The 'All New HTC One" (aka the M8)

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Two days in on 5.0 and it's brilliant, can't fault it.

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Medic-one said:

Apparently I can download the 5.0 lollipop version of android on my M8.

Anyone got it yet and knows if it's any good ?

Erm...can you scroll up a bit and back a page?

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Mine's been great on 5.0 as well, sorry to hear some are having issues though.

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I can't say I noticed any issues with WiFi on mine but with the recent arrival of decent 4g in my manor it's faster to stay on data...

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Yeah, definitely something not right there. Mine's still completely clear and it's just over a year old now.

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Rachie said:

Does anyone know an app that can stop these so annoying pop ups please?

Hey Rachie!

Get this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....

See if it finds any malicious apps and have a clear out.

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I looked at the S6 and have to say that as a fellow HTC fan I'm now also tempted to go Samsung next time. The M9 hasn't moved the game on at all (in some respects it's a backwards step).

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The M9 is a 'normal' 20MP camera but it's still been panned compared to the competition. HTC just can't get cameras 'right'.

I had a look at the S6 Edge in-store and it's a lovely bit of kit. Have a nagging feeling that screen would be a pain to live with in the long term though.

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VEA said:

Should we have a general which Android phone thread rather than using the M8 one? I'm beginning to think about an upgrade soon.

I think there are so many options stuff would get lost in the noise... Usually a new phone gets a thread made about it, especially 'premium' ones.

Maybe narrow it down a little yourself and post something with 3-4 of your contenders? I'm sure owners will bundle in with their thoughts and feedback?

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Could someone using Smart Lock test something for me? I have SL enabled for home but the method of manually forcing a lock (long press on lock icon when on the lock screen) isn't working. When I press the padlock, it simply gives me the little animated arrow indicating to 'swipe up'. It would be useful to be able to lock the phone when needed; it works on the N7 tablet so I'm wondering whether HTC's meddling means you can't manually lock using SL?

Cheers.

Edit: Solved it myself - having any app enabled under Accessibility > Services seems to interfere. Disabling all of those allows the lock to function again. Weird!

Edited by Funk on Sunday 28th June 04:43

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As probably the biggest HTC fanboy here, I'm thinking of jumping ship next time too. I've also had a minor issue with the power button sticking but that's not the reason. HTC hit a sweet spot with design and features which shamed nearly every other phone maker bar Apple. The others have upped their game whilst HTC got lazy.

What I'll go to next I'm not sure. Possibly the S6 (or 7 if it's out) but I'll also take a good look at LG next time too, HTC need something special to survive and given their current financial woes, I don't see it happening.

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_reports_grim_financial...

AJB88 said:

Had my M8 for ages now and love it but always annoyed me all the HTC bloatware on it (I use Google Now launcher, Google keyboard etc) so today I have fettled with it and converted it to a Google Play Edition phone.

I previously had a Nexus 5, First impressions are the HTC version of Lollipop is pants compared the the original version. Really glad I swapped.

Weirdly I thought about doing this the other day. I see it's now possible to go S-Off on the M8 and the fundamental PITA with swapping ROMs on an S-On phone was the inability to alter the underlying hboot meaning one still had to revert back to (as it was then) T-Mobile builds in order to get hboot updates... Mine's an EE phone (rather than a 'stock' HTC) so I probably have an EE version of the hboot.

AIUI, would it be a case of get S-Off, root, install custom recovery and backup, install custom hboot and then install the stock Google Play Edition for M8?

I'm a little wary of doing it as it's meddling deeper with the phone than I've ever done before and I'm concerned the potential for bork is high.

Edited by Funk on Monday 13th July 15:51

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AJB88 said:

It should be that simple, you might have to flash the unbranded firmware first not sure though.


Mine did an official GPE OTA update the other day

Did you need to go S-Off?

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Cool, thanks for that. From researching, the only one that seems to work reliably is Sunshine and it's worth it.

