HTC One M8, Gunmetal Grey 32GB (AT&T)

by HTC

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.8 x 0.4 x 5.8 inches ; 5.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00IZ1VNZ2
• Item model number: One (M8)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,080 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)
  • #81 in Cell Phones & Accessories > Contract Cell Phones

Product Description

Product Description

The all metal body with sleek lines and soft curves has been crafted to fit perfectly in the palm of your hand. It curves around the screen with no edges or seams to make it one of the most comfortable phones to hold. Featuring BoomSound, which features dual front-facing speakers and balanced amplifiers for robust audio. The 5" touch screen's 1080p resolution ensures strikingly clear images. 4G LTE and much more.

Amazon.com

The Best Just Got Better

Last year’s HTC One delivered a wide range of innovative smartphone breakthroughs: beautiful all-metal design, an ever-changing home screen that streams customized online feeds, dual front-facing speakers and an amazing HTC UltraPixel camera.

The HTC One M8 ensures you're never out of touch with your world (view larger).

But innovation doesn’t rest and neither does HTC. That’s why we’re introducing the HTC One (M8). With a full wrap-around, high quality, all-metal design with curved edges that naturally fit in your hand, significant enhancements to every breakthrough feature of last year’s model, as well as all-new innovations, the HTC One (M8) is designed to impress and built to perform.

Premium Design

With the HTC One (M8), we’ve refined this process and taken our award-winning design to another level. The housing is now wraps all the way around the sides and right up to the edge of the display screen, creating natural curves that fit snugly in your hand and make it easy to hold. It’s curved back and brushed, high-quality metal present an unsurpassed premium look for a phone that’s as easy to admire, as it is to use.

HTC DUO Camera

Some of the most prominent new features of the HTC One (M8) have to do with its ability to take truly stunning portrait photography and pictures with unique, fun and creative special effects. In a smartphone first, HTC’s Duo Camera features a dual lens that captures depth of field information and provides an entirely new set of editing tools.

UFOCUS: Never Lose Focus

The HTC One (M8)’s camera is 50 percent faster than before, with a top focusing speed of less than 300 milliseconds. After you take a photo, the UFocus capability uses the depth information collected by the dual lens camera to give you professional-looking portraits. You can easily add an artistic blur known as ‘bokeh’ around your subject with just a tap. You can also refocus the shot on any person in the photo.

ZOE VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: Multiple Points of View

Now you can share your Zoe Video highlight reels with your friends and have them add their own photos, music or themes to create completely new highlights. Enjoy the same event photographed by different people from multiple angles for a true creative collaboration and a richer way to relive special moments.

MOTION LAUNCH

Unlock your phone, access your home screen, and launch apps with Motion Launch. Built-in motion sensors detect when you pick up the phone, and with a single swipe or double-tap you can unlock your screen or launch an app, without even hitting the power button. Swipe left to access Widget Home. Swipe right to go to HTC BlinkFeed. Swipe up to launch the previous app. Or access the camera by holding the phone in landscape and pressing the volume down key.

Spec Highlights

• 3G/4G LTE connectivity
  
  AT&T 4G LTE network is available in limited markets
  
  
• Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) with HTC Sense
  
  
• 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core
  
  
• 5.0-inch Full HD 1080p with 440ppi display
  
  
• Dual camera with UltraPixel
  
  
• Front 5-MP camera with 1080p video
  
  
• 32 GB storage + 2 GB of RAM
  
  
• Wireless-N Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0 + NFC
  
  
• 2600 mAh battery capacity
  
  
• See full specs below

Zero-gap aluminum unibody with tapered edges for a smooth grip (view larger).

Extreme Power Saving Mode

Finally, a battery that can keep up with you. The battery in the HTC One (M8) lasts 40 percent longer than before. Extreme Power Save mode gives you up to 2 weeks of standby time while still giving you manual access to calls, email, texts, and other basic functions. Even with just 10 percent battery, you’ll have 30 hours of standby time with Extreme Power Saving Mode.

HTC BOOMSOUND: Parallel Speakers, UnParalleled Sound

HTC BoomSound boasts our signature dual front-facing speakers that project audio directly at you. The sound is crisper, richer, and fuller than competing smartphones.

The HTC One (M8) features a new multi-band amplifier that ratchets up
the volume and sound quality, and boosts bass while keeping the mid/high frequencies clear. A new software balancing system optimizes bass and treble levels to ensure clear vocal and sound details. Redesigned speaker chambers result in sound that is 25 percent more powerful than the HTC One (M7). A new DSP constantly monitors the speakers to ensure the audio is never degraded by clipping or distortion.

