Want something easy to read and digest about smartphone and camera? Discover Your Gadget (Dygadget) is what you looking for!
We simplify all specification for easy reading and understanding as well! We did review for smartphone and camera honestly and more on layman terms.
This evening, HTC Malaysia officially launches the long awaiting One M8. It is a replacement for the One M7 and the new facelit promises alot to consumer.
HTC One M8 Key Specification :
5.0 inches Super LCD 3 screen with 1080 x 1920 of resolution
Dual 4 MP Ultrapixel camera with dual-LED (dual tone) flash
5MP front facing camera
2600 mAh battery
Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat with Sense 6
146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4 mm
160 g
Like most company flagship phone, the One M8 is upgrade of One M7. Bigger screen, faster processor, microSD slot and camera as well. Of course, the new design now is much better than the predecessor. It is more metal now, rounded edge and feel slimmer. Personally, it is one of the beautiful crafted phone that I'll appreciate it. The HTC One M8 also come with new Sense 6 which bring alot improvement. One of the coolest new features brought by the updated package is Motion Launch, which lets you quickly open the camera or unlock the phone while the screen is off. Picking up the One (M8) in landscape mode and pressing the volume button will launch the camera. There's double tap or slide up from the bottom to wake the phone. While locked you can pick up the phone in portrait mode and swipe left on its screen to launch the widget panel or right for BlinkFeed.
Check out my quick hands on video on the HTC One M8 that focused most on the new camera features.
Eventhough it is still the same 4MP Ultrapixel camera, HTC introduces the secondary camera at the back which uses to capture depth information. HTC calls this Duo Camera. It mimics the stereoscopic abilities of the human eye - two independent lenses able to calculate the relative distance of the subjects in an image. HTC's dual camera setup enables cool effects such as selective focus (shallow depth of field) and post-shot refocusing. Unfortunately the editing has limitation where only auto mode and without flash images taken by the camera can proceed the editing. The optical image stabilization of the original One is now gone, and the One (M8) will rely solely on digital stabilization. Similarly to Apple, HTC has improved the flash of the smartphone by using a two toned one - one cold and one warm LED, which can help the smartphone produce more accurate color tones in low-light conditions. HTC also claims the One (M8) can focus in just 0.3s. If that's not enough for you, HTC is generous enough to packed the front facing camera with 5 Megapixel for selfie lover.
As I mentioned earlier, I love the design and material used in the HTC One M8. Personally, I still prefer the rough surface on One M7 since the One M8 surface pretty smooth as if it feel like plastic. It is no surprise that the UI and animation transition everything is smooth since Sense UI has been tone down since Sense 5. I still hate the fact the camera still 4MP since I am very much a pixel peep guy. However, I can assured that HTC One M8 camera works as advertise. It is quick in focus, great for low light capture as well and a tones of fun processing mode to be use. Overall, it is really a beauty plus functionality phone, one of the kind phone at the moment and it is for people who dare to change, to try and to explore the possibility using this phone. So once again, HTC did it!
The HTC One comes with a variety of accessories like the Flip Case, Double Dip case (each in three colors), Dot View case (showing you alarms, events, calls, battery, weather and more in a colorful dotted way) and more. The HTC One is available today with RRP RM 2,399.
After several of video teaser, leaked and so on, HTC One (M8) finally goes official with improvement on hardware and even software. The smartphone sports a unibody made of 90% metal as opposed to 70% for its predecessor giving it an even sleeker look. The One (M8) screen has been bumped from a 4.7" unit to a 5", while retaining the 1080p resolution. Side bezels have been slimmed down and hardware keys have been replaced by on-screen ones so the difference in size compared to the original One is minimal.
HTC One (M8) Key Specification :
5.0 inches Super LCD 3 screen with 1080 x 1920 of resolution
Dual 4 MP Ultrapixel camera with dual-LED (dual tone) flash
5MP front facing camera
2600 mAh battery
Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat with Sense 6
146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4 mm
160 g
The Android version is 4.4 KitKat with Sense 6 on top. One of the coolest new features brought by the updated package is Motion Launch, which lets you quickly open the camera or unlock the phone while the screen is off. Picking up the One (M8) in landscape mode and pressing the volume button will launch the camera. There's double tap or slide up from the bottom to wake the phone. While locked you can pick up the phone in portrait mode and swipe left on its screen to launch the widget panel or right for BlinkFeed.
