Released in 2015 as the flagship mobile device of the Taiwanese company. Alas, he failed to repeat the success of his predecessors - progress from competitors and a number of his own shortcomings did not allow him to gain a foothold at the top. The Taiwanese manufacturer lost its leadership position and lost customers and profits for the next two years.

To understand why the M9 was not a success, you need to take a closer look at its competitors' devices - the iPhone 6/6s and Samsung Galaxy S6. The Koreans from Samsung managed to get rid of one of the biggest shortcomings of their flagships - the nondescript design. Samsung Galaxy S6 came out in a new design made of glass and metal, and it instantly won success and recognition from users. Apple devices with their multimillion-dollar audience have always been successful, and the “sixth” line of smartphones itself was very, very good.

Unlike its competitors, HTC decided not to make radical changes. In terms of design, the HTC One M9 is not much different from the M8 - even more so, the smartphones use almost identical displays. Most manufacturers introduced new cameras, hardware capabilities and batteries. How can HTC respond to this? Except for the slightly redesigned HTC Sense 7 shell.

In any case, the HTC One M9 corrected the mistakes of its predecessor and showed a number of improvements. But neither the redesigned main camera nor the more capacious battery turned out to be as revolutionary as they should have been. And, frankly, it's not that unexpected. In any case, the HTC One M9 remains a very, very worthy flagship.

In terms of design, the HTC One M9 and M8 are the same as the iPhone 5s and 5. Both smartphones follow the same design concept and are equipped with the same displays. Only a number of minor changes differentiate the M9 from the M8.

The most noticeable of these changes is the new two-tone paint job. The smartphone is available in three color options: gold and silver, all-gold, and metallic on grey.

As for the rear panel, instead of a curved surface, HTC decided to use a thick edge connecting the front panel to the back. The front of the smartphone seems to have been squeezed into the back. There is a small advantage to this - HTC was able to make a thinner frame between the screen and the panel itself. In addition, the smartphone is now lighter and stronger in the hand, without trying to slip out of your hands. It's even easier to hold in one hand, although it's still less comfortable than the M8.

In all other aspects, the design of the phone has improved. It became 0.2 mm thicker, but the engineers managed to narrow it by almost a millimeter. The smartphone weighs 157 grams – not too little and not too much. Sometimes it may seem heavy, but this is even better - the user will never have the feeling that he is holding a children's toy in his hands.

The lock and power key has been moved from the top to the right panel. It is now located directly below the volume buttons. In addition, the material has been changed - the button is now metal and equipped with an etched surface. The user will be able to immediately distinguish it from the volume controls. The latter, by the way, have also been improved - they are now a little harder and require a little more pressure to operate.

Unfortunately, the phone is still difficult to use if you are used to using only one hand. Competitors have already come up with solutions - in the iPhone, for example, the top of the screen moves down when you double press the Home key, and Samsung has a separate mode. HTC apparently decided not to pay attention to such a “trifle”, and there are no ways to make it easier to use the phone with one hand.

On the bottom edge there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a microUSB input. The grille on the front panel covers the new BoomSound speakers.

Almost the entire top edge is covered with translucent black plastic. Below it is an infrared emitter that allows you to use the M9 as a remote control.

Another change is the camera design. The HTC One M9 uses a square camera that protrudes slightly from the body. The corners of the module are slightly rounded so that the phone does not get stuck when you try to put it in your pocket.

Display

In 2015, “2K hysteria” began among smartphone manufacturers, and they all began equipping their flagships with displays with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. HTC decided not to give in to the trend and, according to tradition, equipped the 5-inch screen of the HTC One M9 Full HD matrix.

2K displays are sharper than Full HD displays, but that doesn't make any difference with a 5-inch diagonal. The grain of the image is completely indistinguishable to the eye - the density of 441 pixels per inch allows you to work with the display without any problems. By comparison, Apple's Retina specifications only require 336 pixels per inch. In other words, the lack of 2K resolution is not a problem.

The Super LCD3 matrix displays colors well and has sufficient contrast and black depth. WITH Super AMOLED It still doesn't compare to Samsung's, but for normal use it will be more than enough. Brightness and viewing angles are very good, but the display is still very reflective Sun rays– the user will probably have to turn it at an angle so that the sun does not hit the eyes.

Built-in speakers and sound quality

As is tradition, the HTC One M9 is equipped with a pair of stereo speakers with a built-in amplifier and Dolby Audio support. Compared to other speakers, they separate sound better in stereo mode, but this is not their main feature. What makes the HTC One M9 truly special is how deep the speakers sound and how well they deliver mids given their size. Competitors' devices can't compare with the M9 in terms of sound quality.

Due to its small size, it will not be possible to achieve good low-frequency sound. Luckily, the amplifier and Dolby Audio support work even if you plug in headphones.

In short - best speakers can't be found anywhere, HTC has better sound quality.

Performance

Before the release of the HTC One M9, the flagship smartphone market was dominated by models with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8-series processors. Galaxy S5, and Sony Xperia The Z3s were equipped with these processors and were unrivaled in terms of performance.

HTC One M9 uses Snapdragon 810 – latest processor from Qualcomm. Its main feature is support for 64-bit computing and eight cores with big.LITTLE architecture. In fact, the smartphone is equipped with two quad-core processors operating at 1.55 GHz and 1.96 GHz. Few powerful processor is responsible for processing calls, receiving and sending text messages, receiving data from sensors, playing music and Internet browsing - in other words, for actions that do not require significant processing power. In this way, energy consumption can be significantly reduced. A second, more powerful processor is connected only when running demanding applications - for example, 3D games. In power-saving mode, high-performance cores are completely disabled.

As for performance, the smartphone works just perfectly. We never encountered any slowdowns or freezes - the system worked perfectly. In games, the smartphone also showed its best side, but the main problem of the Snapdragon 810 - overheating - still managed to show itself. After playing games for a long time, the phone becomes noticeably warm, and if it is also charging at the same time, the temperature rises even more. Fortunately, it never reached the point of complete overheating.

In synthetic benchmarks, HTC One M9 scores the following:

• * 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited: 15602 (21625 with power saving mode disabled);
• * GeekBench 3 multi-core: 2268 (3545 with power saving mode disabled).

Operating system and software

HTC One M9 runs on Android 5.0 OS, which can be upgraded to Android 7.0 Nougat. Installed on top of the system branded shell HTC Sense.

One of key features HTC Sense is a redesigned home screen called Sense Home. It works as follows: the system studies what time and where the user is and what applications he is using at this time, and adjusts the home screen accordingly. For example, when the user is at work, Sense Home will display a list of eight frequently used work apps. There are three main categories: “Home”, “Work” and “Outdoor”. The third mode is for navigation using Google Maps and similar applications.

The built-in theme center has been redesigned, allowing for deeper device customization. The user is no longer limited by the available themes - he can now create his own. The application analyzes the image that the user wants to use as wallpaper and selects icons, fonts and the general design of the system to match it. Sometimes Theme Center doesn't handle icons correctly third party applications, but overall it works quite well.

The smartphone also has a new Cloudex application. It brings together collections of custom images in Dropbox, Google Drive, Facebook and Flickr, showing them all in one application.

The built-in “Remote” application has returned to the M9, allowing you to use the infrared transmitter as a remote control. You can control almost everything - TVs, audio systems and other devices with an IR receiver. Children's mode has also returned, preventing users from opening applications that contain content unsafe for children.

In addition to Google Play Music, HTC One M9 comes with its own audio player, HTC Music App. Considering that the Google app is more aimed at streaming and purchasing audio content from its own store, the phone needs a separate audio player - and the HTC Music App fits this role perfectly.

