I'm so disappointed....

[warpdrive]

In myself!

That's right folks. I'm not in anyway disappointed in HTC, especially if the current videos/leaks are true and not the m8i or a joke from HTC to fool us.

So why am I disappointed in myself?
Because every year ALL of us at this time of the year look at everything we can about just what is coming out in our hobby. It doesn't matter if we are a fan of one product or manufacturer. We love the gossip. The leaks. The renders, the wallpapers, and some of us even like the fighting that goes on in the comment sections of some mobile sites. (thank you mobile nations/Android Central for cleaning up this wonderful site of all the bickering... It is much more enjoyable today then ever)

But I digress. I'm disappointed in myself because every year I tell myself that I shouldn't pay attention to the leaks. I remind myself that this is just part of the entertainment aspect of this hobby. And while it might be an exciting time to watch what is being leaked, that I should never take to heart any of the leaks or rumors as the are almost always fake. And normally I'm good. I'm almost never let down because I never care enough about some fake leak.

Last year when the HTC m8 was announced I'll admit that I was disappointed with the camera. Not because of any leaks. But because I didn't understand why HTC would keep the 4 ultra pixel camera but ditch the OIS that clearly helped make the m7 one of the best low light cameras of its time. It was the only low point of the phone and I would have been proud of it regardless that we all wished for an 8 ultra pixel sensor instead (if only the m8 kept the OIS).

To be honest, I love my m8. It's redesigned back (as slippery as it may be) is awesome. The on screen buttons was sometimes a distraction when developers refused to remove it on some of my games (and let's not forget the YouTube bug in kitkat that never got fixed), but was welcome compared to the m7's odd button placement. Being able to turn on and off the screen using gestures was amazing in that I never had to use the power button! Let us also not forget the power of two front facing speakers when showing your family and friends a YouTube video or playing games on your Moga. Such boomsound design was even replicated on the NVidia shield tablet and more and more devices started having front facing speakers like the nexus 6 and Z3. In the land of phones HTC seems to have started something great and I'm glad that others may have added this feature.
Above all, Sence 6 regardless that it still didn't have a brightness slider in the notification shade was still the best skin on Android. It runs smother then stock, so what more could you ask for? I even liked blinkfeed so much that I never had to open up G+ ever again as most of the important updates from my favorite G+ accounts were then listed in it. Blinkfeed even listed one of my few entrys and a friend noticed it, so I know it works well even with social media. And.... Sence 6 has been so good to me that after a year, I still didn't slap a launcher on it.

Now while I'm a big fan of HTC, I've seen the disappointment from the community about the Galaxy line of phones from Samsung always staying the same in design and materials.
While I will always be a photographer, I briefly worked in marketing and I understand why Samsung never changed much from the S3 to the S5. And while the new S6 may have a new metal chassis, I still think it will have a plastic back (non removable). The look will ultimately be the same as the past as brand recognition is vital in selling your products.

But while I understand brand recognition, I never felt so disappointed in some stupid leak as I did today with the videos. It was gut-wrenching. And while I know that I should tell myself that this is fake and I shouldn't pay any attention to it, I just can't help but feel disappointment in that what we saw is not similar to what HTC did for the nexus 9. The thought that I could finally use the notification shade one handed again (without shifting my hand position) looks like it might not be happening and I'm devastated.

More importantly, I shouldn't be. After all, while I understand brand recognition, the current leaks might just be fake. Or it could be the m8i. Or it could be REAL.

What ever it is, it will be disclosed in just a few more days. I hope by then that I'll be more pleased. As while I have never asked for change just for changes sake. I think it's time for HTC to wow us in design. For HTC to say look, you might be getting the same size screen, the same features, but our redesigned phone gives you an easier to use device that offers you louder speakers that most of you love and a design that will excite even the toughest of critics.

I almost laugh at HTC's madlibs media campaign that they are using right now. But it has gotten the press to talk about them and that is needed badly. I'm also greatful for all the leaks, fake or real. It's entertainment, nothing more. And I shouldn't feel this way, nor should you.

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

I agree with you. I too get caught up in the leaks and little bits of info thrown out here and there. Can't help myself.

Also feel it's not HTC's fault the phone got hyped up to hell. Evleaks played a big part in it with posting that render of his, which got everyone excited and had (I guess unrealistic) expectations of the device.

All will be revealed on 1 March, and I have a feeling it'll be what we've seen with these images and videos.

 

[verks]

I also agree. Although I love this time of year. All the leaks, the hype, MWC, the vids and discussion. This is fun. For me anyway. After all is done and my new phone is in hand some of the excitement is gone. Like the day after Xmas as a kid. There is something missing until next wear.

As far as the vids, the poor quality of the renders and placement of the screens just seems off. Maybe it's me but I'm holding out hope we will see something different.

