Related
DISCLAIMER: This phone was purchased by me. Its the Indian sim-free version. I am no fanboy. I have used a variety of smartphones over the last decade. The views presented are unbiased and as objective as possible. The review was written over a period of two months due to obvious reason that I went through a couple of replacements that took a painfully long two months to materialize. Therefore the views and observations have been updated as and when I managed to get my paws with the phone. This review is late because it was in the oven for a long time due to delays as mentioned above.
Plz dont start a flame war.
Introduction
So after waiting impatiently for 8 days, I finally received my HTC One X. I had pre-ordered the X on 2nd of April. Needless to say I was itching to get my hands on this highly anticipated phone of 2012, however at the same time I was quite concerned after reading about so many issues/problems that early adopters like me were facing.
Have a look below to find out about what I think of this cutting edge smartphone.
Background
My first steps in adroid world was with the marvelous Desire HD. In my opinion this was one of the most under-rated phone of 2010-11. This phone had mostly a love-hate relationship with the worldwide user demographic, mainly due to its polarizing design. My next android phone was arguably the best android smartphone till date- the samsung galaxy s2.
After knowing about the HTC One X, I could not stop thinking about the phone. I was sold on the design from the very first go. So after selling off my SGSII I waited for the X to launch with baited breath. Finally its here in my hands and I am very happy camper.
Packaging
The One X packaging is very minimalist and so-called eco-friendly if you ask HTC, but if you ask me, I simply think HTC have cheaped out on the packaging. The packaging does not do justice to the premium feel of the handset and is more akin to the packaging we get with 50 USD handsets.
Hardware & Build
I was very apprehensive about the build quality of the phone after reading so many threads regarding the disappointing build. Fortunately, the handset that I received has very good and solid build. The soft-touch mat back is absolutely a delight to hold and look at. The glossy sides are also good looking and dont look cheap but I would have preferred the more premium mat finish. The overall fit and finish is of a very high order. However, looking closely there are few rough edges that should not have been there. But at the end of the day the overall fit and finish gets a thumbs up in my book. Now if I have to nitpick, then a couple of things sticks out.
1) The simcard tray is not very easy to slot back into the body
2) The volume rocker lacks tactile feel
Apart from these there arent any niggles with the construction.
As expected the white is a magnet for smudges and dirt but its very easy to clean off using a moist cloth.
In my handset the build was very solid. In fact I would rate the build close to that of the Desire HD (which IMO had fantastic build). The build is lightyears ahead of the SGSII. Plz ignore all the people who says that the GNex and the SGSII have solid build and better than the build of the X. The X's build quality is in a totally different league. In my case there was no creaks, squeaks, flex etc whatsoever.
The Display
I have only one adjective for the display and that is mesmerizing. This is the bloody best display I have ever seen on a phone. The colors pop without looking overly saturated. Viewing angles are as wide as you can hope to get. The entire display has a painted on feel to it and is a good enough reason on its own to force a purchase decision. I have compared the display side by side with sgs2, DHD, iphone and a friend's note, and in my opinion the X's display has the best output. Compared to the One X display, the iphone display looks a little washed out as by default the iphone display is calibrated to be very neutral. The whites on the HTC One X is slightly warmer and if I have to guess, then I think the color temp of the X is around 6700-6800k whereas the iphone usually is around 6500k (ideal is 6500k). Compared to the AMOLED, AMOLED+ displays the whites are absolutely gorgeous. The AMOLEDs suffer from a very cool color temperature and as a result whites and neutral tones look more bluish/greenish.
On further testing I have found out that unlike the AMOLED+ display on the SGS2, the One X display does not change color temperature that appreciably with varying brightness levels.
Audio quality
The audio quality during call is very good and better than both the desire hd and sgs2, however the iphone has slightly better quality overall. The music quality through headphones is unfortunately not that great. The desire hd IMO has better music quality. However its night and day better than the pathetic output of the sgs2.
The speaker performance on my handset is ranging from good-very good. The speaker is loud enough most of the times and is louder than both DHD's and SGS2's speakers. However the iphone has a slightly louder output.
If I have to rate audio fidelity then IMO its iphone>One X> DHD> Note> SGS2.
Performance
The quad-core tegra 3 processor and the light-weight sense 4.0 means the UI performance is very fast. Theres hardly any lag anywhere. However the UI gradually slows down a little once multiple apps are installed and a lot of heavy multi-tasking is done. This is the best phone on the market for the hardcore multi-taskers. However I do feel that sense requires further polish and optimization. There are trivial bugs that should have been fixed before the mass release of the phone.
Most of the times the UI just flies and only very occasionally will there be a delay in the response. But on the hindsight, the delay is at par with the performance experienced with SGS2 and only because the X is so fast and fluid in everything else, that these small delays gets magnified. One must keep in mind that even with these little delays/lags, the phone is still the absolute fastest android phone till date. In fact it is the only android phone I have used that gives stiff competition to the iphone in terms of UI smoothness.
One thing I have found out that most of the glitches can be got rid off by enabling developer mode (usb debugging) and disabling HTC gestures. (At least this is applicable in my case)
Imaging
The camera as advertised is blazing fast to take pictures. The out of the box pics and videos quality is good and comparable to iphone and better than sgs2. However to extract the maximum out of the camera, you have play with the settings. I found that the best pics IMO came when sharpness was set to -1, exposure was set manually for the scene, and white balance on manual. Depending on how good you are at taking photos, your mileage will vary. But still at the end of the day this is one of the best cameras on a smartphone today.
Heat
In normal use I dint find the phone heating up to alarming levels as have been portrayed by many. In fact in normal use (calling, browsing, messaging, music etc), the phone never once exceeded 35 C in a room with ambient of around 25-26C. In a room with ambient of 32C the phone got upto only 38 C. These temps are what I used to get with the DHD, and better than that of the SGSII.
Now coming to intensive usage, I decided to play riptide Gp while downloading apps in the background through wifi, and the phone never reached more than 43 C. On the SGS2, while playing riptide Gp, the temp routinely used to exceed 48C.
So I would say that considering the X is packing a quadcore 1.5ghz chip, the heat generated is not intense and certainly in line with the sgs2 or may be slightly less.
Now obviously people with genuine hardware faults will see the phone overheating, but those are in minority and can happen with any phone.
A little update about the temperature. Today I was playing shadowgun and temple run at office. In the AC environment where the room temp was like 24-25C, the phone only got to a max temp of about 39 C. So what temps you are getting depends a lot on your ambient temps.
Battery Life
After fully charging the phone for the first time, I was able to get around 20 hrs or moderate to heavy usage with screen on time of around 4 hrs. This is quite decent battery life and I am expecting it to improve after a few charge-discharge cycles and the impending OTA update.
UPDATE: So I have had the phone for four days now and right now I am on my fourth charge-discharge cycle. One thing is very obvious is that the battery life significantly improves with or after the third charge-discharge cycle. After my third charge I managed to last the phone for more than a day with moderate use. The screen on time was 2.5 hrs or so. Also voice calls were for 1 hr.
Now after my fourth charge, I only lost 1% overnight when the phone was just lying idle. At the time of typing I am still left with 52% charge after a good 15 hrs. The screen on time is roughly 2hrs with 40 mins of calling and 1hr of temple run thrown in.
I dont know about the other owners but I am pretty satisfied with the battery performance so far.
UPDATE 2: Unfortunately my One X turned out to be not so perfect. It had a small gap between the metal frame surrounding the screen and the screen itself. In conditions with low ambient light one can see the backlight of the touch buttons bleeding through this gap. Got it replaced. The replacement took aprox 25 days. Very poor HTC!!
UPDATE 3: Got the replacement on 14/05/2012. Its of the HT24 batch. But unfortunately it has a more pronounced gap and backlight bleeding though this gap is more severe than my earlier unit. This one also has a spot on the screen and a couple of dead pixels. Have sent it back again and waiting for the replacement to arrive. Keeping fingers crossed that everything will be perfect this time around.
UPDATE 4: So finally got my third HOX after 25 days of waiting (Again!!) on 09/06/2012. Thankfully this time round the phone is largely fault free. Its a SH25E batch and I would say the build quality is really good, as in the phone is well put together and feels like a cohesive piece/unit. Now there are a couple of places where the finish of the poly shell and the metal rim surrounding the screen is a bit patchy but that is just nitpicking. However after a day one of the pixels got stuck on the blue color in the lower part of the screen. From what I can see its a partially stuck pixel, which fails to change color from blue on white and light grey backgrounds. It changes colors properly in black, red, blue, yellow etc as expected.
And since its very difficult to spot this unless specifically looking on a white-ish background, I am not too bothered by it.
The phone came preloaded with 1.29 and the screen protector on the phone simply said " One X" instead of " I am the One you have been waiting for". The rest of box and packing was the same as before. I although kinda liked the " I am the One you have been waiting for" bit. It was personal and different.
The battery life for me has been phenomenal on 1.29. I am getting almost two days of standby time with minimal usage. On heavy use I am managing a solid 16-17 hrs with around 3.5-4 hrs of screen on time. On moderate usage (read watching blu-ray rips), the battery lasts for around 25-27 hrs with almost 6 hrs of screen on time @ 50% brightness. These are what I consider really good battery life figures for what is a really high end smartphone. As usual your mileage may vary but overall One X has a very decent battery life for the underlying hardware it is blessed with.
