HTC One M9 is the latest flagship in the company's offer. The last two generations of smartphones HTC One series does not beat records of popularity, but at the time no doubt it was one of the better, more polished and beautiful handsets in the market, so expectations for the new member of the family, model, HTC One M9, we had a lot. The first reports about him indicated that the designers took everything that we liked in the antecedents, then this Scrub and joined a camera with less controversial performance. The recipe for success ready? Here we test the smartphone HTC One M9.
HTC One M9 - test
HTC One M9 handful derives from the nature of his ancestors and not ashamed of his roots. Quite us it's not surprising at all, and we do not mind, because for the past two years HTC designers have developed a unique style of its leading models, which is very attractive and easily recognizable. Their goal was to create phones typically associated with jewelry and largely failed to achieve it.
HTC One M9 - Specifications
The dimensions of 144.6 × 69.7 × 9.6 mm LTE Cat 6 (up to 300 Mb / s)
Weight 157 g dual-band Wi-Fi, ac
Screen 5 inches NFC Yes
1920 × 1080 Infrared Yes
LCD FM Radio Yes
Snapdragon processor 810 image output MHL 3
4 × 2 GHz Cortex-A57
4 x 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 USB Host Yes
Adreno 430 Noise reduction Yes
RAM 3 GB of available memory 22 GB
Battery 2840 mAh Micro-SD Yes
Rear camera Photos: 20.1 MP sensor 1 / 2.3 ", dual-LED, autofocus, HDR
Video: 4K @ 30 fps., 1080p @ 60 fps., 720p @ 120 fps.
Front camera Photos: 4 MP, HDR
Video: 1080p @ 30 fps.
Some liked more angular shapes M7, and another - curves M8. In appearance M9 falls somewhere between the predecessor because it shares some references to both the older one (flat edges, a little sharper) and younger (characteristic rounding brushing and back). A pinch of freshness and character of their own guarantees its two-color casing. For example, our test sample is silver and gold back edges, which looks really great, tastefully. In our opinion, the HTC One M9 is the nicest of the current smartphones of the brand and the market it would be difficult to find for him as an exclusive lately, even though the HTC designers continue to cultivate a strange penchant for wide black bars at the screen The HTC One M9 finally moved the lock system from the top edge of a side. Better late than never, but I wish we ... have not done so with his head. Button was placed in the middle of the right side, which in practice means so much that during the typical use most will cover it with his hand, and then, because I push it, you will have to change the grip and hard to bend the thumb. Those who hold the phone in his left hand, are in a better position, but it just is not a good solution. In addition, this button is a little difficult to tell without looking at those that are used to change the volume. These are the little things without much impact on the overall, but we must still wait for the phone HTC really comfortably spaced keys.
HTC still attaches great importance to the quality of speakers in its leading models: above and below the screen are visible characteristic of this series of mesh openings through which mined stereo sound. Traditionally they have an impact on the new One is relatively long, for a 5-calowca. On the top edge is just a dark plastic inset, under which was hidden infrared port, and lower installed MHL port 3 and headphone output. On the right bank, above the buttons, tray inserted card micro-SD card, and on the left - the card drawer nano-SIM. Unfortunately, they are not labeled in any way, it's easy to make a mistake when you want to replace the memory card, and you never know which way was up, and where the bottom drawer.
Designers HTC once again showed that they have the talent and know their carving in the metal. One M9 can no longer make up such impressive as its predecessors, but it is not the result of the fact that something is wrong with him, and that HTC had time to accustom us to the high quality of its major smartphones. Sure, this is not a design ideal and it would be in it as correct (black bar under the screen has to go sleep button again, it should be moved, drawers could somehow be described), but when you take a new "number one" in your hand, you immediately have to the feeling of communing with gadget really unique and hardly anyone saw her, passes by indifferently. Therefore really easy to forgive some minor shortcomings.
Slightly refreshed HTC Sense overlay
HTC Sense overlay is a characteristic feature of smartphones of the brand and several versions develops in the direction that suits us very well. After an initial period in which the HTC almost tried to create their own Android a change in strategy for sensible. Newer versions of Sense are lighter, faster, more they made with the head, while still nice and distinctive from the competition. In addition, the HTC many parts of its software separated from the kernel and update it via Play Store, which is also a good idea. Software HTC One M9 is based on Android 5.0, a version of Sense overlay has been bearing the numeral 7. In comparison with the previous version, used in last year's generation HTC One, it has changed very few things, but some news is useful.
