Share your HTC One (M8) first impressions and personal reviews!

[Skyway]

My early review after having it 1 day.

I come from a Sony Xperia Z1.

Positives:

- Much better screen than the Z1, viewing angles are very good and the color is fantastic.
- Sound is a huge improvement, the stereo speakers blow away the Xperia Z1.
- Sense has been improved hugely since I had the HTC Desire HD, I find Sense 6 much cleaner and smartly thought than its earlier stages.
- Performance is even snappier than in the Z1 (Snapdragon 800 vs 801), that is probably because of Sense being much cleaner than the Xperia customization.
- It is thinner and ligher than the Z1.
- The design is absolutely astonishing. Everyone I showed it to said "wow".
- The camera app and the second rear camera allows you to play with a lot of possibilities, very nice indeed.

Negatives:

- Tap to wake sometimes doesn't work.
- A grid of 4x5 is insufficient for a 5" screen, and cannot be changed. There is plenty of unused space and Sense should give the option to expand it up to 6 (both row and column).
- Camera should have been improved further from the M7, although it is still quite nice.
- No mode like the Stamina Mode of the Sony, that allowed the phone to last 2 days. However, the battery of the One M8 is lasting for a day and a half, which is still quite good.


Overall my satisfaction is 9/10, very satisfied and would recommend it over the Z1.

There will be an update, eventually, that will give us extreme power saving mode. They claim 15 hours on 5% with the setting enabled.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[roflwaffleton]

There will be an update, eventually, that will give us extreme power saving mode. They claim 15 hours on 5% with the setting enabled.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

You can set the percentage at which it kicks in. I haven't tried it yet but it sounds promising.

 

[ironbesterer]

My review: I'm in love.

Sent from my Verizon HTC One M8

 

[pibrew]

I've had mine for 4-5 days and I have to say it is awesome! Very smooth and rips through anything you give it. The speakers are absolutely unbelievable...

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[Rose4uKY]

Mine had an update yesterday I am just now installing it.

There will be an update, eventually, that will give us extreme power saving mode. They claim 15 hours on 5% with the setting enabled.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[aandrew610]

Loving it so far!

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[tigerNamedtony07]

Love it so far. Very fast and speedy and so far really good battery life compared to the m7, Left radio shack close to 6pm with about 40 percent left I think it was at 60 at the store but we left it on with transferring over photos and contacts. Went home and spent some time watching tv and setting it up the way I wanted. By midnight i was down to 2 % left and checked GSAM. 6 hours with only 30 % battery that is incredible. Charging full now so I cant wait to see how far i get today At this rate, at least guaranteed 16 + hours for a day i am sure

 

[Eli_C]

WOW! I just went and checked out the M8 and the built quality is AMAZING!

Unfortunately the phone is still to big. HTC, get back to me next year if you can keep the screen size the same and get rid of all the wasted space to shrink the phone to a more manageable size AND improve the camera.

 

[speedtrip]

I just picked mine up this afternoon and it is everything I come to expect from HTC , I have owned only HTC brand phones starting with the original evo from sprint
Besides owning that junk DNA a few years back , I am extremely satisfied with the m8 ,
I put the m8 beside my m7 and WOW what a difference .
It runs much smoother than the m7 , when I updated to Kit Kat on the m7 it didn't run as smooth as it did with Jelly Bean couldn't quite put a finger on it .
I guess what sold me on the m8 is the size of the screen , even though I thought the 4.7 was fine the 5.0 is finer .
I am pleased with this personal entertainment center that makes phone calls.

 

[Skyway]

I am pleased with this personal entertainment center that makes phone calls.

