Sergey Kuzmin kindly lent me HTC One M8 for a while, and after some use I decided to tell you more about its pros and cons. But in order not to repeat myself (after all, we already had operating experience), I will draw up an article in the format of the One M8 advantages over competitors. And to be fair, next week we'll talk about what the One M8 (and HTC in principle) could borrow from other brands.
Introduction
In general, my attitude to the One M8 is quite positive, it is a good flagship, but like any smartphone, it has both advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, there are more advantages, so in this part I will talk about them, and the next I will devote to disadvantages. If you remember, we had two general articles on the topic that Android and iOS could have borrowed each other, but if in the case of iOS it is clear that we are talking about iPhone, then Android is too general a definition. Depending on the particular smartphone, the platform experience can be radically different. Therefore, it was decided to take a specific model (I admit that my personal preferences played a role in choosing a model, but, in the end, this is the author's column), in this case it is HTC One M8, well, go.
Friday column number 60. Ten features that iOS could borrow from Android
Friday column number 61. Ten features iOS I could borrow Android
Screen
One of the three pillars that make a smartphone really good is a quality display. It often happens that the device is good for everyone, but they saved money on the screen. And this is immediately visible, every time you turn on the device, it seems to remind: 'Hello, by the way, the screen here is mediocre. And it's not a joke. I test a lot of smartphones and if the display is bad it will always catch your eye.
Fortunately, everything is great in HTC One M8 with a display, in my opinion, it uses one of the best IPS-matrices. Pleasant natural colors, high maximum and low threshold of minimum brightness, wide viewing angles and high picture clarity – all this makes the screen in the M8 one of the best. This, by the way, is one of the reasons why I am very pleased to use this smartphone.
Performance and optimization
I have no particular complaints about Qualcomm 801, but I didn't want to talk about it now. I don't know if you have encountered such situations, but it happens that you take a smartphone in your hand, try to perform trivial actions like flipping through desktops and see how a powerful flagship for 30,000 rubles painfully moves from one table to another with slight slowdowns. And you think: 'Damn, well, 30,000 rubles! Wasn't it possible for this money to work on the speed of the launcher? ' The same thing, by the way, happens in some browsers. And it is you, dear readers, that you can replace this whole thing with Nova Launcher and Chrome, and the average consumer will not do this. And the whole experience of a smartphone will depend entirely on the firmware.
In the M8, this is not a problem at all. No jams, no delays or slowdowns. This is exactly how a smartphone should work, this is exactly the impression that the flagship on Android should have. This is exactly how it was conceived by Google!
Case design and materials
In 2014, the flagships have already reached the ceiling in terms of performance, so now you have to 'play' with other parameters in order to attract buyers. In my opinion, design is one of the most effective ways to draw a customer's attention to a model. And in terms of design, I really like the One M8. Strict appearance, pleasant to the touch aluminum body, stereo speakers again.
I will not say that the design of this device is the best, because this parameter is very subjective. However, the fact that the appearance of the One M8 has a 'zest' is a fact.
Of course, someone can compare it with a thermos, while someone does not like the stripes on the back cover, but I would like to note separately that these little things do not bother at all during everyday use.
Stereo speakers
Let's just say that stereo speakers are great. While using the One M8 as my main device, I never once missed an incoming call or even a simple notification on my smartphone. Their volume, of course, is very high. But the main advantage is still in the sound quality. In my opinion, this smartphone can perfectly replace an inexpensive portable speaker.
And it seems that the idea with stereo speakers is so obvious, but besides HTC, they are used in smartphones only Asus (and even then, in one single FonePad 6).
HTC Sense
Perhaps it was HTC that at one time taught us that a high-quality shell from a manufacturer can become a significant advantage of a smartphone. In the days of Android 2.x it was definitely one of the best skins out there. But as time goes on, Sense has a few strong competitors, but even now this shell may well compete with them. At the same time, the company tried not to greatly alter the proprietary interface from Google, and, unlike a number of other shells, the same Sense 6.0 looks quite harmonious in Android 4.4 / 5.0.
Google play edition
I thought for a long time whether to add this item or not, because all major manufacturers have long had a Google Edition version of their smartphones. However, then I remembered Galaxy Note 1/2/3/4, as well as companies Lenovo and Huawei, and then it became clear to me that it was still worth mentioning about this item.
I love the stock interface from Google, I enjoyed using the Nexus 5 at one time and was very frustrated that manufacturers were reluctant to use ideas from Google. But gradually the situation began to change, the Google Play Edition project was announced, and modern flagships have versions in 'clean' Android. Geeks can easily install custom firmware based on GPE.
But for the same Galaxy Note 4 and flagship Lenovo / Huawei there are no GPE versions, and this, of course, is a minus. The minus is subjective and understandable only for a small fraction of geeks, but still.
Conclusion
It seems to me that other flagships have something to borrow from the One M8, on the other hand, I repeat, this is far from an ideal smartphone, and I will tell you about what it could take from other flagships next week.
P.S. And in another week, will we talk about flashing to Google Play Edition?