HTC ONE M9:Absolutely Stunning!!! #DTTNEWS

It's here. It has finally arrived. The big moment you've all been waiting for - HTC unveiled the One M9 at a press conference in Barcelona over the weekend and it'll be arriving in stores by March 31. The new device isn't a drastic overhaul of HTC's existing product, but then it didn't really need to be. Instead we have some carefully thought out tweaks to the premium metal-build formula, and it's arguably the most competitive HTC handset to date.

Samsung also launched its HUGELY anticipated Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 EDGE handsets at MWC 2015. The company confirmed with units would be available globally on April 12 but neglected to mention any details about pricing, though the EDGE version is confirmed to be dearer –– we just don’t know by how much. 

The Galaxy S6 is arguably HTC’s biggest competition inside Q2 2015, save for Apple’s iPhone. Later on this year the Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 will be joined by the LG G4, another hugely anticipated launch from Korea’s second biggest handset maker. How all of this will pan out remains to be seen, but one thing is certain for sure: Android users are now officially spoilt for choice. 

Here's everything you need to know about the HTC One M9.

HTC One M9 Design

The One M9's design is not too different from the One M8, but in many ways this is a good thing as you still get to enjoy a very refined-lloking and premium-feeling metal unibody. However, there are a few very notable tweaks. Firstly HTC has recontoured the back and edges to be more ergonomic, and secondly there's a scratch-resistant coating to the phone's shell.

A third change is purely aesthetic; HTC has taken cues from luxury watchmakers by using a two-tone metal design, every handset has its edging picked out in a complimentary colour. The most striking example is the silver model with gold trim.

Anyone hoping for waterproofing aboard HTC's latest is in for dissapointment, as once again the company has decided not to implement it for the flagship. We can only assume last year's reasoning remains the same - HTC did not want to mess up its smooth look and finish with fiddly flaps over the various ports.

HTC One M9 Release Date & Price

As mentioned above, HTC has stated it expects to have the One M9 on store shelves by March 31.

Details are starting to emerge regarind the HTC One M9's pricing; HTC Germany has posted a pre-order page with the prices in Euros. As there's only one storage model in three colour options the price is the same across the board - €749.99, which is about £544 at the current exchange rate. At the moment German buyers can only pre-order the gold-on-gold variant with the other two colours listed to arrive on March 31 - the date when the One M9 is expected to hit stores globally.

HTC One M9 Specs

Dimensions	144.6 x 69.7 x 9.6 mm, 157g
Display	5-inch SLCD3 1920x1080p at 441ppi
Camera	20MP dual-LED two-tone flash, 2160p & 1080p video, 4MP secondary
Storage	32GB, microSD up to 128GB
Processor, RAM, Graphics	2GHz/1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core (MSM8994), Adreno 430 GPU, 3GB RAM
Operating System,	Android Lollipop 5.0
UI	Sense 7

Dimensions	144.6 x 69.7 x 9.6 mm, 157g
Display	5-inch SLCD3 1920x1080p at 441ppi
Camera	20MP dual-LED two-tone flash, 2160p & 1080p video, 4MP secondary
Storage	32GB, microSD up to 128GB
Processor, RAM, Graphics	2GHz/1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core (MSM8994), Adreno 430 GPU, 3GB RAM
Operating System,	Android Lollipop 5.0
UI	Sense 7
Connectivity	microUSB,Bluetooth,NFC,Wi-Fi,GPS,4G LTE
Battery	2,840mAh

As well as the above spec run-down for your standard phone features, it's worth mentioning that as usual HTC has paid special attention to the One M9's audio. The front-facing BoomSound speakers with built-in amplifier have made a return together with some added enhancements in the form of Dolby Audio integration - this also extends to the 3.5mm audio jack for headphones and speakers; so you'll be getting high quality sound any way you slice it.

 

 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 Overheating Woes Persist

A little while ago there was a bit of an uproar over the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 following numerous reports that the chip overheated. Subsequently we've seen comment from LG and Qualcomm itself over the issue and it's generally been stated that its no longer a worry. Despite that, Samsung has still dropped the Snapdragon 810 from its flagship Galaxy S6.

Anyway, a report from a Romanian website has been picked up which shows the Snapdragon 810-powered HTC One M9 running the AnTuTu benchmarking suite from the show-floor of MWC 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. The report shows a screenshot of AnTuTu essentially freaking out with a warning message:

"The device temperature is too high. Please test again after cooling the device. Continue testing may cause the system to restart or shut down."

Needless to say this is something we'll be keeping a close eye on, particularly when we get hold of a review unit. However, we don't wish to engage in any  scaremongering; this could be a one-off as there are always manufacturing "lemons" even at big launch events like MWC and, more to the point, those show units undergo a heck of a lot of stress and wear being manhandled by all attending.

On top of this we've attended demonstrations by Qualcomm where the firm has shown the Snapdragon 810 to be running cooler than the Snapdragon 801. Likewise LG executives have gone on record stating that its tests showed the Snapdragon 810 to be the coolest running chipset the company has worked with, while the LG G Flex 2 (powered by the 810) is thought to be the coolest running handset on the market

HTC One M9 Camera

With previous One handsets HTC was a bit over-ambitious trying all kinds of fancy tricks like Ultrapixels and dual-camera setups rather than focusing (ha) more simply on high-quality imaging. That's changed for the One M9 and the phone's rear panel sports a 20MP sensor that promises to deliver some top-notch snaps along with the welcome return of the two-tone dual-LED flash.

HTC hasn't completely done away with the Ultrapixels though, as the front-facing camera is now that 4MP Ultrapixel setup we saw as the original HTC One's rear-facing primarym improved with the addition of a wide-angle lens - perfect for selfies.

HTC has also added a custom gallery application to aggregate Dropbox, Google Drive, Facebook, and many other photo sources into one location, and there’s also seamlessly integrated photo editing functions.

HTC One M9 Software: Android Lollipop & Sense 6

Some of the One M9's most innovative features come inside the software package. It's running the latest Android Lollipop 5.0 build with HTC's own Sense 7 UI on top. For the most part this is quite similar to Sense 6 in terms of appearance and operation, but that's no bad thing as Sense 6 was a joy to use. What's more, HTC lets you switch out key features for stock Android ones as you wish, such as the multitasking interface.

Another cool feature is the Themes application. Now, there's nothing necessarily new about a Themes function per se, but HTC has an interesting spin on it because as well as being able to pick and download standard themes you can also create your own using a picture - you can even snap something with the camera and have the app make a Theme from it by analysing the colours. It'll then apply them to the icons, create a wallpaper, and pick an appropriate font. Far from being stuck with the app's decisions, you can go in and individually customise things like fonts and icons as you see fit.

HTC has also talked about intelligent Homescreen features aboard the One M9, notably the handset can figure out what to present to you on screen depending on where you are, what time of day it is, and your typical habits. You can also tie in certain functions to specific locations; those themes we mentioned a moment ago, for example, can be set to change dynamically on the fly, and one variable might be location - so you can set the phone to have one theme in your office, one at home, and so on.