Why is HTC m8 a magical machine?

Dual-camera photography is clearer and has longer battery life, but it also has disadvantages.

1 hardware

The new HTC One (also known as M8) inherits many features of the original HTC One (also known as M7), including BoomSound speaker grille, curved backboard and horizontal wire drawing. Moreover, the shell of M8 is more metallized than that of M7. About 90% of the shell is made of aluminum alloy (M7 is 70%), which means that the front, back and sides no longer have the plastic feeling of polycarbonate, and the metal is wrapped around the display screen. Fillet design, back shell metal wire drawing, very nice.

The metal wire drawing of the back shell once brought a great challenge to the design team of HTC-Scott Kreuel, the chief designer of the team, said that in order to achieve the perfect metal wire drawing effect on the curved back shell, they invented a new manufacturing process. Kreuel didn't disclose the specific details about this new technology, but the final effect is obviously great. The body of M8 looks more gorgeous and upscale than M7.

The M8 feels slippery like a bar of soap-not only because of the smooth texture of the fuselage, but also because the screen has changed from 4.7 inches to 5 inches, and the large curvature of the back shell makes it difficult to hold it, which makes people a little worried that it will slip out if you are not careful.

In addition, the Full Metal Jacket of M8 looks beautiful and firm, but it is still prone to small scratches.

The thickness of the new HTC One is the same as the old one (both 9.3mm), but it is longer, wider and heavier than the latter-this is the inevitable result of adopting a larger display screen and increasing the metal ratio of the fuselage, but it will not make people feel heavy.

There is a little change in the arrangement of buttons: the power button is placed in the upper right corner, which is much more convenient for people who are used to holding their mobile phones with their left hands than the power button in the upper left corner of M7, but the ir is not integrated in the power button like last year, but is placed under a smooth plastic; The volume adjustment button is still on the right, a little more prominent than M7, and it feels clearer. There is a microSD memory card slot next to the volume adjustment button, and the storage space can be upgraded to128 GB; Most; There is a micro-USB QuickCharge 2.0 port and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom; The nano-SIM card slot is located on the left. But what is depressing is that the original charger only supports fast charging 1.0 out of the box, which means that if you want to enjoy faster charging speed, you have to pay for accessories yourself.

If you are a little worried about the shrinking size of the SIM card, then you are not alone! There are two reasons for HTC's change: one is to save internal space as much as possible; Second, in order to accommodate the second SIM card, there is no need to make any drastic changes to the internal design. Many mobile phone manufacturers have adopted brand-new designs for their mobile phones in order to support the dual-card dual standby function. HTC has reserved space for dual-card dual standby from the beginning.

If you have used the original HTC One, the back of the new model will make you feel familiar-curved back shell, flash, camera, logo, horizontal wire drawing ... However, it has two "cameras" and two LED flashes (more details will be introduced later). There is a 5 megapixel front camera at the top of the front and a virtual navigation button and logo at the bottom. HTC said that BoomSound speakers used a new amplifier, introduced a new DSP and deepened the sound room, making the sound effect richer and stronger.

The resolution of the display screen is the same as the old version, except that the screen is enlarged to 5 inches, but it is difficult for the naked eye to feel the decrease of pixels per inch. Like the old edition, the image is sharp, the color is bright and the viewing angle is wide. The brightness of the screen can be adjusted to more than 75%, and it can be easily watched in direct sunlight.

The screen protection material is Corning's third-generation gorilla glass 3, which has strong scratch resistance, and the glass plate slightly protrudes from the fuselage, but Croyle said that HTC adopted a special protective coating to enhance its scratch resistance and strength.

Internally, M8 is equipped with 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 80 1 Snapdragon chip (2.5GHz in some areas), 2GB DDR2 memory, 2600mAh battery, dual-band 802.1/A/AC/B/G/N WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth with aptX. There are six versions of data connection mode: one for each of the four major operators in the United States, one for Asia and one for Europe/Middle East/Africa. All six versions are the same four-band GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900).

Finally, one of the most interesting new hardware is the "smart sensor" with low power consumption and standby at any time. The accelerometer can be used all day without significantly consuming battery power. HTC has set up API for these sensors, which is convenient for application developers to call sensor information directly. HTC also cooperated with Fitbit to launch a customized application pre-installed in M8 mobile phones, allowing users to record steps without Fitbit wristbands-we tested the application and the effect was very good. There is little difference between the recorded steps and the results recorded by the independent wristband. Although it can't completely replace the wristband (for example, it is inconvenient to carry such a large mobile phone when exercising and running), we expect to see more motion-sensing applications in the future.

2.Sense UI 6.0 interface

HTC calls the new interface "the sixth sense".

