I've had it beyond the 14 day return, but decided to keep it before that was up. I really do like most things about it. I guess problems wouldn't be the right word. More just different ways Android handles things than iOS. Here's my first impressions post:
The good:
It's a beautiful phone, and the pics/videos don't do it justice. On the gunmetal version the sides are a shiny black, while the rest of the device is a darker gunmetal than the M8. The back looks really elegant, while the front has a more industrial look. I would say the back looks better than my iPhone 6, but the front isn't as elegant as the iPhone. I still think the front looks good though.
It feels great in the hand. It has weight, but it's not too heavy or wide. I don't so much worry about the height of a phone. Width is more important to me.
I have no problems with the display as some reviewers mentioned. It's a little cooler, but not super noticeable sitting next to my iPhone. I watched the Avengers trailer, and the only time I really noticed a big difference is when the screen is using all primary colors. I'd imagine animated videos might not look so good, but I haven't tried that yet. Skin tones are a little cooler, but don't look unnatural.
The sound coming from the speakers is as impressive as ever. It may be a little quieter, but the quality of sound more than makes up for it. The theater mode sounds amazing. The music mode is a little louder (about the volume I remember from the M8), but loses some of the clarity and punch of theater mode.
The interface is great. If you liked Sense in the past, you'll like the newest version. I removed Sense Home because I didn't think it would be useful, and I prefer a less cluttered display. I may put it back to test on one of the secondary screens just to give it a shot later. The themes are cool, but I haven't really delved too deeply into making my own (I've only had the phone since this afternoon).
Everything is really smooth with no choppiness or stuttering that I've seen so far.
The bad:
It drives me a little crazy that I can't seem to find a way to turn on a notification sound for incoming email using the stock mail app. There's probably a setting to do so, but I haven't found it yet.
Also I can't seem to find a way to set custom SMS notification alerts for different people. I use this a lot. It really bothers me, probably more than it should.
This is with all of Android, but I still find iOS apps to look a little better, and in some cases more functional than their Android counterparts. Not HTC's fault though.
The indifferent:
I don't find the sleep/wake button to be as uncomfortable to press as some reviewers, but it is a little low for my taste. I do push the volume down button sometimes instead of hitting the sleep/wake. I may or may not get used to it over time.
I use a MBP as my computer, and I find transferring things back and forth to be cumbersome. It's not really a dealbreaker, but I do wish there was a smoother alternative.
I prefer the screen to light up when I get incoming text messages. I know I had an app on my M8 that handled that, but I've forgotten what it's called. It's a little disappointing it doesn't have the option out of the box though.
Not tested:
The two biggest gripes forum members and reviewers have seem to be the battery life and camera. Unfortunately I just haven't had the phone long enough to make a decision either way. While setting up I didn't even have a sim in it, and kept it charging. Since then It's been charging on and off while I moved photos, music, ringtones, etc. from my computer to the phone. I did notice one possibly bad omen for battery life. While testing the video between the iPhone 6 and M9 I turned brightness to 100% and auto-brightness off on both devices. They both started almost fully charged. The iPhone's battery percentage didn't change, but the M9 went down 3%. I've only taken 3 photos. All on auto and in my bedroom after work. They weren't good, but not bad either. Just kinda somewhere inbetween. Hopefully my next off day I'll be able to take both phones out and about with me to take some photos to compare.
Sorry if I rambled. Just getting my first impressions out there.
As an update to that:
I've found solutions to the email issue. CloudMagic is a great 3rd party email app I've set as default.
I still haven't tried a 3rd party SMS app, but I know there are some that allow to set different tones for different people.
Another thing I miss is having the screen light up for a couple seconds when I get a text. I'm not sure if a 3rd party app will help with that or not.
I do miss TouchID and iMessage a lot! Not so much to switch back though.
Another issue I found almost a dealbreaker for me was browsers. I couldn't find one that automatically resized videos to fullscreen. It may not sound like a big deal, but trying to get embedded videos (movie trailers, reviews, etc.) to play fullscreen drove me crazy. If you install Dolphin browser, then Dolphin Jetpack it does resize videos on most sites!
Battery life has been comparable for my uses. Standby may not be quite as good, but it's not bad either.
The camera isn't as bad as reviewers make it out to be. If you go down to the bottom of this link I've posted comparison shots between my iPhone 6 and my M9.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/htc-one-m9/509104-post-photos-taken-your-m9-3.html The M9 takes great pics in good lighting. I'm still figuring out lower light shots, but I honestly just haven't taken many pics yet. Indoors with decent lighting the pics look great, but I need to take some time to get out to bars/restaurants for some low light testing. neo95 on here gave a great tip to use HDR for night shots with ISOMax set at 200.
Overall I'm pretty happy with my M9 though. Considering I could put my sim back in my iPhone anytime I wanted to and I haven't says something. I've had every iPhone since the 3G in 2008, and this is the first phone that's made me stick with Android for more than 2 weeks.
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