HTC One M9 Review Part 2

With BlackFire technology and some more speakers you’ll also be able to have a multi-room setup playing diff erent tunes in diff erent rooms or the same one on everything. Other HTC One M9 users will be able to hook into the system and queue their own tracks. Cameras The HTC One M9 no longer has the Duo Camera setup consisting of two camera lenses. Instead, HTC has gone for a 20Mp rear camera with the same dual-LED fl ash. This is the biggest hardware change compared to the M8 and confi rms HTC has given up on the refocusing element. We like the stylish and easy to use camera app which has various modes. There’s Camera, Selfi e and Panorama but you can add more like Bokeh and Split Capture. With 20Mp on off er, there’s plenty of detail and we found the camera accurate at auto focusing and shooting quickly.

The M9 does crop to 16:9 by default though, so you’ll need to head into the settings to get all those available pixels. You can shoot in a regular mode, but quickly switch to others such as HDR, Night and Macro. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, you can enter manual mode and start fi ddling with the white balance, ISO, shutter speed and even focus. It’s displayed on the screen in bars like the Lumia 1020. On the video side it can now record video in up to 4K resolution and uses a ‘dynamic exposure algorithm’ to mimic the human eye, we’re told. Default is full-HD, though and to rival the iPhone there’s a Slow motion mode (120fps). HTC hasn’t completely given up on the UltraPixel (which lets in more light) as the front camera on the M9 is the rear camera from the M8. Whether or not it was good on the back of the last generation, it makes for a good selfi e camera on the M9 with a crisp and detailed image that works well in low light. To go with the new hardware is a software feature called One Gallery which we haven’t been able to try out but will in theory bring all your photos together from the likes of Dropbox, Flickr, Google Drive and Facebook into one place. Battery life HTC increased the battery size from the original HTC One to the One M8 and has done so again with the new One M9.

It’s now 2840mAh compared to 2600mAh, which is a smaller jump than last time around and the battery is still non-removable which is the same across most fl agship smartphones. Despite the larger capacity, we’ve found the battery life to be no diff erent to the HTC One M8. With an average usage pattern, the M9 lasted us a couple of days before needing to be charged. That’s still a good eff ort with many phones only managing just one day. Note that the fi nal software may aff ect battery life, however. There’s no wireless charging, which is a shame, but HTC still off ers its Extreme power saving mode which put the M9 into a basic mode (although not greyscale like similar features on rival phones), allowing access to a small selection of simple functions like phone and messages. Software As you would expect, the HTC One M9 runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop which is the latest version. However, HTC doesn’t leave it as is so puts its own skin or user interface over the top.

The M9 introduces Sense 7.0 which means you get HTC’s style including icons and apps but there are also some new features. HTC largely does things its own way with BlinkFeed to the left of the main homescreen, a grid view recent apps menu and a vertically scrolling app menu. However, the stock drop-down notifi cation bar is in use (with some HTC style added) and the good news is that you can customise which quick settings you want – thanks, HTC. Luckily you can tweak the way you want to use the phone so the BlinkFeed panel can be removed, you can opt for the stock Lollipop card system for recent apps and although you can’t make the app menu scroll horizontal you rearrange around, hide them and adjust the grid size.

Talking of customisation, this is the main emphasis of Sense 7.0 so there’s a new Themes app where you can download various user interface themes. However, you can edit details yourself such as icon styles and fonts. The software will also generate a theme for you based on a photo which is pretty cool. Motion Launch Gestures are still part of Sense and mean you can do handy things like double tap the screen to turn it on and off . Up, down, left and right swipes will unlock, turn on voice dialling, launch the widget panel and open BlinkFeed respectively – all with the screen off .

We’ve already mentioned HTC Connect and One Gallery in relation to audio and photo; another new feature is called HTC Sense Home – it’s not an app, but the launcher HTC now uses. The software is location-aware, so you can use a diff erent lock- and home screens depending on where you are. For example, when at work you’ll get icons for your email and calendar and these will automatically get replaced with a remote control app and Facebook when you get home. You can select what you want for each layout, but suggestions will be made based on your habits. We’ve been using it for only a few days; it’s already pretty handy, although the suggestions can be annoying.