Conclusion & Value For Money
The One X is a very handsome phone to look at. Arguably it is the best smartphone in the world currently at least in the aesthetics department. It is a beast of a phone and has the go to match the show. Performance is fluid and the features are great. The highlight of the phone apart from the stunning design is the display. For my hard earned money, this phone has the best display on a smartphone yet. It leaves the iphone 4s and galaxy S2 far behind in terms of the screen quality. The recently launched GS3 also falls short of the One X in terms of the display quality.
Coming to the direct comparison between GS3 and One X, I would pick the One X as the overall winner simply by virtue of packing the best display available today. Since with a touch phone you will interacting with the display all the time, any phone that carries a display that can make you go wow everytime you look at it, is a winner in my book.
The One X also plays the value card really well against the GS3 and is widely available at a street price of approx 34k (680 USD) compared to the ludicrous 38k (760 USD) for the 16GB GS3.
ONE X vs GS3
1. Looks - One X
2. Performance - Equal
3. Stills - One X
4. Video - GS3
5. Display - One X
6. Battery Life - Equal
7. Ugradability- GS3
8. VFM - One X
9. Feel Good Factor - One X
10. Audio - GS3
Overall for the One X I would give 9 out of 10. The phone has fantastic hardware, and good software, but there are issues in the sense skin that needs to be ironed out. If the One X launched without any glitches and bugs, it would have been a straight 10 out 10 for me.
Price as Tested: INR 35850 ( 720 USD)
Price Now: INR 34500 ( 680 USD)
The PICS
http://img401.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=20120609111055v.jpg
I pretty much agree with you you on most of the accounts, i do think the screen is slightly saturated, well greens do anyway lol
Speaker quality is pretty good and loud too. Not tried the head phones yet. I love the feel also, feels much better then the cheap plastic feel of the Samsung handsets. A note they should consider with this method of the plastic finish.
devvfata1ity said:
Audio quality
The audio quality during call is very good and better than both the desire hd and sgs2, however the iphone has slightly better quality overall. The music quality through headphones is unfortunately not that great. The desire hd IMO has better music quality. However its night and day better than the pathetic output of the sgs2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do iphone headphones with the mic work with the audio jack of the one x? My old galaxy s i9000m had a weird configuration of the mic/ground/left/right pins on the 3.5mm jack so I could only use specific headphones (or I had to hold down the mic button to listen to music properly ).
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Personally I find the screen a little over saturated for my tastes. Audio wise, aside from the hiss I've had on headphones with an inline mic I find the quality to be very good.
I didn't expect audio to be good and wasn't planning to use it for music anyway.
However I did test and I thought the quality was really poor.
I am amazed that manufacturers pay so little attention to audio. My £20 Sansa Clip+ absolutely blows my ~£480 One X out of the water in terms of audio quality.
'Authentic audio'
audio quality isn't the best nor is it loud enough. I remember when HTC phones were very loud but since the days of desire they have turned the volume down for some reason.
Viewing angles are brilliant best i have seen.
I bought the grey/black version but found i was cleaning the back quite frequently, smudge marks you know. So now i have bought the white version also, see if that fairs any better. This of course means i'm quite happy overall with one x.
toastyy said:
Do iphone headphones with the mic work with the audio jack of the one x? My old galaxy s i9000m had a weird configuration of the mic/ground/left/right pins on the 3.5mm jack so I could only use specific headphones (or I had to hold down the mic button to listen to music properly ).
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The iphone headset is working fine with my one X. I have tried different earphones with the One X (Bose, Shure, Sony, Creative, Kilpsch etc) and all were working as intended
riz157 said:
audio quality isn't the best nor is it loud enough. I remember when HTC phones were very loud but since the days of desire they have turned the volume down for some reason.
Viewing angles are brilliant best i have seen.
I bought the grey/black version but found i was cleaning the back quite frequently, smudge marks you know. So now i have bought the white version also, see if that fairs any better. This of course means i'm quite happy overall with one x.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
let me know your conclusion mate, i'm still split about this too
I have been using Htc One X from past one week with Sensation XL and undermentioned are my views
Ringtone of Sensation XL is much much louder than Of One X..More over there is glitch sound which comes from the speaker while making any selection, incoming calls or typing..
Any one else who has this error of glitch sound coming from HTC One X.
Calling and no reception issue in both.
Sensation XL's SLCD looks more brighter than HTC One X..HOX has high contrast with sharpness.
No doubt HSXL is looks much more royal but HOX is slim & light. Using is with a white back case bought from ebay makes it look good.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
i took the above pic with HTC ONE X.
i found the picture quality to be so so compared to my 4s.
may be i didn't set it right?
toastyy said:
Do iphone headphones with the mic work with the audio jack of the one x? My old galaxy s i9000m had a weird configuration of the mic/ground/left/right pins on the 3.5mm jack so I could only use specific headphones (or I had to hold down the mic button to listen to music properly ).
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A Big Thank You!
looks like the Australian One XL "or at least the one i have... suffers from this issue"
but holding down the Mic button seemed to fix it.
I know this is not a great place to post this but when searching for One X washed sound this is the first thread to come up.
I will test with some more headsets later will start its own thread in relation to this issue
Also great review
OP updated with the final review
OP updated with pics
great review. the only thing plaguing current and future one x owners is the failure in production quality. ie. display and internal hardware issues.
sharp2G said:
great review. the only thing plaguing current and future one x owners is the failure in production quality. ie. display and internal hardware issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every phone has some issues at launch that get ironed out over time with subsequent batches. I can clearly remember that the SGS2 (arguably the best android phone till 2011) had a lot of teething issues at launch. There were camera issues as well as display issues. It took samsung almost four months to completely iron out the issues.
The one x is a fabulous piece of kit. Admittedly it has a few issues, some due to hardware but mostly software. Its quite good that HTC has actually released 3 updates since launch. Later batches are largely free from defects but then again a lot of initial launch devices were trouble-free too.
We have warranty and these issues shouldnt really stop anyone from enjoying the X.
I am in a dilemma between the s3 and HOX but after reading your review it made me realize that to get the ultimate performance of the HTC phone,one must need a lot of luck.
What I mean is that you had to replace the handset 3 times because of the bugs and that could be a real deal breaker for people like me.I for one expect the phone to provide its full features on its first buy and till now I haven't read any issues with the s3 so far.Maybe I haven't read much about the topic but so far,haven't read anything issues at all.
The HOX is though a beauty with brains.There is no doubt that the HOX is one of the best looking smart phones out in the market and with the features it packs,it sure is a great phone to buy.
The only thing stopping me from buying this is the battery life and this topic is quite subjective.Those who will root will experience a tremendous battery life.I don't plan on rooting it and having read many user reviews about the battery life of an unrooted,I'd say 7 hours with moderate usage is the average life.
So again its all about luck and I don't know how lucky I may turn out.Its either the S3 or HOX for sure but still don't know which one to get.
techmania7 said:
I am in a dilemma between the s3 and HOX but after reading your review it made me realize that to get the ultimate performance of the HTC phone,one must need a lot of luck.
What I mean is that you had to replace the handset 3 times because of the bugs and that could be a real deal breaker for people like me.I for one expect the phone to provide its full features on its first buy and till now I haven't read any issues with the s3 so far.Maybe I haven't read much about the topic but so far,haven't read anything issues at all.
The HOX is though a beauty with brains.There is no doubt that the HOX is one of the best looking smart phones out in the market and with the features it packs,it sure is a great phone to buy.
The only thing stopping me from buying this is the battery life and this topic is quite subjective.Those who will root will experience a tremendous battery life.I don't plan on rooting it and having read many user reviews about the battery life of an unrooted,I'd say 7 hours with moderate usage is the average life.
So again its all about luck and I don't know how lucky I may turn out.Its either the S3 or HOX for sure but still don't know which one to get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love the look of sense, which is why I I decided to switch from touchwiz to HTC, but like you I was and and still am sort of concerned about battery life. I'm not rooted and with my moderate / heavy use I get about 3 or a a little less than 3 hours of screen time. I am doing a few charge and discharge cycles t see if that will improve my battery life as recommended by a user on xda. I make it through the day without any problems, just have to charge it every night which is not problem because I just need a cell that can last me through my day and this device manages to do that so far.
sharp2G said:
I love the look of sense, which is why I I decided to switch from touchwiz to HTC, but like you I was and and still am sort of concerned about battery life. I'm not rooted and with my moderate / heavy use I get about 3 or a a little less than 3 hours of screen time. I am doing a few charge and discharge cycles t see if that will improve my battery life as recommended by a user on xda. I make it through the day without any problems, just have to charge it every night which is not problem because I just need a cell that can last me through my day and this device manages to do that so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you use a lot of apps and message constantly?If so then I think the battery performs quite well and brace yourself for a noob question.What does on screen time actually mean?3 hours long enough or does the S3 perform better than that?
Excellent review and great reading! i agree totally with it (apart from i was lucky enough to have a completely fault free handset so didn't have to get it replaced lol!)
techmania7 said:
Do you use a lot of apps and message constantly?If so then I think the battery performs quite well and brace yourself for a noob question.What does on screen time actually mean?3 hours long enough or does the S3 perform better than that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use my phone mainly for texting, web browsing + youtube and reading the latest in the world of tech a.k.a. the pulse app. I don't however play a lot of games. Screen time means the total duration of time in which your screen is on for. I also use auto-brightness, disabled bloatware apps, and turned off auto-sync.
Hey there
I have been a long time HTC One M7 user and I must say this is the best phone I ever had (and I switch phones a lot), it is perhaps the only device I never thought about changing until the M8 came out.