HTC ADVANTAGE

You bought the best and HTC believes in keeping it that way. Be confident knowing your smartphone will always have the latest software updates. If your screen breaks it will be replaced for free within the first 6 months from purchase. HTC also offers free storage plus back up and restore so you’ll never lose your content.

What's in the Box

HTC One M8 smartphone, 2600 mAh battery, USB cable, wall charger, stereo headset, quick start guide

Specifications

Design
Display	5 inch, Full HD 1080p with 440ppi (1080x1920)
Speakers	Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers; HDR Microphone
Sensors	Gyro; accelerometer; proximity; ambient light; barometer

Network and Connectivity
Cellular connectivity	3G - WCDMA: Domestic 850/1900MHz with HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps; Roaming 2100 MHz -- 4G – LTE: 700/850/AWS/1900MHz; Roaming 1800/2600 MHz
Networking	Wireless-N (802.11a/ac/b/g/n);
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX high-quality audio streaming codec
Near Field Communication	NFC technology enables communication between NFC-enabled smartphones
DLNA	Wirelessly stream media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer
GPS	For navigation and location-based apps; GLONASS support; digital compass
Ports	Micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile high-definition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection (optional cable required for HDMI connection); 3.5mm stereo audio jack

Multimedia
Audio formats	.AAC, .AMR, .OGG, .M4A, .MID, .MP3, .WAV, .WMA (Windows Media Audio 9); .AMR for recording
Video formats	.3GP, .3G2, .MP4, .WMV (Windows Media Video 9), .AVI (MP4 ASP and MP3), FLAC, Vorbis; .MP4 for recording

Processor & Memory
Processor	2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, 8974 quad-core
Internal storage	32 GB
Memory expansion	Support for up to 128GB MicroSD
RAM	2 GB

Camera & Video
Rear camera	HTC UltraPixel Camera with BSI sensor; 2.0 µm pixel size; f/2.0 aperture; 29mm lens; flash
Front camera	5-megapixel; captures Full HD 1080p video
Duo Camera	Professional looking photos with more depth

Size
Dimensions	2.77 x 5.76 x 0.37 inches (WxHxD)
Weight	5.7 ounces

Battery
Capacity	2600 mAh (non-removable)

Extras
BlinkFeed	Live home screen delivers updates from social networks, news, and feeds you choose.
Sense TV	Personalized TV guide and remote control.
Boomsound	Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 71 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible phone with outstanding battery life April 11, 2014

By Sean D Rice

I want to preface this review by saying I owned the original AT&T HTC One (m7), and had I not dropped it and ruined it I would still be using it to this day. It was my favorite phone I've ever owned and it wasn't even close. I decided to wait for the release of the HTC One m8 and see how it stacked up against it's elder sibling, and for the most part it's an iterative update to the m7. That's not an insult, mind you, considering how well crafted the m7 was. The m8 is an outstanding device, and I would highly recommend it to anyone in the market for a new phone. Here's a breakdown of my thoughts on the phone:

--DESIGN--
Overall, this is probably the one of (if not THE) best built phones on the market. It just feels premium, and the brushed metal finish looks incredibly sleek. The metal finish is slightly slippery, but gives the phone a perfect fit in your hands. HTC decided to increase the phone size from 4.7 inches to a full 5 inches, and the difference is noticeable in both good and bad ways. The good obviously being the extra space for the gorgeous 1080p screen, the bad being just a tad too long, IMO. I thought 4.7 inches was just about a perfect fit, especially considering the power button is stationed at the top, making it difficult to reach the top when held with one hand. The edges are a little more rounded than the boxier edges of the m7, and the weight is about on par (technically slightly heavier but not noticeable). 9/10

--SCREEN--
Uses the same 1080p screen as its predecessor, which was at or near the top of its class. Still beautiful to look at, has amazing viewing angles, and is very bright. Is no better and no worse than other top smartphones, however, as QHD mobile phones are just around the corner. 8/10

--SPEAKERS--
Usually phone speakers are an afterthought, but HTC has put a lot of emphasis on its "boomsound" speaker technology, and it shows. Without a doubt the best speakers you'll find on a phone. They're loud, crisp, and clear, perfect for showing off a quick YouTube video to your friends. Will never replace a bluetooth speaker, but impressive nonetheless. 10/10