The first and most easily noticeable is the new Home widget Sense with shortcuts to tools. The factory default configuration can be found in the two rows of shortcuts and folders (but it can be extended to the entire screen), which are populated automatically based on location data (the holder of the smartphone is in the home or outside the home, or maybe at work) hours and various types of schemes to use the equipment. In short, behind the widget algorithm that learns what programs usually run a given user in a given situation, and links to them are trying to put in a convenient location. Establishment of a very ambitious and even somehow it works, but we are not supporters of excess automation, we did not use this news too much.
But much more we appreciate the appearance in the system settings menu allows you to configure the system bar with buttons. For standard three buttons you can add to the list one more: to enable or disable auto-rotate interface to disable the screen to eject tray notifications to eject tray quick settings, or to hide the belt with system buttons. It really is a great idea and we fell especially liked the last button, so that some programs (mostly games), you can regain some valuable screen space In addition to these two things there is no major news, and only in some places you can see some cuts and signs of integration Sense functionality of the new version of Android. For example, in a drawer with quick setting here is up to 12 items, and each of which are in the tiles can be freely adjusted, delete, etc., as well as add new ones. In the drawer of installed programs can change the sorting icons and grid sizes. There is moreover a very extensive menu that allows you to customize the look of the system, with a very rich store of skins (many interesting skins are free), where everyone can find something for everyone The new version of Sense is not therefore brings a revolution, but develops a concept worked out and doing it brilliantly. Overlay System remains the strong point of HTC smartphones, as well combines style, speed and functionality, and this is not easy.
Connectivity without major changes
In the field of communication in the new "single room" it has changed very little: installed modem that supports LTE category faster (6 instead of 4) and a newer version of the MHL port, allowing transmission of video with a resolution of 4K. They exchanged a tool for enabling the infrared port and now a virtual remote controls are configured using Peel Smart Remote, the same that was in the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Other items left on their places, which sometimes is good news, and sometimes not necessarily good. For example, some might appreciate the presence of FM radio (in the Galaxy S6 it is not), but on the other hand, a pity that HTC has not complied with an additional antenna Wi-Fi, which would allow the use of MIMO and accelerate transfers Wi-Fi (as it was done in recent flagowcach Samsung and Nexus 6). But undoubtedly deserves praise handset and the overall quality of connections: has long been a strong point of leading models, HTC and is no different this time. Long talking on the phone is a pleasure, and if there are any problems understanding the caller, you can almost be sure that the fault lies on the other side of the connection. In summary, we have no major complaints.
Multimedia support at the highest level
HEVC hardware decoding (H.265) is slowly becoming the standard in high-end smartphones, which is a good sign and ensures that relatively quickly become popular, it deserves. This function is not missed decoder HTC One M9, so he has no problem with playing this type of stream 4K resolution and at 60 fps. Profile H.264 and H.265 High10 Main10, unfortunately, are not supported. With the software in a very convenient way to integrated support for DLNA and just one or two taps on the screen to send the picture to another device or on your phone to play the shared home network. This, combined with the output MHL makes the HTC One M9 superbly suited to playing videos of all kinds. It is a pity that in the pre-installed media player lacks some form of subtitling APPLE Engineers HTC continues to care about the quality headphone output. The sound is exactly what one would expect from this class of equipment, and the highest volume levels will benefit only masochists, people with hearing and holders of all high headphones. Especially the latter should be interested in this phone, because no rival is not so strong output. This is definitely one of the best players on the mobile market. A surprise brings only a glance at the options for the pre-installed music player. Well integrated with the DLNA, and it supports lossless formats, but ... there is no typical equalizer. Instead, it is the only switch HTC BoomSound and the associated four profiles: three designed for three types of HTC handsets and one general, who really does not change much
5-inch Full HD screen like its predecessor
HTC smartphones for years been associated with great LCD screens, perceived as a more subdued alternative to the too "candy" AMOLED-s Samsung. However, in recent times it has changed, because Samsung strongly improved its dies and I worked very over their calibration, and HTC ... Well, M9 shows that the company does not give in to their smartphones until such weight as it once was. Display M9 best and fastest way to describe with words: mediocre by today's standards.
