The 'All New HTC One" (aka the M8)
Discussion
I'm back in two minds again. That deal is ridiculously good, even with a 16Gb phone. Might take it and stuff a 64Gb card in it (7DayShop have Class 10 microSD for £24), roll with it for 6 months and sell it when the 32Gb comes out - then buy a network unlocked stock version with the proceeds. I reckon it'll still be worth £400 in 6 months' time and I'll get £100-120 for my One X as well which I can bank.
Argh... decisions!
Argh... decisions!
Funk said:
I'm back in two minds again. That deal is ridiculously good, even with a 16Gb phone. Might take it and stuff a 64Gb card in it (7DayShop have Class 10 microSD for £24), roll with it for 6 months and sell it when the 32Gb comes out - then buy a network unlocked stock version with the proceeds. I reckon it'll still be worth £400 in 6 months' time and I'll get £100-120 for my One X as well which I can bank.
Argh... decisions!
If its launched simfree at £470 ish (network dependant) then it might be worth slight less in 6 monthsArgh... decisions!
Three are currently selling it for £459.99+£10 top up and the phones come unlocked apparently.
http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices/HTC/One_M8...
Mr.Jimbo said:
If it helps, I'm pissed off as well, Vodafone online assistant told me yesterday that it was 10th April, but lo and behold you can order one now!
Anyone have any experience of 4g in the Midlands, is 4g anywhere really worth it?
Been on 4G here in Brum for a couple of weeks here on 3,huge speed improvement on a M7, looking at this thread I know what I'll be getting next.Anyone have any experience of 4g in the Midlands, is 4g anywhere really worth it?
Cheers Rigga, sounds promising. I was always a bit dissapointed in the internet speed of anything less than HSDPA on my M7, I think 4g covers most of where I am.
Going to ring Vodafone today and play the disconnect card, hopefully get a better deal.
Been looking at prices for the One X (as I have one too!) and you'd struggle to get £120 for it now I think (are you thinking eBay?) as the best I've found is about £90.
Going to ring Vodafone today and play the disconnect card, hopefully get a better deal.
Been looking at prices for the One X (as I have one too!) and you'd struggle to get £120 for it now I think (are you thinking eBay?) as the best I've found is about £90.
This is a neat idea from HTC - allowing you to use basic functionality without taking the cover off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7n34bkF-Ew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7n34bkF-Ew
I'm going to keep the one that's coming today. It's too good a tariff to pass up and I would resent paying my monthly charge without 'something' to show for it. I'm about to order a 64Gb card and I already have the Dot Matrix case on order from Expansys, should ship tomorrow all being well.
Re. the One X, yes, I was looking at Sold Listings on eBay for a 32Gb One X, network unlocked. Mine's in excellent condition and I have the car dock to go with it (the one I bought from melhook). Might keep it as a backup for the time being. I'll post some pics of the new phone when it gets here.
Re. the One X, yes, I was looking at Sold Listings on eBay for a 32Gb One X, network unlocked. Mine's in excellent condition and I have the car dock to go with it (the one I bought from melhook). Might keep it as a backup for the time being. I'll post some pics of the new phone when it gets here.
durbster said:
This is a neat idea from HTC - allowing you to use basic functionality without taking the cover off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7n34bkF-Ew
That looks very cool indeed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7n34bkF-Ew
According to one review I read the double tap thing (to wake up the phone) only works when in your had which is pretty pointless, I imagine that most people would want to use that function whilst its laying on a desk.
ascayman said:
durbster said:
This is a neat idea from HTC - allowing you to use basic functionality without taking the cover off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7n34bkF-Ew
That looks very cool indeed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7n34bkF-Ew
According to one review I read the double tap thing (to wake up the phone) only works when in your had which is pretty pointless, I imagine that most people would want to use that function whilst its laying on a desk.
Double tap to wake has been around for years, first implementation that I'm aware of was on the Nokia N9, and it has been implemented on WP (by Nokia).
So way to go HTC, copying things that have been around for a while ...
But that dot case does look pretty cool.
