HTC One M9 Android smartphone: Like a M8 with a squinty eye

Design of the times

Making Sense

The premium quality of the case design and its material makes the software “innovation” HTC has added here all the stranger. It’s minimal, but still manages to be annoying and also slightly creepy – something you’d expect from a no name bargain-basement OEM – not HTC.

Help Sense Home scree

HTC has added an apps folder widget (‘Sense Home’) which detects where you are and changes the apps accordingly. This presumes two things which aren’t really true: that room on the display is constrained (Android gives you many home screens, and supports folders if you want just the one screen), and you don’t actually know what apps you want to use. Worse, the widget’s third pane is filled with spammy suggestions. It seems to prove Jaron Lanier’s joke about AI – that to make computers look clever, we first have to make ourselves really dumb.

HTC has allowed theming, and hosts a gallery of user contributed themes. The Themes can change the look of the UI dramatically, and there are some bold designs. But it isn’t particularly well executed. You’re constantly thrown back into the online Theme gallery, rather than being able to browse what you’ve already downloaded.

Default home screen and a Themed version

You can’t just download a clock widget (I was looking for a simple M8-styled one that doesn’t use the HTC italic font, but with no joy). Other fairly minor changes: the TV app is now the Peel branded app Smart Remote; Chrome is the default browser, rather than the HTC browser (which has text reflow); “Do Not Disturb” is no longer a Quick Settings options.

HTC BlinkFeed has evolved a little but remains targeted at distracting the disinterested “grazer”. You can’t add your own RSS and the choice of feeds is odd (“Tech” means a few gadget blogs, sadly). It will now inject location-based restaurant recommendations into the stream – which is almost as pointless as the Sense Home widget.

AnTuTu benchmark score looks impressive

Among the more concrete improvements include HTC recently signing up to include Dolby Audio – which can optimise surround sound sources to deliver a virtual 5.1 effect from the stereo speaker or headphones. There's also the ability to cast audio or video from the phone onto a wide range of devices (including Harmon Kardon speakers) with a three figure gesture.

I found standby time and power consumption to be better but runtime consumption – particularly noticeable when web browsing over LTE – to be a tad worse. From a few days testing, it comes out at about the same, even though the battery is larger in the M9. It’s just about enough for a full day for most users, who ration their activities. Sony still leads the Android pack with its very parsimonious power consumption.

Desirable and distinctive and with micro SD expansion up to 2TB

The Reg Verdict

The One M9 is a striking and attractive design, and I’m glad it hasn’t changed it substantially. But it’s a brutally competitive market and HTC can’t count on Apple and Samsung’s complacency any more: both leaders have raised their game. Hopefully HTC can improve the image processing, pronto, and maybe even lose its tacky widget, so it can stay in the game for another swing at the market. ®