.
D I S P L A Y
Nowhere is this more evident than with the M9’s 5in Super LCD3 1080p display. Full HD panels are fine; really they are. But the quality of the panel itself has to be up to scratch and the one inside the HTC One M9 does not feel like a progression from the LCD panel used in last year’s HTC One M8. And in a world of handsets rocking similar specs at lower costs with better, QHD panels this is not something that plays in the HTC One M9’s favour.
C A M E R A
The HTC One M9 runs a 20.7MP camera backed up by one of the best camera applications in the business. There’s a ton of features as well as old favourites like Zoe opening up thousands of potential editing options. Images are easily shared and, as we’ve come to expect from HTC, the layout, menus and options with the camera application itself are very straightforward and require essentially no time to master.
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