Right, I'm home and got all the other flim-flam out the way.
So the phone arrived this morning, stuck it on charge and left it all day. It comes nicely packaged, despite being lightweight (read 'eco-friendly') packaging, it still feels like a premium product. The phone itself is, frankly, stunning. The finish is exquisite in the metal, I went for the 'Gun Metal Grey'. It has a nice weight to it, not too much to be heavy or cumbersome, but enough to know you're holding something worth holding. The edges aren't as sharp as the original One, it's softer-edged and more curvy. Lovely as the original One is, the M8 is nicer in the hand, if a little slippery without a case (a firm gel case came in the box, along with the appropriate charger and headphones).
Fired up, the screen is stunning. Perfect size imo, anything more moves you into 'phablet' realms so I'm glad I chose not to wait for the Oppo (5.5"). The quality of the screen is great, it's bright, clear and the colours are great - I've often found the various Samsungs I've played with to be a bit gaudy and overly-vibrant.
This thing is FAST. I mean properly, no-lag, whip-crack fast. It just reacts instantly. I was downloading my apps from the Market (sorry, 'Google Play Store') on 4G and it was insane. From clicking 'Install' to the app being downloaded and installed we're talking seconds. The only time it lagged (and I can't blame it for this) was when I dumped the 500+ pictures across from my old phone and it had to make thumbnails of them all. A one-time operation on that scale and hell, even my i7 laptop lags when generating thumbnails in a grid view of all the pictures I have on it...
Incidentally I ran a speedtest on 4G and got 34mb down, 5mb up - impressive but pointless in my view, I can't imagine where I'll need to use that kind of speed. If I'm honest, I think that the networks are using this as a 'differentiator'. Unlimited texts and calls are the norm, what else do they have to shout about? 'Coverage' is a bit dubious at best - we all know where our local signal blackspots are - but speed...? That's something that everyone understands and is easy to 'sell'. I don't need 34mb download on my phone, let alone the 60 I'm told I can theoretically get I stand in the right place and go all 'Lion King'. I'd rather have more consistent 3G coverage than 4G.
There's coverage where I work but not yet where I live. However, when I'm at home, I'm on my fibre connection via wifi anyway so it's not really an issue.
The sound from the speakers is mind-blowing for such a small device. I'm a bit of an audio snob and am impressed how rich the speakers sound. It'll be absolutely fine for films or YouTube, and if you're stuck for any other source of audio, it's perfectly listenable. Better than anything else I've heard before from a phone. From what I can see, battery life is going to be excellent. I took the phone off charge when I left the office at 17:30 and despite lots of Shiny New Toy Fiddling including setting everything up for syncing, downloading and setting up my apps, running some videos and music to test it, it was still on 83% when I plugged it in to charge again about 15 minutes ago. The screen's been on a lot, so very impressive - I think the claims about 40% improvement are legit. Charging seems fast, it's supposedly capable of charging to 80% in an hour which seems about right from what I've seen. Not as quick as the Oppo Find 7 claims to be (75% in 30 mins!) but good enough.
There are a few things that I miss from my ARHD'd One X around the way the phone works. It's been so long since I used a stock HTC build, I can't really remember what's standard and what's modded. One of the things I've noticed is the 'stay awake when charging' option which I used to use all the time - nice to have the phone on but charging on the desk. Speaking of which, I mentioned earlier that the tap-to-wake works on a desk; it seems to be that sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I'd suspect that it's because I've moved the phone slightly whilst tapping it, so it thinks it's been picked up. I can see why they've done it that way as the potential for accidentally turning the screen would be quite high. I've found a simple nudge followed by multi-tap is enough to make it spring to life without needing to pick it up though.
The camera seems to be a hot topic on many of the review sites I've read. As far as I'm concerned, it's absolutely fine. That said, take my comments with a pinch of salt as I've already stated earlier in this thread that my demands from the camera aren't that high. I use it for the odd snap here and there but I know others will be more exacting as to what they're looking for. I have a Canon DSLR if I want to take my next Pulitzer-winner, for day-to-day photos the phone is great. It also seems to take pictures where the One X won't. The images are a little noisier, but when you compare to the dark, under-exposed picture taken on the One X it's more than acceptable. The camera has a load of post-processing options, 99% of which I'm sure I'll never use. I'm sure others will give better comment on the camera overall than I but ultimately it is more than sufficient for my requirement.