Memory expansion and wireless connectivity

Unlike other manufacturers, HTC still allows users to expand the internal memory using memory cards. HTC One M9 is no exception - despite the fairly large amount of internal memory (32 GB), users can expand it by microSD cards. In addition, as a bonus, HTC is offering all users an additional 100 GB of Google Drive cloud storage for two years.

The smartphone supports dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) with DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct, MHL 3.0 for connecting directly to a TV via cable, and 4G. In addition, for energy-efficient pairing with other devices, there is support for Bluetooth 4.1.

Camera

Cameras have always been a weak point in the HTC One smartphone line. In M9 it's still not the best - for real good cameras began to appear only after the release. However, compared to the M8 and M7, progress is obvious.

The M9 camera uses a 20.7 megapixel sensor. In principle, this is already better than in other flagship devices - for example, the iPhone 6 has only an eight-megapixel matrix. However, megapixels are not the most important thing. Unfortunately, HTC One M9 does not have the system installed optical stabilization images - which means shooting in low light will suffer.

Because dual camera HTC One M9 does not provide this; instead of the physical depth of field effect, an artificial bokeh effect is used. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in the best way - the transition from a clear to a blurry image is abrupt, not smooth. In addition, objects must be no further than 60 cm from each other, and image processing takes about five seconds. So it’s better to forget about this function.

The editor built into the application allows you to add a number of filters, frames and effects to the image. Double Exposure allows you to merge two photos. Elements adds moving elements to your photos, like falling leaves or bubbles. Finally, HTC Zoe allows you to make small video clips consisting of several photos.

But no matter how wonderful the effects are, they are useless without a good camera. Let's look at the operation of the camera itself.

After switching to a 20-megapixel matrix, the quality of photos should have improved. However, the M9's camera is objectively inferior to its competitors (iPhone 6/6s and Samsung Galaxy S6). Object detail leaves much to be desired, and the background looks too soft and blurry.

Apparently, the culprit is not the best exposure algorithm. The camera can't balance the brightness, especially when there are multiple light sources in the picture - and as a result, some environments are "drowning" in the dark, and you won't find detail in images during the day with fire.

The M9's camera doesn't shine in low light either. The quality of the photos turned out a little better than that of the Galaxy S5, but the lack of optical image stabilization makes itself felt - the photos are far from being as good as they could be.

In normal lighting the photos come out great. Even better - when shooting under normal conditions, the HTC One M9 produces some of the brightest and most saturated photos. The HDR mode works very well and improves color and brightness balance. However, processing takes about two seconds.

The M9 uses a four-megapixel UltraPixel module as the front camera - in fact, the main camera of the HTC One M8 has moved to the front panel. This camera is ideal for selfies, which are mostly taken in low-light conditions.

The selfie camera works much better than the iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy S5. If you like selfies, you'll love this camera.

The HTC One M9 can shoot 4K video up to six minutes long. Slow motion shooting at 120fps is also supported. Video quality is decent, but it suffers from the same problems as photos.

Autonomy

HTC One M9 is equipped with a battery with a capacity of 2840 mAh. Using the big.LITTLE architecture should, in theory, reduce energy consumption.

For the test, we ran SD video on the smartphone with the display brightness reduced to 50%. The HTC One M9 lasted about 10 hours - only slightly more than the M8, but less than the Galaxy S5 or iPhone 6 Plus. In more everyday scenarios, the battery performed well, but not in the least bit outstanding. If you browse the Internet for three hours (3G/4G), watch videos for an hour and play 3D games for another two hours, the battery will be completely discharged in 13 hours. In less intensive usage scenarios, the chances that the phone will survive until the evening increase.

If your smartphone is about to run out of power, you can turn on extreme power saving mode. It disables almost all functions except the basic ones - calls and messaging.

Like most flagship smartphones, the HTC One M9 does not come with a removable battery. This means that you will have to carry a power bank or other UMB with you. The phone supports fast charging - when using a special cable, the HTC One M9 charges up to 50% in half an hour.

Results

HTC One M9 is far from the worst flagship smartphone. He simply failed to introduce something truly innovative when competing firms introduced something completely new. Updated design in the Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G5, 3D Touch in the iPhone 6s helped these smartphones not slide into repetition and become a commercial success, while the M9 was just a “slightly updated” M8. Partly because of this, HTC began to have financial problems, which the company was only able to solve now.

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Type: smartphone operating system: Android 5.0 Case type: classic Controls: on-screen buttons SIM card type: nano SIM Number of SIM cards: 1 Weight: 157 g Dimensions (WxHxT): 69.7x144.6x9.61 mm

Screen

Screen type: color Super LCD 3, 16.78 million colors, touch type touch screen: multi-touch, capacitive Diagonal: 5 inch. Image size: 1920x1080 Pixels per inch (PPI): 441 Automatic screen rotation: yes Scratch-resistant glass: yes

Calls

Type of melodies: polyphonic, MP3 melodies Vibrate alert: yes

Multimedia capabilities

Camera: 20 million pixels, LED flash Camera functions: autofocus Recognition: faces Video recording: yes (MP4) Max. video resolution: 3840x2160 Max. video frame rate: 30 fps Geo Tagging: yes Front camera: yes, 4 million pixels. Video playback: 3GP, 3G2, MP4, WMV, AVO, MKV Audio: MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA, FM radio Voice recorder: yes Headphone jack: 3.5 mm Video output: MHL

Connection

Standard: GSM 900/1800/1900, 3G, 4G LTE, LTE-A Cat. 9 Support for LTE bands: FDD: bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28; TDD: bands 38, 40, 41 Internet access: WAP, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+ Interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1, IRDA, USB, NFC USB charging: yes Satellite navigation: GPS/GLONASS A-GPS system: yes Protocol support: POP/SMTP, IMAP4, HTML Usage as a USB storage device: yes DLNA support: yes

Memory and processor

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 Number of processor cores: 8 Video processor: Adreno 430 Built-in memory: 32 GB Volume random access memory: 3 GB Memory card support: microSD (TransFlash), up to 128 GB Memory card slot: yes, up to 128 GB

Messages

Additional functions SMS: text input with MMS dictionary: yes

Nutrition

Battery type: Li-polymer Battery capacity: 2840 mAh Battery: non-removable Talk time: 25.4 h Standby time: 391 h

Other features

A2DP profile: yes Sensors: light, proximity, gyroscope, compass Controls: voice dialing, voice control Airplane mode: yes

Notebook and organizer

Book search: yes Exchange between SIM card and internal memory: yes Organizer: alarm clock, calculator, task planner

Additional Information

Features: processor - 4 cores x 2.0 GHz + 4 cores x 1.5 GHz Announcement date: 2015-03-01

Yandex Market

Longtime HTC fan. I've been using phones from this company since they released damn cool PDAs. Now things are very bad for them, but I remain faithful to them. I bought this smartphone literally at the moment when it first appeared on the market for 30 thousand rubles. I've been using it for 3 years now and will be changing it soon. I can say with confidence that this phone didn’t cost 30 thousand even then, let alone now. Performance leaves much to be desired. When many applications are running, the phone starts to slow down. When you launch the game, you need to wait until it loads completely. I don’t know why they shoved this dubious Qualcom 810 here, which gets damn hot if you run 2+ applications. That's why I always walked with the power saving mode turned on. This is immediately a question about the battery, which is also not the best here. The volume is small, the charge is wasted like crazy, you need to root the phone and disable all third-party processes. The main camera does not shine with any super quality, although it is stated to be 20 megapixels. On the street you get the usual good pictures. But if you need to photograph something point-blank, in detail and specifically, the camera begins to dull. Focuses on the desired point every other time. From memory everything is not bad, I’m not able to fill 32 GB even without a flash drive. Regarding the sound. Just awful. I can't hear the speakers, there is no sound. Such quiet sound I haven't heard since using htc one v. Regarding the assembly, at least they didn’t screw up here. Yes, the battery is non-removable, but the body is completely steel. The phone fell onto the asphalt a couple of times due to inattention, some bumps remained, but nothing critical happened. After using it for such a long time, I realized that I made a mistake when I bought this htc. The phone was not worth its 30k rubles. Now the price of such a smartphone is 13-14 thousand.

