New Smartphones news and reviews

Posted on 1 Apr 2014 at 13:09, by Tom Morgan

Updated: 1st April 2014: Where to buy the HTC One (m8), and where to get the best contract deals from all the networks

HTC has officially launched the HTC One (M8). The long-awaited successor to the HTC One may have leaked online more times than the company would care to admit, but now we finally know the facts: HTC's new flagship is bigger, more powerful and more metal than ever.

HTC One (M8) Price

SIM-FREE Although you can buy the HTC One (m8) directly from HTC to guarantee it won't be locked to a particular network, the company hasn't officially listed it on its online store - you can only sign up for updates.

Both Phones4U and the Carphone Warehouse have the phone available for £530 SIM-free, but if you're prepared to tie yourself to a particular network you could save a little cash. Phones4U has one of the best SIM-free deals right now, with Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile handsets all available for £519 with a minimum top-up.

Updated on 1 April 2014: A new Amber Gold version of the HTC One (m8) is now available at Carphone Warehouse. Prices start at £38 with a £49 upfront cost or free from £42 per month.

The gold handset is available first at Carphone Warehouse. The mobile phone retailer said that gold phones were popular with the public and the trend showed "no signs of abating". The shiny gold HTC One (m8) has a "premium feel and unique metal design" for the "fashion conscious", Carphone Warehouse claimed.

Carphone Warehouse is also offering £100 cashback on the new HTC One (m8) in all colours (Amber Gold, Glacial Silver and Gun Metal Grey) on pay monthly and upgrade deals. Visit the Carphone Warehouse website for more details.

EE If you plan on picking up an m8 before the 10th of April, EE has a limited time offer that includes the handset for £30 upfront, followed by a two year, £38 a month contract for unlimited calls and texts, and 4GB of double speed 4G. EE has the fastest LTE network in the UK, so if you have the need for speed this may be your best bet.

There's currently no way to get the phone for free, as even the top-end £48 monthly contract carries a £10 upfront fee. The cheapest £33 monthly contract includes unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 4GB of double speed data, but requires a £250 downpayment.

Vodafone You can pick up the m8 for free on a £42 per month Vodafone contract. For your money, you get unlimited calls and texts, but only 1GB of 3G data. You'll have to step up to the £47 monthly contract for 4G, which provides 3GB of monthly usage along with 6 months of either Spotify premium or Sky Sports Mobile TV.

Three With an unlimited data deal, Three could be the network of choice for anyone that uses their phone for streaming video, downloading music or a lot of web surfing. All customers automatically get 4G thrown in too, so you can pick up an m8 for £49 upfront then £44 a month thereafter for unlimited everything. If you're happy with 600 minutes per month, you can save a few pounds on the £41 a month contract.

The cheapest contract will still set you back £38 a month and requires a £49 downpayment for the handset. It includes 2GB of data, 600 minutes and unlimited texts.

O2 For the same amount of money as Three's £38 a month deal, O2 will throw in unlimited calls and texts, along with 2GB of 4G data. You'll still have to put down £50 for the phone though. If you need more internet, the top-end £48 a month package includes unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 8GB of monthly data. You'll only have to pay £20 upfront for the phone, too.

What about the original HTC One? With the new phone now available, we expected HTC to stop selling the original HTC One altogether, but it clearly has other plans. It will be staying on sale for the foreseeable future as the HTC One M7, potentially with a price drop, although at the time of writing one hadn't been officially confirmed. All the major networks should have it on contract, so it may be worth haggling in-store or over the phone for a better deal if you're determined to pick one up on the cheap.

HTC One (M8) Availability

The good news: HTC managed to get the One (m8) into stores the same day as the big reveal, beating both Samsung and Sony to the punch with a flagship smartphone for 2014. The bad news: it was only a select few flagship stores, and each one had limited stock.

At the time of writing, that had been resolved, to the point that all major networks, stores and etailers should now have stock of the handset in its gunmetal grey variant. We've been told that the gold model is still on the way, and the silver model should be available now.

HTC One (M8) Design

Whereas the HTC One had a metal back bonded to a plastic frame, the HTC One (m8) is now entirely made from metal. It wraps around the sides with rounded edges that should fit more comfortably in the hand than the previous model. According to HTC the company went with a "design first" strategy, meaning engineers had to develop pyramid stacked internal circuitry to fit the shape the design team had created.

Amber gold, Arctic silver and Metal grey - which would you choose?

The handset will be launching in three colours at launch; amber gold, arctic silver and Metal grey. The metallic grey will be HTC's lead colour, meaning it will appear in all adverts and promotional materials for the phone, and it's clear to see why. The hairline polish glints in the light and makes it impossible not to see the phone it made of metal - take that, Samsung.