Lol

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[Bippoptl]

So I got my One M8 yesterday.. Came from a Note 3,and previously had a Note 2,iPhone 4s, iPhone 4, iPhone 3gs, and iPhone 3g. I love this phone so much it's scary. lol. So much better than my Note 3. I personally hated hated hated hated (I could keep writing that word 100 more times) the Note 3's 13mp camera. If it was very sunny out then it was decent, but even the slightest bit of low light and the pics were awful. So the m8's camera is equal during the day, and much better at night, to my Note 3 so I'm fine with it. I love the software a million times more than TouchWiz. Now coming from a note 3 I'm fine with the size. I think it's a perfect size in every way, but again, I had a Note 3. I'm still very nervous not having a spare battery. I never charged my Note, I'd just run it down and swap batteries. Gonna miss that. I've only made a few phone calls, but I do wish the volume was louder while holding it to my head. It is loud on speakerphone, obviously. Overall I'd recommend this device to everyone. So clean and nice, and amazing software. Today is my first real day of starting off with a full charge and seeing how it does. So far I'm 2hrs and 45 min since unplugged and I'm down to 89% with 45 min of screen on time. Not bad so far

 

[bembol]

It's been 24 hours and I'm still stunned how amazing this phone is!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[Bippoptl]

I managed some pretty decent battery life yesterday. Overall I'm very happy with the One M8. Also, for those that hate the camera, my friend got engaged yesterday and the phone made me a Zoe movie from all the pics and video I took, and everyone who saw it on Facebook loved it. Camera may not have the clearest pics (although I think they are really good just so so of zooming in) but the camera features make it awesome

 

[trandz]

You are also convincing me more and more to return that S5

 

[Skyway]

I managed some pretty decent battery life yesterday. Overall I'm very happy with the One M8. Also, for those that hate the camera, my friend got engaged yesterday and the phone made me a Zoe movie from all the pics and video I took, and everyone who saw it on Facebook loved it. Camera may not have the clearest pics (although I think they are really good just so so of zooming in) but the camera features make it awesome

You are referring to video highlights, not Zoe's. Video highlights take selected pictures and videos and makes a nice little highlight reel to show off or share.

Zoe's are something completely different. With a Zoe (short for zoetrope) it takes a video and then allows you to pull individual images from it. It will also animate your Zoe's in your gallery, which I think is pretty cool.

Just trying to clarify a little for ya

Posted via Android Central App

 

[chickweedblur]

Negatives:
1. Screen - I love big smartphones because it gives you more reading space - however, the home/back/app buttons are ON-screen - and unless you're watching a video or taking a picture, they don't go away. I feel like I'm HOLDING a large phone, but looking at the screen of an iPhone.

Exactly. I'm really surprised this hasn't been talked about more. HTC managed to build one of the longest, heaviest phone in its class with the practical equivalent of a 4.7-4.8" screen. The whole bottom line of the screen are the buttons. It's the first thing I noticed when I compared it to my DNA. I get a extra 1/4 to 3/8" of screen on almost everything. Stupid for a phone this long....

 

[sacerdos]

I'm still waiting for mine to com in the mail, coming from a Razr HD Maxx. I became accustomed with the larger battery/longer life. I don't play a lot of games, etc, so I don't see a big problem.

The Razr also has the onscreen buttons, and I've come to ignore them. I've also played around with Full!Screen, which places only two buttons on the left and right corners, with transparencies. You have to have Root, however.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...details?id=de.tsorn.FullScreen&token=M7i4Dur1

Transmissum est ab Nota Galaxia MMXIV mea per Tapatalk

 

[FaisDogg]

Why do I see both WiFi and LTE active, I know the phone has download booster, but I'm not downloading anything

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[kioko91]

Why do I see both WiFi and LTE active, I know the phone has download booster, but I'm not downloading anything
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/14/qyqagyta.jpg

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Did you send or receive an MMS? Mine shows 4G but grayed out while wifi is active. It's letting me know what signal I have aside from bars, which I like. :-D

 

[branmuffin17]

I think this is my first post...the M8 has made enough of an impression on me to do so.

History

I'm on Verizon, and am coming from a day one purchase of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus over 2 years ago...and (ugh) a Blackberry Tour 9630 before that.

I had my GNex rooted, and have been running AOKP most recently, with Gummy before that. I ran light on the custom side, not making too many modifications or other hacks. Mostly just worked within the functions the custom ROM provided, and would regularly download and use LeanKernel: Minimalistic Kernel and just change the governer (InteractiveX worked very well for my particular handset). Was very happy with the customizations the custom ROMs provided. Moving to AOKP 4.4.2 nightlies made HUGE differences in performance compared to 4.3 and before...everything was snappier/more responsive, and I noticed with the reduced resource/RAM usage that I could switch between at least one more app before it would have to do a full boot/refresh of that app. On to the M8. (Oh, and here's how I had my GNex's first 2 main screens set up...