Yandex Market

I have a dark-colored model, and after 2 years of wearing it in the case, debris that gets into it scratches the case. The screen has been protected with protective glass since birth, the phone itself has hung only 2 times, the device is very good for its year, at the time of purchase it cost 20 thousand rubles. The sound and STEREO SPEAKERS are simply gorgeous; there are no analogues from other manufacturers! After the release of Android 6 and then 7, the phone began to save battery very well. Case and screen without cracks. with Wi-Fi, Youtube, WhatsApp on until the evening it is discharged to 35%

Sergey D. a year ago

Yandex Market

I bought it used. Based on performance data from Antutu. I bought it for 5000 (after a fall there was a dent and a dent on the back cover, so they sold it so cheap). The condition of the back cover is not annoying - the phone is a high-performance gadget, and not an element of pathos. The first thing that pleased me was the sound. He's gorgeous!! I set up a full-fledged stereo with pseudo 3D, guys, this is AWESOME!!! The performance is high - 108,000 points in Antutu - fast memory, in 3 months I have never crashed on the native firmware. Yes, because of such a powerful processor, it gets very hot, but this is already a jamb of the manufacturers (a very narrow copper plate is used for the heat sink - in the HTC One X+ it is twice as wide, although the processor there is 6 times weaker). And they won’t solve the heating problem - well, they won’t be able to fix the lack of hardware cooling with updates! But the software for the camera can be improved. Initially, the photomatrix model was Toshiba T4KA7 (far from Sony IMX). But they still can’t release normal software for the camera. On the plus side, the camera shoots in RAW - this is a vast field for photographers. For others, I recommend installing third-party software for the camera and you will be happy))) I checked a lot of custom firmware - there are good ones, without unnecessary programs, but some sensors (IR remote control, NFC) do not work correctly. I returned to my native firmware and installed custom Recovery And Root rights, I turned off unnecessary applications - now I don’t know grief. Everything flies. Battery consumption is high, but fast charging this compensates. I recommend!

Anton Sh. 2 years ago

Yandex Market

I’ve been using the phone for a month. I chose the Gold on silver option. Apart from the camera, I didn’t notice any shortcomings. The design is excellent, the back is very beautiful. The shell is excellent, the personalization makes me happy. In my mode of use (medium games, social networks, YouTube) it lasts for the whole working day. Constantly in power saving mode, but the phone can handle everything with it. I’m happy with the camera, although it’s not the best. Overall very pleased with the smartphone.

Marat Abdullin 2 years ago

Yandex Market

This is the worst purchase of my life, after which I have a negative attitude towards HTC products. For this money you could buy an iPhone or Samsung. Maybe someone needs a useless brick for spare parts, for a symbolic price?

Natalia Vasilieva 2 years ago

Yandex Market

I've been using it for almost two years and it started to glitch when charging.

Sergey Zakharov 2 years ago

Yandex Market

Characteristics

• Class: company flagship
• Form factor: monoblock
• Case materials: aluminum case, plastic frame around the display, glass
• Operating system: Android 5.0 Lollipop, HTC Sense 7.0
• Network: GSM/EDGE, WCDMA, LTE Cat 6 (nanoSIM)
• Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994)
• Processor: Quad-core 1.5 GHz (Cortex-A53) and Quad-core 2 GHz (Cortex-A57)
• Graphics: Adreno 430
• RAM: 3 GB
• Storage memory: 32 GB, microSD memory card slot (128 GB cards supported)
• Interfaces: Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.1 (A2DP, aptX, LE), microUSB connector (USB 2.0) for charging/synchronization, 3.5 mm for headset, HDMI (via microUSB), DLNA , NFC, IR port
• Screen: Super LCD3, 5”, capacitive, 1920x1080 pixels (FulldHD), automatic backlight level adjustment, Gorilla Glass 4
• Main camera: 20.1 MP, f/2.2, BSI, dual LED flash (works as a flashlight), sapphire crystal
• Front camera: 4 MP (UltraPixel technology), wide-angle (without autofocus), f/2.0, video recording in 1080p
• Navigation: GPS/GLONASS (A-GPS support)
• Sensors: accelerometer, position sensor, light sensor, gyroscope, barometer
• Battery: non-removable, Li-Pol, capacity 2840 mAh
• Dimensions: 144.6 x 70 x 9.6 mm
• Weight: 157 grams

Comparing HTC's next flagship with smartphones from Apple, Samsung, Sony, Huawei, Lenovo, and so on, few people remember how it all began and what position HTC occupies today. Yes, perhaps the understanding that HTC, compared to the brands listed above, is a small but very proud manufacturer will not make you feel differently about the One M9, but this is precisely the secret of some successful and, on the contrary, unsuccessful solutions embedded in the HTC One M9. I will try to tell you about all the features of the smartphone and will start with a short story about the history of the company.

A long time ago, in 1997, HTC appeared - one of the galaxy of Asian ODM manufacturers of portable devices. The headquarters were located in Taiwan, so the company is generally considered to be Taiwanese. At that time, HTC was producing pocket phones. personal computers(PDA) for different brands, later production was expanded and smartphones began to be produced on Windows based Mobile. The company was a Microsoft partner in the development of mobile devices (Hardware platform development partner) and was not deprived of contracts. HTC's largest customers have long been brands such as Hewlett Packard, Dell, Palm, Fujitsu Siemens and others. Later they became partners largest operators cellular communications, and HTC began producing products for Vodafone, T-mobile, O2, Orange.

Thus, by the beginning of the 2000s, HTC was one of the leaders in the ODM market for devices on the Microsoft platform (then still on the first versions of the PocketPC mobile OS) and therefore decided to produce smartphones under some of its own brand in order to sell them directly. So in 2002 the Qtek brand appeared to promote its products under its own name, albeit a fictitious one, and in 2004 the Dopod brand appeared for sales in Asia. Technically, everything that was produced under the Qtek and Dopod brands were HTC products, and after some time both names were simplified, and HTC continued the production of communicators and smartphones under its own, focusing on this direction and gradually leaving the niche of ODM production.

In this short story, as you noticed, there is no large corporation or additional areas that the company would develop in parallel with the creation of smartphones under the HTC brand. I want to highlight a simple idea - against the backdrop of Apple, Samsung, LG, Lenovo, you can list them for a long time, HTC is a small manufacturer and brand. Of course, there is no need to remember this when we compare the next flagship from Apple or Samsung with the HTC flagship, because we are talking about the same segment. But it's worth remembering if you're looking at the One M9 and wondering, "why is there last year's design and where's all the innovation?" Yes, from time to time HTC pleases with really cool ideas, including the design and body of the One line, the Sense shell and Dot View cases, for example. But it must be taken into account that the company does not have the same resources for “innovation” and constant race in this area that diversified large manufacturers have. And therefore it is wrong to say that HTC, out of spite or from a lack of new ideas, takes the design of the old One M8 and implements it in the new M9. The reason is more prosaic - in order to remain a company that manages to compete virtually on equal terms with huge corporations, HTC in some respects adheres to a conservative position. And when it comes to a successful solution, which I think you can't argue is the design and overall idea of ​​​​the One M8 case, the obvious choice is to reuse a proven formula rather than invent something new.

