HTC today unveiled the HTC One (M8) – an upgrade ( 5.0 inch screen vs prior 4.7 inch screen) front facing 5 mp camera – to their premium line of Android smartphones. Touting the continued use of metal housing and breakthrough antenna technology HTC introduces a phone with 90% metal (up from 70% in the prior version).
Throughout the presentation – complete with obligatory behind-the-scenes design video – they compared the HTC One M8 to fine jewelry. The phone touts Android KitKat 4.4, with the latest features from Google. Also updated is HTC’s proprietary skin – Sense 6.0 which includes BlinkFeed. Unlike prior editions of HTC devices both Blinkfeed and Zoe image editing applications will be available separately in the Google Play Store.
Battery size on the upgrade model is 2600mAh vs the prior size of 2300 mAh. A new feature called “Extreme Power Saving Mode” can stretch batter life an extra 15 hours by shutting down non-essential features (background updates, email fetches, location data). The phone’s BoomSound speaker system are touted as 25% louder than the previous model. That’s impressive and useful for those who use their smartphone for group movie viewing.
One interesting new accessory is the $50 attachable case which uses a new Dot View to create a Light-Bright like display communicating information such as time, caller ID and weather.
The phone will be available in three colors gunmetal gray, glacial silver and amber gold starting March 25th. The developer edition will cost $ 650 and Google Play edition $ 699.