A newly introduced extreme Power Saving Mode promises to give you up to 30 hours of running by using just 10% of the One (M8)'s 2,600 mAh battery. Zoe has also been updated and can take 20 full-res stills coupled with video in just three seconds.
The HTC One (M8) still features the same 4MP camera with 1/3" sensor, 2 micron-sized pixels and f/2.0 aperture plus a second camera located above it meant to gather depth information. HTC calls this Duo Camera. It mimics the stereoscopic abilities of the human eye - two independent lenses able to calculate the relative distance of the subjects in an image. HTC's dual camera setup enables cool effects such as selective focus (shallow depth of field) and post-shot refocusing. Unfortunately, the optical image stabilization of the original One is now gone, and the One (M8) will rely solely on digital stabilization. Similarly to Apple, HTC has improved the flash of the smartphone by using a two toned one - one cold and one warm LED, which can help the smartphone produce more accurate color tones in low-light conditions. HTC also claims the One (M8) can focus in just 0.3s.
The HTC One comes with a variety of accessories like the Flip Case, Double Dip case (each in three colors), Dot View case (showing you alarms, events, calls, battery, weather and more in a colorful dotted way) and more.
Coming in Gunmetal Gray, Glacial Silver and Amber Gold the HTC One (M8) will be available in select markets starting today. It will roll out across 230 carriers in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, China, Africa and the Middle East.
Though HTC are saving their flagship phone announcement next month, the company does pulled the curtain on two new midrange smartphones named Desire 816 and Desire 610. Both phone look identical and the Desire 816 will be taking charge of the company’s updated midrange lineup, with the latter serving as the more compact alternative.
4MP back facing UltraPixel camera with 1080p@30fps video recording (Without Optical Image Stabilization)
2.1MP front facing camera with 1080p video recording
16/32 GB internal memory with expandable microSD
3,300 mAh
Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5.5
217g
164.5 x 82.5 x 10.29mm
HTC One Max comes with a fingerprint sensor on its back. You can easily unlock the device by just swiping your finger on the small square sensor below the camera or enabled quick app launch, which means that you can make the One Max automatically start an app of your choice depending on the finger you use for unlocking it. There is no Beats Audio support but the stereo BoomSound speakers are on board, bigger and louder than ever.
HTC One Max is going to hit the European and Asian markets by the end of this week. The exact pricing is yet to be revealed, though.
Personally, the spec is abit disappointing. Almost similar with HTC One except bigger, more battery and come with microSD slot. Doesn't seem worth to upgrade if you're current HTC One owner.
Seem like HTC is holding back the rumors HTC One Max and went ahead to launches the Desire 601 and Desire 300. The HTC Desire 601 is aim for mid-range, while the new Desire 300 is an entry level smartphone.
HTC Desire 601 Key Specification :
4.5" with 540 x 960 pixels
1.4Ghz dual-core Snapdragon 400 chipset
1GB RAM
8GB internal memory with microSD slot
5MP back facing camera with 1080p video recording
VGA front facing camera
LTE
2100 mAh
Android 4.2.2
134.5 x 66.7 x 9.9 mm
130 grams
The HTC Desire 601 will have all the HTC Zoe features despite the camera not Ultrapixel. The HTC Desire 601 will launch in October 2013 with unknown price.
HTC Desire 300 Key Specification :
4.3" with 480 x 800 pixels
1Ghz dual-core Snapdragon S4
512MB RAM
4GB internal memory with microSD slot
5MP back facing camera with WVGA video recording
VGA front facing camera
1650 mAh
Android 4.2.2
131.8 x 66.2 x 10.1 mm
120 grams
HTC Desire 300 may not use HTC Zoe, but it comes with Blinkfeed. The smartphone will launch in October 2013, too.
Another HTC phone joining the Desire family and sit as mid range height. A Taiwan Mobile exclusive from August 1, the device has us a little perplexed over its price point of around $400 (NT$11,900).
