HTC maintains that its antenna design has effectively been mimicked by everybody else and while we’ll leave that to the lawyers to fight out, this is truly a universal phone that will work anywhere on any network across Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 2G, 3G, 4G and it comes with DNLA technology to stream media from your phone to your TV or computer.
But I have to say everything on the M9 feels solid, reliable and quick. This no doubt leads to a speedy performance but that’s pretty academic for the ordinary user – the ordinary smartphone user today expects as much and no less. Under the hood the M9 comes with all the bells and whistles that its rivals boast, including an octa-core processor that is capable of 64-bit processing The device comes with a reasonable 32GB of storage which can be expanded up to 128GB because HTC – unlike Samsung with its S6 – has decided to keep the SD card slot I have only had to charge it once or twice in the week that I’ve had it which says a lot.Īnother big win is storage. You get lots of features but not so in-your-face or annoying as you will find on rival devices.
The device runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and features HTC’s Sense user interface and I have to say this is an area that HTC has always been praised for. It is heavier than the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and from memory is also heavier than the S6, but there’s a good heft and feel to the device – it just feels like it has substance. How it compares to rivals like the Samsung S6 and the Apple iPhone 6 is that it is very much its own machine. The device’s brushed aluminium appearance is also denser than the previous M8 device. One of the big things to come out of Mobile World Congress this year was an emphasis on design and craftsmanship and a senior HTC executive informed me that the HTC One M9 involved taking a block of aluminium and the result is the unibody that is 10pc of the original metal – he assured me that the wasted metal gets recycled and reused. The device weights 157g, only slightly heavier than the M8 and in all respects from the materials and the brushed aluminium is almost identical – the only difference is the 20MP camera at the back which is of a squarish shape and bigger than the camera Design The speakers are pretty awesome and use Dolby sound and that allows you to actually tweak the settings to suit what you are doing, whether listening to music or watching movies The winner for me is the screen – 5-inches of perfectly proportioned smartphone display – I have to say as screens go this really stands out for me – allied with the Boom Speakers I’m imaging the old sensation of a 1980s Grundig TV set, only designed to sit in my hand. There were three colours: gold-on-gold, gold-on-silver and gunmetal grey. The next day I strolled over to HTC’s massive stand and studied the array of M9s that in the glaring green light of HTC’s branding, glowed in mysterious finishes that suggested there was alchemy at play. The night before rival Samsung unveiled the all-metal S6 and S6 Edge, dabbling with an array of sheens and finishes that were dazzling to behold.
My very first impressions in Barcelona were tempered by the metallic look of the device. There was a three week gap between the moment I first beheld the HTC One M9 in Barcelona and eventually unboxing it at home. The return to form with the M7 was marred by delays in getting the phone to market in time.īut the tempo has been set with last year’s M8 and if anything the clamour for the new flagship M9 device bodes well for HTC. But what followed was a confectioner’s mess in terms of too many varying devices before HTC decided to rein it all in and concentrate on fewer flagship devices. When HTC threw off the yolk of being a contract manufacturer to being a seriously ambitious brand it was welcomed with rapture at Mobile World Congress in 2010 and devices with the names Desire and Hero set the tone. HTC’s struggles have been well documented, with the latest change of management that involves chairwoman Cher Wang taking the reins of CEO from Peter Chou, intended to put HTC on the right path.
On one hand the device has been welcomed as a return to form for HTC and one that bodes potential new directions for the company in terms of follow on devices like an M9 Plus tablet, but on the other hand critics have rounded on the camera on the device. When I first laid eyes on the HTC One M9 smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this month and spoke to HTC vice president Peter Frølund about craftsmanship, I had a sense that this would be the device that would divide the critics. The HTC One M9 smartphone, HTC’s flagship device, went on sale overnight in the US and hits the UK and Ireland next week.