Anyone gone from an S6/S6 edge to an M9?

[Cool Jeff]

Compared to my ex-M8 what I liked on S6 more:
-Superb wifi signal (I can get wifi in places I never had with M8)
-Camera of course is amazing, perhaps as good as a canon pocket camera in all situations.
-Screen is amazing even under sunlight, thought you get the infamous rainbow reflections if you tilt the phone.
-Included Quick charger, charging from 30% to 100% in an hour.

Though I miss the superb HTC software, I am not talking Sense (it's ported on S6) but some small but important things like BT autoconnect that is lacking on S6.
Stereo speakers of M9 if like M8 should be heard even in crowded places, S6 is loud and good but in some situations you won't hear videos.
M9 has of course the big advantage of SD slot while my S6 is limited to its 32gb.
So is it worth returning to HTC with the M9 or I will regret losing money?
As for camera I am mostly a daylight shooter, I take photos of my nephew and niece indoor though so dunno how crappy will be the M9.
Another thing is that I have astigmatism, the s6's screen even at only 40% brightness is readable with small text while I had to put 100% on M8, I hope HTC increased sharpness and/or contrast for text.

 

[Adam_ation]

HTC M9 RAW + Photoshop Express = An unstoppable force, some shots literally blow me away - Adam

 

[Wildo6882]

HTC M9 RAW + Photoshop Express = An unstoppable force, some shots literally blow me away - Adam

How much does Photoshop Express cost?

 

[davidtm]

$Nada.00

 

[aallison1882]

I agree. Photoshop Express is pretty powerful. I've made some nice shots amazing and I've made some poor shots look really nice. I also use Aviary, which allows me to add some cool effects to the pics.

I really can't tell which one I like better. I guess they both have their advantages and uses.

 

[aallison1882]

HTC M9 RAW + Photoshop Express = An unstoppable force, some shots literally blow me away - Adam

I agree. Photoshop Express is pretty powerful. I've made some nice shots amazing and I've made some poor shots look really nice. I also use Aviary, which allows me to add some cool effects to the pics.

I really can't tell which one I like better. I guess they both have their advantages and uses.

 

[Cool Jeff]

Is there any S6 vs m9 raw camera comparison?

 

[SYMAWD]

Is there any S6 vs m9 raw camera comparison?

I don't have an S6, but here is what shooting RAW can get you:


.jpg saved by the phone


.dng converted to .jpg from a photo editing program with no adjustments made. I believe the .jpg saved by the phone undergoes processing where as this photo did not.


.dng auto enhanced and converted to .jpg


.dng enhanced by me and converted to .jpg


enhanced by Photoshop Express (appears to enhance the .jpg and not the .dng)

 

[Cool Jeff]

It looks like the M9 camera main problem is the huge amount of noise it has in any situations even in total daylight, the RAW photos are a hell of noise and the Auto mode of M9 is bad because of the high denoise it has to apply, you have to use a genius denoise system to keep details without too much noise. I think I am not so convinced to swap my S6 to M9 now
I heard the M9 get lot warmer and it's a ''downgrade'' coming from S6 in terms of speed (games)

 

[fernandezhjr]

It looks like the M9 camera main problem is the huge amount of noise it has in any situations even in total daylight, the RAW photos are a hell of noise and the Auto mode of M9 is bad because of the high denoise it has to apply, you have to use a genius denoise system to keep details without too much noise. I think I am not so convinced to swap my S6 to M9 now
I heard the M9 get lot warmer and it's a ''downgrade'' coming from S6 in terms of speed (games)

Considering you just got your S6 and are happy with it, you shouldn't even be considering a switch. Personally, I find Touchwiz inferior and laggy compared to Sense. I also hear that the S6 has poor battery life. The ability to expand storage is convenient. After my experience with the Nexus 4, I will never get a phone with a glass back ever again.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[Cool Jeff]

Considering you just got your S6 and are happy with it, you shouldn't even be considering a switch. Personally, I find Touchwiz inferior and laggy compared to Sense. I also hear that the S6 has poor battery life. The ability to expand storage is convenient. After my experience with the Nexus 4, I will never get a phone with a glass back ever again.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

