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

[TheAngryDog]

Funk said:

Crafty_ said:

Funk said:

Add-ons: Knock On gesture-control feature, BoomSound speakers, microSD card slot, Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ ac)

What does add on mean exactly ? region based ?
will UK get the micro SD slot ?

I think it's just an 'Other Features' section. I c&p'd it. In that respect, it's likely all New Ones will be the same worldwide with the only variations being 'Google Edition' which is vanilla Android rather than Sense (and based on my experience with the Nexus 7, I quite like it although I do also like Sense). There were two versions of the One X but that was only in the US (we got the nVidia Tegra 3 chip over here, they got the Snapdragon S4 chip in the US on AT&T).

There were a few versions of the One in the Far East, but that's a lot to do with network compatibility etc rather than specs (although the Chinese one did have a removable cover and SD card slot as the internals for their variant took up less space).

I would think that the 'Add ons' section will be accurate for the UK, SD card slot has pretty much been confirmed (and about time too).

I dont like Sense, I dont think I've used any of its features and I hate Blinkfeed.

[bodhi]

Funk said:

If the specs are genuine on the benchmark, it looks like it'll give the Z2 a bloody nose.

Even though it's lower spec? Riiiiight.

[The Beaver King]

bodhi said:

Funk said:

If the specs are genuine on the benchmark, it looks like it'll give the Z2 a bloody nose.

Even though it's lower spec? Riiiiight.

Benchmarking isn't just about how much heat you're packing. You can have a massive processor and shed loads of RAM, yet still run slow against 'lower spec' models if your software is cack.

I've heard very good things about Sense and previously leaked benchmarks have this sat at the top of the pile. Still, until it's officially released, we won't know for sure.

[clonmult]

robsa said:

The Jolly Todger said:

I've had an HTC One since release and it is hands down the best phone I've ever had. I'll be picking up the M8 in June unless there is something spectacular out there to make me change course.

As for the camera on the HTC One: In real world situations (i.e. indoors, pubs etc. where most people use these cameras) it makes far more sense to have a lower pixel dense sensor as it will likely allow a far lower ISO and thus less noise. The people using it in good light and comparing 100% crops with higher MP cameras are demonstrating nothing useful about the camera and everything about how stupid they are. I'd like to know what people are doing with their phone cameras that require such high MP? Printing mural sized posters for their houses? 4MP is plenty for 16"x20" sized prints.

At last! Somebody else with a brain. It drives me nuts repeating this ad nauseum to people who just, basically, ignore you. "Yeah, but I heard the HTC One camera's st..."

The HTC One camera is okay, but nothing special. HTC genuinely don't appear to understand imaging.

Results from a Nokia 808 or 1020 leave the HTC One wondering why it ever bothered; in those cases they're collating the pixels to give useful low light results, way less noise than the One could ever achieve. And low light results tend to benefit from a flash with a useful range, not a useless little LED ....

Also, that additional resolution gives you flexibility in cropping, or to use some zoom while recording 1080p video.

It'll be interesting to see what HTC do produce with the M8, but sadly their imaging track record is hilariously off the mark. Which is a shame, as the One is a fantastic bit of hardware, way better looking and built than the various Samsung offerings.

[Funk]

bodhi said:

Funk said:

If the specs are genuine on the benchmark, it looks like it'll give the Z2 a bloody nose.

Even though it's lower spec? Riiiiight.

Not exactly comparable benchmarking but as per the bit of my post you deleted, we don't actually know yet.

Here's the Z2 benchmark with the Note 3:



There's no doubt the Z2 looks good though.

[bodhi]

To be fair, the Z1 Compact appears to be king of the benchmarks at the mo, same hardware as all the top dogs but only driving a 720p screen, has a massive benefit on the battery life side of things too.

Ignoring the petty interbrand bickering, it's a pretty damn good time to be after a high-end phone, all the manufacturers seem to have got their fingers out and are dishing out top notch kit with their own slant on it.

[robsa]

kooky guy said:

robsa said:

The Jolly Todger said:

I've had an HTC One since release and it is hands down the best phone I've ever had. I'll be picking up the M8 in June unless there is something spectacular out there to make me change course.