Contents of delivery

The device comes in the usual flat box for the company's new models; the previous HTC One (M8) was exactly the same. Inside, in addition to a smartphone and a couple of paper instructions, there is a charging block, a wired stereo headset and a microUSB cable. The silicone case that came with the M8 is not here.

Design

The HTC One (M8) smartphone differed in design from the One (M7), although in general the models were made in the same style, and the M9 is in many ways a copy of the M8, if you don’t look closely. The body shape, dimensions, outline - all this remains unchanged, and it would be correct to say that from the point of view of its overall appearance, the HTC One M9 resembles the M8. However, there are also differences.

First, the One M8 has a screen with protective glass is located flush with the side edges, that is, neatly built into the aluminum “bath” of the case, while in the M9 the screen with glass is slightly raised above the aluminum base of the case. From the point of view of perception of the device, this change does not play any role; we simply see a different implementation of the placement of several body elements relative to each other. From a practical point of view, there is one drawback - dust may remain in the rim formed as a result of this type of connection of the body halves, and from time to time the rim will have to be blown out.

Secondly, the One M9 has different colors, and for one of them the method of processing the aluminum of the case is different. The dark gray and gold M9 features a smooth transition between the rear plane and the side ribs, just like the M8. The third color is a combination of a silver “back” and the side edges of a golden hue; here the transition between the planes is made more sharply. Some people will find this option more interesting, others, on the contrary, will like the smooth back, like in the M8.

I'm embarrassed to admit, but I liked the gold color of the HTC One M9 the most. It’s a shame, because just a couple of years ago I myself laughed at golden iPhones and this color seemed too pretentious and bright to me. Now, looking at the M9 in gold, I see the cool, bright, rich color of the gold-painted metal, and I just want to pick it up and start using the smartphone.

And I almost forgot, the new M9, like the One M8, perfectly disguises itself as a thermos!

In my opinion, the work that HTC has done to update the body design of the new flagship is quite sufficient. Yes, many will say that HTC is lazy and that the new device should have had a different design, but at the same time, do not forget that there are many people in the world who are ready, having once chosen something they like, to remain faithful this choice. The design of the HTC One M8 was undoubtedly successful, as was the selection of case materials and assembly. The company has brought the quality of performance and perception of mass smartphones (I'm not talking about Vertu and Tag Heuer) to a new level and the One M9 just keeps it that way.

Housing materials

The main material of the M9 body is aluminum. The base of the smartphone is made of it; the electronics, display and other elements are placed in it; above and below the screen there are inserts made of plastic to look like aluminum. There is also an insert made of plastic at the top end, where the IR port “window” is located.

The problem of placing antennas in the device was solved in the same way as in the previous smartphone. They are located outside the case in small plastic grooves on the “back” of the device.

As for possible scratches: if they remain, they are practically unnoticeable in everyday use. Over many months of use, my HTC One M8 has hardly lost its original appearance and looks exactly the same as the day I took it out of the box, if you don’t look closely, of course. Due to the use of aluminum, fingerprints and fingerprints are invisible on the body. From a practical point of view, the case in the HTC One M9 is a success: it is not only beautiful and impressive, but also does not force you to buy a case so that the device does not slip out of your hands or accidentally become covered with a network of clearly visible scratches.

Assembly

The use of a unibody case without removable elements (except for trays for a nanoSIM card and memory card) makes the next HTC One good in terms of build quality. There are no loose or creaking parts, no play of individual elements. The downside of this design is not the best maintainability.

Dimensions

The new HTC One M9 is almost identical in size to the company's previous device, the M8. Accordingly, the difference with the Samsung Galaxy S6 is also small, the latter is thinner, but at the same time slightly wider. Switching to M9 after huge shovels with screen diagonals in the region of 5.5-5.7 inches is a pleasure. However, in terms of dimensions, there is something to criticize HTC for. When most other manufacturers already make smartphones with thin side frames and compact areas at the top and bottom of the screen, HTC continues to use the proprietary “triple frame (TM)” layout, the margins on the left and right are almost 5 millimeters, and on the top and bottom – almost 2 centimeter

I would like to believe that in the next One the company will make every effort to optimize the layout of elements and fit the screen into thinner frames. Great option design for the M10, by the way, “surfaced” even before the release of the M9 as expectations for the new flagship.

Now let’s compare the dimensions of different smartphones so that you can roughly understand the size of the HTC One M9 compared to other devices:

• Apple iPhone 6 (4.7”) – 138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm, 129 grams
• HTC One M8(5”) – 146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4 mm, 160 grams
• (5”) – 144.6 x 70 x 9.6 mm, 157 grams
• Meizu MX4(5.4”) – 144 x 75.2 x 8.9 mm, 147 grams
• Samsung Galaxy S6(5.1”) – 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm, 138 grams
• Xiaomi Mi4(5”) – 139.2 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm, 149 grams

The device is quite comfortable to carry in the pockets of outerwear and in trousers or jeans; the smartphone lies comfortably in the hand and does not slip out.

Compared to HTC One M8

Compared to Meizu MX4 Pro

Compared to HTC One M7

Compared to Huawei Honor 6Plus

Controls

Regarding the location of the keys and the general organization of control new HTC One M9 is practically no different from M8. The smartphone has three on-screen buttons – “Back”, “Home” and “Recent applications”. There are two actions only for the Home key; in addition to the main task of returning to the main screen, you can call it by holding it Google service Now.

When you touch any of the buttons, the device vibrates slightly.

The power key was moved to the right side, right under the volume buttons, and this is very correct. Now you don’t need to reach for the top end to turn on the screen, if the double-tap option doesn’t suit you, the power button is located under the thumb of your right hand, and this is convenient (by at least, for right-handers).

One of the main control features is Motion Launch technology. Information from all sensors is transmitted to a special coprocessor, and any application receives this information immediately, without polling each sensor. Firstly, this allows you to save a little battery power, and secondly, it allows you to implement new control methods. Thanks to Motion Launch, the M9 has different variants unlock the screen without the power key. Double tapping on the display will take you to the lock screen, swiping from left to right to the BlinkFeed screen, from right to left to the main screen, from top to bottom to voice control, from bottom to top you will be taken to the screen where you locked the device (game , application menu, some kind running program and so on). The device distinguishes all these actions best when you hold it in your hand in a vertical orientation, although if you turn it into landscape mode, they will also work, although not so clearly (everything except the double tap works fine). In addition, any of the unlocking options can be disabled in the screen settings if it bothers you.

Another convenient feature is turning on the camera from a locked state - just turn the device in horizontal mode and press any volume key.

The volume key is located on the right edge, I can’t say anything special about it – it’s a quite convenient button with a familiar location. Near it is a tray for a microSD memory card. To install or remove a memory card, you need to use a needle or the supplied “clip”.

On the top left edge is a tray for a nanoSIM SIM card.

At the bottom end of the case there is a microUSB connector and a 3.5 mini-jack for headphones or a headset. In my opinion, the location of the mini-jack at the bottom is the most convenient and correct. If you listen to music on your smartphone and carry it in the pocket of your trousers, jeans or even a jacket, then it is most logical to put it in your pocket with the top end down, so that later, when you take the device out of your pocket, you do not need to grab it for use. And just in this position, the location of the 3.5 mm mini-jack at the bottom end is optimal.

