The HTC One M9 is a powerful smartphone that is being dragged down due to the sub-par camera that it is equipped with. The same thing is said in reviews of the smartphone's predecessor the One M8, which means that HTC failed to fix the only prominent issue in its flagship smartphones.
The sub-par camera of the One M9 was the subject of review of DxOMark, a well-known resouuce for photography, and its assessment of the One M9's camera will not do HTC any favors.
According to DxOMark's ranking of cameras on smartphones, the camera of the One M9 ranks 22nd with 69 points, barely improving upon the score of the One M8 that was at 68 points.
The score of One M9's camera is very low compared to its competition in the smartphone business, with the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge scoring 86 points to be ranked first overall. Following the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 with 83 points, Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with 82 points, and the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z3 both with 79 points.
The score of 69 points for the One M9 even ranks it behind the 72 points of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 4S and the 69 points of the Amazon Fire Phone. The outdoor camera Go Pro Hero 3 amazingly even scored higher compared to the One M9, as the Hero 3 scored 70 points in the DxOMark review.
This is not a good review at all for the One M9's camera, which is made worse by the fact that HTC is looking to challenge the flagship smartphones of other companies with this device.
DxOMark's review of the One M9 camera pointed out some good things, such as the good color and details on the pictures taken by the camera in bright light, along with good autofocus. For video, there is good noise reduction in bright lighting, with autofocus that is accurate.
However, the list of bad things about the One M9 camera is much longer, with some of the criticisms against the device's camera including inaccurate white balance, oversaturated colors in low light, and strong ringing and slight fringing when taking pictures. In addition, the camera features no video stabilization and the loss of details in any lighting condition.
While the One M9 camera performs pretty bad compared to the cameras of other flagship smartphones in the market today, this does not mean that the device is automatically a must-avoid one. The device still packs powerful specifications with an octa-core, 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor with 3GB of RAM and expandable memory of up to 2TB. For users do not use their camera often or do not have high standards for the cameras on their smartphones, the One M9 is still a pretty good smartphone option.
