HTC One M9 hype thread

[WelshBloke]

I would call ~40% thicker chassis (9.6mm) against your primary competitors (Samsung S6 = 6.8mm, iPhone 6 = 6.9mm) a pretty big failure. Can you imagine if S6 or iPhone 6 were 9.6mm phones?

The S6 would have great battery life and the iPhone 6 wouldn't bend?

 

[zerogear]

There is a thing as a phone being too thin and becomes poor ergonomics. (Not defending M9, just stating).

 

[Imported]

So just change for the sake of it then?

Pretty much.

 

[zerogear]

The S6 would have great battery life and the iPhone 6 wouldn't bend?

:biggrin:

 

[antihelten]

There is a thing as a phone being too thin and becomes poor ergonomics. (Not defending M9, just stating).

Couldn't agree more, in fact the one phone with IMHO the best ergonomics in recent times (moto x 2013), was 10.4 mm thick

 

[pete6032]

Haha, yeah. I'm not saying it's right, but for a lot of the general public, that's kind of how they purchase things. My dad is one of these people, for sure.

Then how come apple doesn't change their design?

 

[pete6032]

Anyone still using a ONE M7? I am, and I don't really see enough incentive here to upgrade. The only real reason would be to not have to use the terrible camera on the M7 anymore.

 

[thilanliyan]

Anyone still using a ONE M7? I am, and I don't really see enough incentive here to upgrade. The only real reason would be to not have to use the terrible camera on the M7 anymore.

No reason to upgrade my M7 either. In fact after the Lollipop update it's gotten a bit snappier. Only thing I don't like on the Lollipop update are the lockscreen notifications. I only want notifications for sms/calls, but it's feeding everything there. Besides the camera the M7 is a great phone. And when I know I'm going to need a good camera (traveling mostly) I take my Lumia 1020 and a regular camera.

 

[WelshBloke]

Then how come apple doesn't change their design?

iPhone 3, 4, 5, and 6 are all pretty different.

 

[Crono]

The M9 being an incremental improvement of the One line would be more accepted if HTC were releasing another high-end model or a variant of the One, something like the "Prime", which evleaks "leaked" specs and an image of last year.

The previous One variants - the Max and Mini - weren't given high enough specs to be considered flagship-level.

 

[zerogear]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foUZy-M493s&feature=youtu.be

Some more information -- Custom Nav Bar -- which is kinda cool (But Custom firmware have had this for a while). Which kinda alleviates the "black bar" issues people are having

 

[WelshBloke]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foUZy-M493s&feature=youtu.be

Some more information -- Custom Nav Bar -- which is kinda cool (But Custom firmware have had this for a while). Which kinda alleviates the "black bar" issues people are having

That just rubs in how much better it would be with capacitive buttons on the black bar.

 

[Red Storm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foUZy-M493s&feature=youtu.be

Some more information -- Custom Nav Bar -- which is kinda cool (But Custom firmware have had this for a while). Which kinda alleviates the "black bar" issues people are having

How does it alleviate the black bar? It's still there. It's nice to see you can hide the nav bar, but that's not the bar that people are annoyed with...

 

[WelshBloke]

How does it alleviate the black bar? It's still there. It's nice to see you can hide the nav bar, but that's not the bar that people are annoyed with...

It's the combination of the speaker bezel, the black bar and the nav bar which ends up wasting a lot of space. Obviously you can't do anything in software to mitigate the first two, so that just leaves making the best of the nav bar.

 

[Imported]

Anyone still using a ONE M7? I am, and I don't really see enough incentive here to upgrade. The only real reason would be to not have to use the terrible camera on the M7 anymore.

Still using an M7. Holding out for the Z4 now.

 

[touchstone]

i think they both look appealing, but i would lean towards the s6 if i were looking to replace my m8. i will still hold out until i can use the phones in person but all the fuss being made about the 'black bar' is silly. its still an attractive phone, but it may not serve htc well to keep the same design for three generations as somebody pointed out.

the bezels are fine. i am ok with htc or lg or samsung using the 2-5mm surrounding the screen to differentiate their phones. if every single phone had zero bezels and a huge screen they would all look exactly the same. at some point you have to allow for a place for your hand to touch the phone.

 

[fstime]

Truth is, aside from the minority of spec junkies who like paper stats, we reached the point of diminishing returns on smartphone development some time ago which is why the M7 is still quite good.

Some of these new features like 2K resolutions on 5 inch screens are just gimmicks.

 

[pete6032]

Truth is, aside from the minority of spec junkies who like paper stats, we reached the point of diminishing returns on smartphone development some time ago which is why the M7 is still quite good.

Some of these new features like 2K resolutions on 5 inch screens are just gimmicks.

Agree, but at the same time if you read sites like Phone Arena or Engadget, people are busting a nut over the fact that HTC didn't go with a quad HD display. Good luck telling the difference between 1080p and Quad HD on a screen that small!

 

[npaladin-2000]

Agree, but at the same time if you read sites like Phone Arena or Engadget, people are busting a nut over the fact that HTC didn't go with a quad HD display. Good luck telling the difference between 1080p and Quad HD on a screen that small!

Can't believe they're getting that crazy, FHD is perfectly acceptable on a 5 inch screen. When you start getting above 5 inches and/or need to worry about magnification on a VR headset, then you need QuadHD. But as many wrong decisions as I think they made about the M9, the screen isn't one of them, I think they picked the right one.

 

[lopri]

I do not think higher PPI or higher resolution is a gimmick. But I agree there is a diminishing return as it goes higher, and it is ultimately up to individuals to find their sweet spots.

I would call ~40% thicker chassis (9.6mm) against your primary competitors (Samsung S6 = 6.8mm, iPhone 6 = 6.9mm) a pretty big failure. Can you imagine if S6 or iPhone 6 were 9.6mm phones? The battery would be 4000-4500 mAh. Despite a 41% thicker chassis vs. the S6, the M9 only has an 11% larger battery. It also has a smaller screen despite a taller chassis. That's a horrendous engineering/design failure imo. If HTC were to design a nearly 1 cm thick chassis, might as well go all out with NV's Tegra X1.

That is a little disingenuous effort to show the M9 in the worse light than it is. Its published thickness (9.6mm) is measured only at its thickest point owing to its convex back. Its "average" thickness not including camera hump should be lower than the published value.

 

[ZGR]

Anyone have any idea of the speaker quality of the M7 vs the M9?

 

[sze5003]

Anyone have any idea of the speaker quality of the M7 vs the M9?

They are suppose to have improved the sound quality in the m9 especially with boom sound.

 

[lopri]

Whoever came up with the idea to mix gold and silver needs to be fired, IMO.

 

[Crono]

Whoever came up with the idea to mix gold and silver needs to be fired, IMO.

It's the required ugly bling option. Be thankful there's a gunmetal version.

I would have preferred an Iron Man metallic red and gold, though. :awe:

 

[lopri]

I've run into a "The Makings of.." sort of video and it seems to me HTC clearly toyed with the idea of adding more flair to the M9's skins.

It is too bad because I predict the iPhone 6s will come with expanded color options. HTC would have taken the credit of popularizing "colored metal unibody design" for smartphones and further established itself as a trend-setter. Multiple eye-catching colors could also have eased the fans' disappointment at the unchanged design. HTC instead went with one of the worst possible direction with the gold+silver design (IMO). (But I agree gun metal version looks way better)