Newsletter
HTC has just unveiled their new HTC One (M8) that looks a lot like the original HTC One, but is definitely an evolutionary improvement in all areas – style, performance, and functionality. Why mess with a good thing – a device that cried for attention, but was given nary a glance by the smartphone world other than techno geeks and not helping give HTC the sales and cash infusion they so desperately need. Will the new HTC One be able to bring prominence back to HTC or has the Samsung juggernaut and the S5 going to rob it of the attention it deserves? Let us look at the top ten features of the new HTC One.
Duo Main Camera
The biggest announcement has to be the Dual Cameras and the capabilities they possess. They are not like the dual cameras found on the old HTC EVO 3D – the new HTC One’s cameras sport depth sensors and work together to allow you to refocus, add blur to your shots, among other effects with a focus time of only 300ms. You can adjust ISO and white balance if you want before each shot or use the Zoe Mode and simply press one button and the camera takes care of the rest by presenting you with the same shot with different focal points and you pick out the best pictures to save.
Duo Camera Effects
The new dual cameras allow you to manipulate your photos with by adding some perceived depth to your shots, as well as Zoom Blur, Sketch, Cartoon, and Colorize, among others. You can even add seasonal trimmings such as Falling Leaves or Snowflakes to images.
Camera: After Shot Focusing
With the Duo Cameras you can take a photo and then pick your focal point – do you want to focus in on the nearest item and blur the background or blur the foreground and focus in on the distant objects…it is your choice with the two cameras. Other manufacturers, like Samsung, have added this feature to the new Galaxy S5, but only through software manipulation – we can only hope that HTC’s duo cameras will give use even better results.
Better Metal Finish
If it is possible the all-aluminum body is even better looking and better designed than the older HTC One? The new HTC One extends the metal to the front and wraps it around the entire display and features 90-percent metal vs 70-percent on last year’s model. There is no plastic on the sides this time around and that and the curves just make it feel better in your hand
Cutting Edge Hardware
The new HTC One comes with the latest in a long line of top processors, the Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core 801 Chipset clocked at 2.3GHz with an Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Plenty of processing power for gaming or videos and on par with the offerings from Samsung and other 2014 flagships.
Improved HTC BoomSound
The HTC One introduced us to what they call BoomSound – dual stereo speakers with a sound unlike anything we had heard before coming from a smartphone. The new HTC One has improved on the original front-facing speakers that are now 25-percent louder and delivering even a richer and cleaner sound, according to HTC.
Expandable Memory
Last year’s HTC One did not offer any expansion in storage other than the 32GB that came in the device. The new HTC One comes with either 16GB or 32GB standard internal storage but now offers the user the option of a microSD card to expand internal storage up to 128GB – twice what most devices allow.
Sense 6.0
HTC has introduced Sense 6.0 and this rethink has cleaned up the look, while maintaining the same overall layout – but does add motion gestures, making it much more convenient to use. There are five home screens (down from 6) with apps and widgets and the left most screen has a new BlinkFeed running, although it can be turned off. You can now bring in notifications from third-party apps Foursquare and FitBit into the BlinkFeed fold.
Innovative Cases and Covers
While phone cases are nothing new, HTC has taken a page from Samsung and is offering some really interesting cases – one particular, called ‘HTC Dot View’ allows the cover to be closed, but yet you can see the time, date, missed notifications and weather via the dots on the cover.
Availability
The new HTC One is available NOW, on-line from all four major U.S. carriers – Verizon is the first store that will have it physically in-stock, while the other carriers will have it in their stores on April 11. The GPe HTC One M8 is available from the Play Store for $699, and will be available for pre-order starting today and the Developer Edition will come straight from HTC’s website at $650, carrier unlocked and available for pre-order today.
Please let us know on our Google+ Page what you think of the new HTC One – will you be pre-ordering yours today or are you waiting for one of the other flagships to come out…we would love to hear your opinions.