HTC releases yet another meh flagship

2014 will be the year where people stopped caring about smartphones. Supporting this trend, HTC just released their HTC One (M8), the 2014 rehash of their 2013 model that was quite promising but also had some serious flaws.

So what changed? Well, HTC thought current 5" flagships are not big enough and managed to release a 146 x 70.6 x 9.35mm phone, that is a record in the 5" display class. Also the M8 weighs 160 fucking gramms, which is caused by increased usage of more metal. Ok, it looks pretty awesome i give HTC that:





Then there are the cameras, yes the HTC has three(!) of them now. The front-facing cam has actually a higher res at 5 MP than the 4 MP rear-facing cam, i guess that's the new selfie trend showing its impact. There is also another 4 MP cam at the back, which is used for depth-focussing, which is probably nothing than a useless gimmick for most. So actually, nothing really improved at the camera and they actually removed OIS, i don't know what they were thinking.

HTC also made stunning improvements at the usability front, they actually achieved to put the home button in the center instead of shifting it to the right. Hooray! Unfortunately those keys are now on screen and the gigantic bezel just sits there unused.

Also, the power button is still at the top side of the phone, HTC is obviously targeting professional basketball players with their new device. For yet another target group, internet forum aspergers, they also included a micro SD card slot, so you can carry all your 64 GB of anime always with you on a 30€ storage.

So, after the Galaxy S5 this is the next huge disappointment in the Android world. It's huge and heavy and comes with an average camera. I think smartphones reached their height with the iphone 4S and the Galaxy S2.


TL;DR;
HTC can't be bankrupt soon enough

 

Yeah, I have to agree. I just don't give a shit about this stuff. It's stagnant (erm, mature?).

I really liked the One, but this seems to be a regression. The size increase simply isn't acceptable.

I can at least respect the gs5 because it feels like a polished sequel to the gs4, but this year's One is just meh.

Oh HTC...

 

For the love of god why can't they make one with a keyboard. I'm sure the next big trend will be putting all the things back in that they took away.

 

Now I'm really dissapointed in HTC. Im enjoying my htc one ( previous gen ) a lot . The only thing Im not happy about is the camera gimmik ulra pixel bullshit. But why make it bigger like whyyyyyy it was the perfect size for me, and put those buttons on the screen? Its okay like now, htc in the center home screen on the side back button on the other side wtf why fix whats not broken assholes.

Samsung and HTC should merge. Htc bring the looks samsung does the rest.

 

Samsung has one of the most powerful smartphone divisions in the world. They don't need to buy HTC.

HTC will get bought by HP or another company that wants to get into phones. Although now that Lenovo night Moto, I can't think of an "HP" that would want to buy HTC.

It's a damn shame, HTC used to be an industry leader.

 

Like I said samsung has everthing except the looks and design. They need to fix that shit, htc can help them fix that shit. Htc has this sturdy modern beautiful look samsung just doesnt have. Samsung's galaxy line is top tier but it doesnt radiate top tier quality. It radiates medium tier. Whilst the look and feel of the iphone and htc one both give u tht top tier feel.

 

Sammy is doing well enough that they won't kick their designers to the curb in exchange for the designers of a bankrupt phone maker. You just don't do that, lol.

 

just admit it, a samsung galaxy phone is uglier and it feels shittier than an iphone or htc one. It works better but its shittier.

 

Awful.

The phone has ONE improvement over the HTC One (previous generation). Perhaps thats why it shares the name. And thats the fact taht theyve added microsd storage again.

In terms of the size increase. Find a picture of the new one and the old one side by side. The new phone is bigger BUT, because they moved the buttons out of the bezel and onto the screen they sacrificed all the space they gained. (Alright, sometimes you will get "immersive" mode apps which will remove the buttons but 95% of the time you don't benefit from having the bigger phone).
I'm sure its got a bit more processing power, but lets face it, we all know that doesn't matter in a phone anymore.


If they had've reduced the size of the bezel and repositioned the HTC logo elsewhere (for example, a different colour HTC logo in the top speaker grill) the phone might've been ok.
As it stands I would rather have another previous generation one than buy this, and im sure others would agree.

Bye HTC, you made some great phones...


Edit: It really shows how bad HTC's design/marketing has got when they need to reuse the same names as previous phones (I could forgive the one x and the one, but using the exact same name is stupid)

 

The normal htc one had a micro sd slot. You just had to ask for that specific version, you didnt have to pay more. + it was dual sim with removable back cover. Its the same as the dev version basicly.
source: I have the dual sim + micro sd slot versoin cause I asked for it

 

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF....

I think you get the idea.

Cant believe i only found out about this now lol (32GB is plenty but its always nice for the option of more)

 

So now theres not ONE improvement? It's just the ONE LEL

 

Oh, the stock version only has 16GB now. They cut storage from the previous version.

 

I, for one, welcome our Chinese cheap smartphone overlords.

Not that they can't build cutting-edge products:

• 2560x1440 resolution
• 13 MP f/2.0 Sony Exmor six lens camera
• Automatically combine 10 shots for 50 MP photos
• Full titanium-aluminium body
• Removable 3,000 mAh battery
• MicroSD storage up to 128 GB
• Snapdragon 801 chipset with LTE
• 3 GB RAM
• Rapid-charge technology to charge the battery to 75% in 30 minutes
• Estimated price: 650 $ / 500 €

You hear that? That's the sound of Samsung, Apple, HTC, Motorola, LG and Nokia puckering their assholes in pure fear.

 

Nokia gives no shits. They can just keep making average tier spec phones with absurdly good cameras for all I care, it's more than enough for me.

 

Someone make a 1020 with android under a Wp8 look-a-like GUI /market.


I hate my One, just because of its shitty ergonomics. My hands Hurt and my pictures are meh.




Who thought a "camera" with no physical trigger button was a good idea?

 

Would be amazing if they somehow managed to go back to their old days and make even their smartphones indestructible cinder bricks...

 

I really like what the find 7 offers but its toooo big

 

The thing is, specs don't really matter anymore.

We're at a point where halo phone internals are approaching performance levels that would start to be acceptable in cheap laptops. Phones weren't made with those requirements.

The thing that IS important is the software.

Power management is a big obstacle with more pixels to light up, more ram chips to keep idling and more SOC transistors to keep on.

General usability is another big deal. I don't know the markets out of north America, but I know Motorola, Samsung and other NA phone manufacturers had notoriously shitty interfaces on their early android phones. It took them a few iterations to get it right. Asian makers might have similar growing pains if they haven't been making phones for 4-5 years.