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

[Wildo6882]

I've got an S6 coming from AT&T today. On the surface it looked like everything I wanted. But after hearing all of the issues about battery, screen rotation, this, that, and the other thing, I'm getting a little worried. I've already decided that I'll give it a week or so and if I'm having issues, I'll just return it and pick up an M9.

I know neither has been out TOO long, but has anyone switched from either S6 or S6 edge to an M9? And if so, what has been your experience?

I'm not an HTC or Samsung fan boy. I'm really just an Android guy. Love the platform as a whole.

 

[puch96]

Well, I don't have neither of those phones. I currently have an M8 and i will probably upgrade next year.
From all that I'm gathering from the forums and various sources, both phones are excelent phones in their own way.
Samsung has great display, great camera, and some will argue build quality (compared to S5).
HTC on the other hand has great UI (Sense 7), it's extremely snappy compared to TouchWiz that Samsung uses, has better feel and build quality (in my opinion), the best front facing speakers out there as of 2015, but the camera is not that great in low light conditions.
HOWEVER, for 2015 flagship devices, they still fall short on battery life.
Even though Samsung has done Quad HD displays before, and the M9 has kept the known 1080p display, they both have a faster, 8 core processor.
I belive the processor is the offender when it comes to battery life. I mean, why do we really need 64bit, 8 core processors on smartphones? When we increase clock frequencies and change to more powerful processors, there are treadoffs to deal with, such as heat dissipation, battery consuption, etc.

I personally don't like touchwiz that much and it is still a problem that Samsung needs to address. For me, it is a bit laggy and the overall user experience is not my cup of tea. Of course, you have quite a bit of different launchers you can try to change that experience......

 

[racedog]

I have an M8 that I don't use anymore and I upgraded to the S6 last week. First off, I think a lot, if not most, of the battery issues are due to Lollipop and not the phones themselves. With a few tweaks here and there I am getting perfectly adequate (but not great) daily use time out of the S6.

This isn't the first time we've had battery issues. Anyone remember the Thunderbolt? I was an early adopter there to get the first LTE phone. That phone was just a mess. SOT on that phone was about 10 minutes and is the reason that I didn't buy another HTC phone until the M8. I did really like most things about the m8 but that lower bezel with the black bar htc logo just about drove me nuts and I wasn't a fan of the S5.

No, I don't plan to switch but I do hope that HTC can come up with some really innovative technology that makes me want to come back at some point. I definitely don't want to see HTC go under or drop their mobile division. One of the big things that makes me want to stay with the S6 is the upcoming Samsung Pay. There are a lot of things that make me want to use SP. I don't know if Samsung Pay is something that they will allow or make available to be used on other non-Samsung devices, but if they did, I could see myself taking a lot harder look at other manufacturers. LG is not on my radar at all because I am in a very marginal area and the LG radios just don't perform in those areas. Both HTC and Samsung work well enough that I get consistent phone and data use, but when I test drove an LG a few months ago here (the G3) it had severe problems and was essentially unusable.

 

[SYMAWD]

I never even considered an S6 because I hate Samsung UI that much.

 

[Wildo6882]

I really like both. Camera is really important to me with a 2.5 year old, crazy little girl running around my house and a 12 year old that's involved in everything. That's really the only thing stopping me from getting the M9. I worry about this battery issue on the S6. I know it may be a Google thing, but still doesn't seem as prevalent with the M9.

 

[Zod1010]

Not sure if you saw it, but Samsung apparently rolled out an update to the Samsung Push Service which seems to have improved battery life for some who were having issues.

 

[Adam_ation]

As someone who sold a kidney to own an M9, I would definitely recommend keeping it - Adam

Looks like someone wants to be me so that they can be an owner of the M9 that they have even gone to the length of making a fake account.... Nice try - Adam

 

[Wildo6882]

Looks like someone wants to be me so that they can be an owner of the M9 that they have even gone to the length of making a fake account.... Nice try - Adam

Wow. That's crazy. Didn't even realize.

 

[SharkyNY]

Didn't have the S6, but was strongly considering it for a long time. Main reason I went with the M9 is that the battery life seems to be a better than the S6. That I'm still just a bit hesitant to go with a TW phone for the long haul. I plan on keeping my phone for about 2 years like I did with my Nexus 4.

 

[Wildo6882]

Didn't have the S6, but was strongly considering it for a long time. Main reason I went with the M9 is that the battery life seems to be a better than the S6. That I'm still just a bit hesitant to go with a TW phone for the long haul. I plan on keeping my phone for about 2 years like I did with my Nexus 4.