--STORAGE--
HTC has finally done what other smartphones have been doing for years: allow expandable microSD storage. This is major news for anyone who takes lots of pictures and videos, especially when utilizing the phone's Zoe feature. The phone comes standard with 32GB of storage, and Google allegedly offers a free 50GB of extra Google Drive space for 2 years (I say allegedly because for some reason my phone never gave me the option; I have reached out to Google and will update if/when they get back to me)*. Plenty of options to save all your photos, videos, apps, etc. 9/10

*** UPDATE ***
I spoke to an HTC customer service rep on their live chat and they quickly sent me a link which activated the extra 50GB on my Drive account.

--BATTERY--
I was very, EXTREMELY, happy to discover the battery life on this device has been outstanding thus far. Although I wouldn't consider myself a power user, I am consistently checking my phone for emails, texting friends, browsing the internet, and using various apps throughout the day. On my m7, I would find that by the time I went to bed I would be anywhere between 5% and 30% battery, always requiring me to charge overnight. So far I haven't gone to sleep with the phone anywhere below 50% on one day's use, with it averaging around 65% left. Just a remarkable difference for me, so much so that I no longer need to charge the battery every single night. What I find to be strange is the discrepancy between professional reviews in terms of battery life; for example, Engadget speaks very highly of the battery life while ZDNet lists the battery life under one of it's "cons" (it may be worthwhile to note that these reviews were based on the global version of the HTC One while mine is based on the AT&T variant). All I know is the battery life on my device is extremely long lasting, a very pleasant surprise for me. 9/10

--CAMERA--
Probably the most criticized aspect of this phone is the camera and its use of 4 megapixels... I mean "ultrapixels". The benefit is the pixels are larger and allow for more light to be taken in, essentially making the camera more efficient in low light situations. The phone is very capable of taking nice photos, just don't expect to blow them up and hang them on your wall at home. The m8 has added a second camera to the phone that doesn't actually take a photo but captures depth information in the photo's metadata. This allows for some really cool photo editing tricks, such as selecting an area of the picture to stay in depth of focus while the rest is blurred. It also helps with the autofocus, which is blazing fast. Personally, I don't use my phone to take state of the art pictures so this camera works well enough for me, although I can understand this may not be ideal for others. 7/10

--SOFTWARE/HARDWARE--
HTC has applied its "HTC Sense" software on top of Android 4.4.2 coupled with a Snapdragon 801 processor, which combine for a silky smooth performance. The same signature features from the m7 are once again on this phone, such as Blinkfeed, Zoe's and Video Highlights. The best addition to this phone, however, is the inclusion of motion launch gestures. This feature allows you to make a series of gestures on the home screen that will unlock the phone without you having to reach up and hit the power button. As I previously mentioned, it's not exactly simple to hit the power button especially when using one hand, so it's an absolute relief that you can simply double tap the screen to wake the phone up. You can also swipe up from the bottom of the screen to unlock the phone altogether. So far it has worked flawlessly, as it only works if it detects it has been picked up thanks to the low power sensors inside the phone. Call quality and clarity has been perfectly fine, and the LTE speeds are fast as always. 9/10

--OTHER--
HTC has thrown in a 6 month cracked screen repair warranty, which is a nice touch for clumsy people like myself.

--OVERALL THOUGHTS--
If you're in the market for a new Android phone, I can't recommend this phone enough. It's truly a premium device in both looks and performance. Read more ›

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comparison to the HTC M7 April 11, 2014

By Nth Doctor

I told myself repeatedly that I didn't need to get this phone, but after seeing it in person I had to upgrade to it via AT&T Next. I brought it home from the AT&T Store a few days ago and took a good look at it compared to my M7. There's several key differences between the two.