On the front side there are speakers at the top and bottom; at the top there are also light and proximity sensors, a light indicator inscribed in the speaker grille and a 4 MP wide-angle front camera.

Screen

The HTC One M9 has a Super LCD3 display; most of its characteristics are the same as last year's model (M8). Screen diagonal – 5"", resolution – 1920x1080 pixels (FullHD), pixel density – 441 ppi. Screen with maximum viewing angles. No matter what angle you tilt it at, diagonally, edges or ends, the picture is not distorted. There is a good margin of brightness, although a little lower by eye than in the M8. In the sun the display remains readable.

Color rendition is close to natural, but even calmer than in the M8, and this, in my opinion, will be a controversial point for some users. Personally, I like the color rendition in the new M9; I’m generally a supporter of screens with the most calm color gamut, and the paler it is, let’s say, the better. But, on the other hand, if some manufacturers offer the user the opportunity to choose and manual settings brightness, contrast and color temperature of the display, then HTC does not provide such functionality. And when choosing One M9, you must understand that the screen will be exactly the same as you see it when you first get acquainted with the device, it cannot be reconfigured. Therefore, before buying a smartphone, it would be logical to look at it “live”.

Automatic adjustment Brightness works, in general, well, although from time to time I want to raise the brightness from the value that is set automatically.

The smartphone screen supports up to ten simultaneous touches, as well as operation with gloves. If you use the device with wet hands, there will be no problems either; the display responds well to such presses.

Below you can take a look at the comparison HTC screens One old and new generation.

Top HTC One M9, bottom HTC One M8

Camera

One of the main differences between the HTC One M9 and last year's model is a completely new main camera module with dual LED flash of different colors and a sensor resolution of 20 megapixels. For those who, having opened the review, immediately went to this point, I will write the following: the camera in the HTC One M9 is better than in the M8 and M7 in terms of picture detail (naturally), still very fast, but slightly worse in terms of automatic balance white and working in low light conditions. Yes, the One M9 is inferior in terms of camera to devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 or Note 4, but, in general, the module turned out to be quite good, and for HTC smartphones it’s simply excellent. Now let's move on to the story about the camera.

For the main camera, the HTC One M9 uses a Toshiba T4KA7 sensor with back-side illumination (BSI) with a resolution of 20.1 MP. Sensor size – 1/2.4”, pixel size – 1.12 nm, other specifications can be viewed. The characteristics are as follows: f/2.2, 27.8 mm lenses, autofocus, video recording in 4K resolution and sapphire crystal to protect the camera module.

The front camera also has a back-illuminated sensor; it uses a module with a resolution of 4 ultrapixels and proprietary HTC UltraPixel technology, f/2.0, 26.8 mm lenses, video recording in resolutions up to 1080p.

Accordingly, there are no longer “ultrapixels” for the main camera and a tiny resolution, and there are no longer two cameras on the back of the device.

I’ll tell you a little about the operating modes of the main camera.

Automatic shooting mode (Auto). In Auto mode, you can adjust ISO, exposure (EV), white balance and choose from 15 overlay effects. The camera settings also set the aspect ratio of the frame: widescreen (16:9), normal (10:7) or square (1:1), a grid for ease of shooting, saving geotags, self-timer, contrast values, saturation, image sharpness and retouch strength for pictures. All settings can be saved in a separate profile with its own name and turned on if necessary. There can be several profiles.

Frames taken in Auto mode lend themselves to the most changes: you can add various graphic effects, overlay one image on top of another, make collages, or even just draw on top of the photo by hand. In terms of the number of picture settings, the editor built into the HTC One M9 is comparable to the paid applications available on Google Play.

bokeh. A new shooting mode with a blurred background effect, however, the logic of its operation is not very different from modes with the ability to change focus. The camera takes several frames in a short time, alternately focusing first on the foreground and then on the background, and then carefully blurs the background. This creates the bokeh effect. To be honest, I didn't see much of a difference when shooting a close-up subject in Bokeh mode versus Auto mode. Perhaps with new firmware the bokeh in such photographs will become more pronounced.

Double Shot. In this mode, the screen is divided into two halves, the slider between them allows you to make one of the halves larger and the other narrower. On one half of the screen there is an image from the front camera, on the other - from the main one. You can take a photo from two cameras at once, or alternately.

Photo kiosk. The mode is for the front camera only, and in it you take a series of four self-portraits, then the photos are stitched together into one frame, square, rectangular or elongated in width. I thought this mode was very cool, it would seem nothing special, but for fooling around and taking a series of photos, especially with a loved one or friends, it’s just perfect.

Manual shooting mode (M). One of the camera features in the One M8 is also implemented in the new M9 - manual shooting mode. In this mode, you can change the following parameters: white balance, exposure, ISO, shutter speed, focus. White balance is adjustable in the range from 2300K to 7500K, ISO values ​​in the range of 100-1600, shutter speed in the range from 1/8000 to 2 seconds.

The most important thing is the ability to set the shutter speed and manually adjust the focal length. This is not focusing on an object by tapping on the screen, but choosing a fixed distance at which focusing will occur. Thanks to manual mode, you can shoot well in low light, compensating for the lack of light with minimum ISO values ​​and a long shutter speed. Naturally, in this case it is better to shoot from some kind of support, but the very possibility of such shooting significantly expands the limits of the conditions for shooting on the HTC One M9. Where a smartphone without manual mode will produce either a overexposed and noisy picture or a black spot, with the M9, with the right skill, you can take a good shot.

Below are examples of photographs taken in manual mode:

The text shooting mode increases image sharpness to the detriment of color reproduction and other parameters; there is also a separate macro mode. I’ll say right away that in terms of macro photography, the new M9 is inferior to last year’s M8 - the minimum focusing distance in the new model has become longer.

The HDR mode seemed to me to work quite well - the photos in it do not look too bright or too contrasty, on the contrary, there is practically no visible excessive interference from electronics.

Below I will give examples of pictures in different modes for three smartphones: HTC One M8, HTC One M9 and Meizu MX4 Pro. The latter is taken as one of the standards for shooting. If you don't take high-end devices like the Apple iPhone 6 Plus or Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, the MX4 Pro provides very good shooting quality. In addition, it also has a 20 MP module, so the comparison is quite correct.

Shooting during the day

Shooting at night

Shooting indoors

Text

Macro mode and close-up shooting of objects

“Crops” of photos from different modes

I’ll also just give you some photos taken on the HTC One M9 in good sunny weather:

Front-camera. We can say that the main camera of the HTC One M8, with a number of reservations, has moved to the front panel of the HTC One M9. I repeat, in the M9 the front module has a resolution of 4 ultrapixels, f/2.0, 26.8 mm, pixel size – 2 micrometers, sensor size – 1/3”, sensor model – OmniVision OV4688. Despite the lower resolution (4 MP versus 5 MP in One M8) it shoots front-camera M9 is better. The sensor size and increased pixel size do their job - the frames on the M9 are richer, deeper, more detailed.

Video recording. Video in standard mode is recorded in a maximum resolution of 3940x2160 pixels (4k), H.264, recording speed - 30 frames per second (variable), bitrate - 42 Mbps, sound recording is in stereo mode, recording quality - 96 Kbps. During recording, you can manually change the focus point, and there is also tracking autofocus. The camera does not have optical stabilization, so when shooting video, the picture shakes, this is especially noticeable if you were filming on the go or recording a video at the maximum zoom level.