Sense 6 is very nice. And that's pretty much all that can be said about it. I was running a One version of Sense 5 on my One X (ie. one that technically wasn't ever released for the One X, I was running ARHD 4.2.2. One of the things I miss is the 'rippling' effect when scrolling through Blinkfeed, Sense 6 is a 'flat' interface. I thought I'd hate Blinkfeed when I read about it, but I have to concede it's actually been very interesting to have - I've read more news and articles that I'd never have found otherwise thanks to them appearing in the feed. I like it.
The usual Google junk is included (Play This, Play That, Play The Other) and some HTC app thing, HTC Backup and HTC Guide, all of which I'll also never use. I got a free 50Gb bump on Google Drive for two years (taking me to 75Gb for free in total) although Google do trick you into having to sign in with a Google PLUS account (not just a regular Google account), presumably to bolster their 'uptake' and 'engagement' numbers for it this quarter. I went straight in and deleted my G+ profile after - I think part of my objection to it is that I don't want it, yet Google seem to keep trying to foist it upon me. Forcing me to have it will not make me a) use it or b) love it. In fact, it's the opposite. I no longer leave app feedback on the Play Store. I don't comment on YouTube (although that was rare, to be fair). I HAVE to have a G+ profile to do that? Y'know what? I won't bother then. Anyway, enough about Google+.
What else? The single, tiny notification LED is still poor - it was on the One X (and I assume the One, too). It's not prominent enough to catch your eye that you've missed a message/text/email. The Nexus 7 has a lovely pulsing light built in at the base under the screen, the One M8 needs something like that (perhaps make the HTC logo there pulse?). The Oppo Find 7 has that lovely 'skyline' notification light - if they can do it, HTC can too...
I had a play with the TV remote/IR blaster - clever, but I'll never use it. It's quicker to pick up the normal remote from the coffee table, I could do what I wanted ten times over by the time I'd have picked up the phone, unlocked it, scrolled to the app, launched it, selected the device I want to control... You get the idea.
I've read in a couple of places that the 32Gb may not make it to the UK. At first I thought it was a bit stupid but given one can add up to 128Gb more to the phone, what more do you really need? I've ordered a 64Gb Kingston card which will take me to 80Gb (probably 75Gb after system space etc). And with 75Gb on Google Drive, 50Gb on Box etc and a good connection, I think that'll be sufficient.
My 'Dot Matrix' case is on its way and should be here Monday. Looking forward to having a play with that. I'm sure there's more to find out about the phone and that's sometimes the joy of it; finding something you didn't know it did.
With regard to my earlier comments around an 'EE' build, there's very little to give away that it's not stock HTC. The only stuff that's 'EE'ified is the inclusion of the 'My EE' app (which I had anyway on my One X) and the homepage on the Internet app was set to EE. That's it. There's no EE splash screen when the phone boots, it's straight to the HTC One screen. I'm sure that it IS an EE build but the only time that was a pain on the One X was when I wanted to go to Android 4.2.2 and needed the hboot updating....which had to come from T-Mobile. Even then, T-Mobile never released the ROM I'm running so there are reasons behind why it matters to me.
I'd see the main competitors to this being, in no particular order, LG's G2, the Sony Xperia Z2, the Oppo Find 7 and the S5 and do I wish I'd waited for any of them? No. Even if I weren't a long-time HTC user, I'd still be drooling over the machined aluminium case and overall tactility. On looks and feel alone, I don't think there's anything else on the market to touch it. The one concession I'll make to the Sony and Samsung is their IP ratings - I think this might be a big factor for some users.
However, 'HTC One (M8)'? Really? That's the best they could come up with? They did kind of paint themselves into a corner when they went with 'One' though.