Initially we had problems with the discernment of any differences in relation to the M8. Diagonal is the same, the resolution is the same, the maximum brightness is almost identical and the same can be written about the contrast. But in the end we managed to find something and it turned out that the novelty ... worse displays colors. At first glance, everything looks as properly, but when it starts to all compared with some pattern, you see that white is very blue and in general the colors are very far from appropriate. So not only did HTC in the past 12 months did not improve its matrix leading model, it still managed to in the meantime something ... spoil.
This does not mean that the screen HTC One M9 is bad. Just the equipment falls against rivals (such as Xperia Z3 and the Samsung Galaxy S6), or even its predecessor (!), Extremely average (and the point is not that we lack the resolution QHD). Less demanding users will probably be happy with the display One M9 (especially in the absence of a really decent point of reference), but those more demanding will not be fully satisfied. School three with a plus
Operating time worse than the M8 ...
... Despite pojemniejszego battery. And we are not talking about small, negligible in practice the difference, but of several dozen, which can be seen with the naked eye, so that the next king instead of energy efficiency received średniaka. What went wrong? The main culprit is probably more energy intensive processor, modem and no cache of the screen, thanks to the predecessor able to save a little energy while displaying a static image. Generally speaking, if earlier model almost never had a problem of survival for the evening on a single charge, whereas the M9 we had to be careful about what we do, and in the afternoon often stresowaliśmy that energy can not last until the end of the day. The situation is slightly different save power saving modes (including "extreme" saver that turns a smartphone in almost a regular phone with touch screen), but these are mechanisms which should be used only as a last resort, not a regular. Shame. Although uptime One M9 can not be called fatal, setback compared to the predecessor always for us is something very difficult to accept. Next, three of the positive (plus a power saving modes). Just one small nuance. HTC One M9 supports QuickCharge technique, so that the corresponding charger lets you charge it from zero to 100% in about 1.5 hours, but ... That's right: the need for dedicated charger, you need to buy, because in the box with the phone is only ordinary 1.5-ampere.
Is increasing the resolution matrix solve problems cameras HTC One?
The previous two generations of HTC One were very controversial, unique and ... often criticized cameras, by all means trying to be different. All the "ultrapiksele" which on paper looked interesting and reasonably, but in practice - in terms of noise and dynamic range - did not give the unit the competitive advantage that could compensate for the low resolution images (as a reminder: rear cameras One M7 and One M8 have just a 4-megapixel matrix). This does not mean, however, that older versions of the HTC One had bad hearing, because in some ways they are very successful: the work very quickly with efficient autofocus, superior automation and refined software, so shooting was pleasant, and the image quality has often proved sufficient for the purpose of social networking. And One M7 was in his time one of the few smartphones with optical image stabilization. Nevertheless, most agreed that low resolution rear camera is the biggest drawback of the HTC One series.
Definitely can not complain about the resolution of the images, which provides HTC One M9, as it mounted a more than 20-megapixel (5376 × 3752 pixels, which is very unusual aspect ratio of 10: 7) matrix Toshiba. If you already crazy, it's all over;) Are they profitable? Frankly, we have some doubts, because even though actually a new sensor has solved some problems predecessors, by the way buried under several meters of mud all their advantages (of which more in a moment)
Software
Normally we start, however, the software, which has long been a strong point of HTC smartphones. We love it that deftly combines the simplicity of it together with a multitude of settings. In the default setting on the screen you are visible only the most important keys so that the interface does not overwhelm less experienced users. But just a few moments and clicks to note that you can customize to taste almost everything, because not enough that finding a place here for extensive manual mode (can it change ISO, white balance, focusing distance, exposure compensation and shutter speed) it still can adjust the degree of sharpening, saturation and many others, more or less important, things.
After the first images on top are starting to come out some disadvantages of software and camera HTC One M9. He has not been here even trace speed and bezproblemowości cameras installed in predecessors. The camera of the One M9 against its rivals feels ponderous, which is particularly felt in the course of focus or image processing HDR. Besides, less polished the automation: photos often come out underexposed, a preview of the frame has a fairly low resolution, and often do not fully coincide with what appears in the machine's memory when you press the shutter button (many times we had the feeling that everything is set up well but after viewing pictures on a larger screen revealed problems with exposure, white balance and focus adjustment). Transfer to the Samsung Galaxy S6, LG G3 or older generation HTC One can be really painful: the difference in the comfort and pleasure of shooting quickly becomes obvious, though he hides it in a few small things that initially you can easily overlook or ignore.
