HTC One M9 – first impressions

Just before the start of this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​HTC has enabled us to an hour or two try their year’s flagship model One M9. In short it could be described as an upgraded M8 One, so as to comply with all relevant remarks that users had with last year’s strong points that Taiwanese manufacturers. HTC One M9 looks, indeed, almost identical to the M8 (and thus M7), but brings significant improvements to the rear and front cameras, accommodation and physical capacitive buttons, sound reproduction and stability in visual display images with, of course, modernized chipset.

In particular, HTC One M9 comes with a 5-inch Super LCD 3 display with Full HD resolution, covered with Gorilla Glass 4 and is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 with the latest quad-core pair – one running at 2 GHz, and the other running at 1.5 GHz . There is also Adreno 430 graphics and 3 GB of RAM with 32 GB of memory for data storage, expandable with microSD cards. Front and rear cameras are literally changed places compared to the previous model, with an increase in resolution to one that is now the back and may firing large photos up to 20.7 megapixels. Selfie camera has become one previously known 4-UltraPixelna and, as far as we were able to try out, has not experienced any significant upgrades.

The device looks exactly the same as its predecessors, but it is impossible to live at the first touch (even if only at first glance) do not feel an extra level of premium finishes with what comes. We tested the model with a silver background that had edges of metal golden color, but in spite of this difference in the color of the background and the edge (and the texture of the metal), it is a single piece of metal, therefore the thoroughbred uni-body chassis. This unusual way of performance, with a shade thinner rim of the screen on the front and feel greater strength and reliability are the reason that the HTC One M9 by many criteria smartphone that offers the greatest feeling of premium class – when it comes to devices with Android OS- a.

Thankfully relocationing Power button from the top edge of the phone to the right edge, the height of the thumb, which is a more natural position. The upper edge of the device now covers the black glass mask under which the IR emitter, as well as a number of antennas and sensors.

Interestingly, the phone is an one millimeter shorter and narrower than its predecessor. It feels slightly heavier in the hand, but not in terms of mass no significant changes over its predecessor, is commendable that the HTC managed in such a case to incorporate a battery of larger capacity, of 2900 mAh (compared an 2600) mAh. Due to the new chipset, new Android OS and the new Sense UI, and the same screen resolution, it is expected that in practice, the difference be appreciable than on paper.

The new Qualcomm eight core chipset with Android 5.0.1 (Lollipoo) and HTC Sense UI 7.0 provides total fluidity, which is anyway in accordance with all expectations. As this chipset supports LTE and Cat 6, it is clear that the space for “lags” are not left even when the phone is used exclusively on the network operator when no Wi-Fi. Indeed everything goes very smoothly and quickly, with a particularly good feeling above average precise response to moves with fingers on the screen.

What we were particularly interested in the stability of the sharpness of an image is displayed on the screen, since the screen – judging by the official specifications – remained unchanged. Like the One M8, the pixel density by Full HD resolution is 441 ppi what brings no improvement on this device. Last year HTC’s flagship, in fact, excellent sharpness offered only with still images, while when moving thin oblique lines, especially when it came to the text with a thinner fonts, the sharpness lost and see a kind of flickering when moving text up or down. Now that unpleasant effect has gone nad screen really offers exceptional sharpness in every situation.

The display contrast is very stable and offers quite a wide viewing angle with a very bright white tones, but not quite completely dark black tones, but with a pleasing effect of real saturated color. To that extent it may effectively part of the user to look AMOLED screens, but HTC One M9 to the second part of users could be more comfortable and less tiring for the eyes.

The biggest step forward for the better in comparison to the predecessor was not repaired stability sharpness of the picture, but – cameras. Controversial UItraPixel cameras offer extremely good results in difficult lighting conditions, but also extremely low resolution for one flagship, from only 4 megapixels. Trends in the market today are such that those are the ideal characteristics for Selfie camera and it’s great that the HTC responded to this trend and that camera is now located at the front of the appliance. Therefore, HTC One M9 really works selfies who are among the best on the market when it comes to night shots and shooting indoors.

Behind the now 20-megapixel sensor, so the camera image that works five times larger format which, despite poor qualitative capacity for night shooting, really very big step forward. Finally the HTC flagship model has a respectable pair of cameras, exactly as users expect.

Improvement was made and in terms of sound reproduction, where the manufacturer already recorded good results before. Now BoomSound comes with Dolby. Maybe it’s finesse you will feel just as a true audiophiles, but each technological advance on FlagShip means migration of already existing good technical solutions in the mid-range device class.

Finally, HTC One M9 is modernized in software terms. It comes with the latest Android OS and the latest Sense UI from HTC. In principle some remarkable differences of this user interface compared to what last year and do not exist, but are reduced to a series of practical whatnot. One of the best is what is happening now with the usual three capacitive buttons can add a fourth, which serves to remove the tape with capacitive keys, which is extremely useful, given that these buttons are located below the screen, but take part in it. Thus in moments while we do not need them, that part of the screen can be freed up for useful content, and “call” them back when we move our finger from down to the up at the bottom of the screen.

HTC One M9 is, you could conclude, greatly improved HTC One M8 or HTC’s flagship made for and, in some extent, by the users. In the markets all around the world will appear already during March. (我回顾中国手机)