The M8 home screen is the same as most KikKat Android desktop launchers. Transparent top status bar and bottom virtual navigation bar make people feel wider. The three soft keys are hind legs, home screen and recent application. In addition, HTC pays more attention to theme and color this time, and most Sense applications and functions are in line with the color theme selected by users.

BlinkFeed is still on the left, and up to 5 panels can be added on the right. The application menu is still in its original position, but the inductive clock at the top has been removed. Long press the application directly to the home screen. There are no folders in the application menu, but you can easily hide unwanted icons. In addition, users can still choose 4*5 or 3*4 icon arrangement.

Although the new version of the Sense interface has made some changes, all the basic principles are still the same as the previous version, so people who have used Sense 5 can basically get started without blowing dust. Most of the interface of Sense 6 uses thinner, larger and more modern-looking fonts, which makes good use of more screen space.

On Sense 6, HTC launched some exclusive applications, which can be downloaded from the Play Store. There are three applications on the prototype this time: Gallery, Zoe and Sense TV. Doing so allows HTC to push updates to sensing devices at any time without waiting for firmware updates that take weeks.

There is a new gesture function called "Motion Start", which draws lessons from Nokia and LG's double-click unlocking and adds a sliding gesture. Users can double-click the wake-up screen lock interface, or skip the screen lock by swiping their fingers in different directions, and directly enter specific functions-swipe up to the home screen, swipe right to BlinkFeed, swipe left to expose the widget panel, and swipe down to activate voice dialing. In landscape mode, press and hold the volume adjustment button and lift the phone to take pictures.

Motion Launch is a little too sensitive to gestures, and users sometimes put their mobile phones in their pockets or put their fingers on the screen to wake them up. In addition, if personalized settings can be made, users can directly access common applications such as email through gestures, so much the better.

However, since HTC has made many improvements and enhanced personalized settings since the launch of BlinkFeed, it is believed that Motion Launch will also improve and launch personalized settings in future updates.

Sense 6 also has a "Do Not Disturb" mode, which can turn off the push notification sound reminder when the user is asleep or doesn't want to be disturbed, and the user can set a specific uninterrupted time period in the day.

HTC continued the tradition of providing users with cloud storage space, but changed from Dropbox to Google? Drive, users can get 50GB of free storage space for two years as long as they agree to the relevant terms of service. In addition, HTC also promised to keep M8 firmware updated for two years.

3. camera

Compared with last year's Nokia Lumia 1020, Sony Xperia Z 1 and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 and Oppo Find 7, we still can't judge whether M8 can stand out in the license plate, but it does make some innovations.

First of all, it adheres to HTC's "UltraPixel" concept, and adopts a BSI sensor with a pixel of 2 microns (the pixel of many smart phones is 1 micron), which increases the light absorption by 330%, while ImageChip 2 and 28mm f/2.0 AF lenses can also help capture more light. HTC believes that the key to taking good photos is not the high resolution of the sensor.

M8' s photo effect is generally satisfactory, but we hope HTC can improve the camera resolution. After all, the 8 megapixel camera is not brilliant, and it is disappointing to emphasize the optimization of depth of field sensor and software. What's even more disappointing is that the OIS function has disappeared-HTC explained this because of functional improvements (such as adopting faster autofocus), overall cost and space constraints. In addition, OIS is said to be incompatible with M 8' s dual camera technology.

But the autofocus function is still great. The autofocus speed of 0.3 seconds is comparable to that of Samsung's Galaxy S5, but there is no obvious improvement compared with the old HTC One. M8 is also equipped with dual LED flash, which can remove glare and make the effect of taking photos at night more natural.

Although the resolution of the rear camera has not changed, the front camera has been upgraded to 5 million pixels, f/2.0 wide-angle lens, BSI sensor, HDR function and 1080 HD video shooting, and the "self-timer mode" has been added, which is far superior to the 2 million pixel front camera of Galaxy S5 in self-timer.

The camera application uses a simpler new user interface with fewer options on the surface. In the lower right corner, you can choose video, selfie, 360-degree panoramic photo, dual-camera photo and Zoes mode. There are shortcut icons (flash, settings, mode and gallery) in every corner of the viewfinder, and the shutter button is located in the right center. When the user selects a setting, a line of options will appear at the bottom of the viewfinder, including ISO, exposure, white balance, filter, random setting and scene. There is 1 1 mode in the scene for the user to choose.

Manual mode is reminiscent of Nokia's photo application. The options such as white balance, exposure, ISO, shutter speed and focus have very intuitive adjustment sliders, so users can easily adjust and view the effect in real time. In addition, users can save their own manual settings for future use.

4. Dual cameras (dual cameras)

Duo camera is the biggest highlight of M8 in taking pictures. This "dual camera" is not used for 3D stereo photography, nor is it really two cameras. In fact, one of the "cameras" is not a real camera at all, but a depth sensor that can calculate the distance of objects.