Picture quality
Is the image quality compensates mentioned a moment ago inconvenience and minor problems? Not completely. First of all, we doubt whether the higher native resolution of the HTC One M9 translates into greater detail. Even in a good light photographs showing clearly the effects of noise reduction mechanism, which leads to the fact that good 13-16 megapixel matrix may provide similar results as a 20 megapixel in M9, and even better. In addition, despite the above mentioned noise reduction in many situations, noise and so they are not fully removed and spoil the whole. The situation is getting worse with decreasing the amount of light and increase the ISO value, which reveal that the camera M9 cope in these conditions much worse than today's leading smartphones with optical image stabilization. Also HDR mode is sometimes whimsical (and slow, especially compared with the HDR preview live on the Samsung Galaxy S6) and sometimes produces images whose appearance raises very serious doubts.
It is true that HTC has already announced a software update aimed to improve a few things (including the operation of the HDR mode), but certainly not succeed in this way to fix everything, simply because I can see that the matrix One M9 roar stronger than competitive solutions, and optical stabilization. .. this optical stabilization and it can not be added to a phone system patch. In short, the camera of the smartphone is the next element, which is neither particularly bad nor particularly good. The situation improves a little very good front camera and dual flash, but it's a bit too little to convince us.
4K video at the end of zawitało series of HTC One
Last year's version of the HTC One flagship is the only one from this period, which lacked features video recording with a resolution of UHD. The HTC One M9 backlog of these arrears (the maximum length of a single clip 4K to 6 minutes), but a function of the camera can still be traced certain shortcomings. The software is quite correct, and above all, has the ability to control autofocus and exposure lock while filming. There were also often neglected pause button (not to be confused with a button to end the recording!). But the big problem interface One M9 is the lack of suspicion of the frame of video before you press the record button. Video still is only a fragment of the photographic center of the frame, and in addition the size of the slice depends on the set video resolution, so before you start shooting never be sure if the object is not utnie legs or head. We understand that today is a standard placement of the buttons to start recording, and the shutter release button next to each other, so there was no need to switch between photo and video, because it's just a quick and convenient solution. However, we think it makes sense only if the cadres photo coincides with the frame of video, otherwise it brings more harm than benefits. The same picture quality is also not enthused us. Full HD movies are surprisingly "Soap" (Baseline profile? Seriously, HTC?), And the characters can be the lack of any form of image stabilization (either digital or optical). UHD video looks much better and increase the image quality is very noticeable, but here even more apparent is the lack of stability and that the matrix does not like the high ISO, which recorded video quality in low light conditions is very poor. What's more, you have to remember that sometimes filming at a maximum resolution can interrupt the information about the temperature is too high the camera (though that this has happened, the phone first need to bask, for example, playing or sign image 4K for more than 20 minutes, so the mind is less than last Xperiach). In short, it is not bad, but it's easy to hunger
Paper performance in extreme edition
Paper performance parameters that look good in the tables, but in general are not reflected in reality. On the pages of PClab.pl long time we stress that we should not attach too much importance to the results in a variety of short benchmarks, because they are often inflated and say nothing about what happens to the hardware performance after a few-dozen minutes of intensive use. HTC One M9 is a perfect example. This topic thoroughly discussed in a separate publication, which describes it as the HTC solved the problem of overheating One M9, so people looking for more information are encouraged to click on the above link. Here only briefly we discuss key findings and observations.
HTC One M9 automatically detects that it is running a popular benchmark, and activates stitched in the software high-performance mode. It can also turn on a permanent basis, but to do this you have to enter the options for developers, and most users do not even know of their existence, because they normally are hidden ...
In the standard mode, the performance manager CPU do not use two of the four cores Cortex-A57 Snapdragon 810, which the processor behaves in practice as the arrangement of a 4 × Cortex-A53 + 2 × Cortex-A57 instead of 4 + 4, as suggested its specification.In high-performance mode they use all cores, but even then the CPU clock speed is almost never set on the nominal value of 2 GHz.
In addition, you have to reckon with the fact that the housing One M9 quickly heats up (but not burn). When that happens, the clock layout can be slowed down by several dozen percent, and the manager of the processor can completely stop using core Cortex-A57 and begin to allocate all the calculations cores Cortex-A53 (the degree of the slowdown depends on factors such as ambient temperature, the screen brightness and intensity calculations).
