HTC One M8 Review (from a Samsung Galaxy S4 user)

The HTC One M8 was recently released on March 25, 2014. The HTC One M8 is continuing where the HTC One left off as HTC's flagship device for 2014. Below is a quick review on the HTC One M8 with my impressions. Several pictures of the device (and pictures captured from the camera) are below. Enjoy!

Introduction

I will skip most of the detailed technical specifications and list what matters to most people:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801

Display: 5.0" 1080p, "Super LCD 3" with RGB matrix (441 ppi) - Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Camera: 4.0 MP, f/2.0, Dual-LED flash, 28 mm lens, 2.0 MP depth of field sensor

Memory: 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM

Build Quality and Performance

Coming from a Samsung Galaxy S4, the premium unibody aluminum frame and brushed metal backing is a welcome upgrade. HTC does not skimp when it comes to materials, and the HTC One M8 certainly feels like a premium product in my hands compared to the Galaxy S4. Granted, it is prone to slipping because of the ultra-smooth aluminum finish, but I am very happy with the build quality.

The HTC One M8 has a more pronounced curve throughout the phone as compared to the previous HTC One. Additionally, the back of the phone has been streamlined and looks cleaner than the previous HTC One in my opinion.

The phone is utilizing the fastest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor as of April 2014, the Snapdragon 801. Needless to say, it does not slow down during any task--which is expected from a flagship device like the HTC One M8. Previously, my Galaxy S4 did slow down when launching and exiting applications--and although it was a very slight slowdown (1 second or so), it was noticeable. I am happy to say that every application opens with no slowdown on the HTC One M8.

I think a large part of the speed differential is not only the processor but the User Interface. HTC's Sense 6.0 is clean and lean, and definitely faster than TouchWiz (Samsung's UI). I tried out my brother's iPhone 5S and the HTC One M8 kept pace and sometimes outperformed in opening and exiting applications. The time differences are in the milliseconds so it is difficult to judge which phone is faster from a practical standpoint.

There will certainly be benchmark reports coming out that show phone performance speeds and top contenders. But from a practical standpoint, nearly all flagship devices today have indistinguishable speeds when performing everyday tasks (e-mail, music, web browsing).

Key Features

The HTC One M8 comes with the latest version of Android as of April 2014 (4.4 - KitKat), so all of the features included in Android 4.4 KitKat come with the phone. Apart from KitKat, the biggest key feature that I saw in the HTC One M8 is the dual camera and "UFocus" feature. This feature allows the user to change depth/focus after taking a shot. The result is quite staggering, many photos look as if they were taken by a DSLR. Here is a quick example of a picture I took of a lock:

Original / UFocus on Foreground (Lock)

Original / UFocus on Background

Another great feature of the HTC One M8 is Launch Gestures. Launch Gestures allow you to simply double tap on your phone to turn it on, or swipe in multiple different directions to do different things (enter Voice Commands by swiping down, Sense Feed by swiping left, etc.)

The M8 also contains a plethora of filters and editing capabilities, as do most other phones. I found the included filters to be of rather good quality and not as gimmicky as most other phone filters.

HTC One M8 Example Pictures

Original (Left) / "Satura" Filter (Right)

Original (Left) / UFocus on Foreground/Wallet (Right)

There are many other features of the phone, but I thought these two features stood out the most to me.

Impressions

I was ultimately very impressed by the HTC One M8. Everything from the build quality, performance, and unique features of the phone made me enjoy the phone from the start. I will definitely be using my phone's camera more often to get that delicious bokeh that most phones can't produce, but the HTC One M8 can via UFocus.

Coming from a Samsung Galaxy S4, I love the HTC One M8. Unless you are a die hard Samsung fan and utilize everything from the multi-window capabilities to Samsung applications, I think you would be hard-pressed to not like the HTC One M8 after trying it out. And to all Apple users, what is taking you so long to come over to Android? You're missing out!

Additional Pictures

 

 

 

Google Acquires Motorola Mobility - What Now?

Google (GOOG) has recently announced that they will be acquiring Motorola Mobility (MMI) for a whopping $12.5 billion. The deal was under wraps even within Google, as only top management knew about the acquisition up until this week, when Google officially announced their largest acquisition.

