Going from Blackberry to Android - having tough time deciding M8 or S5

[wayoung]

I'm on Fido so M9 isn't available and the lack of sd storage eliminates S6 for me so I'm deciding between M8 and S5. The M8 has slightly better reviews that i've found and is cheaper but the S5 has water resistance which is nice.

Anyway, does anyone with an M8 wish they had an S5 instead? What is the M8 like durability wise?

Has anyone went from BlackBerry (bold, torch, Q10) to M8? Was it an easy switch?

 

[buckifvr]

M8 is an awesome phone. Very well made. Pure quality. Only complaint is mediocre camera. Sense is much better than TouchWiz.

 

[Deathunter-M8]

M8 is an awesome phone. Very well made. Pure quality. Only complaint is mediocre camera. Sense is much better than TouchWiz.

There is the (HTC M8 Eye) with a normal 13MP camera.

 

[LeFreemason]

M8 is the winner. Sense vs Touchwiz. Specs are good but user experience is important. You'll love sense

 

[DJ Grand Theft Audio]

If you want removable battery waterproofing and slightly better camera that the s5 offers, you will have a hard time deciding. But if none of the above really matter then the M8 without a doubt is the one you should get. It's the best phone of 2014 and won many awards.

The Camera on the One M8 is not bad. You can take decent shots especially in low light. The focus is quite quick and the duo effects are quite good. The things that let it down is if you want to crop or enlarge your photos due to the 4 megapixel count. In well lit situations there is a little bit of over exposure. But you have a hdr mode and even manual controls to help out. Overall I'd say the camera is quite versatile. You can checkout photos taken with the M8 in the HTC One (M8) Photos & Videos Thread

http://forums.androidcentral.com/htc-one-m8/376316-htc-one-m8-photos-videos-thread.html

The experience with the M8 is extremely good especially when watching videos with the front facing boom sound speakers directing the sound at you. They are Awsome and blow the S5's single rear facing speaker out of the water .

HTC sense is quite snappy and is a much better UI than touchwiz as touchwiz can lag.

Good luck with your choice

Some awards that the M8 won

Tech radar phone of the year

T3 gadget awards phone of the year

Mobile choice consumer awards phone of the year and best design of the year

Mobile industry awards hottest new phone of the year

 

[wayoung]

The only thing making the decision hard is the waterproofing. We have a year round swim spa (basically a huge hot tub with a "current" that allows you to swim in even in Canadian February). Being able to jump in the pool without a waterproof case is enticing. Otherwise it's the m8 I'm looking at. My wife is an amateur photographer with a new last year DSL body, several lenses, and Pentax's rough and tumble point and shoot as well so the camera isn't a big deal - i'm sure it's better than my Q10

 

[kilskev]

The m8 is awesome

 

[Mooncatt]

If waterproof is a must, you can look at waterproof cases for the M8 like:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NU...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU4378931

That just happened to be one of the first Google results that popped up, so I don't know anything about the quality of it or other waterproof cases. Personally I wouldn't trust my phone to any waterproof case, or even a container. If I was to be around a pool with a phone, I'd seal it in a bag (maybe two) and leave it off to the side so it's not likely to fall in or get more than a few drops splashed on it. Hopefully that helps your decision.

 

[Rukbat]

I'd buy the M8 - if the battery were removable. That's one of the 3 musts for me. (An external SD card and an Otterbox Defender are the other 2.) I'm not a professional photographer, but I do know how to use a camera properly, so even a 3MP camera with a good lens will give me all I want. (I've blown pictures from my 3MP Fuji up to 8X10 with no problem.)

Water resistance? That's nice, but if I have to be out in a downpour that might drown me, I'll throw the phone into a ziplock plastic bag. Two cents and it's not water resistant, it's waterproof. But if my only choices were the M8 or the S5, I'd have to go with the S5. (I prefer a Note, but the 4 isn't much of an improvement over my 3, so I'll stay where I am.)

 

[anon(55900)]

ISNIP
Has anyone went from BlackBerry (bold, torch, Q10) to M8? Was it an easy switch?

I went from Torch to Nexus 4 when it was on kitkat, updated to Lollipop, after 1.5 years after price dropped on Z30, grabbed one, glad I did, the Nexus 4 screen was honestly giving eyestrain headaches almost daily, now I'm waiting for the Blackberry Slider with physical keyboard to come out. Anyway, Lollipop is different but you should be up to speed within a month, I suggest you use swiping keyboard.

 

[dty06]

I have both: M8 for personal use and a S5 from work.

Now, keep in mind I use the M8 about 100x (no exaggeration) more than I use my S5. I have an average of about 3-4 days battery life on my S5 due to my screen-on time being about 3-5 minutes per day (only for checking email or an occasional text from a co-worker). That said, here's some things I can say from my time spent with them:

S5:

The camera has been good the 20 or so times I've had to use it (mostly to just take information quickly from a computer screen or something similar). The user interface, TouchWiz, feels cartoonish to me. It would seem more appropriate for a child's toy than a professional phone, to be honest. Aside from the TouchWiz, though, it's a generic Android feel. The stock email app is nice, but the texting app is another part of TouchWiz - if you go with the S5, I recommend getting a different app for messaging, such as Hello or Textra. The battery life is very good, though my limited usage of the device certainly contributes.

M8:

This is a great device. The camera is not nearly as bad as some reviewers insist it is. I've never had any kind of issues with the camera personally. On top of that, I've found that even given my moderate to high use of the phone, the battery life is excellent. I have a long day - I leave the house at 7:30am and come home some time between 10 and 10:30pm. I never come home with less than 50% battery life. I use the auto-brightness, wifi all day, bluetooth streaming for about an hour every day to my car and I use Facebook, hello (messaging app) and a few games. I love this phone. There have been a few times where I've been away from home and had no charger. The Extreme Power Saving mode uses only ~4% over ~8 hours, which means I don't have to rush and find a charger the next day. The build is beautiful and while I have it primarily in the Spigen Slim Armor case, I take it out once in a while and clean the screen and the camera lenses and admire the phone. The reception has always been good, even in my area where reception on other carriers has historically been terrible - 1 or 0 bars is the norm (VZW being the only carrier who has a good quality signal - 3 or 4 bars is the norm). My wifi and bluetooth are left on 24/7, as is my location service. I've had good experience with the GPS on the phone, and navigation has always been accurate.

Overall, the main thing that bothers me about the GS5 is the TouchWiz interface. It's terrible. It looks terrible. It's not intuitive and quite honestly looks ridiculous. The M8 has no such issues - Sense is a slight variant from stock Android, but it makes things easier, not harder, and it doesn't look ridiculous. I don't particularly like BlinkFeed, so I disabled that, but overall the phone is a joy a to use, and I'm sure that when the time comes I'll be upgrading to the M10.

 

[carlos12001]

I just came from Samsung, if you want a better phone get the m8. I could never go back to Samsung after using this phone. Touchwiz is nasty compared to sense.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[faruki3192]

M8

nexus 6