Tests liquidity animation in games reveal even one specific side effect of these treatments. Manager processor HTC One M9 often games do not use large cores and immediately (or almost immediately) assigns all calculations cores less efficient. For this reason, some demanding games there is no drop in performance after a few-dozen minutes to play, because the framerate in them is limited by processor performance, not the layout, making the GPU is not loaded so heavily that it had to slow down .. . it is difficult, however, considered appropriate behavior, because the One M9 in games in which there is limited processor performance, is doing very poorly, simply because he lacks power.
In short, although in synthetic benchmarks One M9 comes off very well (especially the graphics chip, which in some tests really give you a hard time competition), these results really can be a fairy tale, and treated only as a curiosity, because in extreme cases (that is, the timing of the layout will slow down, and large cores will be sent on vacation), it is less efficient than its predecessor (and in addition warmer). This does not mean that the HTC One M9 is a free smartphone because in typical everyday applications works very well, thanks to well-optimized software. It means so much that it is much less efficient than suggested by the results of benchmarks and specifications, you should be aware of this before the final decision.
A worthy successor, or perhaps ...
We are big fans of the previous two generations of HTC One (especially M7) and pleased us that the designers put in HTC M9 on proven solutions and give up attempts to discover the wheel again. HTC One (M8) is still a very good phone, so there was no need to change it too much to create something interesting and successful, suitably equipped to fight this year's competition. So how is it that - do not beat around the bush - after the completion of testing the latest flagship HTC feel slightly disappointed?
The main reason is that the One M9 is in some respects a step backwards compared to the predecessor. The most conspicuous shorter duration of action (up to 20-30%, despite pojemniejszego battery!). In other places there has been a proverbial ax conversion on the stick. Examples?
While the new processor is theoretically more efficient and more modern, the practice may be even slower than the Snapdragon 801 from the previous HTC One, and this quickly heats the casing.
Although the new engine finally has a matrix of more recent resolution, the speed and quality of automation are worse than the previous' tennis singles "(not to mention the fact that the HTC One (M7) is equipped with a very useful optical image stabilization), and image quality against modern rivals and so is the average.
In other words, the kind of paper you can see progress, but in practice it is doubtful whether some of the changes actually came out this smartphone for good The second of the major causes of our sense of the profession is not entirely dependent on the HTC, but it is hard to ignore. The point is, what the competition is doing HTC recently, especially Samsung. The previous two generations of HTC One had an easier task, because those who sought the good-looking and made smartphone "premium" with polished software, even for a moment did not stop your eyes on the Korean hardware giant and automatically turned to the products of HTC. You could say that these brands offer guided her toward a completely different audience. Now it has changed and although engineers HTC are still unrivaled in sculpting in metal, to Samsung Galaxy S6 no longer can point out the poor quality of materials or ślamazarnego action, which is more dangerous rival for the One M9, than, for example, the Galaxy S4 was for One (M7 ).
We're guessing that someone soon will begin to be traced to increased activity on our bank accounts, but let's see how the comparison of Samsung Galaxy S6 HTC One M9.
In favor of Samsung speak:
much better and more modern
longer duration of action (both have non-removable batteries)
a much better camera and a much better camera
the higher, the more the corresponding parameters and more predictable performance
Wi-Fi ac with 2 × 2 MIMO
fingerprint reader and additional sensors
inductive charging APPLE
the presence of quick charger included (so no need for her to spend the extra money).
Speak in favor of HTC:
memory card slot
better built-in speakers
more powerful headphone output
... FM radio?
Of course, many more people still fall in love with Sense UI and metal casing One M9 (and completely not surprised ago), but it's not as strong arguments as a year or two ago. In some respects this is still outstanding, really polished smartphone, so you will certainly find a bunch of satisfied users who are willing to turn a blind eye to his faults and shortcomings, but suffice it to compare with predecessors and get an offer competition to recognize that there are better options. In our view One (M7) was in its time an outstanding smartphone, One (M8) - very good, and the One M9 smartphone ... good, which in this context sounds almost like an insult. And for some reason, it brings to mind the HTC Sensation.
Advantag
sensational quality
- very elegant look
- Speakers quality
- very good handset
- good front camera
- really good headphone
- polished, pretty and well-functioning Overlay System
- LTE Cat. 6, 3 MHL port, infrared
- flash composed of two diodes of different colors
Disadvantages
- non-exchangeable battery
- duration of action shorter than that achieved predecessor
- uneven quality and speed camera and camcorder
- screen calibration
- Fast heating housing
- unpredictable performance, much different from the specifications
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