how do you succeed a smartphone like
last spring's
HTC one a phone so roundly praised it's
still winning awards a year after its
release in other words how do you top
yourself well if you're HTC you take
what you did the first time and make it
better
that's the company's strategy with the
all-new HTC One for 2014 but can the
company capture lightning in a bottle
twice that's what we're here to find out
you're watching pocket now I'm Michael
Fisher and this is our video review of
the all-new HTC One beauty through
crafts beauty through purity beauty
through simplicity these were the tenets
HTC worked under when designing the new
m8 and the end result is a stunning
piece of hardware available in three
colors probably the most striking is our
gunmetal gray test unit whose aluminum
casing bears a brushed hairline finish
that sets it apart without going
overboard but a quick look isn't enough
to fully appreciate the craftsmanship of
the new HTC One you need to hold it the
cool metal casing is completely seamless
in the hand the contours and wide radius
corners feeling almost impossibly smooth
against the palm while the crisp
chamfers and machined speaker grills up
front pay homage to its predecessor it's
a little on the tall side and at 160
grams it's definitely not lightweight
but the extra mass works for it rather
than against it at 5 inches the SLC d3
display is gorgeous
beneath its protective Gorilla Glass 3
panel and while the extra camera sensor
around back isn't necessarily attractive
it's not quite prominent enough on the
gray version at least to take away from
the phone's overall look once again
HTC has crafted a beauty of a smart
phone that beauty continues beneath the
surface a Snapdragon 801 processor
ensures a long useful lifetime backed up
by two gigabytes of RAM and 16 or 32
gigs of storage plus a microSD card slot
capable of supporting an additional 128
gigabytes HTC also offers 50 gig
of Google Drive storage free for two
years with the new device so those in
need of lots of space on the go should
feel right at home here a 2600 milliamp
hour lipo battery provides power but
it's not removable for connectivity
there's Bluetooth 4.0 dual band Wi-Fi
and IR port and 3G and 4G radio packages
in depending on region there's also a
new sensor hub controlling the gyro and
accelerometer package and giving the one
a degree of contextual awareness that
awareness enables some useful additions
to the M aids software most visible and
convenient are the new gesture based
unlock features which allow you to tap
or swipe on the screen to unlock the
phone or launch certain apps this is an
idea we've seen used to great effect
elsewhere but here unfortunately it's a
little inconsistent to save on battery
life and to minimize accidental screen
wake-ups HTC has made the gestures
contingent on moving the phone first so
while they're very convenient when
taking the phone out of a pocket for
example they're less handy when it's
stationary sitting on a table you still
have to reach all the way up to that
power standby key annoyingly still
located on the top of the phone to wake
it up these gestures are very smart
shortcuts we just wish they worked a
little more reliably for the new one HTC
has brought a new version of its
third-party UI sense 6.0 running atop
Android 4.4.2 it's very similar to the
sense we know and love from last year's
one it's straightforward stylish and
almost impossible to trip up the sombre
minimalism of last year's version is
given away to a slightly more jovial
approach in 2014 with accent colors and
a brighter feel overall we're not crazy
about the entire palette but it's nice
to have options for changing up the look
of the software of course blinkfeed is
back and more customizable than ever
allowing you to blend social news and
custom search feeds into one stream of
curated data with plugins for calendar
appointments locally stored photos and
third-party apps like Fitbit the new
blinkfeed is kind of like a modern take
on the old today screen from the Windows
Mobile days it's much more than just a
Flipboard clone
other changes across sent six are more
subtle the new on-screen button
configuration makes a lot of sense the
multitasking panes are easier to see and
if you're a fan of controlling your home
entertainment from your smartphone
since TV works better than ever in the
midst of all these improvements there is
one disappointment lurking on the MAS
spec sheet at least in terms of metrics
the camera HTC has decided that four
megapixels was fine for 2013 and so it's
also plenty for 2014 and what's more the
company has also done away with optical
image stabilization now there are solid
reasons for this
HTC told us that o is is incompatible
with its new approach to photography