As for the camera on the HTC One: In real world situations (i.e. indoors, pubs etc. where most people use these cameras) it makes far more sense to have a lower pixel dense sensor as it will likely allow a far lower ISO and thus less noise. The people using it in good light and comparing 100% crops with higher MP cameras are demonstrating nothing useful about the camera and everything about how stupid they are. I'd like to know what people are doing with their phone cameras that require such high MP? Printing mural sized posters for their houses? 4MP is plenty for 16"x20" sized prints.
C

At last! Somebody else with a brain. It drives me nuts repeating this ad nauseum to people who just, basically, ignore you. "Yeah, but I heard the HTC One camera's st..."

I disagree. 4Mp means relatively tiny pictures that can't be expanded and cropped regardless of how pretty they look on a tiny screen. 4Mp in this day and age is just hopeless. Even my Desire HD is 6 and that's years old. I really hope they improve this as I was getting quite interested in this phone but this would be a major negative for me.

Sorry, but 4mp is fine for most users in most situations. It's absolutely fine on computer screens, and you can still print at A5 no problem. I'm not sure how much cropping you do, but I usually don't crop more than about ten percent.

In real world usage I have found the HTC ones camera resolution absolutely fine, and struggle to think of situations where I wished I had more pixels.

The amazing low light ability and blazing fast shutter speed far outweigh the relatively low pixel count.

Edited by robsa on Thursday 13th March 21:35

[robsa]

clonmult said:

robsa said:

The Jolly Todger said:

I've had an HTC One since release and it is hands down the best phone I've ever had. I'll be picking up the M8 in June unless there is something spectacular out there to make me change course.

As for the camera on the HTC One: In real world situations (i.e. indoors, pubs etc. where most people use these cameras) it makes far more sense to have a lower pixel dense sensor as it will likely allow a far lower ISO and thus less noise. The people using it in good light and comparing 100% crops with higher MP cameras are demonstrating nothing useful about the camera and everything about how stupid they are. I'd like to know what people are doing with their phone cameras that require such high MP? Printing mural sized posters for their houses? 4MP is plenty for 16"x20" sized prints.

At last! Somebody else with a brain. It drives me nuts repeating this ad nauseum to people who just, basically, ignore you. "Yeah, but I heard the HTC One camera's st..."

The HTC One camera is okay, but nothing special. HTC genuinely don't appear to understand imaging.

Results from a Nokia 808 or 1020 leave the HTC One wondering why it ever bothered; in those cases they're collating the pixels to give useful low light results, way less noise than the One could ever achieve. And low light results tend to benefit from a flash with a useful range, not a useless little LED ....

Also, that additional resolution gives you flexibility in cropping, or to use some zoom while recording 1080p video.

It'll be interesting to see what HTC do produce with the M8, but sadly their imaging track record is hilariously off the mark. Which is a shame, as the One is a fantastic bit of hardware, way better looking and built than the various Samsung offerings.

Sorry, but saying that HTCs track record on imaging is laughable is either naieve or misinformed. HTC has a great rep for its cameras. Comparing the HTC one to the 808 is comparing apples and oranges. The 1020 has a great camera, no doubt, but that doesn't mean the HTC ones is no good. Excellent low light sensitivity due to ultra pixels,an F2 lens and OIS mean the HTC one has a great camera. The man whose reviews I respect the most, Brian Klug from anandtech raved about it and I have to agree with him after using it for nearly a year now. I have had iPhones and galaxy phones which both took great pictures but my one is a better all round camera. I already conceded that one advantage more pixels give is cropping, but unless we are talking the equivalent of a 20x zoom, it's something I'm happy to trade for great low light ability.

Your comment about the 1020s manly flash... Using flash in most situations is a compromise, xenon or not. The HTCs ability to avoid using its flash produces far better low light images than any smartphones using a flash. And while you are still waiting for your 1020 to finish taking a picture, the HTC one will have taken five.

The 1020 has a great camera but don't knock HTCs cameras and expect to be taken seriously. The biggest problem with the one was the amount of problems they had with it.

Edited by robsa on Thursday 13th March 21:40

[clonmult]

robsa said:

clonmult said:

robsa said:

The Jolly Todger said:

I've had an HTC One since release and it is hands down the best phone I've ever had. I'll be picking up the M8 in June unless there is something spectacular out there to make me change course.

As for the camera on the HTC One: In real world situations (i.e. indoors, pubs etc. where most people use these cameras) it makes far more sense to have a lower pixel dense sensor as it will likely allow a far lower ISO and thus less noise. The people using it in good light and comparing 100% crops with higher MP cameras are demonstrating nothing useful about the camera and everything about how stupid they are. I'd like to know what people are doing with their phone cameras that require such high MP? Printing mural sized posters for their houses? 4MP is plenty for 16"x20" sized prints.

