HTC Officially Launches the All New HTC One (M8 - 2014)

[dgstorm]

The all new HTC One (M8) launch just kicked off and we will be updating this story on the fly! HTC's own CEO Peter Chou handled the reveal himself, and Jonah Becker, avp of design demoed the device.

The HTC One M8 will be available before the end of April, you'll be able to get it in Australia, Taiwan, UK, Germany, France, China, and here in the US. Most will be available in store before April 10th. However, today at 1PM Eastern you can go online and order the HTC One at all the U.S. carriers!

On top of that, Verizon Stores have them in stock at 1PM today!

Here are the specs and features:

• Gunmetal Grey Hairline Finish (Over 70% real metal - with a brushed metal aesthetic finish - ultra-premium materials and design)
• Duo Camera
• Dual Front-Facing Speakers
• Motion Launch
• Extreme Power Saving Mode
• Sense 6
• Zoe
• Sense TV
• 5-inch Full HD Display 440 PPI - Super LCD 3 display with full HD 1080p resolution and a Gorilla Glass 3 cover
• Snapdragon 801 Processor - 2.3GHz quad-core
• 16GB or 32GB of internal storage
• 2GB of DDR2 RAM
• Micro SD Slot
• All 2G, 3G and 4G network radios
• Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX
• Android 4.4 KitKat
• Improved BlinkFeed - Create Custom Feeds - 1000+ Content Partners, including Foursquare, Fitbit and more
• TV Remote App - Sense TV
• BoomSound - 25% louder and has more depth - three-finger swipe that works across the phone to stream your music to a wireless speaker system
• 2,600 mAh battery that has 40% Longer Battery life than the M7 2013 HTC One - Includes a new Power Saver Mode that can last two weeks in Standby Mode
• Gesture Commands - launch the camera with the volume button when you hold it sideways - double-tap the phone to wake it - gesture to go into different modes - hold a ringing phone up to your ear to answer it
• Dot Matrix Case Accessory
• Camera - bigger pixels instead of more pixels - 300 milliseconds focus time - tons of new features and capabilities - camera switcher for different modes - slow-motion mode - redesigned gallery app that does facial recognition and tagging
• Camera part 2 - second camera of duo camera helps improve detailed depth info - UFocus = can softly blur and sharply focus different parts of the picture - Foregrounder tool - Camera API will be open to Developers - Highlight video experience
• Camera Part 3 - automatic videos when you hold the camera shutter button down - Zoe Mode - Zoe for the cloud coming later to upload and share pics and videos
• Camera Part 4 - 5MP wide-angle front-facing camera
• Can update HTC One apps through Google Play
• “glacial silver, “amber gold,” “gunmetal gray”

The older HTC One will be able to download Sense Six later this Spring. HTC plans to repair your device if you drop and damage it within the first 6 months of ownership.

Be sure to check out our dedicated HTC One M8 section here: HTC One (M8)

 

[jspradling7]

It's 10:50 am here and I just talked to a Verizon CS lady. She said the 2014 One was available and she could ship me one and it would arrive Thursday. I asked her what happened to overnight and she said I would have to order it online to get that. (?) Okay. So I go online and it's not listed yet. Arg... I'll wait an hour and see if they update their website. If not, I'll pick one up on the way home from work.

 

[dgstorm]

It's 10:50 am here and I just talked to a Verizon CS lady. She said the 2014 One was available and she could ship me one and it would arrive Thursday. I asked her what happened to overnight and she said I would have to order it online to get that. (?) Okay. So I go online and it's not listed yet. Arg... I'll wait an hour and see if they update their website. If not, I'll pick one up on the way home from work.

1PM today.

 

[jspradling7]

I know. But I'm Central so that makes it 12 here, and if she could place the order on the phone I was hoping it was already online.

 

[dgstorm]

Ahh... gotcha. Maybe in just a bit longer.

 

[johnomaz]

I may be upgrading my Note 3 to this phone. It saddens me to see it only has 2 gigs of RAM but oh well. I have TMobiles JUMP so I can swap it at no cost on the 30th of this month. This page has tons of info on it Gizmodo. Take all info carefully as everyone has different tastes in phones. I'm going to be looking for reviews on the radio in the phone. Samsung devices have had terrible radios for so long and I'm tired of them. Can anyone say whether or not HTC has historically has better radios than Samsung or if they are on par with Motos?

 

[dgstorm]

The M7 HTC One has very good radios... better than Samsung's for the most part.

 

[jspradling7]

I spent a couple of months with the Rezound and a bit less than that on the DNA. I placed them about equal with Samsung. Not Moto great, but good for me in my area.

 

[jspradling7]

Got anxious and picked a gun metal one up at lunch.

 

[PereDroid]

and?????

 

[jspradling7]

NICE! Very smooth, like the Moto X is. Still setting it up, but first impression is great. I'll know more when I get more apps on it. It's real quick and sensitive almost like you could blow on the screen and make it scroll.

 

[combatmedic870]

I may be upgrading my Note 3 to this phone. It saddens me to see it only has 2 gigs of RAM but oh well. I have TMobiles JUMP so I can swap it at no cost on the 30th of this month. This page has tons of info on it Gizmodo. Take all info carefully as everyone has different tastes in phones. I'm going to be looking for reviews on the radio in the phone. Samsung devices have had terrible radios for so long and I'm tired of them. Can anyone say whether or not HTC has historically has better radios than Samsung or if they are on par with Motos?

I'm doing the exact same thing. Well I know that htc used to have better radios. I dont know about now.

 

[pc747]

NICE! Very smooth, like the Moto X is. Still setting it up, but first impression is great. I'll know more when I get more apps on it. It's real quick and sensitive almost like you could blow on the screen and make it scroll.

Once you get it up and going like to hear (or see) a mini review from you about your impressions.

 

[jspradling7]

Once you get it up and going like to hear (or see) a mini review from you about your impressions.

Impressions... the closest phone to this one that I've owned is the LG G2. Kind of like a G2 with it's problems fixed. The M8 is longer (taller) than the G2 but width and depth are similar. The displays are much the same, I don't know what display is used on the M8 but it looks more like IPS LED than a Samsung AMOLED. I happen to like AMOLED's bright colors but the M8 display is fine in my opinion. If this is an AMOLED display I'll be very surprised.

The GPS and radios are MUCH better than the G2 but not quite as good as my Moto X or S4 but close. Bluetooth range is about the same as the others.

The camera on the M8 is GREAT in low light but tends to wash out a bit in bright light. This suits me really well because most of my pics are indoors, I'll just have to remember to turn the brightness down a little for outdoor shots. My G2 camera can't get close to the M8 camera in point and shoot indoor shots. I need to spend more time with the camera settings, I have not looked through the menus yet.

The UI performance is every bit as quick as the Moto X and G2 which is saying a lot. My S4 never has been as smooth as these other phones I have. The M8 is very "slippery" moving around and I like that.

Sound is great like you'd expect from those front speakers. Battery life appears to be very good but I need a few days to really tell.