I tried the M9 in a shop today, the black one is amazing, it feels so premium even compared to the M8 I had!!
I am completely lost, the M9 is a gorgeous and sexy but I can't stay without a good camera this summer (spy pics at the beach, hiking days...), I though M9's RAW was the solution but photos are crazy noisy and using the right amount of de-noise will smudge it too much, the S6 photos in daylight don't suffer from either smudges or noise

 

[getbretweir]

View attachment 175160

View attachment 175161

I just picked up an M9 yesterday, and my overall personal choice would be the S6. The camera performance on the S6 is just so much better than the M9 in pretty much all aspects. You know a camera is good when you want to take more photos of things. Whereas my experience with M9's camera is the complete opposite. Even if I took the image in RAW mode, adjusting all the settings to get the correct exposure, etc, then export it to photoshop to manually touch up the images... even then... the S6's camera could take the same shot in full auto mode in a matter of seconds, and have a photo that looks better than the M9's.

Full res images for One M9, Galaxy S6, Note 4, Nexus 6, Lumia 1520 for comparison if you guys are interested.

Battery life between both devices wasn't that far off for me personally. The M9 lasts longer for sure, but not by a sufficient margin for me to completely write off the S6.

Speaker quality on the M9 is unbeatable, but I listen to music more often on earphones, and S6's wolfson DAC sounds much better to me. In fact on earphones, I couldn't stand Dolby's EQ at all. Turned them off immediately.

In the past HTC has a huge advantage in build quality and the premium look and feel. But Samsung has come far enough for me to be okay with the S6. But the One M9 definitely feels more premium and well built to me.

I prefer Sense UI over TouchWiz hands down. But again, Samsung has made huge strides in optimising the UI. And I can certainly live with Touchwiz on the S6 (with more Samsung things turned off of course.)

Performance on both phones feels just quick, though the S6 felt faster loading apps and games, probably because of the faster memory. But not a big deal to me. Both phone performs really well.

Screen on the S6 was much better in my opinion. Better contrast, better outdoor visibility (brighter), able to go super dim (for using at night in bed), better colours too. Pixel density is not a huge deal to me, the M9 looks just as sharp when i'm using both phone at normal handheld distance. But the M9 display's colour seemed a little off to me compared to other IPS panels. Particularly the blues and the greens. Like app icons' colours are fixed across all screens, but the Hangouts and Ingress icons' colour looks "blown out" on the M9.

The bonus on the S6 to me was the home button. I've never really liked it in the past, but this time round the button brought enough to the table for me to consider it a pro. Fingerprint sensor actually works properly now, not to mention the camera launch is really consistently quick.

In the past I've always preferred the HTC option. The One X, the One M7, the One M8. But this year... the S6 has my vote.

Depending on your needs and preferences you might come to a completely different conclusion and choose the M9 of course. It's still a really good phone.

wow, what a great review. that's the best M9/S6 camera test I've seen.

it's not even remotely close. in fact, the M9 wasn't nearly as good as the Nexus 6 either.

thanks for the quick review, hopefully HTC will get it right next year!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[fernandezhjr]

I tried the M9 in a shop today, the black one is amazing, it feels so premium even compared to the M8 I had!!
I am completely lost, the M9 is a gorgeous and sexy but I can't stay without a good camera this summer (spy pics at the beach, hiking days...), I though M9's RAW was the solution but photos are crazy noisy and using the right amount of de-noise will smudge it too much, the S6 photos in daylight don't suffer from either smudges or noise

Personally, if I was gonna be taking pics that are gonna be keepsakes, I wouldn't be relying on a phone's camera, period.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[fernandezhjr]

wow, what a great review. that's the best M9/S6 camera test I've seen.

it's not even remotely close. in fact, the M9 wasn't nearly as good as the Nexus 6 either.

thanks for the quick review, hopefully HTC will get it right next year!

Posted via the Android Central App

I expect my phone to function as a phone, not a camera, and the M9 beats the S6 in all those aspects. While the camera is not the best, it is still good enough. If I want professional looking pics that i will have printed, I will grab my camera not my phone.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[markymark]

I tried the M9 in a shop today, the black one is amazing, it feels so premium even compared to the M8 I had!!
I am completely lost, the M9 is a gorgeous and sexy but I can't stay without a good camera this summer (spy pics at the beach, hiking days...), I though M9's RAW was the solution but photos are crazy noisy and using the right amount of de-noise will smudge it too much, the S6 photos in daylight don't suffer from either smudges or noise

If I recall somebody on XDA came up with some camera settings for the M9 that are supposed to significantly improve the camera quality.