I have Sense 6 on my M7 and it is smooth and snappy, and to be honest everything about the device is spectacular, except for a couple of things;
1) The battery life is not that good. I am a long time user and I know exactly what to do in order to maintain a decent battery life, but in general the battery's capacity is kind of small for a device with an intense display like that.
2) The camera after the sun goes away is pretty AWFUL. It has this purple tint which completely ruins night pictures, and the flash isn't as strong as to make that go away. Does the M8 have that purple hue? Some people claim their M7 has a green hue instead of purple, so what about the M8? This could definitely affect my purchasing decision because it's a waste when you have such a good camera in your hands.
3) IS it easy to modify the device in terms of going S-OFF, rooting, installing recovery, changing CID and MID, and such or did it not reach that phase yet?
4) Is it a lot faster than the M7? My device never actually lagged, but I am guessing if the M8 is even faster that would be just tremendous.
5) What about overheating issues? My M7 used to overheat back in the day before I started becoming a mild rather than heavy user. It still does when I install a new ROM and start restoring applications and such from TitaniumBackup, and I believe that is the reason the purple tint comes quickly, because certain particles in the camera actually melt from the heat.
6) Is the M8's material as strong as the M7's? My device fell several times and it does not have a single scratch or crack, and the aluminium material is just superb. The grip itself isn't very good because it's slippery, but I have used covers since day one so I don't have that problem.
7) I just noticed that the M8 does not have any physical buttons, but what does that mean for features like swipe2wake and swipe2sleep? To be honest the on-screen buttons are kind of annoying and I'd have preferred the physical ones like on the M7.
Thank you very much guys. I appreciate your time.
TarekElsakka said:
1) The battery life is not that good. I am a long time user and I know exactly what to do in order to maintain a decent battery life, but in general the battery's capacity is kind of small for a device with an intense display like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm coming from an S4 so that is how I am going to compare. Battery life is pretty awesome. Some users are talking like 5-6hrs of on screen time. I am very happy with the battery life.
2) The camera after the sun goes away is pretty AWFUL. It has this purple tint which completely ruins night pictures, and the flash isn't as strong as to make that go away. Does the M8 have that purple hue? Some people claim their M7 has a green hue instead of purple, so what about the M8? This could definitely affect my purchasing decision because it's a waste when you have such a good camera in your hands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No complaints about the camera. What impressed me was the color and audio of some video I recorded.
3) IS it easy to modify the device in terms of going S-OFF, rooting, installing recovery, changing CID and MID, and such or did it not reach that phase yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of this can be done, and fairly easy. I came from an S4 so it was all foriegn to me. You coming from a M7 should have no issue. My device is Unlocked, S-OFF, Rooted, and SuperCID. The MID can be changed, but it was suggested to me not to because I am in the US and require 4G.
4) Is it a lot faster than the M7? My device never actually lagged, but I am guessing if the M8 is even faster that would be just tremendous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Benchmarks state that the M8 is crazy fast.
5) What about overheating issues? My M7 used to overheat back in the day before I started becoming a mild rather than heavy user. It still does when I install a new ROM and start restoring applications and such from TitaniumBackup, and I believe that is the reason the purple tint comes quickly, because certain particles in the camera actually melt from the heat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never got hot, but has got warm when performing tasks you mention.
6) Is the M8's material as strong as the M7's? My device fell several times and it does not have a single scratch or crack, and the aluminium material is just superb. The grip itself isn't very good because it's slippery, but I have used covers since day one so I don't have that problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dropped once from two feet on to tile, no scratches.:silly:
Over all, I LOVE MY M8!
Thanks for your reply, I appreciate your information. Coming from the S4, do you miss the physical buttons? I am not sure if I'll actually like the onscreen ones, especially since they eat up a portion of the display.
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Coming from the M7 these are my wife's findings:
Battery life - huge improvement. It sleeps better and trains less under use. She has hit 8 hours of SOT.
Camera - Again another massive improvement over the One in speed and ability. Also the purple tint is gone making it a no-brainer to update.
Modifications - this one is as easy/easier then the M7 to mod and it appears that AOSP is hitting less problems on the M8 compared to the M7. Also the GPE model allows stock Google to run perfectly if you so desire.
Speed - the M8 is very very fast but most of that lies in Sense 6. Otherwise the M8 runs much like the M7 did back in the day
Overheating - Mine will get warm from time to time, but I can underclock mine by 75mv so it runs cool all the time now.
Materials - the Gray color is soft. It will scratch easily and the Silver is just like the M7s silver. For me the curved edges and beautiful design are worth the softer finish
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
Thank you so much for your input, you've been very helpful. I think I am decided on jumping ship to the M8 since I have had a delightful experience with the M7; I had a Samsung before it, and iPhones before that, and to be honest I believe HTC has the best quality among them, especially when compared to the cheap quality of the Samsung. I don't think I mind if it scratches easily, I will use a cover anyways as I did with my M7 because it gives me a better grip when using aluminium devices.
Thanks again and have a great day. Cheers to the wife!
TarekElsakka said:
Thank you so much for your input, you've been very helpful. I think I am decided on jumping ship to the M8 since I have had a delightful experience with the M7; I had a Samsung before it, and iPhones before that, and to be honest I believe HTC has the best quality among them, especially when compared to the cheap quality of the Samsung. I don't think I mind if it scratches easily, I will use a cover anyways as I did with my M7 because it gives me a better grip when using aluminium devices.
Thanks again and have a great day. Cheers to the wife!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
at first the smooth edges comparing to the rough" edges will be awkward...at least it was for me... but after a while you will love it... what I miss (coming from m7)
- ois (really useful)
- HDR mics (the m8 is amazing but the bass is not that deep, but more richer)
- and hmm thats it
I am sorry but what is ois? It keeps getting mentioned and I have no idea what it is.
And by the way, do you miss the physical buttons? I am not sure if the on-screen buttons are going to be as good, especially since you have to wake the display in order to use them, AND they'll take up space when using full screen applications, and you could very easily accidentally hit them.
I prefer the onscreen buttons now that I have made them smaller.
They disappear in most apps when you don't need them anyway and the extra screen real estate on your home screen is just bragging rights as the screen is plenty big enough even with the buttons on.
Although I must say they are too big unless you root and make them smaller.
I personally hated the M7 buttons with a passion, they were a pain. They were intermittent when they wanted to work. I almost tore my hair out trying to use the back button.
To be quite honest I have never had problems with the M7 buttons, but to each their own. Oh I am a fan of rooting, custom ROMs, and all of that so I gues I'll have no problem making them smaller. You said that they disappear in most apps, so how do you exit the app without using the home button? And I will also miss the HTC logo2menu mapping.
In short, yes, m8 is brillian so get it
and also read foruim rules, these threads are not allowed
TarekElsakka said:
I am sorry but what is ois? It keeps getting mentioned and I have no idea what it is.
And by the way, do you miss the physical buttons? I am not sure if the on-screen buttons are going to be as good, especially since you have to wake the display in order to use them, AND they'll take up space when using full screen applications, and you could very easily accidentally hit them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.htc.com/www/zoe/stabilization/
Thread closed,
Phone comparison threads are against forum rules.
Many thanks,
Ghost
So, I picked up a Desire Eye on launch day. I feel like I was one of the few people intrigued by this device when it was announced. Since then, it has received almost zero attention: Few reviews, no posts on XDA, very little buzz on the internet in general. So, if you're even remotely considering this device and want a little info, here's a personal perspective from someone who bought the phone.
Disclaimer: I have owned dozens of flagship phones over the last several years. I'm also quite a fan of Sense UI and HTC in general. I did not buy this phone for the front facing camera. I don't care about selfies, so I'm probably not the target audience. I really just wanted an M8 with a better camera.
Display
The display is probably my one gripe about the device so far. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it looks washed out to me. When I first turned it on in the store, it immediately looked dull. A lot of the HTC wallpapers and themes are a sort of pastel, so it's really hard to tell, but next to my iPhone 6 Plus, and even a Windows M8 in the store, it just doesn't look as vibrant as I'd expect. Compared to my Note 4, it looks positively depressing, but that's to be expected. That said, it does get plenty bright. I just wish I still had my M8 to compare it with because I swear the M8 had more contrast and vibrance.
Camera
My only real beef with the M8 was the camera, mainly the low megapixel count which made cropping nearly impossible. It also had trouble with exposure and focus. I was really hoping that they fixed that with this phone. I know it's not their flagship and is, in fact, marketed as mid range, but it's really just an M8 with a different build and cameras. I have taken quite a few photo samples and compared them online to the Z3 Compact, iPhone 6 Plus, OnePlus One, G3, and Note 4. There is definitely more detail and you can crop in much further than the M8, but it still gets soft when you do. I also noticed the same issues with exposure. If you're not careful about where you tap to focus, you'll get a blown out sky or dark subject. Focus is fast, but not always accurate. It sometimes blurs the subject instead of the background. Definitely not on par with the focusing systems found in the Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus. Colors are good, if not great. They lean toward the warmer and more vibrant side, which I personally prefer. Overall, it's an upgrade over the M8 and on par with phones like the OnePlus One and G3, at least in my testing.