In addition to the standard mode, there is a slow motion mode (resolution 1280x720 pixels) and accelerated mode (1920x1080 pixels).

In my opinion, the camera in the HTC One M9 is a visible progress of the company. Yes, in some moments, when there is a lack of light, the M8 turns out to be better in terms of the overall transmission of the plot, but otherwise I like the camera in the M9 more: there is better detail, higher clarity, the white balance is also well set, and, importantly, the camera is still very fast: shooting occurs instantly.

Comparison of cameras (Roman Belykh)

I asked Roman Belykh to look through all the photos presented in the review and express his opinion regarding the camera in the new HTC One M9. Below are his detailed comments:

I think everyone is well aware of the capabilities of the HTC One M8 camera, so I will comment on frames from it to a minimum. It is worth noting that shots taken with the M8 camera almost always look perfect on the screen of the smartphone itself, which cannot be said about them after viewing them on the monitor. That is, if you are not going to organize a “view” of photographs on a large monitor or TV, then know that the quality of the M8 frames is enough for you “beyond your eyes”.

As always, I'll start with viewing angles. Meizu had the widest angle, followed by HTC One M8. Surprisingly, the M9 showed the narrowest viewing angle. To clarify, to get a wide angle on the M8, you need to switch the camera to 16:9 aspect ratio mode.

Shooting during the day

It’s unlikely that anyone will argue that the highest quality shots can be taken at this time of day: excellent full lighting (not spot), minimum shadows when shooting in cloudy weather.

Naturally, the detail of photos taken on the HTC One M8 leaves much to be desired: blur in the corners, artifacts, and so on. In my opinion, the Meizu camera has the best detail; the picture is cleaner than the picture obtained from the HTC M9 camera. Actually, this will be true for all other filming options.

The white balance is most accurate on Meizu MX4 Pro and HTC One M8. The M9's footage almost always has warm tones. Sometimes the M9 camera gets so confused that it turns blue into cyan - a common white balance mistake.

Exposure, on the other hand, works slightly better on the M9. At least the picture is slightly less contrasty than on the Meizu MX4 Pro. However, the dynamic range is clearly wider on the Meizu: in case of image editing, more information can be extracted from the MX4 Pro's photos.

Total: first place - Meizu, with a minimal margin - HTC One M9, somewhere far behind - HTC One M8.

HDR mode

I used to be surprised by the cool HDR effect on the HTC One M8, now I had to be surprised by the HDR on the M9. Photos with this effect are definitely cooler on the M9 - dark areas are whitened and light areas are darkened. Perhaps more than necessary, but it looks cool. The HDR mode on Meizu is, let's say, gentle, but it also looks good.

Total: first place - HTC One M9 - the best, second - HTC One M8, third - Meizu.

Macro mode

The minimum distance to the object for all devices is approximately the same. Photos come out more beautiful on the HTC One M8. I can say for sure because I myself owned this model and often photographed cockroach insects: excellent sharpness, strong background blur. Another question is the details. Of course, there are more of them in the footage of Meizu and HTC One M9. You can “sprinkle” it so that you can see the number of hairs on the heads of the boogers :) But seriously speaking, I would choose the MX4 Pro camera.

Total: first place - Meizu, second - HTC One M8, third - HTC One M9.

Night mode

If we talk about the overall impression of the picture, the clear leader is the HTC One M8 with its native ultrapixels, which allow you to extract maximum light from the picture. However, you will have to forget about the details of the image.

In pictures from Meizu there is a little less light, but better detail, less “suppressed” noise.

Total. If you want a bright picture and detail is not important to you, then you won't find anything better than the HTC One M8. Therefore, the M8 camera takes first place in this test. The second is Meizu MX4 Pro, and the third is One M9.

Office shooting mode

I called the section that way because offices are usually not very light, but not dark either, that is, lighting that makes you think about the camera software.

I liked the white balance of Meizu and HTC One M8, M9 is again weird, painting everything in warm tones. Detailing is also better on Meizu, despite the fact that all cameras are starting to make a fair amount of noise.

Total: first place - Meizu, second - HTC One M9, third - HTC One M8.

Text shooting mode

If you're suddenly going to shoot text with the M8, you're doing it wrong. In this case, it is necessary to have a camera with the maximum resolution of the module. The M9 and MX4 Pro are suitable for this role.

It’s difficult to say exactly who took better pictures, but subjectively, Meizu MX4 Pro did it a little better: less soap, more details.

Total: first place - Meizu, second (but not far) - HTC M9.

Video shooting

The HTC One M9 model can shoot video in resolutions up to 4K (to be precise, up to Ultra HD 4K) at 30 fps. File resolution – MP4, codec – H.264, bitrate – up to 45 Mbit/s. Stereo sound.

The picture at maximum resolution is of high quality, but everything is “killed” by the lack of optical stabilization. Regular FullHD video is completely uninteresting: extremely poor detail, constantly floating focus, absolutely zero dynamic range.

The situation with night photography is called a pixel bacchanalia. It's better to watch it once than to explain it a hundred times. Pay attention to the angles of the frame.

Conclusion

My opinion is this. This time, the HTC camera has become much better than it was in the M8 model (at least in terms of resolution), but does not even reach the flagship cameras Chinese manufacturers: the software is still being “finished” and “finished”.

Sound

To be honest, I didn't notice much of a difference in sound between the new M9 and the old M8. And we are talking not only about the sound in stereo speakers, but also about the sound in headphones. Everything is just as good, in my opinion.

Several profiles have been added for BoomSound - “music” and “cinema”, the sound is slightly different, and indeed, if you plan to watch a series or movie on your smartphone, it is better to set the “cinema” profile, with it the sound will be larger and richer. I don’t know what else to add here - the device produces great sound through the speakers, and it can easily be used as a compact audio system for a small room. If before, when you went on a business trip, you took with you a small wireless speaker to listen to music in a hotel, for example, you don’t have to do this with the M9; the device provides more than decent sound quality.

Autonomous operation

The smartphone uses a non-removable Li-Pol battery with a capacity of 2840 mAh, which is slightly more than the HTC One M8, but you also need to take into account the new, more powerful platform.

I've been using the HTC One M9 for a week, and my overall impression is that the device's battery life is exactly the same as the One M8. Taking the One M9 off the charger at 9-10 am and using it actively all day, I end up with a completely discharged smartphone in the late afternoon or night, depending on the activity of use. On average, the load is as follows - 40-60 minutes of calls, 10-20 text messages, Gmail, 3-4 hours of listening to music and about 1-2 hours of active use of the mobile Internet (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook messenger, browser).

The smartphone has a regular power saving mode, by turning it on, you can save battery power by lowering the screen brightness level, turning off data transfer and vibration.

And, like the HTC One M8, there is a critical power saving mode. IN this mode the processor operates at a reduced frequency, most sensors and sensors are turned off, when the screen is turned off, no data is transmitted, vibration is turned off and the screen brightness level is reduced. Moreover, in this mode, you have access to a limited set of applications, namely phone, mail (so far only configured through a proprietary client), messages, calendar and calculator. You cannot run other programs or add new ones to the list of those allowed to work in this mode.

Thanks to the new platform, the device supports fast charging, so the battery in the HTC One M9 can be charged to 60 percent in 50 minutes. However, fast charging is only supported with a special adapter, which is not included in the basic package and must be purchased separately.

Platform, memory

The smartphone is built on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 platform (MSM8994) with support for 64-bit architecture, a quad-core processor with a frequency of 1.5 GHz (Cortex-A53) and a quad-core processor with a frequency of 2 GHz (Cortex-A57), graphics subsystem (GPU) - Adreno 430. The device has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory for storing user data, as well as a slot for a memory card.