I just got the S6 so I have a few days to test it out. If I have any serious issues I'll most likely be ordering up a Developer Edition M9. Just not sure about the low light pictures, really.

 

[SharkyNY]

I just got the S6 so I have a few days to test it out. If I have any serious issues I'll most likely be ordering up a Developer Edition M9. Just not sure about the low light pictures, really.

Yeah that's something I want to test out when I get the phone. Just the camera quality in general really.

 

[ron561]

I have both phones so maybe I can be of some help.

I think what many of us are missing on both sides is that these phones are only a week old. I've had both phones for a couple of weeks now, but they were only officially released about a week ago. Both phones have their own issues that Google, carriers, and/or developers need to address. So regardless of which phone you ultimately choose to go with, you're going to experience some early problems. Life of an early adopter.

Personally, i've gotten a better overall experience out of my S6. I was one of the people who had the "cell standby drain" issue, but after disabling two settings, my battery life has been great and much better than the M9. There are those who haven't had to touch their phones at all and have been getting 5+ hours of SoT. So I think the battery ceiling for this phone is pretty high after fixes. Other than that, I haven't had any issues with the phone. The only thing I really prefer on my M9 are the speakers, but I rarely use those since i'm at work most of the day.

 

[snobrdr2324]

I also have both phones but contrary to him the M9 is providing me a slightly better experience except the camera. Both of these phones are amazing but the battery life on my S6 is terrible. I have the exact same settings on my M9 and I get much better battery life and I lose 0% battery in standby for an 8 hour night, if I turn off mobile data and put my S6 in ultra power saving mode I'm lucky to only lose 5% overnight. Sense is still a nicer experience than touchwiz also. Touchwiz has vastly improved and it is a great piece of software now I'd dare say, it's smooth and mostly looks nice, but Sense is just so amazing on the M9 that it can't be beat IMO.

The gap between sense and Touchwiz is very small these days but sense is still the better software experence IMO. The camera is better on the S6 and the fingerprint scanner is extremely awesome, so I know I said I prefer the m9 but it's such a minor preference I can safely say if my S6s battery issues are resolved both of these phones are the best android phones I've owned and you can't go wrong with either.

 

[mdyer101]

I bought both phones. The S6 edge and the one m9 developer edition. I just returned the edge today. Yes the edge had a better camera, but I felt it had lag and just wasn't as smooth as the m9. To me the m9 is super fast everything flows like butter. The edge was fast also but not as fast as the m9 on my WiFi. Both are awesome phones but the m9 seemed more polished and I just love it.

 

[Wildo6882]

I've been using my S6 for the day and it seems pretty nice. Not sure on the battery yet. Seems like it drains pretty fast in standby. I've been abusing it and have around 2.5 hours of SOT and 28% battery left. If the battery remains subpar, I'll be looking into the M9 for sure (and probably the Nexus 6).

Thanks for all the comments from everyone.

 

[MrSlippery519]

I currently have an S3 so naturally I wanted to at least see the S6 before making a choice. A co-worker of mine got the S6 edge last week and honestly I am not impressed...yes TW is slightly toned down but it still feels like this overblown ugly overlay it has always been. I also do not like how it felt in my hand.

So long story short I am picking up the M9 later this week, since I have used the M7 and M8 in the past I am pretty comfortable with what I will be getting.

 

[anon(5630457)]

The employee who helped me at the AT&T store today told me customers have been coming in and airing their grievances about the battery life on the S6. That's why I went with the M9 today. I love it.

 

[Ytown]

I tried the S6 for a couple days. I exchanged it for the M9. I didn't like the physical home button and the fingerprint scanner would not consistently work. The screen was not that much better, I can't tell the difference between 2k and 1080p. Finally, touchwiz is still gross. What I love about the M9 is Sense and the beautiful build. No regrets.

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[exile0229]

I couldn't agree more. Tried the S6 for a week, the guy at AT&T said he never thought he would see it.

My experience: Battery life was beyond terrible; six hours and needing to charge with moderate use. Persistent Wi-Fi and mobile network changes that I'm sure didn't help. Touch wiz might have been less invasive as previous versions along with the reduction of bloatware, but it just isn't as smooth as Sense. HTC might not have impressed the world maintaining the design, but I couldn't be happier with the M9.

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[Wildo6882]

My S6 has been returned. I actually bought a Nexus because I just can't stay away from stock Android. But the M9 is next on my hit list. I'm waiting for just a LITTLE more improvement in the camera.