Build
I know a lot of people are fans of metal, but there are advantages and disadvantages to metal and plastic. The advantages here are water resistance and weight. This is a light phone and it feels good in the hand. Coming from my Note 4, it is significantly lighter and easier to hold. It's also fairly grippy. I don't feel the need for a case. My one complaint about build is the size. This thing is big. It's nearly as big as the iPhone 6 Plus and Note 4, which is kind of sad when you consider the 5.2" screen. Part of this is the 13mp front-facing camera. Part is the speakers, even though the grills are much smaller this time around. They still needed that blank "HTC" strip on the front for components and that adds to the overall size. The camera shutter button is very difficult to press. I only see using this thing under water. If you try to use it for normal pictures, you'll get blur because the phone will move when you try to press it. I find this to be a problem on a lot of phones with dedicated shutter buttons, but it's much more pronounced here.
Battery
My other primary concern with this phone was battery. It's the same internals as the M8 with a bigger screen and a smaller battery. While disappointing, so far it's not as bad as I expected. It seems to be about on par with the M8, though I'm not sure how. Standby time is pretty good (in my limited testing so far) and it doesn't drain horribly fast when the screen is on. Since HTC doesn't show screen on time and I had to install GSAM, I don't have any screen on results yet, but I will be testing that over the next few days.
Performance
This is the reason to get an HTC phone, in my opinion. Sense and stock Android are easily the fastest, best performing versions of Android, in my experience. But Sense brings some nice enhancements to the table that I think are worth it over stock Android. There's no lag or delay anywhere on the phone so far. Everything is fast and fluid. It makes my Note 4 look positively slow. Just the gallery lag on the Note 4 alone is enough to drive someone mad. HTC is doing it right. I'm actually a fan of Blinkfeed, too, though I know other people hate it. Since the introduction of Blinkfeed, I almost always end up putting a widget on my left most homescreen of every other Android phone that gives me a full page of news, though nothing quite compares to HTC's solution. I like their enhancements to the gallery, contacts, etc. Very nice overall experience.
Misc.
1. Minor annoyance, but the stock email client makes you tap to show images on every HTML email. Since I actually use it, it's kind of annoying. I wish they would at least give an option in the settings to "always show".
2. Some of the camera features are really need, like face merge and photo strip. I do miss slow motion video and 4k recording, though.
3. Internal storage is only 16gb. You have a little over 9 free out of the box. This is the only other con to this phone, in my opinion.
4. I'm a pretty big fan of the screen on gestures. I basically never have to use the power button. And now we can launch straight into the camera, too.
5. I received an update yesterday and it auto installed. There's no info anywhere on what it was. The phone just rebooted and installed with no warning.
6. There is a ton of bloatware on this thing (AT&T). Seriously, brace yourselves. It's even more insulting with only 16gb to start with.
7. Bootloader is unlockable at HTC Dev so, there's at least hope that we'll get root soon. The main issue will be S-Off, as usual. But I really only want/need root.
8. The front-facing speakers are every bit as good as you'd expect, despite the water resistant membrane and smaller grills. It's pretty impressive how small and unnoticeable they are.
Wrap Up
Overall, I really like the device. My main concerns are camera quality and battery life, which I will continue to test. I really like the user experience overall, though, and it's one of my favorite phones of the year. I don't think this phone is really getting the attention it deserves. Even the tech bloggers seem to be ignoring it. I hope this helps anyone who's on the fence about this phone and/or looking for more information.
Obligatory Camera Samples
Here are some camera samples. XDA is compressing them, but you get the idea.
Thanks for the review and photos. The camera was better than what I was expecting from the sensor HTC is using, to be honest. The only downside from what I've read in your review is the screen: while I don't like oversatured screens, I also don't appreciate "dark" screens (it hasn't to do with brightness, but with the white tone).
Regarding the speakers, I know you don't have a M8 to compare, but do you notice much of a difference between the devices?
Can you please confirm that it has MHL and it works?
For what it's worth, I held my One M8 side by side with a Desire Eye in store and compared the screens while displaying the same images and websites. They looked pretty much exactly the same to me other than a slight difference in size. Didn't think it looked dull. Of course, the lighting in AT&T was pretty harsh so it wasn't the best environment for comparison. Maybe you just got used to the super punchy over saturated colors of the Note 4?
gtg465x said:
For what it's worth, I held my One M8 side by side with a Desire Eye in store and compared the screens while displaying the same images and websites. They looked pretty much exactly the same to me other than a slight difference in size. Didn't think it looked dull. Of course, the lighting in AT&T was pretty harsh so it wasn't the best environment for comparison. Maybe you just got used to the super punchy over saturated colors of the Note 4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's actually what I was thinking too. Not a bad display by any means.
Thank you for this mini review! Really helpful.
Could you please state in which degree you can use the phone with one hand?
Would it feel closer to the use of a One M8/Galaxy S5/LG G2 or would it compare more to a One Plus One / Iphone 6 Plus (which is for me slightly to big).
The 5.2 inch of the LG G2 is of perfect size, but that phone had way smaller bezzels, so this is in fact something that scares me of the HTC desire EYE.
Waarez said:
Thank you for this mini review! Really helpful.
Could you please state in which degree you can use the phone with one hand?
Would it feel closer to the use of a One M8/Galaxy S5 or would it compare more to a One Plus One / Iphone 6 Plus (which is for me slightly to big).
The 5.2 inch of the LG G2 were perfect.. but this phone had way smaller bezzels, so this is what scares me of the one M8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's definitely closer to the OnePlus One or iphone 6 Plus size wise, but it is MUCH lighter, which does make it easier to handle with one hand. Unless you have gorilla hands, though, you definitely won't be able to reach all four corners of the screen with one hand.
It's tall, rather than wide.
I got the Desire EYE in the mail 2 days ago, it's a really good phone, really fast, takes nice pictures, overall I'm happy about it, the only downside about it is the internal storage, it has like 7 gb out of the 16 dedicated to the OS and stock apps... But other than that, really good phone!
To start off, I will say I am a big HTC fan. I talked about 7 people into buying the One M8 over the S5 this year. I love Sense, Blinkfeed and the snappiness of their devices. I have since sold my One M8 earlier this summer, around May, and have been jumping around to different devices. I strayed from the One M8 mostly due to the camera and the fact that I like to try the latest and greatest devices. I have been using an iPhone 6 since it launched. When I saw the Desire Eye was announced, I got excited. I was really hoping for an M8 Eye, which I think would have been the perfect smartphone for 2014, but this was almost as good. I picked one of these up on Friday at an AT&T store. The guy kind of looked at me funny when I said I wanted one, I don't think he was trained on the device or knew what it was. I didn't open it until Saturday night, but in the store, when playing with it, the first thing I said was, this screen looks washed out. I think it has something to do with the default theme, when I changed it back to one of the same Sense stock themes on the One M8, it didn't look as bad. It is something to do with that pink color they are using. I am torn on the device, it is like 2 steps forward, a couple steps back. I didn't like the first few indoor pictures without flash I took of my 3 month old daughter, so I switched back to the iPhone 6 yesterday because it was her baptism and I didn't want to miss any shots, or risk them coming out badly. One thing that Apple knows is how to make a camera that focuses fast and gives you good pictures. The Boom Sound is also a bit of a disappointment. The bass and clarity seems to be lacking compared to the M8. I played some Vevo music videos on the demo models in store. I am currently thinking about trying to find a second hand M8 Google Play Edition in mint condition (so I have full T-Mobile support for the $30 SIM I have for my play phone line), and keep either it or the Eye and my iPhone 6.
Y2J
Thanks for the review!
The camera doesn't seem bad but for some reason i was expecting it to have a bit more "wow" factor, don't know why and they the shots seem good enough.
You mentioned no-slow motion (i had actually talked about this in the other thread) and the info i read was that it didn't have. However, i was just watching a video review of the desire eye and in the settings i noticed the slow motion icon and the review actually pressed it and it sayed it was slow motion (its an italian video, i actually looked it up to see the translation lol). It was in the camera interface under the " ... " icon and on the modes (it usually says auto) it has the slow motion icon/cartoon - Here is the video @ 11:45
Still no mention of 4k, so that is not from stock but maybe with a mod.
griffin_1 said:
Thanks for the review!
The camera doesn't seem bad but for some reason i was expecting it to have a bit more "wow" factor, don't know why and they the shots seem good enough.
You mentioned no-slow motion (i had actually talked about this in the other thread) and the info i read was that it didn't have. However, i was just watching a video review of the desire eye and in the settings i noticed the slow motion icon and the review actually pressed it and it sayed it was slow motion (its an italian video, i actually looked it up to see the translation lol). It was in the camera interface under the " ... " icon and on the modes (it usually says auto) it has the slow motion icon/cartoon - Here is the video @ 11:45
Still no mention of 4k, so that is not from stock but maybe with a mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see a slow motion option anywhere in the settings. The only video options are for the resolution (MMS, 1080, etc). One thing they did do right, though, is put the video record button back on the main interface full time next to the camera shutter button. They were crazy to ever take that away.
Quality is okay. It's about on par with the OnePlus One and G3, in my testing. Most of the shots I took were on an overcast day, so not the best testing environment, but overall I think it's acceptable. I think I'd still grab my Note 4 or iPhone 6 Plus if I was going somewhere to take a lot of pictures, but I don't feel like I'm carrying around a bad camera when I have this phone.
griffin_1 said:
Thanks for the review!
The camera doesn't seem bad but for some reason i was expecting it to have a bit more "wow" factor, don't know why and they the shots seem good enough.