 

[Adam_ation]

I though M9's RAW was the solution but photos are crazy noisy and using the right amount of de-noise will smudge it too much

I really don't know what M9 RAW shots your basing this from, but I can assume it was someone with a damaged/dirty lense. RAW photos from the M9 are absolutely fantastic - Adam

 

[Cool Jeff]

What about the M9 getting hot? is it only while heavy gaming with 3D games or it's with any app or usage?
I hear but bad things about the M9, not only camera:
-Battery is weak (S6 is not that good either)
-It gets hot (never experienced the S6 hot unless on Quick charger)
-Camera is not good unless you take RAW and edit them
-Screen is lottery, it can be brighter or dimmer than M8! (S6 has lottery too with pink tint)

 

[neo905]

Heat isn't an issue. I got it to 120 fahrenheit in the car running GPS and streaming TuneIn radio and it was hot outside and the sun was beaming on the phone. Other that that, it has never been an issue. Even gaming won't be an issue unless you are charging the phone and playing games at the same time.

 

[fernandezhjr]

What about the M9 getting hot? is it only while heavy gaming with 3D games or it's with any app or usage?
I hear but bad things about the M9, not only camera:
-Battery is weak (S6 is not that good either)
-It gets hot (never experienced the S6 hot unless on Quick charger)
-Camera is not good unless you take RAW and edit them
-Screen is lottery, it can be brighter or dimmer than M8! (S6 has lottery too with pink tint)

My phone does not get hot at all. When I first got it, there was a spot on the back side that would warm up, but a recent update seems to have cured that. I'm averaging 5.5 hrs of SOT, so I consider that to be good. There is a thread in the S6 forums about the S6 getting hot. In most cases they attributed it to faulty devices, but I would bet having a glass back has something to do with it, much like the effect of the metal back of the M9. The camera does take good pics, just not the super quality that some people are looking for. For the highest percentage of people, it will be more than adequate. One thing I don't like about the S6 is it having a physical home button. I'm seeing a lot of complaints of the button rattling. I have never been a fan of hard buttons. As far is the screen goes, the M9 is not quite as vibrant as other devices. I have always found Samsung devices to be the most devices. The M9 looks much like my LG Nexus 4. There was always complaints with the N4 screen being a bit washed out looking. But this is just very minor with both devices and people tend to overblow things.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[msm0511]

My phone does not get hot at all. When I first got it, there was a spot on the back side that would warm up, but a recent update seems to have cured that. I'm averaging 5.5 hrs of SOT, so I consider that to be good. There is a thread in the S6 forums about the S6 getting hot. In most cases they attributed it to faulty devices, but I would bet having a glass back has something to do with it, much like the effect of the metal back of the M9. The camera does take good pics, just not the super quality that some people are looking for. For the highest percentage of people, it will be more than adequate. One thing I don't like about the S6 is it having a physical home button. I'm seeing a lot of complaints of the button rattling. I have never been a fan of hard buttons. As far is the screen goes, the M9 is not quite as vibrant as other devices. I have always found Samsung devices to be the most devices. The M9 looks much like my LG Nexus 4. There was always complaints with the N4 screen being a bit washed out looking. But this is just very minor with both devices and people tend to overblow things.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

To be honest, the only time I noticed the cooler calibration is when I placed it next to my iPhone 6, and still it's not that bad. Not like some are making it out to be. I haven't really gotten mine all that hot either. Just when playing games like Asphalt for extended periods. I plan on going to an AT&T store to text the speakers if I ever get an off day. I don't have mine anymore and had an iPhone 6 between my M8 and M9. I don't remember the M8 being extremely louder though. As far as pics go, the M9 has taken pics on par with my 6 in day shots, sometimes outshining my 6. Lowlight images definitely aren't great, but so far usable for what I do with them. I do have to say I miss the home button only for TouchID. It worked without flaw on my 6 with no button rattling whatsoever. Not a dealbreaker though. I also like the fact that Google Wallet is accepted at more places than Apple Pay. (My bank doesn't even support Apple Pay yet, so I was never able to even test it.)