HTC One (M9)

“In many ways, the One M9 is a victim of HTC's early success. The M7 was a fantastic phone that blew people away with its high-end materials and design. Instead of pushing forward, though, HTC played it safe with both the M8 and the M9. Unfortunately for the fading mobile stalwart, the third time is not the charm. There are some notable upgrades, deficiencies have been addressed, and the phone generally feels snappier and better thought-out, but it simply fails to drum up the excitement befitting a shiny new flagship.Make no mistake: This is still a very good phone, and the rating above reflects that. It's just not an exciting upgrade, particularly if you're coming from the M7 or the M8. The One M9 will make a fine phone for the fashion-conscious, but that's no longer enough to carry it past the fierce competition.”

“The M9's lack of change is really disappointing, not because we're advocating change for change's sake, but because the M8 left a lot of room for improvement. As it stands, the M9's huge bezels make it look and feel dated and much larger than it needs to be. The One line was to be for premium devices, but recycling the same design doesn't say premium. It says cheap.The One M9 makes us wonder if HTC's heart is still in this. Lately, it has been trying to reinvent itself as a consumer electronics company. It now makes a camera, a fitness band, a social network, a virtual reality headset, and, oh yeah, smartphones. While many smartphone vendors are also big electronics companies, HTC is a small company, and its move into general electronics seems to have come at the cost of its ability (or a least desire) to make a competitive smartphone. The One M9 feels like an afterthought, like the company was stretched too thin to give the phone the attention it needed.The smartphone market is a race—you've got to come up with better designs and ideas faster than everyone else. If you're in the back of the pack, you can never catch up to the leader if you're running slower, and that's what's so frustrating about HTC. Its response to losing the race is to move even slower.Look at what Samsung is doing. The company suffered few bad quarters in the smartphone market, so it revamped everything about the Galaxy S6—new materials, new SoC vendor, less crapware, an eye-catching curved version. That's what it takes to be competitive. In the smartphone market, HTC's flagship doesn't feel like it's on the path to success, it feels like it's on the road to irrelevance.”

“Latest Snapdragon, latest Android and Sense, Dolby Surround added to HTC Boomsound, very good screen quality. With a proper camera finally on the list, the HTC One M9 is the all-round flagship smartphone the company should have had a while ago. The beautiful aluminum unibody looks as good as ever though and, if nothing else, the two-color design adds an extra bit of flair.Hold one in your hand and it gets even better. The brushed aluminum casing delivers an unrivaled tactile experience and the edge around the screen aids in securing a firm grip and makes the phone feel slimmer. The larger than average footprint and weight are not as much of an issue in everyday use and are easy to live with.It's on the inside where it gets complicated. Qualcomm's misfortunate Snapdragon 810 can be mighty powerful but heats up significantly under load. To address that, HTC tweaked the firmware to avoid thermal issues and performance took somewhat of a hit. So while we know the chip is capable, practical considerations limit what it can actually put out in the real world.That is not to say, that the device lags or leaves the user waiting. On the contrary, Lollipop and Sense 7.0 team up for a delightful experience, with arguably some of the best Android customizations on the market. The interface is fast, consistent, stylish and rich in features, without being overly crowded. We guess however you'll be able to enjoy that combo on the One (M8) as well, in a couple of months or so.The single most notable step up is without a doubt the camera. Innovations are welcome, but the UltraPixel concept has its limitations and those should have been foreseen, or at least acknowledged when the original One was released. Little excuse can be found for HTC's choice to stick with the same technology on the One (M8), and a third iteration would have been a disaster.Thankfully, the company employed a conventional 20MP sensor (admittedly with less than conventional 10:7 aspect ratio) and it performs admirably. Images come out sharp, with great colors and above average dynamic range. We're inclined to forgive the higher than average luminance noise, because the lighter noise reduction algorithms have resulted in plenty of detail.Audio output, in typical HTC fashion, is exemplary. The One M9 aced our tests both with and without headphones, and we have nothing but praise for it. The stereo speakers didn't break our sound level meter, but did produce excellent quality output, not that we expected otherwise.”

“HTC tries to keep old strengths with the One M9 and does not really change the design of its flagship smartphone. The speakers still create a very good sound, but the latest version once again reveals problems in respect of the reworked camera. The battery runtimes could be longer as well.”