...and here are the first 2 screens on the M8 now.




General

Everything [all the reviews are saying] is in line with my impressions. Everything, EVERYthing is immediately responsive...especially in comparison to the GNex. I have not found anything to be broken or having issues, whether they are apps or hardware. Build quality is great, though I'm protecting with the HTC Double Dip case (until the Dot View is in stock, at which point I'll likely switch). I guess if I have any complaints, it's that it really is a bit unwieldy in the hand...just a bit big and heavy, but those are things I can live with. The screen is beautiful. Coming from 720P, that's no surprise. Battery life is great for me in comparison to the GNex, which had many, many complaints about that. From a full 100% charge, it'll definitely last me one full day, though not much more than that.

Software/Sense 6

This is my first go-around with Sense, but I (amazingly, to myself) have no complaints. In comparison to running pretty light on AOKP, the general skin isn't obtrusive. I'm still trying out BlinkFeed, and am not sure on my final opinion of it as of yet. I normally use Feedly for RSS (and continue to do so), which I love...but I'm using BlinkFeed sometimes, and it may grow on me. If I were to miss anything, it would be greater control over how many rows/columns I can have on the homescreen, along with full control over size of widgets. You can maybe see on my pics how I have more flexibility on my old phone for this kind of thing. One other thing I miss from AOKP is the notification dropdown...I used the statusbar brightness slider and smaller/simpler traditional pulldown toggles. With Sense 6, I just keep brightness on auto and settle for having to use the dropdown toggle button first.

Camera/Software

The GNex had a 5 MP camera that didn't perform all that well. I made do, and generally didn't have any complaints. I'm not a photographer, so I don't set up the perfect shot with my phone so I can blow it up to 16" x 20" for my wall (I have a Canon 30D w/ good lens for that...but I STILL don't use that camera for that!). Given that, I'm finding that the general performance on the M8 exceeds my needs. Pictures look plenty clear for my needs...e.g. posting on Google+ and Instagram. I've tried a bit of Zoe, but mainly use rear camera in auto or HDR (haven't messed around with it enough to say if HDR mode is worth not having some of the fun after-effects). LOVE the UFocus effect. Darker room settings still have nice lighting. "Selfie" front camera has nice wide angle so people don't have to crowd next to each other to get in the frame. Etc., etc. Also, people don't think about disk space...16-20 MP shots or 4K video can quickly fill up the phone's space unless you obsessively manage it. 4 MP isn't so bad, thinking about it that way.

I find the gallery app (with those 30 second video highlights) to be amazing, though I wish I could integrate songs from Google Play Music with it. Generally extremely pleased with the camera, picture quality, and the software behind it.

Speakers/BoomSound

Very pleased with the sound quality coming from the front stereo speakers. Good volume for personal use or sharing with people standing right next to me.

BoomSound translates very well as the stock equalizer for me. I mounted my GNex in my car via the official GNex car mount, using the aux cord plugged into the head unit. I also installed a custom, unofficial Beats mod that had to be installed via custom recovery/bootload. The reason I did that is because the standard equalizers just didn't give that extra oomph on the low end. I have a small 10" sub in my trunk. My music is for me, not those in other cars with their windows down, so I keep it unobtrusive, but still found standard sound to not even translate the lowest frequencies to my sub. What I'm getting at is that BoomSound does that. Full sound, getting clear highs. Just wish the official HTC M8 car kit was in stock. Plan to get it when it is (just like the Dot View case).

Final Thoughts

Basically, I'm extremely happy with the phone. The low MP of the main camera is not an issue for me at this point, based on my usage. The build quality and look is superior (to me) to the plastic-y Galaxy S5, the small iPhone 5s, or the pictures I've seen of the Sony Xperia Z2. The Sense software does not detract from functionality or speed. I was concerned about signing away 2 more years of my life to another phone, but I feel that I made the perfect choice for my needs.