 

[anon(5506951)]

It's part of human nature to be susceptible to a little thing called hope and expectation. All of this is just part of the marketing game. What company shows their hand fully before an official announcement? In this internet age information is readily available; some true, some bogus. All of these companies and websites have an endgame -readership and traffic. If in the official announcement the M9 turns out to look completely different from all the "leaks" and renders put out, tech sites will have a field day with posts, telling of surprise and excitement-- or disappointment. And everyone will click on every link, pounding their chests, or crying in their soup. Either way, this, for social media sites, will be mission accomplished, and fodder for HTC. After all, hype is hype. That is their endgame.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[smooth3006]

im not disappointed at all. i didn't expect a radical design change with the m9, gonna buy it at launch. no idea why people get so worked up, the s6 isn't a radical design change either. all of the "leaks" are usually fan made renders and false anyways.

 

[ibcop]

I agree with everything that's been said - even crying in their soup.

I was so ready for the M9 to look like the leaked pic - but if you stop and look - none of the big companies have really change the look. Samsung sure hasn't. HTC had the same look (although bigger) of the M7 to the M8. LG2, LG3 and the LG4 are going to be close to the same. No radical design changes but I thought HTC really needed the M9 to shine. Make people talk. But most of all make people buy it.

Sunday is around the corner.

 

[isdaako]

I'm still looking forward to Sunday.

 

[smooth4lyfe]

I think its a human nature thing...Whenever something of interest is announced, you always wanna know about it. I also get caught up in leaks

One thing I don't get though is why design alone throws people off. So what the M9 looks like the M8...does the phone have to look radically different each time? And if the design worked well and was well praised on the M8, I really don't see a reason why they should risk radically changing the design when they have something good (If it ain't broke, why fix it)...either way, I still think the M9 will be a good phone despite the looks.

 

[Inders99]

So what the M9 looks like the M8...does the phone have to look radically different each time? And if the design worked well and was well praised on the M8, I really don't see a reason why they should risk radically changing the design when they have something good (If it ain't broke, why fix it)

It IS broke, they lost market share, the M8 is dorky looking with its massive forehead/chin for those clunky speakers, the back is slippery and the phone is not proportional. It didn't sell at they hoped it would. Continuing the same design when their only hope is to shake it up is madness. Slopping some dark color on the body won't save HTC, they need to get noticed...having the same failed design for a third year is not the way to do it.

 

[smooth4lyfe]

It IS broke, they lost market share, the M8 is dorky looking with its massive forehead/chin for those clunky speakers, the back is slippery and the phone is not proportional. It didn't sell at they hoped it would. Continuing the same design when their only hope is to shake it up is madness. Slopping some dark color on the body won't save HTC, they need to get noticed...having the same failed design for a third year is not the way to do it.

Oh? I thought the M8 sold well... I guess in that case then it is time for a change

 

[P_Devil]

I'm still looking forward to Sunday.

I am too. Even if HTC doesn't announce the 5.5" phone that I want, I will still contemplate getting the M9 and will hopefully be able to walk away from a Verizon store with one (the employee I talked to seemed pretty confident that they will be selling the M9 that day just like with the M8).

I think the biggest people who are disappointed are the ones who hyped the phone on their own. They looked at the renders, studied them, read through all of the specs multiple times, etc. At first they were skeptical but then the excitement took hold so that someone's personal renders, which were a guess, turned out being the 100% final product. Then people woke up to a big shock that those renders could, could... Could be fake and not representative of the final product. Gasp!!!!!1!!!!one!!!! You're only digging a hole for yourself if you start getting self-hyped.

Personally, I'm not disappointed with the recent rumors regarding the M9's design. I was expecting more of an iterative update at this point with the 5" M9. Apple has been doing it for years as has Samsung and even Sony. Major leaps and bounds aren't observed from generation-to-generation but rather every 2-3 years. I was disappointed with the lack of a phablet from HTC but you still never know what they will come up with on Sunday. Even if they don't release a phablet, I will strongly consider the M9 and likely end up getting one. I prefer HTC's Sense launcher/UI over TouchWiz (and I'll probably just install the Google Now Launcher anyway), the boom speakers will actually come in handy from time-to-time, and I kind of enjoy the taller design over shorter and wider phones. I really enjoyed playing with the M8 at Verizon a few weekends ago and I would enjoy an M9 if it followed a similar design.

My only holdout now is to see if the rear camera has OIS. That's a requirement for my next smartphone and I think HTC has learned their lesson after the M8's disaster of a camera (nice for low-light, it lacked detail for everything else).