HTC Desire 500 Key Specification :
4.3-inch with 800x480 resolution
1.2GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 200
Adreno 205 GPU
1GB RAM
4GB Internal memory with expandable microSD
8MP back facing camera with 720p video recording
1.6MP front facing camera
The HTC Desire 500 will come Beats Audio-equipped, along with an unspecified version of Android Jelly Bean running under HTC's proprietary Sense 5 skin and will also feature BlinkFeed. No BoomSound speakers are to be found.
My Opinion : Bleh nothing interesting. Design also abit meh for me. Will rather look at HTC Desire 600.
UPDATED : Our mistake. It seem like HTC Butterfly S is not waterproof anymore. We saw the picture that the USB pork wasn't cover up and we believe it wasn't waterproof.
Seem like HTC never take a rest. HTC Butterfly S officially announces to replace the company first ever waterproof phone, HTC Butterfly.
HTC Butterfly S Key Specification :
5 inch S-LCD 3 with 1080p resolution
1.9GHz Quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600
2GB RAM
16GB Internal storage with expandable microSD slot
4MP back facing camera with Ultra pixel sensor
2MP front facing camera
3200mAh
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with Sense 5
The HTC Butterfly S is expected to debut in Taiwan for NT $22,900 (US $766) in July.
My Opinion : Better spec than HTC One except it wasn't construct with aluminium. But, it come with expandable microSD card and also bigger battery, 3200 mAh. Not to mention all features like HTC Zoe, Boomsound and Blinkfeed.
It has been almost a month since I got myself a HTC One. So I guess it is time and fair enough to have full review from me. Let's start with the specification and key features of HTC One.
4.7-inch Super LCD 3 with 1080p resolution (469ppi)
1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600
Adreno 320
2GB RAM
32/64 GB internal memory
4MP back facing camera with 1080p@30fps video recording (with HDR)
2.1MP front facing camera
NFC
2300 mAh
Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
Design & Built Quality
I do understand that in terms of design, everyone has their own preference. For me, HTC One does look beautiful though front design very much resemble iPhone 5 and Blackberry Z10. In comparison with Sony Xperia Z, I actually love Z design more. However, HTC One design just look simple, clean and as if it is one of your hand when you hold it. Well, of course the 4.7" screen size is good enough for my small palm.
HTC One is built by aluminium which definitely solid and feel nice..premium anyone? I admit I love this material but it came with a price. I have a black unit and black paint easily chipped off if accidentally scratches. The black unit also finger oil magnet eventhough it is easy to removed. The aluminium not completely solid either. It is still scratch able and easily dent. I have been taking care with it extra carefully this whole month and thanks goodness my unit still look perfectly brand new. For silver unit, the paint and finger oil won't happen. There are few users reported that the beatsaudio logo at the back easily fade off with a couple of sweat on the hand when holding the phone.
Casing is definitely needed if you wanna maintain the phone in perfect condition.
User Interface (UI)
HTC One running the latest Sense, 5.0. It came to my understanding that how much Sense 5 actually toned down compare to previous version. It has been toned down until the stage it very close to Vanilla Android. I like it very much. It just simple, fast, no fancy animation and nice looking icon. There are alot difference operation manner in Sense 5.0 compare with standard android. I'll talk more about it later. The total home screen has been strip down to 5 only including 1 of them occupied by Blinkfeed by default.
I have no complain on Sense 5. In fact, I love it more than Sony Timescape and Vanilla Android on Nexus now. Samsung Touchwiz never be my favourite from day 1.
Blinkfeed
All news under one homepage. It wouldn't hurt to have one since once in a while I enjoy scrolling around and reading the news headline. However it still lack of flexibility and customization. I can't add my own RSS feed.
Love it or hate it, the Blinkfeed gonna stuck in your first page of home screen. You can't remove it but you can choose not to use it. Just set other panel as your home and move on. Who know coming Sense/Android update from HTC enable Blinkfeed activation?