which uses the dedicated depth sensor of
the duo camera to reduce focus time and
to enable more artsy photos adjusting
focus after taking a photo is a very
cool trick and while it doesn't always
work perfectly those who appreciate
bouquet effects will no doubt have some
fun with this also while 4 megapixels is
still pretty paltry sounding it's
important to note that it's not the same
sensor as last year's according to HTC
well it's kind of ridiculous that the
primary camera has a lower resolution
than the 5 megapixel front-facing one
it's still capable of some very nice
shots low-light performance is still a
high point though the lower the light
the noisier the photo and you can still
expect some overexposure in some shots
the real improvements to the camera are
in software which has been completely
rethought the new viewfinder is still
not as idiot-proof as samsung's or
Motorola's but what it lacks in fluidity
it makes up for in features dual capture
has been added there's a 360 degree
panorama option all the fun filters are
here and manual settings can now be
saved as preset best of all HTC's
celebrated zowie feature is back now
with its own app which will eventually
allow for crowd-sourced videos you also
get more editing options to hone
highlights HTC absolutely dominates this
area there's no easier way to whip up a
quick summary of a house-party for
example and the stock effects do a nice
job of covering up whatever deficiencies
might exist in the rough
on the video front we're not looking at
anything special here the software
stabilization does an okay job of
keeping the shot steady when walking but
it's not quite as smooth as on the
original one frame rate seems to suffer
a bit with quick movements - on the plus
side colors are nice and rich exposure
and auto focus are plenty fast and sound
capture is excellent focus autocorrect
the Sun going in and coming out willy
nilly today but there's our exposure
correction and hopefully you got a sense
from I walk earlier just how well
stabilization works on this device we
tested the all-new HTC One over a six
day period between Boston and New York
City our demo unit is a UK edition so we
were confined to 3G here in the States
but we encountered no reception
difficulties on AT&T and our voice calls
were clear callers reported that the
phone's noise cancellation worked well
and we especially enjoyed the feature of
just putting the ringing phone to our
ear to answer it HTC's boomsound has
become one of the company's most
celebrated offerings over the past year
and the all-new one takes it to a whole
new level you won't find a pair of
louder richer better balanced speakers
anywhere
something you reminded of every time you
stream a song play a loud game or watch
a movie
don't call me tidy speaking of gaming it
shouldn't come as a surprise that the
Snapdragon 801 has no trouble handling
even the most demanding titles asphalt 8
plays very smoothly in full resolution
as do Riptide gp2 and sky gamblers air
supremacy odds are if you can think of
an Android game the new one can handle
it
no sweat as usual though go easy on the
gaming if you want the phone's power
pack to last while HTC's new extreme
power saver will help out once you get
down to the dregs of your battery that
just covers the basics we have more
detailed information on battery life in
our full written review linked in the
description below in the world of
smartphones the very best products are
those which deliver consistency across
the physical and the virtual HTC did it
with the first one last year and it's
done it again with the m8 from it's
refined almost luxury grade construction
to its rock-solid feature-packed
software the all-new HTC One is an
absolutely stunning smartphone it's not
quite a Grand Slam
we'd like to have seen more from its
camera and some of its new features are
less consistent than they should be but
looking at the Android landscape in 2014
it's tough to see any competitor being
able to live up to the all-around
quality this package delivers put simply
HTC has done it again
once again for photos benchmark scores
and much more granular information on
the all-new HTC one check out our full
review it's linked in the description
down below but also here on YouTube we
have a whole lot more including a
comparison with the older HTC One and
unboxing and a broader examination of
HTC versus Samsung in 2014 be sure and
check those out but before you go
anywhere please leave us a like if you
enjoyed this review and leave a comment
down below let us know if you're going
to pick up the new HTC One m8 or not or
just what your thoughts on the device
are until next time this has been
michael fisher with PocketNow thank you
very much for watching and we'll see you
on the next one
you