Phone Smarts: iPhone 6 and (below) HTC One M8

If you intend to buy a 5-inch smartphone and the iPhone 6 Plus is not your cup of tea, one that will easily satisfy you is the HTC One M8.

With its eye-catching design, the HTC One M8 has a unibody aluminium frame with good quality plastic pieces at the back for radios, WiFi and cell signals. The rounded edges make it easier to hold. With unmatchable front facing speakers, it looks and feels like a premium phone. The slimmer iPhone 6 Plus has been known to bend if kept in the front pocket, but the M8 is sturdier.

In terms of pure pixel density, the HTC One M8 probably has the better display. It offers a large 5-inch 1920x1080p full HD IPS display. It is slightly taller, a little wider and a tad heavier than the iPhone 6 Plus. The internal storage is 16 GB but HTC added a micro-SD card to the M8, meaning storage expansion is easy and affordable. Moreover you can redeem around 100 GB on Google Drive for two years.

iPhone 6 Plus comes in storage capacity of 16GB, 64GB and 128GB but it costs a lot more. You can get the One M8 phone for around Rs 43,000.

HTC has introduced a new back camera in the form of Duo Camera of 4 ultra pixels. I was a little disappointed with the camera. The manual shot capability is only passable when compared to the iPhone 6’s camera. The two cameras at the back are for uFocus, which bring blurry objects into focus before or after you shoot. Moreover, because of the dual front cameras you can edit your photos to get 3D effects. Depth sensor capabilities are being developed so expect more from the duo camera in the future. The 5 MP front wide-angle camera takes great selfies.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus introduces 240 fps slow-motion video recording and continuous auto focus, features that the One M8 cannot match. The 2600 mAh battery may not have the biggest capacity but with low to mid usage at the end of the day it uses up about 50 per cent of charge. I played some games on it and found it to be extremely responsive.

The phone has the feature that makes Android so popular, Intents, which is an easy way to share anything seamlessly between apps. Apple has incorporated this feature in iOS 8 by introducing App Extensions whereby apps mingle with one another without causing security holes.

The HTC One M8 is designed for maximum usability. When a call comes, as soon as you pick up the phone the sound volume gets lower and when you take it near your ear the call connects. You can set up whatever you are interested in on Blinkfeed, which gives you up to date information visually on the home screen. You can set it up for social posts, sport score or whatever you like. But I just find this a duplication of Google Now. And when you surf, web pages display as if you were on a computer. Pages load pretty fast too.

Listening becomes a pleasure with Boomsound front facing speakers. This feature absolutely justifies buying the phone. The sound is clear, crisp and loud. It makes music, movies and games very effective. On most high-end phones the sound quality is extremely poor.

The phone comes with Android 4.4.3 KitKat, has excellent hardware, and for its price it is definitely a good buy if you do not want to move to Apple’s ecosystem. I found this phone much better than the competition in the same price range.

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