The acquisition shakes things up in an already competitive mobile-phone market comprised of giants like Apple, Microsoft, and RIM. What makes this acquisition more interesting is the fact that Google is the developer of the widely popular Android mobile operating system, which already comprises approximately 48% of the market share of worldwide phones operating systems (Canalys, 2011).

The Android operating system is designed by Google and is one

of the most popular operating systems in the mobile phone world.

Image Source: android.com

However, this poses antitrust and regulatory issues for Google in court. Google is optimistic that the acquisition will be given a green light albeit it is possible there will be several conditions set forth by the court. Such conditions include a "chinese wall" between Google's Android division and Google's hardware/manufacturing divisions for handsets to avoid any preference for Motorola products before other manufacturers such as LG, Samsung, and HTC. For example, Google may effectively seize more market share with Motorola if they choose to release new versions of Android onto their Motorola products prior to releasing them for use on other phones. In addition, if the acquisition does go through, Google has agreed to pay $2.5 billion in cash to Motorola Mobility--a sign of the regulatory risks involved with this acquisition.

Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility may put Google in a stronger position to
compete with the Apple iPhone's huge market share in the mobile phone market.
Image Source: eastersealstech.com

One of the primary benefits of this acquisition is that Google will now have the ability to manufacture and design their own phones with ease, something that rival Apple has had the power of doing for years with their iPhone. Additionally, Google gets an arsenal of patents (17,000 and counting to be exact, with 7,500 pending) to defend their designs with. Recently patents have been an essential part of defending and attacking other companies which attempt to replicate certain design features and software features; for example, Apple recently sued Samsung over their Galaxy Tablet 2, which resembles the Apple iPad 2.

With the ability to manufacture phones on a much larger scale than before, as well as the ability to defend intellectual designs with thousands of patents, Google may be making quite a good decision in acquiring Motorola Mobility. Only time will confirm whether or not it was a good decision in the long run.

Google vs. Apple in Electronic Media

In the competition between corporations over electronic media distribution over tablets, smartphones, and other electronic devices--a new system is in to compete with the dominant player: Apple. It appears that Google is offering a new payment/distribution service for publishers wanting to get their media onto tablets and smartphones. It's called Google One Pass.

The main difference between Google One Pass and the Apple iTunes App Store is that Google One Pass takes 10% of their revenue from the sale while Apple iTunes App Store takes ~30% of the revenue from the sale. I for one am glad to see Google stepping it up to compete against such a big controller of the market for tablet PCs and smartphones.

And with Borders filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy just today, it looks like the competition is only going to heat up among electronic distribution in the coming years. Electronic-only publications like "The Daily" which introduced itself on the Apple iPad recently are also gaining popularity among consumers. If Google is able to gain a strong percentage with publishers, then the market will only become more heated up--since Google has its own Android platform to compete with Apple's proprietary Apple iPhone platform (iOS).

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out in the long run.

The Whole 4G Mess

I don't understand why so many people are getting hyped on this "4G" revolution. Federal regulations don't have a standardized meaning for what speeds "4G" can be, and so it is possible for any telecommunications corporation to advertise "4G" speeds.

Take for instance, AT&T's new recent renaming of their 3G service into 4G, covered in the Wall Street Journal article here, where the title reads "AT&T Relabels Wireless Network, Speed Up Next Generation Rollout".

The key here is the word "relabel". It is very easy to misinform consumers into thinking that a company's "4G" speeds are significantly faster than their 3G speeds, when little or no changes have been made to support such a claim. However, some companies are in fact rolling out faster connection speeds for mobile phones. One of the nation's biggest cellular carriers, Verizon Wireless, has been working on their new LTE network, which is schedule to go live later this year. Such networks do have significantly faster speeds--but it makes me wonder if they will be called "4G" or tagged along with some other term to lure consumers in. Verizon apparently is calling their new network "4G LTE"--just the right combination of new technological terms (LTE) and old favorites (X-G speeds).

It gets even more interesting when looking at the overall picture and the cellphones that will have to advertise "4G Capability". In that perspective, the entire market seems to be pushing for faster network speeds; whether or not any of the titles slapped onto these networks are genuine indicators of their speed is another story. However, if there's a demand for faster speeds, you can sure bet that corporations will supply consumers with that speed. It's just a matter of who rolls out the faster network first.

In a way, it can be called a race for telecommunications corporations to win the speed race.

-Salman