You mentioned no-slow motion (i had actually talked about this in the other thread) and the info i read was that it didn't have. However, i was just watching a video review of the desire eye and in the settings i noticed the slow motion icon and the review actually pressed it and it sayed it was slow motion (its an italian video, i actually looked it up to see the translation lol). It was in the camera interface under the " ... " icon and on the modes (it usually says auto) it has the slow motion icon/cartoon - Here is the video @ 11:45
Still no mention of 4k, so that is not from stock but maybe with a mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I was totally wrong about slow motion. I just found the option. It was not where I expected, but I'm stoked to see that it's there!
Great Slow motion on htc is good, at least if its like on the m8. I think only htc and sony in Android lets you record 120fps and then edit what parts to slow down, which is how slow motion should be. Glad to see its there and websites like gsmarena should mention it and update the specs info with that.
battery update?
G1_enthusiast said:
battery update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery is really good for the capacity. Idle drain with my apps and setting was about 3%/hr. With the screen on, it does seem to lose battery pretty fast, but I was still able to get about 10-13 hours of use with around 3 hours screen time. That's not much worse than most of my other phones do, actually.
I would post screenshots, but I no longer have the phone. As much as I really liked it, I just couldn't live with the camera quality. I was really hoping for better. But if camera isn't your #1 priority, this is a great all around phone. Camera is definitely better than phones like the Moto X. I was just hoping for closer to Note 4/iPhone quality.
How do the camera quality and pictures compare to Samsung S4 or S5?
Thanks.
struff said:
How do the camera quality and pictures compare to Samsung S4 or S5?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My mom has the S5 And I prefer the Eye´s camera, It´s just... sharper and more clear.
sidle said:
My mom has the S5 And I prefer the Eye´s camera, It´s just... sharper and more clear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to politely however completely disagree. There's no comparison. S5 is one of the best cameras you can get.
Sent from my HTC Desire Eye using Tapatalk
robstunner said:
I'm going to politely however completely disagree. There's no comparison. S5 is one of the best cameras you can get.
Sent from my HTC Desire Eye using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And yet, I like this one more.
Front HTC Desire Eye:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/143110-image/HTC-Desire-EYE.jpg
Front Galaxy S5:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/143127-image/Samsung-Galaxy-S5.jpg
Back HTC Desire Eye:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/143113-image/HTC-Desire-EYE.jpg
Back Galaxy S5:
http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/143130-image/Samsung-Galaxy-S5.jpg
Let the photo's speak for themselves. The HTC Desire Eye clearly wins this battle, or even HTC in general. The S5 is litteraly crap in low to medium-light area's.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Firs...-HTC-One-M8-and-the-Samsung-Galaxy-S5_id61506
Fair enough, but in better lighting the s5 proves much better and rarely overexposed the pictures.
I have the HTC One M8 since launch and love it. The looks, the smoothness, Sense UI. Best smartphone I ever had (came from a couple of Samsung, which were dissappointing).
The only thing failing is the battery but I already bought a new one and will be replacing it soon. But I'm debating if I should upgrade to the new HTC 10...I also thought about the Pixel but seems too expensive, only reviews will tell of course.
To anyone who went from the M8:
Is it worth it? Is it definitely faster and with better battery life? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Thanks in advance for your input.
Cheers
i came from an m8 and would definitely recommend it. it's much faster and the battery life is much better. also, given that it's unlocked (i had an att m8), the updates are more frequent.
things i don't really like about it, the headphone jack is on the top instead of the bottom. i also preferred the m8's method of turning the camera on (by double clicking on the volume) instead of the 10's method of swiping down on the screen since i seem to always be turning the camera on by accident.
Badelhas said:
I have the HTC One M8 since launch and love it. The looks, the smoothness, Sense UI. Best smartphone I ever had (came from a couple of Samsung, which were dissappointing).
The only thing failing is the battery but I already bought a new one and will be replacing it soon. But I'm debating if I should upgrade to the new HTC 10...I also thought about the Pixel but seems too expensive, only reviews will tell of course.
To anyone who went from the M8:
Is it worth it? Is it definitely faster and with better battery life? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Thanks in advance for your input.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from M7 and happy with battery live, fast charging, memory card slot, Android pay, finger print and other small things.
via [email protected]
vksf01 said:
i came from an m8 and would definitely recommend it. it's much faster and the battery life is much better. also, given that it's unlocked (i had an att m8), the updates are more frequent.
things i don't really like about it, the headphone jack is on the top instead of the bottom. i also preferred the m8's method of turning the camera on (by double clicking on the volume) instead of the 10's method of swiping down on the screen since i seem to always be turning the camera on by accident.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have the M8 since it was launched? Did you get to replace the battery? I've noticed that battery life is not the same has it was at the beginning but to be honest the worst moment was when we got the Android 5 Lollipop update. Other than that it's still blazing fast so I can't really imagine something much faster than this. Is the 10 that much faster?
The Google Pixel is going to be announced tomorrow so I might as well wait for the first reviews. Even though I would love fast software updates from Google (and that will last not 2 but 3 years) I doubt that the sound quality will be has good and it is on the M8 and the 10.
badzi0r said:
I came from M7 and happy with battery live, fast charging, memory card slot, Android pay, finger print and other small things.
via [email protected]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not really what I was looking for since, in my humble opinion, the M8 was already a big step up when compared to the M7. But thanks for your input.
Cheers
Badelhas said:
Did you have the M8 since it was launched? Did you get to replace the battery? I've noticed that battery life is not the same has it was at the beginning but to be honest the worst moment was when we got the Android 5 Lollipop update. Other than that it's still blazing fast so I can't really imagine something much faster than this. Is the 10 that much faster?
The Google Pixel is going to be announced tomorrow so I might as well wait for the first reviews. Even though I would love fast software updates from Google (and that will last not 2 but 3 years) I doubt that the sound quality will be has good and it is on the M8 and the 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I had the M8 since launch although ATT replaced it when they upgraded to lollipop because their update made my GPS go haywire (it couldn't be turned off and so drained my battery like crazy). the replacement m8 has worked fine. Both m8's didn't really have any issue with the battery. I still have my m8 which i'll use as a backup.
I'd also wait for the pixel phone reviews to see what they're like.
I ran M8 from launch day right up until the 10, and is absolutely worth it. The development is wonderful as well.
I do agree, however to see what the Pixel devices are like.
I honestly didn't think the 10 was a huge upgrade over the M8, but in certain key aspects, the 10 is a marked improvement. The battery on the 10 is similar to what I used to get when I first got the M8 on Kitkat, but my M8 was getting pretty worn down by the end. The camera of course is a huge upgrade, even in low light and optical stabilization is a fantastic thing to have. The software is not that much faster in my opinion. I had my M8 running really well and the 10 is similar, though scrolling is noticeably smoother especially in chrome. Game performance is also much better understandably. One thing I find really useful is the fingerprint scanner and side mounted power button, they both make the phone a lot easier to access if you use a lock of any sort. The display is interesting, I have the Tianma version and it had a prominent pink tinge at first, but it definitely has cleared up using my m8 and Nexus 5X as reference. The 10 is better calibrated than the M8 and the vivid mode does add a lot of punch for movies and games, max brightness is similar even if a lot of reviews have measured lower readings. Auto brightness still sucks.
As far as audio quality goes, I'll copy what I wrote earlier on Head-fi:
Owned the M8 since release day, just picked up the 10 about a month ago, currently working on a review, so here are some of my notes:
As far as SQ through the headphone jack goes, the quality is noticeably better with a very low noise floor even with my most sensitive iems, the Shure SE215, Westone UM 50 Pro and Oriveti Primacy, it's barely noticeable if at all. The M8 by comparison had a lot of hiss with those earphones.
Output impedance is definitely lower as it sounds more inline with my Oppo HA-2 than the M8 does with particular earphones.
Volume is pretty similar between both, I don't own anything particularly hard to drive and I'm more of a low level listener so hiss is usually a bigger issue to me.
Overall, I'm really liking the headphone out on the 10, it has HTC's usual quality AMP with plenty of voltage for high impedance gear and also plenty of current for low impedance monitors but this time, the discrete DAC is of much higher quality (Likely the Aqstic DAC), reproducing songs with a lot more dynamic range, everything sounds a lot cleaner.
As for speakers, it's a mixed bag as others have stated. I do think that the full range driver on the bottom/side of the phone is of slightly higher quality than the drivers used on the M8 but the top tweeter is pretty average.
The bottom speaker is mostly dominant with the front speaker complimenting certain sounds. The 10 does have the immediacy of sound that the M8 produces through this setup, where purely bottom/rear firing phones can sound more diffuse, but it lacks the sense of depth produced by the stereo setup.
The 10 has more extension in either direction, treble in particular is much crisper though the lower midrange has less body. Bass notes are punchier through the 10 though the midrange sounds somewhat skewed due to the uneven speaker output. More detail and clarity on the 10's speakers are great for videos and vocals in general.
I think the sound quality of the 10's speakers is ever so slightly better but the placement is of course inferior. The M8 has an extra notch of volume but distorts slightly at the top two notches, the 10 does not, so in that sense, the usable volume range is higher, but overall volume doesn't get quite as loud. You'll notice a lot of internet reviews use the music preset, the movie preset actually produces a lot more volume but soundstage effects can make vocals sound more hollow.
If you use the phone speakers to listen to music, definitely check out this video detailing some eQ settings though Poweramp, it does produce a much nicer sound than stock when used in conjunction with the Dolby music present. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEQsxcoh3Uw)
Be sure to assign this eQ to speakers and the flat eQ preset to headphones so Poweramp will automatically switch between to two when headphones are plugged/un-plugged.