HTC One (M8) Screen

As expected, the HTC One (m8) has a 5in Full HD display, making it larger than the 4.7in HTC One but with the same 1,920x1,080 screen resolution. That equates to a pixel density of 441ppi, which is still significantly higher than the point where it's possible to make out individual pixels. HTC is sticking with Super LCD technology and an IPS panel, but power consumption, black levels and overall clarity are apparently improved over the original One. The screen itself is protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 3.

HTC One (M8) Audio

HTC's partnership with Dr. Dre's Beats brand may be long gone, but the HTC One (M8) is still dedicated to sound. The Boomsound front-facing stereo speakers return, with redesigned speaker drivers, adjusted speaker chambers and a multi-phase amplifier which means bass should no longer clip the mid-range and high-end when playing music. The speakers are apparently 25% louder than before, and the 2.5v headphone jack returns to power headphones with low impedance drivers.

HTC One (M8) Performance

Inside, the HTC One (m8) is powered by the same quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor as Samsung's Galaxy S5, running at 2.3GHz and paired with 2GB of RAM. As well as 16GB of on-board storage, the handset will also include a microSD card slot for adding up to 128GB of extra capacity. 50GB of Google Drive storage is also included with the handset's software bundle.

One of the most unique features of the HTC One (m8) is its Motion Launch processor - a bespoke piece of silicon designed to keep certain sensors on all the time. This allows the user to wake the phone with a double tap, just like LG's G2 smartphone, or swipe in specific directions to jump straight into apps. A swipe to the left will open Blinkfeed, a swipe right will open the Widgets menu, and turning the phone on its side them pressing the volume key will open the camera. As this is hardware-based, the feature won't be coming to existing HTC handsets.

Finally, a larger 2,600mAh battery should result in better battery life than the original HTC One. A quick charge mode means the phone will reach 80% of a full charge in the first hour of being plugged into the mains.

HTC One (M8) Camera

The biggest new change is on the back of the handset; HTC has upgraded the 4-Ultrapixel rear camera with a second, depth-sensing camera which captures spacial awareness, recording the information into the metadata of every picture taken. This data can be used to change the point of focus after you've snapped a picture. Because the system is hardware based, it should be much faster than the software-based refocusing techniques we've seen from Samsung and LG, which use multiple exposures to simulate different points of focus.

The unique dual-camera setup should allow for plenty of creativity when it comes to snapping photos

Apparently the raw data will be sharable with other HTC phones, so your friends can choose their own point of focus, and the company is working on Photoshop compatibility too. There's currently no web-based refocus tool, however - meaning no way to embed Lytro-style snapshots on Twitter or Facebook for your friends to play with. The secondary camera doesn't actually take images, so HTC hasn't given it a megapixel rating.

The main camera sensor is unchanged from the HTC One; it still uses 4 Ultrapixels, larger pixels than a regular megapixel sensor for improved low-light shooting, and an f/2.0 lens. It is now paired with a Duo Flash LED, which can adjust the intensity and shade of flash based on white balance settings on the camera app. According to HTC the camera uses the same image processor as the previous phone, so we'll have to wait to see whether image quality has improved.

The front-facing webcam has been upgraded to a 5-megapixel sensor, paired with an f/2.0 lens for clearer selfie shots, although there's no front-facing flash.

HTC One (M8) Features

In terms of extra features, the HTC One (m8) continues on where the original HTC One left off. It supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE), aptX Bluetooth, NFC and MHL compatibility, as well as an IR blaster built into the top of the phone for controlling TVs and other AV equipment. The only major change is the move from a micro-SIM to a nano-SIM, meaning anyone making the upgrade will also need to request a new SIM card - or take a scalpel to their existing SIM.

Despite being a flagship phone there are a few missing features; there's no wireless charging built into the handset, and it lacks any form of waterproofing - leaving the Galaxy S5 and Sony's Xperia Z2 as the only current generation phones protected from the elements.

HTC One (M8) Software

The HTC One (M8) will be running Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, with HTC's latest Sense 6.0 user interface. According to HTC, "every pixel of Sense has been touched" with upgraded fonts, icons, images and colour schemes, which can now be completely customised by the user.

Blinkfeed is now smoother, with content displayed in one long scrolling feed rather than by individual pages. Images have been resized to make more room for text, additional content providers have been added and it should be easier to add your own content, with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and RSS integration.

HTC will be bringing several Sense features to the Google Play Store, in an effort to speed up the time it takes to upgrade and add new features. The first of these will be the Zoe camera app, which records and shares short video clips. Until now it has been exclusive to HTC, but soon other Android handsets will be able to view clips, comment and share them with friends.