The HTC One (M8) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Joshua Ho on March 26, 2014 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Mobile
- HTC One
Video
Since the rear facing camera only has a 4MP sensor resolution, there’s no support for 4K video recording - the maximum supported video resolution is 1080p. The available video modes are: 1080p30 (20Mbps High Profile H.264), 1080p60 (also 20Mbps High Profile), slow motion (720p) pand HDR video.
The camera preview in the video modes is pretty good. I noticed some dropped frames when recording 1080p30 but nothing substantial. The preview window when recording HDR video definitely dropped frames, to the point that it was fairly distracting. The resulting video itself was consistent in frame rate but not smoothly responsive to changes in dynamic range.
Extreme Power Saving Mode
This is a feature that seems to be all the rage these days. HTC now includes support for an Extreme Power Saving Mode that can be manually or automatically set to turn on when your battery reaches 20%, 10% or 5% remaining capacity. In the Extreme Power Saving mode you’re locked out from all but five apps (phone, messages, HTC Mail, HTC Calendar and Calculator ). The display brightness is clamped to 170 nits and max CPU/GPU frequency is limited to 1.2GHz and 320MHz, respectively. All four cores remain capable of being plugged in. Background data is also restricted - only SMS/MMS and phone calls will come in automatically. Emails need to be manually refreshed, and all other apps are quit upon entering the mode. The sensor hub is powered down, which disables features like the Motion Gestures and Pedometer.
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The Extreme Power Saving Mode features a large, simplified UI. The 5-inch display is evenly divided into large touch targets for each of the five apps as well as a button to exit the mode. The notification shade is disabled as well. You’ll still get alerts for things like open WiFi networks, but you’ll have no way to join/dismiss them while in this mode.
HTC claims up to 15 hours of standby time on the new One when running in Extreme Power Saving Mode (with 5% battery remaining). I still haven’t devised a good battery life test for these modes but I plan on measuring screen on standby time as soon as I get an opportunity to do so.
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nerdstalker - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
It could have been a good move by Brian if he updated his info on Twitter, LinkedIn etc, to reflect any changes (if there is) to his affiliation with AnandTech. A short "thank you, good luck and btw we left in good terms" confirmation tweet from Anand (similar to his post above) would clear most questions. Just my 2 cents. :)Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
All in due time, privacy is an important thing :)Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
Audio quality is coming, just didn't have the time to get the review unit out to Chris. Similarly time constrained on network connectivity, I plan on grabbing the data when I'm back in NC this weekend.yelped - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
Ok. Thanks for the clarification.George Carlin Jr. - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
Only a 4MP camera? WTF? Why can't just ONE single phone maker make a phone with the best of everything? They always skimp or screw up at least one thing. Why is that?madwolfa - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
Never needed more than 4 megapixels for sharing pics on Facebook (which is what 99% people are doing with their phones). For anything else, I have my DSLR.Blairh - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
Total BS.Egg - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
Read the 2013 HTC One review to understand this design choice...AnnonymousCoward - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link
4MP made great sense a couple years ago, but now days more people are getting higher res screens. 30"ers are 4.1MP, and some new tablets and laptops are also in the territory. I think ~2x the screen res is a good amount for the sensor, so that pixel averaging works well for the final product. I think they should have gone with 6-8MP, same pixel size, and with optical stabilization.asaini007 - Thursday, March 27, 2014 - link
I feel like they could've if they would've. Perhaps such components don't exist, are far too expensive, or would not meet design constraints. They did they best with what they could I assume.And I actually think the secondary camera is kinda neat for fun effects, which will appeal to the mass market which HTC desperately needs.