- The M8 is larger than the M7. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It really is larger. It's almost unwieldy huge. My hands are reasonably large, so I have no problem with the size. However, when I did go back to my M7 for brief periods of time, I felt the screen size was very nice.
- The power button is still on top. That's where I prefer it, honestly. I never liked how the Galaxy phones put it on the left side so only right-handed people will be able to hit it easily. However, the power button on the M8 is on top to the right side instead of the left. It took me some time to get used to this because the power button is on top to the left side on the M7.
- Looking for the headphone jack? It used to be on top on the M7, but they moved it to the bottom next to the micro USB slot on the M8. I'm rather indifferent to this change, honestly. As long as the headphone jack still works then I'm fine with it.
- The M8 has on-screen buttons this time instead of the hardware capacitive buttons from the M7. I really like this change because if there was anything I really disliked about the M7, it was how the only two buttons were back and home. After using other devices like the Nexus 7, it made more sense to have the three buttons at the bottom in some form. The M8 has them on screen like many modern Android phones.
- There's a micro SD slot. Hallelujah! Granted the built-in 32GB of storage on the M8 is probably enough for most people, but if you're like me and have a massive music collection, you'll want some room to grow. You could pick up a 64GB card on Amazon for an efficient price and effectively increase your storage.
- The M8 requires the newer nano SIM card that you see in most iPhones. The M7 still utilizes the widely used micro SIM size. If you're on AT&T and you upgrade from a phone that requires a micro SIM to one that requires a nano SIM, they'll probably help you take care of that. I was given a new SIM entirely for my M8.
- The dual lens camera is very nice compared to the standard camera on the M7. I played around with the M8's camera and discovered how interesting and fun the panoramic mode is. It lets you construct pictures through the overlay's instructions to move to a square and hold the camera in that position for the phone to properly capture it. You can look at these photos again in the gallery and tilt your phone around to explore them. I thought this was a really neat feature.
- The M8's screen is a little more advanced. In addition to having the on-screen buttons and whatnot, it also supports the popular feature from the LG G2 where you can double tap the screen with a finger to wake it. In addition, the software supports swiping to the sides when asleep to trigger actions, such as opening up BlinkFeed.
- Speaking of BlinkFeed, the new iteration of it is nicer than it was initially on the M7. However, if you didn't like BlinkFeed the first time or don't really use any social networks, you probably still won't care for it. My biggest gripe with BlinkFeed, the ability to use any RSS feeds you want, is still not solved. Until then, I have Press and Feedly, and like the new update on the M7, you can disable BlinkFeed if you're not using it.
- No more Beats branding. But don't worry. The M8's BoomSound speakers actually sound better, and the sound quality from the headphone jack is jaw-dropping. I listened to a few songs on Spotify through the headphone jack and felt that the sound quality was greatly improved.
- The M8 feels better made as a whole. The M7, although it was carved from aluminum and still looked amazing, had quite a bit of plastic on the edges. The M8 is just curved metal all the way around on the sides.
- There's a few other obvious differences. The M8 has Snapdragon 801 and Sense 6, while the M7 has Snapdragon 600 and Sense 5.5.

Now, I can say that this phone is extremely well-built. I feel more confident about it's structure than I did about the M7. The M7 has these plastic edges along the sides. The M8 is all around metal with such a nice curvature. It feels so nice, so confident in the hand.

Since I got the AT&T version, there's always the problem with included carrier bloatware. The M8 is no exception. I got a whole bunch of apps I was never going to touch from AT&T until I rooted and installed InsertCoin. The phone's Sense 6 (or Sixth Sense as they call it, heh) is quite nice. The UI design trades away the gradients of Sense 5.5 and below in favor of flat colors. It seems like the industry is trending in this direction anyway, what with the iOS 7 overhaul and Windows Phone 8's flatness. Compared to Sense 5.X, almost everything is in the same place as before. If you've used the M7 and want to get the M8, you'll feel (mostly) right at home.

In the drawer I no longer miss having the Sense 4 style. I've really adjusted to the custom sorting option. Since you can create folders, you can organize your apps any way you like. I choose to organize them by specific actions for the most part. I also changed the grid size to 4x5. Regardless, I really like this feature. If you want to customize and organize your app drawer, you certainly have the option. If not, you can scroll to the top and select Alphabetical to get everything to display. Still, when it comes to Sense 4, if I had to get anything back from it, it would definitely be the Agenda view widget. I miss that widget so much.

For music lovers, the M8 is extremely nice. The music player has even improved since the Sense 5.X iteration. The player better supports music tagging than before, with almost all of my albums having the embedded artwork displayed. I tag all of my music meticulously. If you want to play it out loud, the BoomSound speakers are back and still as loud and crisp as ever. Also, FLAC is still supported, so you're all set for extremely high quality sound.