HTC One M9 is one of the first devices to go on sale on the latest platform from Qualcomm. In addition to M9, LG G Flex 2, Xiaomi Mi are built on this chipset Note Pro and possibly the LG G4 and Sony Xperia Z4.

There are no performance issues with the device. Everything from the shell and launching programs to games like GTA San Andreas, at maximum graphics settings it works quickly and without the slightest delay. Below are the test results of the HTC One M9 in various benchmarks; to be honest, I simply have nothing to add. The smartphone is as fast as possible.

Now about heating. This is one of the problems with the Snapdragon 810 chipset, at least judging by the news online. In the M9, the heating (information taken from the battery) is about 45-46 degrees, if you play San Andreas for about half an hour at maximum graphics settings, running the stress test built into the Antutu benchmark in the background. The body of the smartphone feels very warm. If you look at the heating indicators, there are devices where these values ​​are 5 or even 10 degrees higher, but when you take these smartphones in your hand, you will not feel the same heating of the body as with the M9. The reason is aluminum. Where another plastic device retains some of the heat inside, the M9 takes everything onto the aluminum base of the case, and, in fact, when you hold the smartphone in your hands, you feel the same 45 degrees, which in another device is only partially transferred to the plastic case.

With daily use, the heating is practically not felt. If you turn on Wi-Fi and start updating 30 applications from Google Play, the heating will be noticeable, but, again, how often do you update 20-30 programs on your smartphone at the same time? Not too often, I think.

Interfaces

The smartphone works in GSM networks(850/900/1800/1900), HSDPA (850/900/1900/2100) and LTE FDD bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 20, 28 and TDD bands 38, 40, 41. LTE works including in Russia. You can turn wireless interfaces on and off through the settings or by adding one of several widgets to the main screen, as well as using the notification shade, which has a convenient menu with the ability to display exactly those switches that you need on the main screen.

To synchronize with a PC and transfer data, the included microUSB cable is used. The characteristics of the smartphone indicate the version of the USB 2.0 interface, but when you connect the HTC One M9 to a computer (Windows 7), the system displays a notification that this device can work faster if you connect it via USB 3.0. Transferring a 1GB file to a smartphone via USB 2.0 takes about 40 seconds.

The smartphone has support for USB On-The-Go (USB OTG) – you can connect flash drives and other storage devices, for example, a camera, to the device via an adapter to transfer pictures from it to the device’s memory. The system in HTC One allows you to read and copy information from flash drives formatted in file systems FAT/FAT32.

Bluetooth. Built-in Bluetooth 4.1 module with A2DP and LE support.

Wi-Fi (802.11 a/ac/b/g/n). HTC One M9 uses a dual-band Wi-Fi module. You can leave it to work automatic mode, or you can manually specify the operating frequency band for Wi-Fi - only 5 GHz or only 2.4 GHz. The module works flawlessly. In additional settings, you can set the maximum performance mode (uncheck “Wi-Fi optimization”), as well as enable or disable automatic connection to last saved active network. When the module is operating, the device does not heat up.

Wi-Fi router . The HTC One M9 has the ability to “share” a 2G/3G/4G Internet connection via Wi-Fi. On the menu wireless networks select the option “ General access To mobile internet" and then "Wi-Fi router". Here, when starting for the first time, you need to select a network name and password (WPA2). You can also set the maximum number of connections to your smartphone (1-8) or separately prohibit or allow each new connection. When the utility is enabled, you can connect to the Internet, “distributed” through Wi-Fi smartphone, from any device, be it a laptop, another smartphone or tablet, and so on.

DLNA, HDMI. The smartphone supports DLNA technology: if you have a DLNA-compatible media server and other devices at home, you can use HTC One M9 with them. For example, output sound or video from the device directly to the TV. The M9 also has HDMI support, the connector is combined with microUSB (MHL), and in order to use HDMI, you will need to buy a special cable.

NFC. Like previous flagships, the HTC One M9 has NFC support, but there are still few scenarios for using this module. Specifically, HTC uses this module to quickly connect a smartphone with wireless Bluetooth accessories (speaker, HTC mini+ remote control). And don’t forget that with the help of NFC and the Yandex.Metro program (or analogues) you can check on your smartphone for 55,000 rubles the number of remaining trips on your metro pass! I would like to believe that a version of the Wallet application will appear for the M9 in the near future, this will allow NFC to be used more actively.

Navigation

The M9 has GPS/Glonass support; searching for satellites takes a minimum amount of time, from 5 to 15 seconds. The device comes pre-installed Google programs Maps and Google Navigation. Google Navigation is used as the main navigation program.

For convenient work with a smartphone when it is in a car mount, there is a special “In the car” mode. When you turn it on, you see large icons on the desktop; there are also special enlarged versions of the main applications: address book, music, settings, dialing. If desired, you can add shortcuts to other programs in this menu. In this mode, you can use a special assistant, a utility that performs voice commands like “Call + contact name”, “Play + track name” and some others. It's worth paying attention to this program if you're going to use the HTC One M9 while driving; it really works and recognizes commands quite well if you speak them more or less loudly and clearly.

HTC Dot View Case

A brilliant idea born in the wake of the popularity of pixel themes, cases first appeared for the HTC One M8 model, and it is logical that they are also available for the M9. In appearance, Dot View is an ordinary plastic book-size case, with a silicone lid perforated with blind holes. There are several colors and types of cases available to choose from - with a transparent silicone back (as in the photo) or with an opaque plastic one. In Russia, Dot View will be sold with a transparent “back”, in dark blue, light blue, pink and gray. Estimated cost – 3,000 rubles.

For those who don’t yet know what Dot View is, let me remind you. The highlight of the case is that it not only protects the smartphone body, but also displays various notifications. The notifications themselves are drawn on the screen in pixel font, and we see them through the perforated lid. It looks amazing, and, importantly, from a practical point of view, everything is also convenient. Double tap on the cover of the case and you can see the time and weather. Swipe from top to bottom during a call - hang up, from bottom to top - answer the call. The lid also displays notifications when a timer or alarm is triggered, and icons appear Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and some other applications if they have new messages, as well as new text messages and missed calls.

In standby mode on the lid double tap The time and picture are drawn, which is selected in the Dot View application. The image can be static or animated. If on the M8 the information from the case was comfortably read only indoors or in the evening, then on the M9 everything is clearly visible even during the day – the screen brightness was increased especially for this mode.

In general, Dot View is one of the exclusive features of the M9, like the M8. This is such an unexpected wow effect from such a simple idea that it’s hard to believe.

Software, HTC Sense 7.0

The smartphone works under Android control 5.0, the proprietary Sense 7.0 is used as the shell. The new version of “sense” has a number of important changes, for some of them, such as design themes, which are very successful and implemented incredibly correctly and competently, I would like to hug and thank the developers. For others, such as the “oblique” font in the clock widget, I want to throw a rotten tomato. I'll talk about all the changes in the new Sense 7.0. in a separate article, it will be published on Friday or Monday.

Conclusion

Over the course of a week of using the HTC One M9, I had no complaints about the quality of signal reception. The device picks up the network well, the sound in the conversational speaker is clear, without wheezing or extraneous noise, the volume reserve is small, but still present. The vibration alert is relatively strong and is felt, despite the size and weight of the device, in most situations. The volume of the ringing speakers is above average, while, as in the case of the M8, I cannot say that the speakers are super loud, but this is compensated for high quality sound.