I'm not unhappy with my One M8 as it is, it's been the best phone I've had. I even like Sense and there's no bloatware from EE. I just hate waiting for EE's updates.

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AJB88 said:

Funk said:

Cool, thanks for that. From researching, the only one that seems to work reliably is Sunshine and it's worth it.

I'm not unhappy with my One M8 as it is, it's been the best phone I've had. I even like Sense and there's no bloatware from EE. I just hate waiting for EE's updates.

Yeh Sunshine was what I used.


I really like my HTC One M8 as well easily best phone I've had, Previous to this I've had iPhone 3GS, Galaxy S1, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Nexus 5.

But since the S5 I missed the stock Android feel so the HTC One M8 with GPE is perfect for me. Plus the interface looks alot nicer on GPE than Sense.

Wasn't your S5 running TouchWiz?

I have stock Android on my Nexus 7 2013 so I know how the M8 would feel with GPE - possibly why I'm not rushing to do it, on reflection. I know what it'll be like and as mentioned, I quite like Sense...

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Yeah, I'm not sure it would work - not beacause of the curve but because the M8 is an aluminium body and I may be wrong but that's not going to work with a magnet is it?

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Otispunkmeyer said:

Anyone elses battery tanked?

I used to finish the day with anything from 30-50% battery. Now I'm limping along on < 10% regularly now.

Not sure what gives. I check the battery history and often see that the cellular module has been burning the juice. I put that down to crappy signal around here.

But then also random apps like FitBit, which I never ever use are showing at the top of the list for battery usage. Makes no sense and you can't get rid of it (I tried, then it just auto-updated and redownloaded itself at the next bunch of auto updates).

Android OS and Google Services are also big culprits for screen off power use.

To be honest, my little excursion to Android is likely to be just that. Its quite nice to have the flexibility but I just can't get on with how fragmented or duplicitous things can be. On my phone there are two lots of music players, document readers and photo browsers because I don't like the bundled HTC ones and use googles own. I also hate how HTC's gallery literally puts every image, including emoticons, in its own folder! I have 100's of folders containing just one image. Friggin annoying.

And thats before we get to the chugging. For a phone with a 2.2 GHz quad core CPU and 2 Gigs of RAM, the amount of chugging and periods of sluggishness is rather off putting.

Running smoothly here... You can go into the Apps and force stop and then disable things like Fitbit if you never use it?

Apps > Swipe across to 'All' > Fitbit > "Force Stop" and "Disable"

It'll throw a hissy fit about stuff not working properly but it's fine to nuke.

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hornetrider said:

Has anyone else ever seen the weird white boot screen? Mine's done it twice now. You have to use volume buttons to cycle boot options and select with power button. Not sure why it's happened either...

This one (Google image)

Edited by hornetrider on Monday 20th July 21:03

You've accidentally pressed and held 'Power' and 'Volume Down'. That causes the phone to reboot and enter the bootloader.

Do you have a sticking power button perhaps?

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hornetrider said:

Ah that's interesting as both times have been when I pulled it out of my pocket. Obviously my chunky thighs are mashing the buttons... at least it's nothing more serious. No buttons are sticking anyway.

Is a bit scary is so easy to trigger. I'd be pissed if it SIM locked out factory reset on me.

It isn't easy to trigger though; mine's never done it and you have to hold both buttons for around 10 seconds...

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NordicCrankShaft said:

Samsung seem to sorted their st out and stopped making their premium phones from plastic I might be tempted to switch over.

They have to a degree although I'm still not sold on TouchWiz.

Really not sure what my next phone move will be now but I'm underwhelmed by the M9. Might look to one of the newer crowd such as One Plus One or similar and see what's about...

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I'm going to be jumping ship to the new Nexus 6P at some stage. I get a ridiculous deal with EE on my contract phone and they're adding it to the list of devices they supply. I'm waiting to see whether they're going to bork it with their own firmware and crud - I suspect and hope not as the entire point of Nexus phones is that they run pure, unadulterated Android and I can't see Google letting EE fk with it...