So in my testing, the 10 has small upgrades in most areas and large upgrades in a few. I would say it's like a very refined M8 which I already found to be a fantastic smartphone (I hated using the M9). The 10 has no real disadvantages compared to the M8 except the speakers and it's a little wider in dimension.
ryanjsoo said:
I honestly didn't think the 10 was a huge upgrade over the M8, but in certain key aspects, the 10 is a marked improvement. The battery on the 10 is similar to what I used to get when I first got the M8 on Kitkat, but my M8 was getting pretty worn down by the end. The camera of course is a huge upgrade, even in low light and optical stabilization is a fantastic thing to have. The software is not that much faster in my opinion. I had my M8 running really well and the 10 is similar, though scrolling is noticeably smoother especially in chrome. Game performance is also much better understandably. One thing I find really useful is the fingerprint scanner and side mounted power button, they both make the phone a lot easier to access if you use a lock of any sort. The display is interesting, I have the Tianma version and it had a prominent pink tinge at first, but it definitely has cleared up using my m8 and Nexus 5X as reference. The 10 is better calibrated than the M8 and the vivid mode does add a lot of punch for movies and games, max brightness is similar even if a lot of reviews have measured lower readings. Auto brightness still sucks.
As far as audio quality goes, I'll copy what I wrote earlier on Head-fi:
Owned the M8 since release day, just picked up the 10 about a month ago, currently working on a review, so here are some of my notes:
As far as SQ through the headphone jack goes, the quality is noticeably better with a very low noise floor even with my most sensitive iems, the Shure SE215, Westone UM 50 Pro and Oriveti Primacy, it's barely noticeable if at all. The M8 by comparison had a lot of hiss with those earphones.
Output impedance is definitely lower as it sounds more inline with my Oppo HA-2 than the M8 does with particular earphones.
Volume is pretty similar between both, I don't own anything particularly hard to drive and I'm more of a low level listener so hiss is usually a bigger issue to me.
Overall, I'm really liking the headphone out on the 10, it has HTC's usual quality AMP with plenty of voltage for high impedance gear and also plenty of current for low impedance monitors but this time, the discrete DAC is of much higher quality (Likely the Aqstic DAC), reproducing songs with a lot more dynamic range, everything sounds a lot cleaner.
As for speakers, it's a mixed bag as others have stated. I do think that the full range driver on the bottom/side of the phone is of slightly higher quality than the drivers used on the M8 but the top tweeter is pretty average.
The bottom speaker is mostly dominant with the front speaker complimenting certain sounds. The 10 does have the immediacy of sound that the M8 produces through this setup, where purely bottom/rear firing phones can sound more diffuse, but it lacks the sense of depth produced by the stereo setup.
The 10 has more extension in either direction, treble in particular is much crisper though the lower midrange has less body. Bass notes are punchier through the 10 though the midrange sounds somewhat skewed due to the uneven speaker output. More detail and clarity on the 10's speakers are great for videos and vocals in general.
I think the sound quality of the 10's speakers is ever so slightly better but the placement is of course inferior. The M8 has an extra notch of volume but distorts slightly at the top two notches, the 10 does not, so in that sense, the usable volume range is higher, but overall volume doesn't get quite as loud. You'll notice a lot of internet reviews use the music preset, the movie preset actually produces a lot more volume but soundstage effects can make vocals sound more hollow.
If you use the phone speakers to listen to music, definitely check out this video detailing some eQ settings though Poweramp, it does produce a much nicer sound than stock when used in conjunction with the Dolby music present. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEQsxcoh3Uw)
Be sure to assign this eQ to speakers and the flat eQ preset to headphones so Poweramp will automatically switch between to two when headphones are plugged/un-plugged.
So in my testing, the 10 has small upgrades in most areas and large upgrades in a few. I would say it's like a very refined M8 which I already found to be a fantastic smartphone (I hated using the M9). The 10 has no real disadvantages compared to the M8 except the speakers and it's a little wider in dimension.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I had already read your answer on Head-fi and you've been very helpful once again. I am actually very glad to know that speed and smoothness is not that different between the M8 and the 10 since I love this phone and was hoping to keep it a while longer, not letting the "upgrade bug" bite me
Indeed battery life on the M8 got worse after they updated it to Lollipop because before that I always got to bed with 30% at least, which stopped happening afterwards. Of course 2 years of heavy use also had its toll and I am hoping that replacing the battery with a new original one will help regaining some of the battery life I used to have but I dont really know if it will help. I actually love my M8 camera but I didn't try the HTC 10 so probably it´s because I haven't tried anything better. I also love the sound that come from the speakers (the guy that replaced my once faulty micro usb port cleaned the speakers grills and sound is once again very nice, just like it was when I bought it). I particularly love the sound when using headphones. I came from the Galaxy S3 and S4 and there's not even a comparison.
I believe I have very nice hearing but I only use the Xiaomi Piston 3 headphones, if you participate in the Head-Fi forums you surely know they have nice and balanced sound quality for the price (20 bucks) but I wanted to ask you another question, if you dont mind: would you recommend me a better in ear headphones, ones that cost less than, lets say, 60 bucks or so? Will I see significant better sound quality than my Xiaomi Piston 3?
Thanks again for your input
Cheers
Badelhas said:
Thanks, I had already read your answer on Head-fi and you've been very helpful once again. I am actually very glad to know that speed and smoothness is not that different between the M8 and the 10 since I love this phone and was hoping to keep it a while longer, not letting the "upgrade bug" bite me
Indeed battery life on the M8 got worse after they updated it to Lollipop because before that I always got to bed with 30% at least, which stopped happening afterwards. Of course 2 years of heavy use also had its toll and I am hoping that replacing the battery with a new original one will help regaining some of the battery life I used to have but I dont really know if it will help. I actually love my M8 camera but I didn't try the HTC 10 so probably it´s because I haven't tried anything better. I also love the sound that come from the speakers (the guy that replaced my once faulty micro usb port cleaned the speakers grills and sound is once again very nice, just like it was when I bought it). I particularly love the sound when using headphones. I came from the Galaxy S3 and S4 and there's not even a comparison.
I believe I have very nice hearing but I only use the Xiaomi Piston 3 headphones, if you participate in the Head-Fi forums you surely know they have nice and balanced sound quality for the price (20 bucks) but I wanted to ask you another question, if you dont mind: would you recommend me a better in ear headphones, ones that cost less than, lets say, 60 bucks or so? Will I see significant better sound quality than my Xiaomi Piston 3?
Thanks again for your input
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thought that username looked familiar! I had the Pistons 3's for a while and they're very good for the price. They're warmer and bassier than neutral so I would look at the Shozy Zero for $60 on the dot. They have a similar warm sound, they're a really nice step up but you'll perhaps miss the remote. I found them to sound better than my Klipsch X10's which cost me over $100 and they're also lot better than the Shure SE215 in the sound department. There's heaps of reviews on the net, it's definitely a model to consider.
ryanjsoo said:
Thought that username looked familiar! I had the Pistons 3's for a while and they're very good for the price. They're warmer and bassier than neutral so I would look at the Shozy Zero for $60 on the dot. They have a similar warm sound, they're a really nice step up but you'll perhaps miss the remote. I found them to sound better than my Klipsch X10's which cost me over $100 and they're also lot better than the Shure SE215 in the sound department. There's heaps of reviews on the net, it's definitely a model to consider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I will read some reviews about them. Cheers
Ryan's review is spot on.
I came from the M8. In short, I upgraded because of the upgrade bug mainly. After a couple of months of usage, I can say that I could have stayed with the M8 longer. The major differences are (1) improved build quality (e.g. no dust under the lenses; no scratches), (2) much better camera, (3) finger-print scanner, (4) punchier audio jack output.
As you can see, the only two things that really make a difference are the camera and the fingerprint scanner. Otherwise, I generally feel I haven't gotten a new phone, if not for the visually different front side.
In the end, if you take lots of photos, it's probably justifiable to upgrade. If you don't take too many photos, then the upgrade bug is the only real reason to upgrade.
Cheers.
PS: I love the 10. It's easily the greatest phone I've ever held/seen. It's just that the M8 was so amazing in its own right that it's a small upgrade to the 10.
samisax said:
Ryan's review is spot on.
I came from the M8. In short, I upgraded because of the upgrade bug mainly. After a couple of months of usage, I can say that I could have stayed with the M8 longer. The major differences are (1) improved build quality (e.g. no dust under the lenses; no scratches), (2) much better camera, (3) finger-print scanner, (4) punchier audio jack output.
As you can see, the only two things that really make a difference are the camera and the fingerprint scanner. Otherwise, I generally feel I haven't gotten a new phone, if not for the visually different front side.
In the end, if you take lots of photos, it's probably justifiable to upgrade. If you don't take too many photos, then the upgrade bug is the only real reason to upgrade.
Cheers.
PS: I love the 10. It's easily the greatest phone I've ever held/seen. It's just that the M8 was so amazing in its own right that it's a small upgrade to the 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for another great input, very helpful to sustain my decision to keep this great smartphone
Cheers
I came from the M7, so I know I'm answering slightly out of place, but I did have a few M8 Dev phones I used and played with, but didn't use as a daily driver.
I paid full US Unlocked retail cash money, so it was a substantial investment upfront to get the M10, not just a monthly finance charge.
My honest opinion, it was totally worth it. I considered the nexus or one of the CM or blu type devices because of instant OS updates and unlocking. I'm SOOO glad I went with the HTC 10.
