HTC One M9 hype thread

[Qbah]

I love my M8, but it's too big Everything except the size is perfect. M7 had perfect size IMO. But it's underpowered and has bad batter (I also have a M7 as my backup phone). The camera developed a purple coloring and capacitive buttons backlight died too. Quality wasn't really there in this first gen phone

 

[WelshBloke]

...speaker bezels? You mean the speakers themselves take up too much space?

Most of that speaker bezel isn't speaker.

 

[dawheat]

The design imo is perfect. To say it hasn't changed much, eh...rumor size it slightly smaller than the M8, which is nice. More rumors - the rear camera is not ultrapixel, though the front is. I am one of those that liked the idea ultrapixel camera, so hopefully they at least keep it (although on the FFC). Other than that, spec bump is imminent. Still get the awesome front facing stereo speakers! The GS6 looks revolutionary (compared to GS5), based on all the rumors/Samsung hype.

Ehh close to perfect 2 years ago. Still pretty good 1 year ago. Same basic design in a 3rd year without any real advancement beyond a newer SOC and a competitive camera? I don't think it's unfair to say it's a bit underwhelming. Even if all they did was remove or significantly shrink the black HTC bar, I'd say alright but to keep it the same is meh.

 

[Crono]

If they don't backtrack on the camera in some respects like they did with the M8, I might get the M9. The M7 was a good device overall, but I had the blue/purple tint or haze issue in low light after a few months (something to do with the camera module overheating, IIRC). The camera quality wasn't bad otherwise as some people made it out to be - macro shots with it in particular are fairly excellent - but the One was clearly outclassed first by the LG G2, then the G3, GS5, and Note 4 (and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus).

The M8 improved on the battery life of the M7 and made the excellent speakers even better, but the camera isn't as good (especially because they removed OIS) as the Lumia 1520 or Icon which I have now. I'll certainly consider getting the M9 if it has a better camera than the Note 4.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

If the M8/M9 came with Qi charging, tons more people would get it.

 

[Crono]

If the M8/M9 came with Qi charging, tons more people would get it.

Just my own experience, but I don't know a single person who has ever bought or not bought a phone because of Qi charging.

 

[Commodus]

Qi charging is to smartphones as pens are to tablets... there are a lot of hardcore fans who think the feature is all-important, but most people couldn't be bothered.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[WelshBloke]

If the M8/M9 came with Qi charging, tons more people would get it.

Not going to happen with a metal skinned phone.

 

[WelshBloke]

Just my own experience, but I don't know a single person who has ever bought or not bought a phone because of Qi charging.

Qi charging is to smartphones as pens are to tablets... there are a lot of hardcore fans who think the feature is all-important, but most people couldn't be bothered.

You can say that about most of things on a smartphone.

I like waterproofing (much more than I thought that I would) but lots of people aren't enthused.
Some people like metal unibodies but it's something that I don't care about.

There's very few things (apart from the very basic connectivity) that everyone is going to agree on. This is why variety of hardware is great, you get to pick what you like. I get my waterproof phone with a replaceable battery, you get your sleek metal unibody one.

The last thing we want is for the one 'perfect' phone to be designed and everyone to make that.

 

[lopri]

Qi charging technology's "fragmentation" did not help its adoption, either. I have a Nokia-made charger that worked well with the Nexus 5 but not with the Nexus 4. Coupled with relatively high prices of the chargers at its introduction, it is not at all surprising that adoption rate has been low. Things might change in the future, though.

 

[WelshBloke]

Qi charging technology's "fragmentation" did not help its adoption, either. I have a Nokia-made charger that worked well with the Nexus 5 but not with the Nexus 4. Coupled with relatively high prices of the chargers at its introduction, it is not at all surprising that adoption rate has been low. Things might change in the future, though.

Theres two times I charge my phone. Overnight when I don't really care about it being plugged in and in my car where I just plug it in and rest it on the instrument panel with some grippy tape holding it in place. In neither of those instances would wireless charging help that much.

So for me its a really marginal feature.