At last! Somebody else with a brain. It drives me nuts repeating this ad nauseum to people who just, basically, ignore you. "Yeah, but I heard the HTC One camera's st..."

The HTC One camera is okay, but nothing special. HTC genuinely don't appear to understand imaging.

Results from a Nokia 808 or 1020 leave the HTC One wondering why it ever bothered; in those cases they're collating the pixels to give useful low light results, way less noise than the One could ever achieve. And low light results tend to benefit from a flash with a useful range, not a useless little LED ....

Also, that additional resolution gives you flexibility in cropping, or to use some zoom while recording 1080p video.

It'll be interesting to see what HTC do produce with the M8, but sadly their imaging track record is hilariously off the mark. Which is a shame, as the One is a fantastic bit of hardware, way better looking and built than the various Samsung offerings.

Sorry, but saying that HTCs track record on imaging is laughable is either naieve or misinformed. HTC has a great rep for its cameras. Comparing the HTC one to the 808 is comparing apples and oranges. The 1020 has a great camera, no doubt, but that doesn't mean the HTC ones is no good. Excellent low light sensitivity due to ultra pixels,an F2 lens and OIS mean the HTC one has a great camera. The man whose reviews I respect the most, Brian Klug from anandtech raved about it and I have to agree with him after using it for nearly a year now. I have had iPhones and galaxy phones which both took great pictures but my one is a better all round camera. I already conceded that one advantage more pixels give is cropping, but unless we are talking the equivalent of a 20x zoom, it's something I'm happy to trade for great low light ability.

Your comment about the 1020s manly flash... Using flash in most situations is a compromise, xenon or not. The HTCs ability to avoid using its flash produces far better low light images than any smartphones using a flash. And while you are still waiting for your 1020 to finish taking a picture, the HTC one will have taken five.

The 1020 has a great camera but don't knock HTCs cameras and expect to be taken seriously. The biggest problem with the one was the amount of problems they had with it.

Edited by robsa on Thursday 13th March 21:40

No, aside from the One HTCs track record with cameras *is* laughably bad.

Those "ultrapixels" are the same size as Nokia used to put on the N95. Its just a marketing gimmick; the theory is sound, but the HTC implementation just isn't that great. It still generates overly noisy images considering their original claims.

The One camera is okay, but it is not great. It does have better low light sensitivity than many phones, but its still way behind the 1020, 920 or even the 808 in low light without a flash. This is not opinion, this is fact based on virtually every single review and having seen real world results.

And I would prefer to take one good picture than 5 average ones, but then that feature is something that HTC lifted directly from the old SE K800, isn't it .... ?

[The Beaver King]

Another leak; this time someone apparently selling a brand new 'HTC One' on Ebay:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-258...

Sorry for The Wail link

Still, the pictures look genuine and the specs seem to tie up with the current rumours. Interesting to note that the expandable memory is up to 128GB, awesome if true.

I'm glad they've managed to get the Snapdragon 801 as well, it means it should be on par with the competition.

Exciting days for top end smartphones at the minute. Now, which one to get...?

[TheAngryDog]

Looks like the official specs for this are now out.

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_2014-6074.php

[robsa]

clonmult said:

No, aside from the One HTCs track record with cameras *is* laughably bad.

Those "ultrapixels" are the same size as Nokia used to put on the N95. Its just a marketing gimmick; the theory is sound, but the HTC implementation just isn't that great. It still generates overly noisy images considering their original claims.

The One camera is okay, but it is not great. It does have better low light sensitivity than many phones, but its still way behind the 1020, 920 or even the 808 in low light without a flash. This is not opinion, this is fact based on virtually every single review and having seen real world results.

And I would prefer to take one good picture than 5 average ones, but then that feature is something that HTC lifted directly from the old SE K800, isn't it .... ?

HTC One X camera was also excellent. Ultrapixels are absolutely not a marketing gimmick; in fact HTCs decision to sacrifice pixel count for other advantages generally worked against them. Overly noisy images? Cant say I have experienced that with mine, of course, they take photos where others smartphone cameras can't.

[clonmult]

robsa said:

HTC One X camera was also excellent. Ultrapixels are absolutely not a marketing gimmick; in fact HTCs decision to sacrifice pixel count for other advantages generally worked against them. Overly noisy images? Cant say I have experienced that with mine, of course, they take photos where others smartphone cameras can't.