HTC Sense 5.0 operation manner compare with standard Android
In Sense 5.0, a long tap on empty home screen will zoom out the screen and allow you to add widget, apps and shortcut to your home screen. This apply too when you pinch to zoom out. During that mode, you can add, remove and set as home for the panel. As I mention earlier, you can add your apps to home screen via here. You can also go to the apps drawer and hold the apps to create a shortcut to home screen by dragging it to the top left (or uninstall it by dragging to top right). Yup it took extra 1 step compare to Android standard system.
In addition, whatever apps you drag out from the app tray will actually duplicated the app to the home screen instead of just bringing it out.
You cannot press back button to return to home screen from app drawer. You either click the app drawer to back to home screen, or simply tap the home button on your phone.
How to put app to your app tray? Just go to app drawer and simply drag the app you want to the tray.The apps will no longer appear in your apps drawer but in apps tray only. Weird right? What's more weird is the time and weather widget in the 1st page of app drawer. I guess HTC just love this too much since it even appear in your lock screen and Blinkfeed.
HTC One only had two hardware button. Thus, the home button actually playing three role, as home button, multitask button and also Google Now button. A single tap on the home button will result you return to your main home screen. Double tap it and you will go to your multitask window. Total 9 task can be display here. To remove existing task, just simply swipe it up. A long press on the home button will guide you to Google Now.
I couldn't get used to it all this operation manner at the first few day. However after a week of usage, slowly I adapted to it and right now I have no problem using it. It just a matter as a user you willing to learn or not. It wasn't that hard to accept it anyway.
Camera
HTC One came with 4 Megapixel camera. Yup you din see wrongly. It is 4MP. HTC try to slow down the Megapixel race compare with other competitor. As compensate, HTC One camera actually come with Ultrapixel Sensor. What is Ultrapixel sensor? To put it in layman term, Ultrapixel actually 2 times bigger than normal pixel in normal sensor.
The smaller the pixel, the less light each one collects. This results in more visible noise and other defects in both still images and video. HTC claim that the Ultrapixel Sensor can capture 300% more light than many of the 13 megapixel cameras on the market. Because larger pixels record more light and data, the photos display more shades and greater color accuracy.
The camera UI in HTC One is simple. The left side only come with three quick setting buttons which is flash, HTC Zoe and setting. However I dislike the lack of customization for quick setting. I have to take extra step whenever I wanna change some camera setting. I hope HTC Coming update at least slot two more quick setting option on left side which are switch between back and front camera and also ISO setting.
On the lower right are some effect that can be found from all previous HTC phones. Unfortunately I never fancy using it. I found myself enjoy using HTC Zoe more. Let's move on.
Picture and Video Quality
HTC has been claiming the Ultrapixel sensor is working well despite being 4MP. I agree. The camera has been served me well and I enjoy shooting using the camera. The only things I complained about the camera already been discussed on my first impression. However 4MP still 4MP. The photo suffer quite alot details loss when 100% crop is done. Of course, it look's great if you don't crop it.
I even went to Tanjung Sepat trip without bringing my main camera gear and shoot all the way with HTC One.
I am not gonna debate on the image quality on HTC One camera. You gonna be the judge. For me, it works very well and satisfied me. If I need something better, I can just grab on my Olympus E-P3 anytime.
HTC One capable to record full HD 1080p at 30fps video. In addition, the camera installed with 2 axis OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) which are yaw & pitch.
The OIS work pretty well and it is a bonus for people who love to do video with mobile phone. During my test with the video, it doesn't suffer focus hunting. In fact, it lock target pretty perfectly despite the target and myself move around aggressively. Thumb up to HTC One video and I won't hesitate using it to record video for my coming HK trip.
HTC Zoe
There are two things in HTC Zoe. First is on the camera itself and another 1 is the photos gallery. Just click the middle button on the camera to activate Zoe (you'll see Zoe word came out at bottom middle) and when you snap (the shutter button goes red), you're actually snapping 3 second video (sound included!). There are 20 frames in the 3 second video. You can edit the video with few retouch function from HTC Zoe.
Go to edit then retouch the photo.
You'll see a bunch of retouch you can do in the photo. It is fun to play around. My favorite is none other than Sequence Shot and also always smile.
If you still unsure how HTC Zoe works, here a perfect video demo for you to watch.