 

[Red Storm]

Quick charging is infinitely more important and useful to me than wireless charging.

 

[npaladin-2000]

Theres two times I charge my phone. Overnight when I don't really care about it being plugged in and in my car where I just plug it in and rest it on the instrument panel with some grippy tape holding it in place. In neither of those instances would wireless charging help that much.

So for me its a really marginal feature.

I pretty much dock my phone, since my car's infotainment system is half useless. I'm thinking wireless chrging built into the dock would be extremely useful.

Have you ever considered putting a charging plate on your dash also, so that sticking it on also connected the charging?

 

[kaerflog]

Meh...still the same HTC blackbar.

 

[gorcorps]

Qi charging technology's "fragmentation" did not help its adoption, either. I have a Nokia-made charger that worked well with the Nexus 5 but not with the Nexus 4. Coupled with relatively high prices of the chargers at its introduction, it is not at all surprising that adoption rate has been low. Things might change in the future, though.

Just like with the adoption of NFC phone payments, it'll get more widely adopted once apple does it.

 

[Despoiler]

Most of that speaker bezel isn't speaker.

No, but there is a technical reason on why the speakers are designed like they are. The speaker is on one side and fires into the cavity. The cavity size is necessary to improve sound quality and solve or mitigate a host of issues facing micro speakers.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1279784

http://www.acoustics.asn.au/conference_proceedings/ICA2010/cdrom-ICA2010/papers/p489.pdf

 

[Radeon962]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/24/htc-one-m9-video-leak/

If you want to see it check out the videos.

Why do they have to have the wasted space where HTC is on the bottom?

 

[Red Storm]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/24/htc-one-m9-video-leak/

If you want to see it check out the videos.

Why do they have to have the wasted space where HTC is on the bottom?

Apparently there is circuitry under there so it has to be there, yet you don't see it with phones like the Nexus 6.

It's the third year in a row with the symmetry-killing bottom black bar, I don't think they want to put the time and/or money into fixing it.

 

[kaerflog]

I'm finally upgrading my G2 this year and thanks to the HTC blackbar, I can cross this phone off the list.

 

[lopri]

I still think there is a possibility the sleek renders with all-glass front are real. The reasons being:

1. The "Decoys"
An HTC rep reportedly stated sometime ago that HTC would deploy a fake M9 prior to launch in order to minimize leaks.

2. The Nexus 9
Previous Nexus manufacturers took advantage of the experiences. Nexus look runs in LG phones and ASUS tablets to this date. HTC could (and perhaps should) follow the suit by utilizing the Nexus 9's design.

/theorycraft

 

[thilanliyan]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/24/htc-one-m9-video-leak/

If you want to see it check out the videos.

Why do they have to have the wasted space where HTC is on the bottom?

I wouldn't immediately conclude that that will be what the phone looks like.

 

[GTRagnarok]

I still think there is a possibility the sleek renders with all-glass front are real. The reasons being:

1. The "Decoys"
An HTC rep reportedly stated sometime ago that HTC would deploy a fake M9 prior to launch in order to minimize leaks.

2. The Nexus 9
Previous Nexus manufacturers took advantage of the experiences. Nexus look runs in LG phones and ASUS tablets to this date. HTC could (and perhaps should) follow the suit by utilizing the Nexus 9's design.

/theorycraft

Lol yeah, this exciting. I'm honestly not sure if the One M9 is being leaked to hell or if it's massive trolling by HTC. @upleaks leaking those renders, then the videos, then the account being deleted...I don't know, it seems so planned out. The videos themselves seemed unpolished to me. Then you have @evleaks with those other renders with the redesigned front which he seems to be confident about. I'm leaning towards those being the real deal.

 

[Commodus]

It's amusing that people would call those videos fake. Short of HTC purposefully shooting clips to throw people off the scent, this is what you'll see on Sunday.

 

[zerogear]

If M9 is waterproof for me, will be a must-get. I don't really care about Qi Charging -- at least not at the sacrifice of unibody