It offers me HTC Sense, and unlocking it thanks to sunshine (it's actually S off, not unlocking, but for ease of use we will call it unlocking) was easier than some of my nexus devices, literally.
Hardware and build quality is amazing, and the sense software and rom selections are too notch.
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
I went through 2 M8s and loved them. Definitely one of the best devices I've ever used. The only reason I ended up upgrading to the 10 was because my second M8 got wet and the screen died. To me, it was worth upgrading rather than trying to repair it. There are some definite benefits of upgrading.
The phone is more comfortable to hold.
The all-glass front looks incredible and has resisted fingerprints and smudges much better than my M8 did.
The cameras are much better (although the "laser autofocus" does mess up from time to time, especially looking through a window)
The screen is larger and even more crisp. Colors are brighter.
Battery life is MUCH improved.
Quick-Charge 3.0 is like magic. It's seriously impressive how quickly this phone charges.
USB-C is "future proof" and a better connector. Not more finding the right orientation or loose connections with old cables.
I thought I'd hate the power button on the side, but I actually love it. It's a solid button and it makes taking screenshots (pwr+vol dn) easy with 1 hand.
The fingerprint scanner is a HUGE plus. I still keep a lockscreen password as a backup, but 99% of the time, it unlocks with a single finger press.
I don't know if you still have your M8 stock (if you're on XDA, I hope not ), but I had a big issue with my M8 when I first got it, with the "wipe after 10 failed unlock attempts" that was built into the OS. It ended up trying in my pocket and when I took my phone out, it was wiped. Installing a custom ROM fixed that for me. On the HTC 10, they changed it very wisely. After 5 failed finger print attempts it will lock you out for 30 seconds. To unlock in this window, you need to use your passcode/PIN. If you try and fail on the passcode, it will give you 3 more tries until locking you out from that too for 30 seconds. After 5th failed unlock attempt, it will then ask you to trace a pattern on the screen, before it will let you try again. If you don't follow the pattern pretty closely, it won't let you try again. This makes it virtually impossible to accidentally wipe your device, while still preserving the security feature. I'm not sure if this is a MM feature or an HTC feature but it's great and has saved me a few times already.
There are some cons about switching from the M8 to the 10 though....
No more IR blaster.
No more Barometer.
Headphone jack is moved to top of the phone.
Rear camera sticks out.
Speed / performance increase is not very noticable. The M8 is still a competitive phone.
Neutral is the boomsound speakers. The M8's front stereo speakers were definitely louder, but not significantly so. The front/down combo on the 10 works fine.
A negative of both the M8 and the 10 is the IP rating. IP53 just doesn't cut it. I learned first hand how intolerant to water the M8 is, and the 10 is no better. HTC needs to get next year's flagship up to IP68 or they're going to really struggle.
CharliesTheMan said:
I came from the M7, so I know I'm answering slightly out of place, but I did have a few M8 Dev phones I used and played with, but didn't use as a daily driver.
I paid full US Unlocked retail cash money, so it was a substantial investment upfront to get the M10, not just a monthly finance charge.
My honest opinion, it was totally worth it. I considered the nexus or one of the CM or blu type devices because of instant OS updates and unlocking. I'm SOOO glad I went with the HTC 10.
It offers me HTC Sense, and unlocking it thanks to sunshine (it's actually S off, not unlocking, but for ease of use we will call it unlocking) was easier than some of my nexus devices, literally.
Hardware and build quality is amazing, and the sense software and rom selections are too notch.
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using stock rom, tried several Google based and sense based and didn't like them, I actually think that the stock one is better, especially since Marshmallow.
drumz0rz said:
I went through 2 M8s and loved them. Definitely one of the best devices I've ever used. The only reason I ended up upgrading to the 10 was because my second M8 got wet and the screen died. To me, it was worth upgrading rather than trying to repair it. There are some definite benefits of upgrading.
The phone is more comfortable to hold.
The all-glass front looks incredible and has resisted fingerprints and smudges much better than my M8 did.
The cameras are much better (although the "laser autofocus" does mess up from time to time, especially looking through a window)
The screen is larger and even more crisp. Colors are brighter.
Battery life is MUCH improved.
Quick-Charge 3.0 is like magic. It's seriously impressive how quickly this phone charges.
USB-C is "future proof" and a better connector. Not more finding the right orientation or loose connections with old cables.
I thought I'd hate the power button on the side, but I actually love it. It's a solid button and it makes taking screenshots (pwr+vol dn) easy with 1 hand.
The fingerprint scanner is a HUGE plus. I still keep a lockscreen password as a backup, but 99% of the time, it unlocks with a single finger press.
I don't know if you still have your M8 stock (if you're on XDA, I hope not [emoji14] ), but I had a big issue with my M8 when I first got it, with the "wipe after 10 failed unlock attempts" that was built into the OS. It ended up trying in my pocket and when I took my phone out, it was wiped. Installing a custom ROM fixed that for me. On the HTC 10, they changed it very wisely. After 5 failed finger print attempts it will lock you out for 30 seconds. To unlock in this window, you need to use your passcode/PIN. If you try and fail on the passcode, it will give you 3 more tries until locking you out from that too for 30 seconds. After 5th failed unlock attempt, it will then ask you to trace a pattern on the screen, before it will let you try again. If you don't follow the pattern pretty closely, it won't let you try again. This makes it virtually impossible to accidentally wipe your device, while still preserving the security feature. I'm not sure if this is a MM feature or an HTC feature but it's great and has saved me a few times already.
There are some cons about switching from the M8 to the 10 though....
No more IR blaster.
No more Barometer.
Headphone jack is moved to top of the phone.
Rear camera sticks out.
Speed / performance increase is not very noticable. The M8 is still a competitive phone.
Neutral is the boomsound speakers. The M8's front stereo speakers were definitely louder, but not significantly so. The front/down combo on the 10 works fine.
A negative of both the M8 and the 10 is the IP rating. IP53 just doesn't cut it. I learned first hand how intolerant to water the M8 is, and the 10 is no better. HTC needs to get next year's flagship up to IP68 or they're going to really struggle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the time you took mentioning the advantages and disadvantages of making the upgrade. My only gripe currently is battery life, that's why I ordered a battery and will be replacing it. 2 years of heavy use takes its toll. Let's see how that goes.
I won a blackberry DTEK50 (it's the Alcatel idol 4 hardware rebranded with blackberry software on top of Android) and a UMi Max Smartphones on 2 Internet giveaways (in the same day, talk about luck, right?) , they haven't arrived yet but I believe none of them would be a proper upgrade over my M8 so I think I'm selling the DTEK50 and giving the UMi Max to my niece. Do you guys agree that the DTEK50 is more of a sidegrade as well?
Cheers
I wasnt planning on upgrading to the 10 but broke my m8 a couple weeks ago. Things i like right away; better camera (faster focus/snapping and quality) battery seems to last longer/charges faster, phone is quicker in general and audio from headphones is better (more on this last one below.) The USB C is nice (other than having to buy a few extra cables to keep around the house/car,) nice not having to align the direction when plugging in. Transferring data to/from computer is quicker.
One of the main reason i was interested in the 10 if for its audio, i use Sennheiser Momentum 2, over ears. Noticeable improvement of the M8 in back to back listening of the same songs. Momentum 2's are lower impedance (compared to most headphones in that price range) and the 10 get louder than i can comfortably listen to but even fully cranked, sound is clean. I'd be curious to see how well it could power a higher impedance headphone without a standalone amp. Also, noticed an improvement with my old M8 Harmon Kardon ear buds (new 10 doesnt come with any, which i didnt plan on using but found odd)
ROM support seems pretty good, still waiting for a daily driver AOSP style rom but VIPER has been issue free.
Down sides, the phone feels larger in the hands, not so much heavier/dimensionally but maybe weight is in different place? I know, that sounds odd but just how it feels holding it one handed. The power button on the side was easier to get used to, no longer phantom touching the top of the phone. I liked having the headphone jack next to the charging port on the bottom, made it easier to use both at the same time. No more IR blaster, which i didnt use often but still used on occasion.
Speaker audio seems quieter, not really liking the ear and bottom firing speaker vs dual fronts of the m8. If holding the phone in landscape and watching videos, your hand can easily muffle the sound depending on how its held. Dual front speakers seemed to direct the sound towards your head better. The sound range seems to come mostly from the bottom speaker, depending on how you holding the phone can change that.
Overall, pretty happy with the device. Waiting to see if I can get a second one on sale/contract for the wife. Scored my Sprint version from Bestbuy.com for $100 but havent had luck finding a second in stock at that price.
I came from the m8 too. The HTC10 is a brilliant phone with a few flaws.
The camera (or at the very least, the software) can be a little temperamental. The sound does not match up to the M8's boomsound at all. With that in mind, however, its better than pretty much every other phone without a similar set up.
You would also be moving from USB Micro to USB-C. A much needed improvment, but maybe stock up on cables, and make sure they support quick charge
As for things that I prefer over the m8, the black navigation bar at the bottom of the screen is gone, and replaced by hardware navigation. This is much better to me, as I always felt the onscreen navigation just wasted screen space really.
The finger print scanner is one of the best I have used on any phone, and using that to wake up and unlock the phone makes getting used to the moved power button a non-issue.
I did have issues with the headphone jack being on the top, but im just used to it now.
I have installed custom roms (you dont need to S-OFF to do this whatsoever, just unlock the bootloader using HTCDev) and this improves much. In a default stock condition though, its a pretty damn good phone. Certainly happy to be using it for the next two years.