The LCD screen is extremely nice with its bright colors. Granted it doesn't look like any of the Galaxy phones with their AMOLED screens, but given the choice, I'll take HTC's screens since they aren't susceptible to burn-in like on any AMOLED phones. I still see burn-in all the time with other Samsung devices whenever I get to hold a friend's phone or look at a display model at a store somewhere. LCD is still the way to go for me, and this screen is surprisingly very strong. Like the M7, the M8 has a glass screen that is nigh unscratchable in day-to-day use. If you look around on YouTube, there's a video of somebody attempting to scratch the M7's screen by scraping a screwdriver over it and failing to leave any damage. HTC knows how to make screens on these things.

Like I mentioned above, the phone has expandable storage. I personally purchased a 64GB card to use in it, but if you really wanted and had the extra money to spend, you could easily order a 128GB micro SD card and stick it inside. If I had the option to do that, I could hold up my M8 next to my MacBook Air and say tell everybody how my M8 has more storage.

The battery is still not removable, but I still don't care because the odds of getting a bad battery are rather low. If I ever need to travel around and have battery life, I have a rechargeable battery pack anyway. In addition, I can't help but notice that rooted phones on custom ROMs typically have much better battery life. When I had my M7 unrooted and on stock software, I could only go about a day from morning to night before I'd have to plug it in for sure. With my M7 rooted on a custom ROM, I could go over 48 hours on a single charge. I haven't had the M8 for too long, but I think the idea still holds up here.

The phone runs extremely smooth as a whole, and I keep feeling that all the things the M7 did that felt insane or amazing are present on the M8, so it's kind of hard to be so blown away a second time. I still really love this phone, however.

Now, there's the elephant in the room that I haven't really acknowledged yet: This or the Galaxy S5? I honestly haven't really kept up with the S5 because I'm not really interested in it, but there are clear differences that people will want in both phones.

You should get the M8 if:
- You are an HTC loyalist. This phone won't disappoint you.
- You really like the Sense interface and think TouchWiz has always been bloated and slow.
- You want a premium-feeling phone with a metal unibody design.
- Features like HTC TV and the built-in infrared blaster are a must for you.
- You don't really care about features like fingerprint reading or heartbeat monitor.
- You need an extremely good low-light camera and are confident that megapixels aren't everything.
- You hate burn-in on AMOLED screens and don't want to put up with or even risk having your screen burn in. The M8's screen is not susceptible to burn-in at all since it does not use AMOLED technology.

You should get the S5 if:
- You are a Samsung loyalist. If you love Samsung, already own a Galaxy Gear, are already immersed in the Samsung ecosystem of apps, or actually use all the bells and whistles the Samsung phones always include, then the S5 is probably not going to disappoint you.
- You are a camera enthusiast. The M8 has a few smaller features missing from the S5, but the S5 really reaches out to enthusiasts by letting users record 4K video and having a higher number of megapixels.
- You are extremely clumsy or take poor care of your phone. The plastic body on the S5 is probably less susceptible to serious damage from drops, and the S5 is water and dust resistant. Granted, if this is a serious problem for you, I heard the Xperia Z2 is very nice.
- You need your phone to weigh slightly less.
- You need to have that marginally better battery life.
- You need that 0.1 inches of additional screen real estate.

Overall, I am extremely happy with my M8. It's not the big game changer the M7 was last year, but it's still a great upgrade. Read more ›

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Arguably the best ONE April 16, 2014

By WiseShopper TOP 1000 REVIEWER

You are probably interested in buying a new phone but having a hard time choosing the right phone because of all the choices that are out there. After researching the best phones that are available or soon to be available (HTC One M8 and the Samsung S5) for weeks, I pulled the trigger on the M8 and picked one up when it was released to Verizon. The LG G3 is too far away to be considered. I can't tell you how awesome this phone is without writing 10 pages but I will try to keep it short and straight to the point. I hope this review helps you decide if this is the phone for you and why this is the best overall phone available right now. Honestly do not get the S5, because you will regret it. If you want a plastic phone that is powerful and probably the best in the Spec department, just wait for the LG G3. It is coming near the summer of this year and it will have amazing performance and the best display. It will probably outperform all phones including M8, but I will be happy with my HTC M8 because there isn't or will be any better looking phone that also has competitive specs this year.