I'm comparing it to the 808 and to a lesser extent the 1020, both of which comprehensively better the One in every possible a - oi. Ultrapixels are a marketing gimmick - they're the same size pixels that Nokia put in the N95 many years back.

The One possibly gets close to the 920 in low light, but the One and the 920 both take the longer exposure route to low light imaging - sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't - on the 1020 you have the choice of no flash long exposure or flash with slightly longer than normal exposure.

And as I found out recently, the 1020 also supports a burst mode in exactly the same way as the HTC Zoe application (its the MS Blink application).

[robsa]

clonmult said:

Ultrapixels are a marketing gimmick - they're the same size pixels that Nokia put in the N95 many years back.
And as I found out recently, the 1020 also supports a burst mode in exactly the same way as the HTC Zoe application (its the MS Blink application).

Ultrapixels are not a gimmick, just because Nokia put them on an old phone in the past has no bearing on that. They would be a gimmick if they had no effect, but they do.

Just because the Nokia camera it's better does not mean the HTC camera is bad. As I have already said, I have had three iPhones, a number of Samsung galaxies and notes, and whilst they all took good photos I think my htc ones is better generally.

You think the Nokia is amazing, I get it. I haven't used the Nokia, I love the 1520, but the OS looks like it may be facing imminent extinction due to Microsoft's failure to attract more manufacturers to use it and that is why I wouldn't get one.

[Funk]

OK, so we're a couple of days away from the big announcement... I'm officially into my upgrade period so have to choose a phone....to sell straight on so I can raise some cash for the new phone (highly likely to be the New One at this stage if I'm honest).

I currently enjoy T-Mobile's Employee Call which is a 50% discount on everything for life. Not bad. However, with the merging of T-M and Orange under EE, I have a few options open to me.

1) Do nothing, stay on the same plan, same discounts etc, which are:

1200 mins
Unlimited text
1.5Gb 3G (uncapped, but throttled past 1.5Gb)
08 numbers included in minutes
Tethering, VOIP
30 mins of international calls included in my talktime

I'd keep the same phone (hahahahahaha - yeah...) and it'll continue to cost me £23 a month.

2) Get a new phone on T-Mobile. I'd keep the Employee Call but it drops to only 30% discount if I do this. I'd get a new phone and whatever tariff I choose. Apparently 08 numbers aren't included any more, it's a 'bolt-on' which I can pay for (with 30% discount still).

3) Migrate to EE. I'd get a 4G plan (although 4G isn't quite in my area yet, it's close) and I can port the Employee Call but it's now 40% discount. I need to check it's also 'for life' and not 'for the life of the new contract'. I'll get a new phone and probably go on the 4GEE Extra 10Gb which is unlimted everything with 10Gb data allowance. With the discount it'll come in around £31/mo.

I swore that I'd never take a 'network' handset again after the kerfuffle getting my One X to do what I wanted. I was fed up with waiting for T-M's version of the HTC build which, without fail, was sttier and simply contained bloatware. I couldn't update my hboot (had to wait for T-M to do it OTA) - suffice to say I want a 'pure' build from the manufacturer.

So my plan is this; migrate to EE (assuming it all checks out and I won't lose the Employee Call after 24 months) and take a new phone which I'll sell without even opening it. I want the tariff whatever phone I use and the discount I receive pretty much pays for the phone over the contract anyway. I'll take the cash from the brand new phone and add it to the money from the sale of the One X. These seem to still be fetching £120+ on eBay. I'll combine the two and purchase a new phone SIM-free.

My question is this; what's the best phone I can get that I don't want? I'm looking for one with instant 'sale appeal'. What would you recommend?

[Polarbert]

I'd say the best currently would be the Xperia Z1, or the Nexus 5. My father has the latter and has been over the moon with it. I've no doubt that you'd be able to shift that easily. Also, as far as I know there is no Nexus 5 replacement coming for a while so it is still the best in that range (google phones)

[Funk]

I don't think EE do the N5. They certainly have the Z1 though.

[RizzoTheRat]

For resale value I'd have thought an iPhone, they go for crazy money on eBay.

[Funk]

IPhone will cost me a lot to get in order to sell...

[RizzoTheRat]

Good point. Do you have to take the contract direct with the network? When I looked a carphone wehousea while back the boogie claimed they supply unbranded phones, which seems to be backed up by many online companies offering me a Z1 compact on Vodaphone when I can't get one through Vodaphone.