There is no exact information on the price of HTC One M9 in Russia and the start date of official sales, so I will only talk about preliminary information. There is a high probability that the HTC One M9 will go on sale here at the end of April, the cost will be around 55,000 rubles, plus or minus 2,000-3,000 rubles up or down. That is, in terms of price, the smartphone will be between the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.

Yes, we can confidently say that in terms of the combination of characteristics and price, the HTC One M9 loses to the Samsung Galaxy S6, but let's go back to the beginning of the material. Unlike large corporations, HTC looks, let's say, a little modest compared to them. And the mere fact that year after year HTC's flagships are compared to the flagships of the largest manufacturers means a lot. I don't want to say that HTC is a small poor company, and there are predatory sharks around, but if you look at it objectively, HTC is firmly holding on to its user in this competitive market, and M9 is another step towards not the mass user, but two categories - people , who like HTC, and people who like high-quality, well-made things, not plastic rattles. With the first category, everything is approximately clear: One M9 is all the best from the previous model with a new camera module and on a new platform, successful solutions have been preserved to the maximum. For the second category, the HTC One M9 received a gold color, incredibly cool and impressive in real life, a 20 MP camera module, so as not to scare people away with “technology” and not try to explain the power of four ultrapixels, as well as another update to Sense, simple, beautiful and an easy-to-use shell that looks organic even on Android 5.0.

Thus, HTC smartphone One M9 is another step by the company towards a perfectly balanced smartphone on Android based. Yes, one can ironically note that the company has been moving in this direction for a long time, but it is also impossible not to note the progress. It may be slow, but HTC is moving forward. The M9 has a normal camera module, the body itself has become even better and more impressive, while remaining practical, the speakers have also been improved, the new platform was chosen even with a margin, I would say. Among the shortcomings - not the most universal color profile for the screen, maximum realism of the picture without “embellishment” will not appeal to everyone, as well as wide frames, I would like to see from HTC not just filigree work with metal, but also new solutions in the design of the front panel, with thin frames. The camera has never been strong point devices of the company, it seems that you just need to come to terms with this, but here too the progress compared to other models from HTC is obvious and visible “by eye”.

Is it worth exchanging last year's M8 for the new HTC One M9? To be honest, I wouldn't unless you really want a new 20MP camera because the ultrapixel detail is lacking. But if you have any other smartphone from HTC, from the M7 to models from the Desire line, be sure to take a closer look at the HTC One M9 when you choose a new device. Yes, perhaps this is not the most flagship flagship on the Android smartphone market, but the company has created a balanced device in a well-made metal body.

It is very difficult to compete with Samsung, a giant in the production of high-quality phones. Living in the shadow of such a titan does not benefit HTC, which has lost the reins of leadership and given its place to Samsung, which was just waiting for this. This time, HTC decided to stop losing profits and, along with its competitors, the company released the HTC One M9 phone, which combined several key functions and features.

HTC One M9 - Reviews

In fact, the new model from Samsung Galaxy and the M9 phone from HTC went on sale almost on the same day, they are almost equal in terms of performance and have a similar price. But for HTC, this “technology race” is not only an economic issue; victory or defeat will decide the future of the company.

HTC One M9's beautiful design, complemented by multiple colors

HTC has always been ahead of the competition when it comes to making beautiful phones. From year to year, the company released devices on Android, trying to bring its technology to the ideal. HTC management and developers realized that nowadays it is not enough to use metallic colors in the design of phones, as Samsung and LG do.

In general, the M9 model is a direct successor to its predecessor M8 in terms of design.

There are a few differences, but the phones look almost identical. The models differ in how they feel when you hold them: the M8 was completely smooth, it almost slipped out of your hands, while the M9 has a slightly rougher and stiffer shape. Options using golden and silver colors look amazing. The rich color saturation creates an impression of luxury from owning such a phone.

HTC has changed the location of the power button, now it is located on the right under the two volume buttons. In this regard, sometimes there is confusion between the buttons, because... they are identical in structure, shape and color. The buttons are literally adjacent to the body, they are difficult to feel and this is an absolute disadvantage of the model.

Screen and sound One M9

When you look at the spacious widescreen screen of the M9, the impression is spoiled by the huge black lines on the sides. It is completely incomprehensible why HTC does not take this point into account when developing phones, because... All, absolutely all models of this company have strange stripes on the screens that distract from the image.

But despite such disadvantages, the M9 phone is the most competitive device, capable of competing with the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S6. The LCD screen amazes with the rich colors of the image, the smartphone is equipped with a BoomSound sound system. The speakers are positioned correctly, they are not covered by palms, which can spoil the outgoing sound.

Characteristics

The phone has a powerful Snapdragon 810 processor and 3 GB of RAM. The One M9 won't disappoint in terms of performance and functionality, but high loads can cause the smartphone to heat up quickly. The case does not heat up, which does not interfere with using the device for a long time.

When testing performance, the maximum power ratings of the M9 model are higher than those of its analogues (for example, the LG G Flex 2 phone model). Even the iPhone 6 could not produce similar values, which is an excellent result of the work of HTC specialists.

Individual design

Each owner of HTC One M9 can take advantage of the opportunity to create a unique design for their device. At your disposal are a variety of stickers and backgrounds for the back of your smartphone. Interface elements can also be changed, because... Some people try to make their device as different as possible from others. You can change everything: icons, font, background and graphical active effects on the screen.

The M9 smart phone is able to react to the situation and recommend the use of certain applications. The device knows when you are at work and offers you to use the calendar, notes and reminders. When the user is on the road, the smartphone offers active use of Google Maps, music and games. The device remembers which applications are used and fills its memory with relevant information. This feature is the highlight of the product, because a person loves when part of the work is taken off him, especially everyday work.

Take stunning selfies with a reliable camera

In its practice, HTC tried a lot of different camera variations, after which the choice fell on the option that the M9 is equipped with. 4 megapixels in the front and 20 megapixels in the back – these are the ideal parameters that, according to the company’s engineers, will satisfy any user. Regardless of weather conditions, pictures taken with the M9 camera will be high-quality, bright and clear.

Battery and charge HTC One M9

A completely different impression is created by the effect of analyzing the battery charge. The quality of this element in the M9 model is on par with the iPhone 5, which were known for problems with their batteries.

When fully charged, the M9's battery drops from 100% to 80% in the time it takes to commute from home to work on average. Most users see the optimal charge during the day at 60-70%, while the M9 charge value is already less than 40%. Streaming a 40-minute Vikings series consumes 20% of your battery, which is terrible. During the same time, the similar Galaxy S6 model uses only 9%. If HTC wants to compete with Samsung and LG, it needs to work more carefully on the battery of its phones.

HTC phone replacement system

Taking into account the wishes of its customers, the company guarantees a replacement of the M9 model if problems arise during operation during the first year of using the smartphone. It doesn’t matter how the phone is damaged, the company’s specialists, without asking questions, will replace it with new model. Most companies are reluctant to compensate for breakdowns; replacements have to be literally pulled out with your teeth.

Bottom line

It's actually very difficult to determine best smartphone among the huge variety of models that we see on the modern market. Almost all devices that support Android have similar performance and price levels. Each model, be it Samsung Galaxy S6 or HTC One M9, has its own advantages in terms of design and design. If you are the owner of the One M8 model and are completely satisfied with it, then the M9 will not disappoint. Apart from a rather weak battery, the phone has virtually no drawbacks.

pros

• In terms of technical indicators, it is a top-end Android phone.
• Beautiful color scheme in design.
• Android system 5.0 Lolipop which works great.
• Variety of options and interface settings.
• Unique external design.