when the HTC 1 M7 launched I took it for a 30-day test drive and thanks to its
clean responsive sense UI and iPhone like construction it became my new daily
driver then when the 1 M8 followup launched it became the second Android
phone to earn the my daily driver status
for the same reasons so now that the 1m9
is here is solid construction and a clean sent youi still enough spoiler
alert no but let's find out why shall we
the Corsair HX 1200i power supply delivers 80 plus Platinum efficiency for
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control click right here to learn
more I guess these videos start with specs right so there's an octet of CPU
cores four low power and four for high performance 3 gigs of DDR 3 RAM an
adreno 430 GPU 32 gigs of built-in storage Wireless AC an FM radio and a
20.7 megap rear camera all crammed inside the phone's characteristically
premium feeling metal enclosure then moving around to the front we've got a
5.0 in 108p super LCD 3 display covered
with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 a 4 megapixel selfie camera HTC's
characteristic and much better sounding than the competition front-facing stereo
boom sound speakers and the chin bar is
back this was a big warning sign for me I mean the chin bar never actually
bothered me in fact with the move to onscreen buttons on the M8 making the
device symmetrical was as simple as rotating it the other way in landscape
mode so it was buttons on one side and Chin bar on the other and I never really
bothered with that anyway because devices covered with screen and buttons
are actually kind of hard to hold when you're watching videos in landscape mode
but the thing is a lot of people are put off by it and leaving it there smacks of
either laziness or an internal feeling at HTC of fearing to break the mold
something that they proudly shouted from the rooftops that they weren't afraid to
do when the 1 M7 launched as an oasis of
beautiful craftsmanship amongst the plastic junk that passed for Flagship
Android phones at the time and the rest of the 1 M9 does little to convince me
otherwise we'll do the obligatory physical tour but frankly they didn't
change much and I am they didn't change anything for the better from the back we
can only tell that the device is marginally shorter if we hold it right
next to the 1 M8 the asinine secondary camera has been thankfully removed and
the lone camera with its dual LED flash is now accompanied only by a noise
cancelling microphone and HTC branding on the top is a large IR emitter for
Media Center control on the left is the nano SIM tray on the bottom we find a
micro USB charging port supporting qualcom Quick Charge 2.0 and the 3.5 mm
headphone jack that's been again IMO unfortunately relocated from the top
where I prefer it on the right is a Micro SD slot a very important inclusion
considering the Galaxy S6 removed expandable storage and the worst lock
and volume control buttons I've encountered in some time this is really
simple people they need solid tactile feedback they need to be easily felt for
their position and differentiated from each other without looking and no
putting a light texture on the lock button doesn't count for that and they
can't be on opposing sides of the device so you mash two buttons when you mean to
hit one and at least it gets the last point right in fact I like the position
of the lock button in the volume rocker it's easy to use right or left-handed
but everything else about these buttons sucks back to the drawing board
HTC the good news is that while a NC's
very detailed analysis of the screen actually found more issues there other
than the lackluster maximum brightness especially when compared to the Galaxy
S6 there wasn't really anything that jumped out to me as a huge issue
contrast is still very good something that's more important past a certain
point than just throwing more resolution at the problem so yes it's a 1080p
display but unless you're really pixel peeping you'll literally never notice
and HTC's loyalty to LCD means that you don't get that weird tinting from
certain angles that I've seen on the Droid Turbo and Galaxy
S6 which I guess leads us to the lollipop version of sensui blink feed is
still a really Pleasant way to browse social media content and makes more
sense for me personally than Samsung's left swipe to Flipboard that I totally
forgot to mention in my review it's still clean and simple with meaningful
customization like accent color palettes to choose from and customizability of
the onscreen buttons not to mention the awesome gear next to every volume slider
that gives you quick access to the other ones but gestures are a little with no
ability to mix and match a gesture and an action so if you're listening to
music you just plain can't use a gesture to launch the camera since that
particular locked in gesture relies on the volume up button and device
orientation but since is responsive and
if you turn off the Derpy sense home widget that tries to be aviate by
showing only the most relevant apps when you're at home or work or out in about
but in my experience just kind of got in the way with irrelevant suggestions and
downloads folders and the prime locations on the right hand side that
can't be moved and poor organization of the rest I'll just use avator and
organize my apps myself thanks it is pretty good which leads us into another
low point for the phone however the camera is just plain not competitive
sorry HTC the ultra pixel Gambit didn't
seem to work out and they've gone for a more traditional camera setup and while
it actually Compares reasonably favorably to the Droid Turbo that I use
that's kind of like saying it runs as fast as the kid carrying a diesel
generator on his back they improved Auto white balance and removed the head
scratcher of a second camera but at only $50 less than the Galaxy S6 off contract
not to mention that it doesn't come with a quick charge wall wart like the S6
does the 1m9 needs to do more than that
I mean in no particular order it needs faster autofocus faster shut button
response a flash that works under 15% battery life a clearer image preview
while taking pictures tuning of the noise reduction on low light pictures
that makes them basically a total mess right now Optical image stabilization a
wider angle lens on the selfie camera and just I mean I don't want to be
unfair it's not like these test shots and test footage are unexcusable or
unusable or anything it's just that the Galaxy S6 exists unfortunately and I'll
pay a little extra for the better experience and the use of glass instead
of whatever rubbish HTC uses on their lens cover on the back I actually had
one of my two review units crack the lens cover during totally normal use
with no drops which I would normally chalk up to a fluke and not mention if I
hadn't had the same damn thing happen with my One M8 not to mention that HTC
gave me the runaround and wanted to charge me for the replacement of it even
though it was a documented issue with the phone which I guess leads us into
the conclusion for the video the 1 M9 is just a phone it's a good phone and one
with an SD card slot if you're into that but it's just a phone every other
Flagship grabs my attention in some compelling way whether it's the camera
of the S6 the water resistance of an Xperia or the tank-like battery life of
the droid turbo solid even great build
quality and a clean Android skin was enough two years ago but it isn't
anymore and while I applaud HTC for offering a free replacement for a
cracked screen or water damage within the first year that only has a value to
me if I already own the device and I think HTC is going to need another
reinvention to stand out against their much stronger competition than what the
one had to work with in the first place speaking of standing out you know
what else stands out the highquality 3M vinyl wraps that dbrand uses to make
your phone or other device look absolutely kickass like the one M9 that
you guys have been looking at for the last eight or so minutes dbrand provided
us with two units of the 1 M9 so I could decide which skin style I liked better
and I definitely liked the one that actually wraps right around all the
little buttons on the sides it's truly remarkable what a great job they do with
these it's not just about the quality of the vinyl either getting the cutting
just right so that it fits your device perfectly is a real trick and they do
more than just phones so whether it's a game console game controller notebook
computer or whatever else that you want to personalize there's an affordable
dbrand skin for you I mean even if you're not planning to buy one it's
actually worth checking it out head over to dbrand.com we've got it linked in the video description and try playing around
with the different color schemes on their Builder on their site it's actually pretty fun so I think that's
pretty much it guys like the video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it sucked leave a comment preferably on
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