What are the benefits of depth of field sensors? It can't improve the quality of photos, but it can show some advantages in post-processing and make photos produce some beautiful effects with professional style.

The first is UFocus. Some mobile phones of Nokia and LG also allow users to "take photos first and then focus" similar to Lytro's, but it takes several seconds to enter special modes, and users often have no time to enter these modes when recording fleeting moments in real life. HTC's dual cameras can directly record the depth of field information, without the need for users to enter a special mode, which is convenient for users to focus and blur the background.

The UFocus function allows the user to select two or three different focus areas in the picture and blur the remaining areas. If the user is not satisfied with the processing effect, he can re-edit the original photo.

In addition to distinguishing between front and rear objects, M8 dual camera also has other functions, such as desaturating images, distinguishing colors (which can create artistic or cartoon effects), copying elements in photos (such as a hat worn by someone), and bringing 3D parallax effect to photos by changing the camera tilt angle.

Zoe's dynamic picture function exits the viewfinder and becomes an independent shooting mode. In Zoe mode, users can do three things with the same shutter button: press and take a normal photo, press and hold for a few seconds to take a dynamic photo of Zoe, and press and hold to take a video.

In addition, Sense 6 allows users to import photos shared by others to make special editions.

5. Camera performance

If you need professional image quality, then HTC One is not suitable for you, but the camera speed is fast and the later effect is very good. Natural flash is great, but the charm of "super pixel" technology is that you can take good photos without flash in low light. The performance of M8 in low light is comparable to Lumia 1020, but it also has advantages and disadvantages: the advantage is that there is less noise in low light than Lumia 1020, and the disadvantage is that the noise reduction method will blur some details.

The photo performance during the day is almost exactly the same as that of the original HTC One, but the real picture quality has not improved-which makes us a little disappointed. It seems that HTC has invested all its resources in developing dual cameras. In short, the photos taken by HTC One are still very good to view and share on mobile phones, but they are not up to the level of being hung on the wall in a photo frame. In addition, when using the dual camera function, you have to adapt to the frame ratio of 16:9.

6. Performance and battery life

High-end smartphones are often equipped with the most powerful chips at present. M8' s 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 80 1 processor is still the best in the industry, although it is not much improved compared with 800. 2GB of memory and 578MHz Adreno 330 GPU help to reduce the burden on the main processor.

Personally, when judging the performance of a chip, a good criterion is whether it can make us ignore it, that is, whether it can be fast and smooth enough for us to ignore the background process. M8' s Snapdragon 80 1 did it-we tried to crash it with countless graphics that took up a lot of processor tasks and high graphics load, but it was still flawless.

Compared with the old model, the new HTC One also has a significant advantage, that is, it will not overheat excessively-even when the ——M8 is running under high load, its heating degree is acceptable, and it will not be as hot as the M7.

In terms of battery life, the 2600mAh of M8 is 300mAh more than that of M7. We thought that the battery life of M8 would be basically the same as M7 because of the increase of mobile phone screen and the improvement of processor performance. In the one-week daily use test, the power consumption of M8 after normal use for one day from morning till night is generally around 30%, and it will consume more power when the use intensity is higher, but it is much better than M7. In our standard video continuous playback test, M8 can play nearly 1 1.5 hours of high-definition video, while M7 can only play 6.5 hours in the same test.

In terms of overall call quality, our European evaluation team has also achieved good results. BoomSound makes the speaker easily competent for conference calls, with a louder volume than M7 and a clearer and more pleasing music effect.

The only drawback we found was that the GPS- blue dot often stopped. Although it usually catches up with us after 20 to 30 seconds, sometimes we need to quit the map and restart the application to let it find our new location.

7. Competition

The release time of M8 varies in different regions of the world, but it will be released immediately after it is released in Britain and America. In the United States, Verizon's retail stores are the first to sell M8 at the price of&; T, T-Mobile and Sprint open online booking today, and physical stores will have to wait until April 1 1. 650 dollars for bare metal without contract and 200-250 dollars for contract machine. The version of Google Play will be available in the Play Store today for $700. The developer version will be released in HTC official website today for $650.

As Samsung Galaxy S5 will be released on April 1 1, its direct competition with HTC One is inevitable, and it is still unknown whether HTC One in a weak position can achieve good results in this fierce battle.

8. Summary

Advantages:

-Nice design

-Dual cameras have good imaging effect.

-Powerful performance

-Long battery life

Insufficient:

-It's slippery and hard to catch.

-There is no improvement in the display screen and "super pixel" technology.

-The GPS is broken.

Conclusion:

The new HTC One has beautiful appearance and powerful performance, which is better than the old one in many aspects, but the polishing process is not easy to grasp. In addition, we hope that its display screen and "super pixel" technology will be improved.

reference data

HTCM8。 Tencent Digital [reference time 20 18- 1-26]