It's enough of a leap on from the One to be worth making too, let alone from the One X (and I suspect many of us taking delivery of our M8s will be One X owners). Overall I'm very impressed and pleased with the phone, I think HTC have another winner on their hands following the success of the original One. I'm also gobsmacked that HTC managed to keep the production under such tight wraps, allowing them to go from announcement on the 25th to orders later that day and delivery from the 26th onward. Very, very impressive. They needed to get out ahead of Samsung with the S5 as that's the biggest threat in my view, I hope it translates into a sales success for them.
I'm going to run it for a little while longer, make sure there's nothing that would require a warranty claim and then I'm going to root it to get rid of the ads.
Nicely played, HTC. Very nicely played indeed.
So the phone arrived this morning, stuck it on charge and left it all day. It comes nicely packaged, despite being lightweight (read 'eco-friendly') packaging, it still feels like a premium product. The phone itself is, frankly, stunning. The finish is exquisite in the metal, I went for the 'Gun Metal Grey'. It has a nice weight to it, not too much to be heavy or cumbersome, but enough to know you're holding something worth holding. The edges aren't as sharp as the original One, it's softer-edged and more curvy. Lovely as the original One is, the M8 is nicer in the hand, if a little slippery without a case (a firm gel case came in the box, along with the appropriate charger and headphones).
Fired up, the screen is stunning. Perfect size imo, anything more moves you into 'phablet' realms so I'm glad I chose not to wait for the Oppo (5.5"). The quality of the screen is great, it's bright, clear and the colours are great - I've often found the various Samsungs I've played with to be a bit gaudy and overly-vibrant.
This thing is FAST. I mean properly, no-lag, whip-crack fast. It just reacts instantly. I was downloading my apps from the Market (sorry, 'Google Play Store') on 4G and it was insane. From clicking 'Install' to the app being downloaded and installed we're talking seconds. The only time it lagged (and I can't blame it for this) was when I dumped the 500+ pictures across from my old phone and it had to make thumbnails of them all. A one-time operation on that scale and hell, even my i7 laptop lags when generating thumbnails in a grid view of all the pictures I have on it...
Incidentally I ran a speedtest on 4G and got 34mb down, 5mb up - impressive but pointless in my view, I can't imagine where I'll need to use that kind of speed. If I'm honest, I think that the networks are using this as a 'differentiator'. Unlimited texts and calls are the norm, what else do they have to shout about? 'Coverage' is a bit dubious at best - we all know where our local signal blackspots are - but speed...? That's something that everyone understands and is easy to 'sell'. I don't need 34mb download on my phone, let alone the 60 I'm told I can theoretically get I stand in the right place and go all 'Lion King'. I'd rather have more consistent 3G coverage than 4G.
There's coverage where I work but not yet where I live. However, when I'm at home, I'm on my fibre connection via wifi anyway so it's not really an issue.
The sound from the speakers is mind-blowing for such a small device. I'm a bit of an audio snob and am impressed how rich the speakers sound. It'll be absolutely fine for films or YouTube, and if you're stuck for any other source of audio, it's perfectly listenable. Better than anything else I've heard before from a phone. From what I can see, battery life is going to be excellent. I took the phone off charge when I left the office at 17:30 and despite lots of Shiny New Toy Fiddling including setting everything up for syncing, downloading and setting up my apps, running some videos and music to test it, it was still on 83% when I plugged it in to charge again about 15 minutes ago. The screen's been on a lot, so very impressive - I think the claims about 40% improvement are legit. Charging seems fast, it's supposedly capable of charging to 80% in an hour which seems about right from what I've seen. Not as quick as the Oppo Find 7 claims to be (75% in 30 mins!) but good enough.
There are a few things that I miss from my ARHD'd One X around the way the phone works. It's been so long since I used a stock HTC build, I can't really remember what's standard and what's modded. One of the things I've noticed is the 'stay awake when charging' option which I used to use all the time - nice to have the phone on but charging on the desk. Speaking of which, I mentioned earlier that the tap-to-wake works on a desk; it seems to be that sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I'd suspect that it's because I've moved the phone slightly whilst tapping it, so it thinks it's been picked up. I can see why they've done it that way as the potential for accidentally turning the screen would be quite high. I've found a simple nudge followed by multi-tap is enough to make it spring to life without needing to pick it up though.
