Lost amongst all the excitement surrounding the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge was HTC revealing the successor to the HTC One M8. Maybe that’s because the S6 and S6 Edge were revolution when compared with the S5 whereas the HTC One M9 was more evolution. But as the M8 was so well received, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ as they say.
OK, let’s start with the basics. The HTC One M9 sports a 5-inch Full HD 1080p display (441 pixels per inch) and is protected by a screen made from the latest Gorilla Glass (GG4.) The BoomSound speakers from the M8 remain but they’ve been upgraded to feature Dolby surround sound technology – if your phone is your primary music player, you’ll be delighted with the richness of the sound. The M9’s dual-tone metallic unibody will come in 4 colours – Amber Gold, Gunmetal Grey, Gold/Pink and Silver/Rose Gold.
In terms of processing power and related speed of operation, you should have no worries. The M9 comes with a new Snapdragon 810 quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM. It also comes with 32GB of onboard storage for your photos, videos and apps but, unlike the iPhone and S6/S6 Edge, you can expand that storage up to a maximum of 128GB with a microSD card. Also impressive is the 2840mAh battery, which offers around 22 hours of 3G talk time. Even if you drain that battery with incessant chat or app usage, the battery will charge to 60% of its capacity in just 30 minutes.
The HTC One M9’s operating system is based on latest version of Android, Lollipop 5.0 , with the new, revamped HTC Sense 7 User Interface on top. HTC Sense 7 has been upgraded to allow for more personalisation (colours, wallpapers, fonts and icons) and offers handy features like apps being suggested based on your location as well as suggestions for restaurants etc when you’re out and about.
Camera-wise, the Ultrapixel rear camera from the M8 has been replaced by impressive 20-megapixel version with auto focus, optical image stabilisation (so you can avoid those shaky shorts), a dual LED flash and 4K video recording. The front-facing camera is the excellent 4-megapixel UltraPixel snapper which featured on the rear of the HTC One M8 – that’s going to shoot some ultra-sharp selfies! Both of the HTC One M9 cameras come with dynamic exposure to ensure high quality photos. HTC has also handily provided a Gallery app, which provides centralised storage for all your photos including those posted on social media.
We’re expecting the HTC One M9 to arrive with us in a matter of weeks. Of course, we’ll let you know as soon as we do.