Another HTC Zoe function are actually in the photos gallery.
On your first click of gallery, you'll see a bunch of weird things inside (Assuming you already signed in native Facebook app). That's because Sense 5.0 imported all your Facebook friends photo into the gallery. You can actually just refresh the gallery to check out any new photo posted up by your Facebook friends.
It is annoying to me at first but I couldn't care less later since it just simply no way to remove it unless you remove the Facebook app from your account. Click in my photos (the one on top once you open your gallery) and you will be bringing into a another page.
By clicking the top left, you're given choices to choose between Albums, Events and Locations.
I am pretty sure HTC user familiar with Albums. It is default gallery UI for the previous Sense. Here, all photos are categorized depending on your pictures folder name.
What I gonna highlight and talk more about is the Events type album which integrated with HTC Zoe.
You can see all your pictures are categorized by date or name (if you rename it). Long press on it and you're given few options to view, delete, merge to, split to or rename.
By clicking into one of the events, you'll notice a big thumbnail that previewing some pics in the events. Yup, that's 30 second video created by HTC Zoe. Everything is automated! A 30 second video can be done with a snap of finger. Click the video thumbnail to customize the video.
Click on the top right option and click select content.
Here you can select contents in the same Events album to be apart of HTC Zoe video. Unfortunately only 13 items max and I wish there is an option for me to arrange the sequence as well. Done selecting your content just hit next and your video are done.
To enhance more, click the bottom right button and you're given choice for song and effect. Each song come with difference effect and you can only use the preset given by HTC. Done selecting just hit save and you're good to go to share the video to the world! As I said, everything is automated.
However HTC Zoe still got limitation that I wish HTC could update it in future to allow it be more flexible which are allow to arrange contents sequence and also insert own song into the video.
HTC TV
Infrared is back to the game. HTC One is packed with IR Blaster (which also act as power button) which allowed to act as TV Remote control. It is easy to customize as long as your TV model is in the list. I customize one for my house together with Astro (as cable box).
What I like more is it show all shows that currently showing on the TV and a click to the show I wanna watch, it instantly change the channel for me. You can easily set reminder and schedule the show as well.
Song and Video playback
I am not audiophile. But HTC One speaker is definitely loud and one of the best. I show it to one of my audiophile friend to listen and he was impressed.
Watching video in phone is awesome as well. As mentioned in the spec earlier, HTC One come with 1080p display with S-LCD 3. The native video player allowed screenshot of the video you're watching. This function is available in previous HTC Sense too.
Internal Memory
HTC One come with both 32GB and 64GB internal memory but no expendable micro SD. I got myself a 32GB unit and so far it is still enough for me. Guess I don't really store much stuffs in my phone and most of them are photos. I even got myself a USB OTG to compensate the loss of external memory card.
It is easy to use and safety removed too.
However the main reason for myself getting a USB OTG is not to mount a pendrive, but to mount my camera cable. I can easily transfer pictures from my camera to my phone for Instagram.
Battery
HTC One easily can has 3-4 hours on screen time for a single full charge. On normal usage it can easily last me a day (unplug on 6am and battery almost died on 10-11pm). There is once I am too busy with my work and didn't touch my phone that much and it can last me for 2 days. So does the battery life sound convincing for you?
However charging the phone is abit pain in ass. It took approximately 4-5 hours for full charge with the original charger from HTC. I am surprise the charger output power only 1A.
Verdict
No phone is perfect in this world. There are alot pros and cons in HTC One. It just the matter does it meet your requirement or not. For me personally, yes definitely. The speaker, the camera, the Zoe and also user friendly UI has become the main reason why I decided to change my phone to HTC One. I compared the same camera features with my friend who currently owned a Samsung Galaxy S4 and he agreed the HTC Zoe is more user friendly.
Alot features in HTC One work as it advertised but still lack of customization. Hopefully future update will improve it. Android 4.2.2 is coming to HTC One soon.
P/s There are rumors HTC will be releasing HTC One Mini (4.3") and also HTC One Max (5.9") that carried HTC One design language. The One Mini will have a strip down on processor and screen display and One Max will have S800 processor.