Why and who should get this phone?
People who want a phone that:
-Is well crafted and probably the most beautiful phone ever made (yes better design and materials than iPhone)
-is one of the fastest phone currently available
-Can live without having the best camera
-Simply works without buggy software crashing and want a smooth android experience
-Is one of the best phones available this year
-Is a solid phone that is 90% metal and feels elegant to hold in your hand
-Has very good battery life (not the best) but most people will be satisfied
-Makes other people wish they had a sexy phone like it, even iPhone users
-Has many "cool" features like motion launch, dual camera, step counter, IR blaster to be used as a remote for TVs and more, double tap to wake up, few other tricks that make it fun and easy to use

Who should buy something else?
People who want a phone that:
-Is an iPhone (Apple lovers)
-Is a Windows Phone (Microsoft lovers)
-Is slightly faster but mostly plastic
-Has an amazing camera and loves taking highest quality pictures with a phone
-Has the best battery life and does not have a car charger
-Is ugly with amazing performance and unnecessary specs.

Skip this paragraph if you don't care to know what type of person is giving you this information:

It is very difficult to choose a phone today because of all the choices that are available. But I finally found the ONE without compromising much. I want to give a little background about myself before you think I am just an average smart phone user. Like many of you I always want the hottest gadgets and especially the best phone. I honestly love iPhone's design but I hate their software and that is why I have always used Android phones. A few of my previous phones include: HTC EVO 3D, Galaxy S3, Droid DNA, Galaxy S4. I also had the Nokia Lumia for a very short period of time and I was not impressed by the phone or the Windows software. The only reason I did not get the original One (M7) is because of the lack of microSD slot.

HERE I WILL LIST THE POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES OF THE PHONE WITH RATING COMPARED TO OTHER PHONES THAT ARE AVAILABLE OR WILL BE SOON:
Overall Rating 9.6/10

Positives:
Design 10/10 : Arguably the most well designed phone available right now
Performance 10/10 : One of the, if not the fastest phone currently
Display 9/10 : Easily the top 3 display
Extra Features 9/10 : Missing few extras (fingerprint, heart rate monitor) but it has other features that makes up for it.
Storage 10/10: Finally a microSD slot that supports up to 128GB and it has a 32GB model.
Software 9.5/10: HTC Sense UI is the closest OEM software that is as awsome as the stock Android UI, I personally like the HTC sense more, it is smooth and not buggy like the Samsung TouchWiz. It has useful apps such as: BlinkFeed, Sense TV, and FitBit can be downloaded serperately and the sensors provide very acurate step counts.

Negatives:
Battery 8.5/10 : The battery life is above average but could have been a little better. Overall it's better than 92% of other phones. Not bad at all. A new update called "Extreme Power Saving" is soon to be released and it will help save a lot of battery when you turn it on, almost 70% increase. It basically turns off useless services and will probably increase the rating to 9/10.
Camera 8/10 : Kind of disappointed because so many other phones have better cameras (iPhone 5s, Galaxy S4, LG G2, etc). There was no upgrade to the camera from the previous model. But I give it a 8 because the camera is decent and it has other interesting features that make up for the slightly low resulution. The camera is not bad by any means, its just not excellent. It is the first phone with dual camera and it can do some breathtaking and useful trick to the pictures using the depth information captured by the second camera. Overall I am happy with the camera.

As you can see the phone is just too good to have extreme negatives, the negatives are just slightly below what is expected of a smartphone in my opinion

Below are more specific details of the phone, read if you please

Design 10/10: "This is the best looking phone in the world right now" and that's a fairly accurate statement. Some might disagree but not many. The pictures does not do enough justice, it is truly gorgeous to look at and to hold. It feels like holding a metal artwork. It feels very solid and premium in my hands. I am only 5'3 and I have fairly small hands and I honestly think it is the perfect size, maybe 5% longer than I hoped for. Overall it's hard to find a well-crafted and more beautiful phone than the HTC M8, yes it is more elegant than the iPhone. Don't worry it is not all about design, it packs some serious power.

Performance 10/10 : Let's just say it is the fastest phone available right now according to the benchmark tests I have done. The phone is amazingly smooth, everything just opens up instantly. I have not experienced one bit of lag or any errors. The Sense UI is closest as you can get to the stock Android UI experience with any OEM UI. The Samsung Touchwiz and LG UI is a mess compared to the Sense. The Qualcomm 801 processor is a fast and efficient processor. I can almost guarantee you that performance will not disappoint you.

Display 9/10: The phone gorgeous inside out. The picture quality is extremely sharp and vibrant. It is easily top 3 in the graphic department. It is very bright and crystal clear. But there are a few phones currently out that outperform the display. My brother's LG G2 has a slightly better display. I hoped for it to be number one in this department but overall its nothing to complain about.