The camera seems to be a hot topic on many of the review sites I've read. As far as I'm concerned, it's absolutely fine. That said, take my comments with a pinch of salt as I've already stated earlier in this thread that my demands from the camera aren't that high. I use it for the odd snap here and there but I know others will be more exacting as to what they're looking for. I have a Canon DSLR if I want to take my next Pulitzer-winner, for day-to-day photos the phone is great. It also seems to take pictures where the One X won't. The images are a little noisier, but when you compare to the dark, under-exposed picture taken on the One X it's more than acceptable. The camera has a load of post-processing options, 99% of which I'm sure I'll never use. I'm sure others will give better comment on the camera overall than I but ultimately it is more than sufficient for my requirement.
Sense 6 is very nice. And that's pretty much all that can be said about it. I was running a One version of Sense 5 on my One X (ie. one that technically wasn't ever released for the One X, I was running ARHD 4.2.2. One of the things I miss is the 'rippling' effect when scrolling through Blinkfeed, Sense 6 is a 'flat' interface. I thought I'd hate Blinkfeed when I read about it, but I have to concede it's actually been very interesting to have - I've read more news and articles that I'd never have found otherwise thanks to them appearing in the feed. I like it.
The usual Google junk is included (Play This, Play That, Play The Other) and some HTC app thing, HTC Backup and HTC Guide, all of which I'll also never use. I got a free 50Gb bump on Google Drive for two years (taking me to 75Gb for free in total) although Google do trick you into having to sign in with a Google PLUS account (not just a regular Google account), presumably to bolster their 'uptake' and 'engagement' numbers for it this quarter. I went straight in and deleted my G+ profile after - I think part of my objection to it is that I don't want it, yet Google seem to keep trying to foist it upon me. Forcing me to have it will not make me a) use it or b) love it. In fact, it's the opposite. I no longer leave app feedback on the Play Store. I don't comment on YouTube (although that was rare, to be fair). I HAVE to have a G+ profile to do that? Y'know what? I won't bother then. Anyway, enough about Google+.
What else? The single, tiny notification LED is still poor - it was on the One X (and I assume the One, too). It's not prominent enough to catch your eye that you've missed a message/text/email. The Nexus 7 has a lovely pulsing light built in at the base under the screen, the One M8 needs something like that (perhaps make the HTC logo there pulse?). The Oppo Find 7 has that lovely 'skyline' notification light - if they can do it, HTC can too...
I had a play with the TV remote/IR blaster - clever, but I'll never use it. It's quicker to pick up the normal remote from the coffee table, I could do what I wanted ten times over by the time I'd have picked up the phone, unlocked it, scrolled to the app, launched it, selected the device I want to control... You get the idea.
I've read in a couple of places that the 32Gb may not make it to the UK. At first I thought it was a bit stupid but given one can add up to 128Gb more to the phone, what more do you really need? I've ordered a 64Gb Kingston card which will take me to 80Gb (probably 75Gb after system space etc). And with 75Gb on Google Drive, 50Gb on Box etc and a good connection, I think that'll be sufficient.
My 'Dot Matrix' case is on its way and should be here Monday. Looking forward to having a play with that. I'm sure there's more to find out about the phone and that's sometimes the joy of it; finding something you didn't know it did.
With regard to my earlier comments around an 'EE' build, there's very little to give away that it's not stock HTC. The only stuff that's 'EE'ified is the inclusion of the 'My EE' app (which I had anyway on my One X) and the homepage on the Internet app was set to EE. That's it. There's no EE splash screen when the phone boots, it's straight to the HTC One screen. I'm sure that it IS an EE build but the only time that was a pain on the One X was when I wanted to go to Android 4.2.2 and needed the hboot updating....which had to come from T-Mobile. Even then, T-Mobile never released the ROM I'm running so there are reasons behind why it matters to me.
