HTC introduced its last best chance at reconquering the hearts of high-end smartphone users today. The HTC One M8, while perhaps not everything we hoped it would be, is everything we thought it would be. The new HTC One features the company's beautiful design aesthetic and high-end build quality, but comes with otherwise average specifications for a high-end smartphone.
In a lot of ways, the HTC One M8 is par for the course. Much like the Samsung Galaxy S5, the HTC One M8 doesn't sport a flashy 2K display, shocking new security features or other awe-inspiring specifications, but it does offer something the S5 doesn't: a superior, high-quality build. For years, Samsung users have complained about the cheap plastic the company uses. No amount of faux finish can make up for the fact that Samsung smartphones feel synthetic and often come off as cheap feeling.
The HTC One M8 could never be mistaken for cheap with its smooth, brushed metal finish. The new HTC One, like its predecessors, has a metal unibody design that puts it on the same level design-wise as the iPhone 5S. The corners are rounded and there is almost no bezel around the 5-inch, 1080p LCD, Gorilla Glass 3 display. HTC did include a thin black bezel around the sides of the display, which gets a little thicker at the bottom of the handset, where the letters "HTC" are stamped in silver. HTC BoomSound stereo speakers are visible at the top and bottom of the new One. The entire device is just 9.35-millimeters thick and weighs only 160 grams.
The back of the HTC One M8 looks about the same as all the other HTC One handsets out there, which is nice, for consistency's sake. HTC placed its iconic dual-camera on the back of the handset, which includes a 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera sensor and another sensor, which measures depth and other important photographic elements. Although the HTC One's camera isn't the hefty 16-megapixel shooter of the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC says its special technology will deliver nice, crisp shots. There is also a 5-megapixel camera with a wide angle lens for group selfies on the front of the new One.
The rest of the HTC One M8's specs are pretty standard fare for high-end smartphones in 2014, so far. The new One is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, running at 2.3 GHz. It also features 2 GB of RAM. HTC offers 16 and 32GB options for the One, with a micro SD card slot, which allows you to add as much as 128 GB more of storage. This is a huge improvement over last year's HTC One, which maxed out at 64 GB of storage.
The new One comes with Android 4.4 KitKat with the HTC Sense 6 and new BlinkFeed preinstalled. In terms of connectivity, there's 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX. HTC also gave the new One a 2,600 mAh battery. The HTC One M8 became available online at 1 p.m. EST on Tuesday, starting at $199 with a two-year contract from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless. It will be available in Gunmetal Grey, Artic Silver and Amber Gold color options.