Battery 8.5/10: With all the advances in technology I am not sure why there has been such little innovation in the battery field. It is not just cell phone batteries but all batteries in general. Some manufacture like Motorola has done decent job with providing large batteries in recent years. HTC has always disappointed me in this department and this phone is no exception. But I have to admit it is above average and I am fairly satisfied so far. I am able to go through an entire day without a problem. My day starts at 6 and ends at 7. My normal usage include: Frequent texting, 1-2 hours of talking, 3-4 hours of surfing and email, 30-45 minutes of games and the rest standby. I am able to get through the entire day but honestly most of us have chargers at work and in our cars. So overall I am not too obsessed over battery but the M8 does provide fairly decent battery life. Most of the tests reported a full day of normal to somewhat heavy use and I can confirm that. It was supposed to come with a setting called "Extreme Power Saver" but apparently it will be provided soon with an update. It supposed to limit the phone to only email, phone, text and few other basic things to save a lot of battery. Supposably up to 70% more battery. I can't comment on it until I receive the update.

Extras 9/10: What's a flagship phone without some tricks? The M8 has some cool tricks up its sleeve.
Camera Affects: I will complain about the camera quality later but let me state the positives in this section. Basically the camera has some tricks that help me deal with the moderate quality of the images. My brother has a$1200 DSLR camera that he uses to take cool pictures and I can do the same now with my $600 new phone. My favorite feature is the U-Focus which blurs the background and focuses on the object, like your face. Obviously the DSLR camera does an exceptional job but most people can't tell the difference with the first glance. The second camera on the device captures depth information and you can add cool affects to the pictures after you take it using that information. There few other ones like Sketch and Cartoon and Zoom effect but I find the U-Focus to be the most interesting one. But most people will use all of them because they work very well and are very easy to customize a picture.

Motion/Sensors Stuff: My favorite trick is double tapping the screen to wake it up and turn it off. It's amazing how this simple feature can be so useful. I hated pressing the power button to turn on the display and now all I have to do is tap the screen. I can also swipe from the bottom to top in order to unlock the device and go to the last app I had open. You don't have to go to the lock screen, you can directly go to the home screen if you don't have a passcode setup. Swiping from right to left take you to the awesome BlinkFeed screen. Swiping from top to bottom brings up google now (voice command). Swipping from right to left take you to the home screen. The final motion trick is answering the phone by simply lifting the phone to your ear. Thre is also a feature where you hold the phone in landscape orientation and press the volume up to activate the camera app.

FitBit App: The phone has a built in barometer and bunch of other sensors that can track your steps very accurately. Most phones have some of the sensors but only the iPhone and Nexus 5 has all the sensors like the M8. As a result the M8 and the few other phones can track your steps very accurately without buying a pedometer like the FitBit Flex or Force. The FitBit app was supposed to come preinstalled but you can easily download it from the play store for free. I am currently using it to track my steps and its about 96% accurate.

Remote for TV and more: The M8 has an IR Blaster built in, you can control all your electronics with your phone. HTC has this app called "Sense TV", it's very interesting and useful. You basically select your cable provider and select the channels you have and the app gives you show times and what's currently playing based on your favorite stations and shows. Basically it's a smart guide on your phone and you simply click on the show and your cable box will bring up the show. The setup is easy, you simply select your cable box model, TV model, home theater model and you can control all of them using your phone. But I highly recommend getting this app called "IR Smart Remote", it's about $6 and it is the best remote app for your phone. You can basically throw away all your remotes and use your phone to control everything; it does a very similar job as the Harmony remotes. Do some research on it, you may like this app.

Camera 8/10: Compared to all the other phones available, I am very disappointed at with the picture and video quality of the main camera. It is the same exact camera as the previous model except it has an extra camera. The picture quality is not bad but it is not excellent like many other phones. The main problem is the lack of resolution and bright light pictures. If there is too much light, for example capturing the sky in a sunny day might be hard; the picture doesn't capture blue sky properly. Overall it's a decent camera but I was expecting more. It is an average and maybe slightly below average camera.

Final Verdict: If you want a beautiful, fast, elegant and a phone that simply works, then just get this phone as soon as you can. I know many people are comparing the Galaxy S5 and honestly the S5 has several advantages but the HTC One M8 is the clear winner to me. If you don't mind the plastic and somewhat of a bland look, then get the S5. If you want the most elegant phone that is available, then get the M8. Read more ›