 

[ibcop]

I think its a human nature thing...Whenever something of interest is announced, you always wanna know about it. I also get caught up in leaks

One thing I don't get though is why design alone throws people off. So what the M9 looks like the M8...does the phone have to look radically different each time? And if the design worked well and was well praised on the M8, I really don't see a reason why they should risk radically changing the design when they have something good (If it ain't broke, why fix it)...either way, I still think the M9 will be a good phone despite the looks.

C'mon now....you know you'd rather have the design that evLeak posted versus what was shown in the videos.

 

[markymark]

C'mon now....you know you'd rather have the design that evLeak posted versus what was shown in the videos.

Haha....exactly. That evleaks render was SWEET! If the M9 is just the slightly tweaked M8 that shows up in these videos I will be really disappointed. In HTC. I'm still holding out hope that the videos are fakes. Like evleaks said, it's hard to believe HTC would build such hype for this release, telling everyone to expect something huge, if they were just coming out with a slightly modified M8. But who knows. We will find out soon.

 

[smooth4lyfe]

C'mon now....you know you'd rather have the design that evLeak posted versus what was shown in the videos.

Lol well yeah of course, the evleaks version was pretty slick, but still. I honestly didnt have much of a problem with Samsung minimally changing their designs, as long as it had good features. Though I admit this is pretty lazy on HTC's part, as the phone looks almost exactly the same as the previous one except for the camera

 

[anon(5506951)]

C'mon now....you know you'd rather have the design that evLeak posted versus what was shown in the videos.

Of course, that design was great, but I'll believe it when I see it on Sunday.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[ibcop]

Of course, that design was great, but I'll believe it when I see it on Sunday.

Posted via the Android Central App

I'm not gonna hold my breath.

 

[warpdrive]

It IS broke, they lost market share, the M8 is dorky looking with its massive forehead/chin for those clunky speakers, the back is slippery and the phone is not proportional. It didn't sell at they hoped it would. Continuing the same design when their only hope is to shake it up is madness. Slopping some dark color on the body won't save HTC, they need to get noticed...having the same failed design for a third year is not the way to do it.

And yet the m7 while having almost the same exact face and similar rear, it won phone of the year and sold better than the m8. Yet the m8 was more refined, had no need for you to learn how to use it because it wasn't a 2 button design (when all other Android phones are 3), had gesture support to turn it on (and if you added an app then you can turn it off with a gesture as well), had an SD card slot unlike the m7.

The m8 just had a lousy camera and the phone bloggers didn't hype it up like they did in the m7. Android Central had about 15 articles of the m7 after the review (and I'm not talking about the helpful ones that teach you how to do something like they do for every phone). I'm talking hype, not information. Heck, in the S4 vs the m7 camera shoot out, both phones were listed as a tie here on AC. The m7 was so promoted by most websites that it was crazy. Brian Clung from Anandtech wrote 3 pages on just the m7's camera alone. He also did a m7 vs S4 of the cameras, m7 won. The m7 was so promoted by everyone in the blogs and tech sites, yet it was not as refined a phone as the m8. Only the camera was better due to it had OIS. But you no longer had many of the original complaints in the m8, as other then the camera HTC listened to the consumers.

But no longer could the bloggers fool the audience with the ultra pixel camera. It was also bigger and some bloggers felt that due to the added screen size it was too hard to use one handed for some. The black bar didn't help with the audience, and while it had the cleanest and fastest UI as well as improvements in some areas, no longer did we see the drastically over the top promoting from all the websites like in the m7..... so the m8 didn't sell anyware near the m7 due to the more honest reviews and lack of extreme hype that followed the reviews that lasted for at least 7 months with the m7.

I don't think that the m8 is broken. It is more refined then the m7 and the m7 was a great phone. but now what the m9 needs is not to tell me that McDonald's is down the street, it needs the next level of design refinement. And get rid of the kitkat on screen buttons too.

Posted via Android Central App using the all new HTC One (m8)

 

[Inders99]

Bloggers and reviewers don't make a good phone. Either the public likes it or it doesn't, sales data/trends for the HTC line have been poor. It'll remain that way until the make a racquet in the marketplace and something takes hold for the consumer.

I picked up the M8 and put it down just as fast when I was looking at phones this past fall. Bloggers opinions mattered not to me that day. I'm not alone obviously with their sales data.

 

[wildclip]

I too am holding out hope for the evleaks render. Makes me wonder what all the supposed decoy cases looked like if this is the final. I will most likely be upgrading from my old evo 4g lte anyways.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Senden]

To go from seeing renders evleak posted to the one seen in the videos? I think everyone has a right to be a little bit disappointed. I'm still naively crossing my fingers that the videos are an attempt at misdirection and we'll see something closer to the other renders. I won't go as far as saying the look is a deal breaker as the M8 is a very nice looking phone however sticking with such a similar design which is far from perfect shows a statement of intent (or lack of) from HTC in my eyes.