I came from the M8, but am returning to it once I get it unlocked for use with my current carrier. Cameras (I never take pictures) were a non-issue for me, I could care less about them. For me, it is a software issue. I like Sense and the way it is/was implemented. With each iteration of HTC phones, Sense seems to be in a state of retreat, abdicating to standard Android apps. Many things that have been removed are the very items I liked. Vanilla Android is not for me. Soooooo, for me it's back to the M8 and a dilemma over what my next phone will be. Certainly not an HTC unless miracles occur.
silegeek said:
I came from the m8 too. The HTC10 is a brilliant phone with a few flaws.
The camera (or at the very least, the software) can be a little temperamental. The sound does not match up to the M8's boomsound at all. With that in mind, however, its better than pretty much every other phone without a similar set up.
You would also be moving from USB Micro to USB-C. A much needed improvment, but maybe stock up on cables, and make sure they support quick charge
As for things that I prefer over the m8, the black navigation bar at the bottom of the screen is gone, and replaced by hardware navigation. This is much better to me, as I always felt the onscreen navigation just wasted screen space really.
The finger print scanner is one of the best I have used on any phone, and using that to wake up and unlock the phone makes getting used to the moved power button a non-issue.
I did have issues with the headphone jack being on the top, but im just used to it now.
I have installed custom roms (you dont need to S-OFF to do this whatsoever, just unlock the bootloader using HTCDev) and this improves much. In a default stock condition though, its a pretty damn good phone. Certainly happy to be using it for the next two years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
KC013 said:
I came from the M8, but am returning to it once I get it unlocked for use with my current carrier. Cameras (I never take pictures) were a non-issue for me, I could care less about them. For me, it is a software issue. I like Sense and the way it is/was implemented. With each iteration of HTC phones, Sense seems to be in a state of retreat, abdicating to standard Android apps. Many things that have been removed are the very items I liked. Vanilla Android is not for me. Soooooo, for me it's back to the M8 and a dilemma over what my next phone will be. Certainly not an HTC unless miracles occur.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you both for your answers I am more and more inclined to keep my M8, replacing the battery, of course.
Cheers!
I still have my M8 and to me, the 10 makes the M8 look generic. The screen is much better and much more beautiful, it is much faster and smoother and although the sound doesn't seem louder from the speakers, it is mainly because it is much clearer and sounds much better. Especially certain ringtones just sound much better. This lie I keep hearing that the M8 boomsound speakers are much better is aggravating lol. I mostly hear it in the same post where they are talking about the S7. The 10 is an absolutely perfect phone and the development is amazing. Viper 10 is the most perfect ROM I have ever experienced. I always thought I would hate hardware buttons but after going back to my M8 when flashing ROM's, the onscreen buttons are annoying. I liked my M8 and M9, was disappointed with the M9 luckily I was able to trade it in for the 10, but I absolutely love my 10. There is no doubt it is a worthy upgrade. Having it now, I would hate to have not ever experienced it. You would have to be very picky to have anything bad to say about it.
Hello,
I am evaluating purchasing an used HTC M9. The price seems to be a real bargain (around 60€), but I am worried that it is still a too old device to be enjoyable.
I own an iPhone 7 Plus now and I said myself numerous times that I would never switch back to Android, but I had lot of fun with Android ROMs years ago and I feel like I would love to try again.
I had both HTC m7 and m8 devices and loved it (more the M7 than the M8 actually). How does the M9 feels like?
How would it work after these years? I will not use it to play games, but I will make phone calls, internet browsing, messaging and lot of normal-light usage.
What is your suggestion? How does your M9 feels like after all these years?
Well, by now, the HTC M9 still has respectable development here on XDA. the SD810 feels hot by the heavy use, but it's not dangerous... the phone doesn't have official updates anymore, keep in mind that, still the phone runs great and the Sense UI is one of the fastest UIs around... it has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and you can put more space with the microSD, so storage wouldn't be a problem, you will find cheap cases on internet, even the Otterbox Defender is like $7 USD on ebay.
The HTC M9 is like a M8 with steroids...
I've just moved to this phone from a Google pixel after it's untimely death ( kid broke it :'( )and I'm happy with it. Performance wise it's fine and I've only noticed a drop in performance on one game. I also flashed a different ROM without sense and got it just the way I like.
Edit: I thought I would add I have always loved the build quality on HTC devices and this one is just as good. Mine is an old phone my wife used for years and she does not look after them. It's full of dints and scrapes and has been very wet and still works perfect. Even the screen is remarkably scratch free.
€60 is a good price, I've just paid €150 for one, although mine was in mint condition and came with s-off.
My wife is still using my M7 that's still going strong after I replaced it with a Sony Z3 (far too fragile for my lifestyle) and then a Moto X Force (lovely phone just has ribbon cable issues with the OLED)
Only slight gripes are the sound quality in Lineageos, so gone back to stock Nougat, a case is essential if you want it to keep it's sexy looks
All said and done, the 810 is a disastrous chip which gets very hot and has a pathetic on-screen battery life.
for me at that price is a good phone, powerful and fast.
There are no overheating problems (at least with last firmware) and the defined disastrous processor is very powerful even if energivorous.
certainly a disastrous purchase at full price but at that price in my opinion is not despicable
Better get a refurbished HTC 10 @ ebay.
Sure not to get M9 is 2018, the battery life, camera, S810 is nor very well. Maybe you can try other budget phone.
Camera is NO good on the M9!!!
Cero92 said:
Hello,
I am evaluating purchasing an used HTC M9. The price seems to be a real bargain (around 60€), but I am worried that it is still a too old device to be enjoyable.
I own an iPhone 7 Plus now and I said myself numerous times that I would never switch back to Android, but I had lot of fun with Android ROMs years ago and I feel like I would love to try again.
I had both HTC m7 and m8 devices and loved it (more the M7 than the M8 actually). How does the M9 feels like?
How would it work after these years? I will not use it to play games, but I will make phone calls, internet browsing, messaging and lot of normal-light usage.
What is your suggestion? How does your M9 feels like after all these years?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
G'day mate,
I would give the M9 a wide girth if you have any interest in using it to take photos. It has an impressive 20M camera, but no ability to focus, and take good shots. Here is a post that I made some time ago on the subject.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/one-m9/help/photo-quality-m9-poor-compared-to-t3385288
I have three beautiful daughters, and the inability of this phone to take good photos of them lead me to purchase an Oppo A77. There are may good Android phones in the AU$300 (~EU$180) range. Oppo is an excellent brand to start with, however if you take this path be aware that you need to tinker with it a bit to get standard notifications; check out my Oppo post here -
https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/general/enabling-push-notifications-oppo-a77-t3748639
Good luck mate, I would say "Happy Hunting", but as I believe in peace on earth I will settle with "May you reach your dreams, even if they encompass the stars themselves!"
Cheers
Davo
For that price and just to play around with it, totally.
But the first thing you should do if you get one would be to go to a service, open it up and clean the dust from the speaker grille.
Or try at home with a toothbrush and a vacuum cleaner. (This is what i personally do, but there is clearly still dust in there because the sound is still cracking at high volume. Plus, dust particles still fly away from the speaker, even after cleaning, if i turn the volume all the way up)
But if you clean it professionally, it has an incredible speaker setup.
Camera now. The Nougat 7.0 update made the camwra usable in low light. (You could try to find the link for SunDream's 7.1.2 S.ROM because is clearly the best Sense-based ROM around here. And also the only one that also raised the API level by 1 over the OTA limit.)
Like, is incredible how much right that one update did... But you lose the 9 seconds of exposure time from the "More Light More Fun" Mod (or something between those lines. Somebody posted the link in this thread anyway).
Anyway, (5.1.1 MLMF + Luma Denoise. What i currently use) in daytime and slightly less than perfect light conditions, the camera performs really good.
The bokeh effect is amazing, like the edge detection is on point. It detects those hair strings like magic.
I did a bokeh test on a moving pine tree branch, and it got all the pins right.
Not a single one got blurred over.
I tried it against the Note 8, the S9+ and the iPhone X (stuff that my classmates have) and beat all of them at edge detection from my personal tests.
The others struggle with reflective surfaces from what i observed.
Anyway, performance.
Good. Doesnt slow down over time.
Never cleaned dalvik, never zipaligned, never optimized databases, never installed a new ROM.
I challenged myself to use it with what it had installed (in my case, the update right before 6.0.1).
It can still play PUBG just fine on HD settings... For like 10 minutes because it heats up and throttles.
But older games work just fine on the highest settings.
Screen. If you can ignore the fact that black is some sort of very dark blue, is ok.
You can play VR with it just fine. You wont notice the pixels.
Also, if you set it on Automatic, it actually goes darker than the lowest brightness setting.
(Also, activating the brightness slider from the customization file still doesnt make it darker than Auto Brightness.)
IR is really useful, imo.
Headphone sound was really good for it's time, but it's still just a 24-bit DAC.
Bluetooth is just AptX and you can feel the compression.
But still enjoyable with Viper FX.
I think you can patch AptX HD tho...
Also if i remeber correctly there is a mod that makes the speakers louder.
And finally Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 is very realistic... If the speakers are clean.
Done. Would i recommend it in 2018?
As a secondary phone, totally.
Would a Butterfly 3 be better? Obviously, if you dont care that much about ROMs and customization. (It has water resistance and dual cameras.)
So... For 60$. Have fun. Install as many ROMs you want.
(Also a good time to buy one because MIUI finally got released, so you have a very wide sellection of ROMs.)