I'd see the main competitors to this being, in no particular order, LG's G2, the Sony Xperia Z2, the Oppo Find 7 and the S5 and do I wish I'd waited for any of them? No. Even if I weren't a long-time HTC user, I'd still be drooling over the machined aluminium case and overall tactility. On looks and feel alone, I don't think there's anything else on the market to touch it. The one concession I'll make to the Sony and Samsung is their IP ratings - I think this might be a big factor for some users.
However, 'HTC One (M8)'? Really? That's the best they could come up with? They did kind of paint themselves into a corner when they went with 'One' though.
It's enough of a leap on from the One to be worth making too, let alone from the One X (and I suspect many of us taking delivery of our M8s will be One X owners). Overall I'm very impressed and pleased with the phone, I think HTC have another winner on their hands following the success of the original One. I'm also gobsmacked that HTC managed to keep the production under such tight wraps, allowing them to go from announcement on the 25th to orders later that day and delivery from the 26th onward. Very, very impressive. They needed to get out ahead of Samsung with the S5 as that's the biggest threat in my view, I hope it translates into a sales success for them.
I'm going to run it for a little while longer, make sure there's nothing that would require a warranty claim and then I'm going to root it to get rid of the ads.
Nicely played, HTC. Very nicely played indeed.
Edited by Funk on Friday 28th March 23:18
Based on my limited experience with the original One, I think there's sufficient difference in design, look and feel of the interface, battery performance and the increased screen real estate to warrant a move. The move to on screen buttons is great, they now rotate to sit under the screen in landscape mode like my Nexus 7 and it's more intuitive. I also find it more comfortable in my hand (I did a direct comparison with a mate's OH's One last night as it happens). YMMV I guess.
The ability to expand storage is also a big thing for me. I was constantly running out of space on my 32Gb One X. Although I suspect I'll use up all 75Gb on the M8..
One other thing I'm missing is the option to change the operation of the volume keys when in landscape. My One X inverts the operation which makes much more sense. It reverts to standard in portrait again. I think that was one of the custom ROM tweaks though.
I think it's more of a leap forward from the One than I think the S5 will be from the S4 will be for example. That said, the One is still a great phone, no mistake.
The ability to expand storage is also a big thing for me. I was constantly running out of space on my 32Gb One X. Although I suspect I'll use up all 75Gb on the M8..
One other thing I'm missing is the option to change the operation of the volume keys when in landscape. My One X inverts the operation which makes much more sense. It reverts to standard in portrait again. I think that was one of the custom ROM tweaks though.
I think it's more of a leap forward from the One than I think the S5 will be from the S4 will be for example. That said, the One is still a great phone, no mistake.
Edited by Funk on Friday 28th March 07:47
Thats interesting, thanks for that. I have viewed the new phone with envious eyes, but I've only had my One since August and I really really like it, so don't have any desire to change just yet.
Be interesting to see if the battery is much better long term. I used to have the percentage of the battery as a number inside the battery icon, but I then read an in depth article about battery charging and power stability within the battery. It basically said that when the phone states it is at 100 per cent charged, it actually is anywhere between 90-100 per cent. The way the battery works to stop it becoming overcharged means that it shuts off when it gets full and slowly discharges for a while, and then recharges.
Anyway, the point is, after reading that, I removed the number from my battery icon and just left it without. I figured that I didn't need to worry about what percentage it was on since it was gradually going down anyway, and I should just enjoy it for what it is.
Be interesting to see if the battery is much better long term. I used to have the percentage of the battery as a number inside the battery icon, but I then read an in depth article about battery charging and power stability within the battery. It basically said that when the phone states it is at 100 per cent charged, it actually is anywhere between 90-100 per cent. The way the battery works to stop it becoming overcharged means that it shuts off when it gets full and slowly discharges for a while, and then recharges.
Anyway, the point is, after reading that, I removed the number from my battery icon and just left it without. I figured that I didn't need to worry about what percentage it was on since it was gradually going down anyway, and I should just enjoy it for what it is.
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