The past few years have been hard for HTC. Executives accept departed amidst weak financials, and exterior of their flagship offerings, the company has struggled to sell their smartphones upwards confronting potent Asian contest. Last yr, HTC turned to lifestyle products to drive up their revenue, simply the only product released and then far, the Re activity photographic camera, perhaps wasn't equally good equally they were hoping.

Nonetheless 2022 is shaping upwardly to be a positive year for HTC. I of the coolest products announced in the year so far, the Vive virtual reality headset was developed by HTC in partnership with Valve, and I'm seriously excited for its release towards the stop of the year.

As expected, the visitor has likewise launched a refined version of their well-regarded flagship Android smartphone. The One M9 could be the winner the company needs.

If you confuse the brand new HTC One M9 for last year'southward M8, you're not lone: the metallic unibody design of the M9 is remarkably similar to what we saw in the previous generation. Many of the device's features will too seem familiar, including the 5.0-inch 1080p Super LCD 3 display, BoomSound speaker array, and heavily-customized Android software.

The areas that have been improved are less obvious than in previous updates. The biggest ane concerns the camera, with HTC deciding to relegate the mediocre Ultrapixel photographic camera, seen on the back of the M8, to the front of the M9. The Duo Camera has also been removed, replaced past a 20-megapixel shooter that hopefully addresses the one major issue with the last-gen I. Internally, HTC is packing the latest and greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC, which should exist a decent performance boost with the added bonus of 64-scrap support.

However, the competition hasn't stayed stagnant. In particular, the past six months have seen better displays, longer bombardment life, improved cameras, also every bit a greater focus on design. HTC volition need to have pulled out all the stops to deliver a compelling smartphone at the start of 2022.

Luckily, I can start off this review by talking about ane aspect of the HTC Ane M9 that I love: the design. HTC continues to absolutely nail the all-metal smartphone body, and that'southward no exception with this new smartphone.

HTC began producing metal smartphones with the beautiful HTC One, which featured a matte metal dorsum and polycarbonate edges, although the device itself wasn't the most ergonomic. The company addressed this concern with the shiny HTC One M8, calculation more metal to the body and curving it to perfection. Unfortunately it could be a scrap slippery, and the power button wasn't ideally positioned.

The Ane M9 is the most refined metal body HTC has produced to date, with each shell taking 300 minutes to machine from raw materials. The metal trounce no longer warps fully around the sides; instead, the body is noticeably carve up into two parts. The commencement office is the curved back crush, which somewhat folds around the sides and includes all the ports and buttons. The 2d is the piece that includes the display, which appears to sit down into the back shell in a design that'southward less seamless than we saw in the M8.

While I prefer the look of the M8's seamless body, the selection to engineer a seam into the body actually reduces the slipperiness significantly. Combined with increased sharpness to the edges, the M9 is very easy to grip: great news for the frequent phone droppers out there. I wouldn't say information technology feels every bit nice to hold every bit the M8, though it's certainly a really solid, tough, and well-congenital handset.

HTC has also updated the metallic torso's stop. The company is very proud of the ii-tone design, which sees the shiny back panel given a lightly brushed terminate, while the edges have a "mirrored" (aka. cleanly polished) cease. The front console is also unlike, using matte metal reminiscent of the original One, combined with Gorilla Glass to protect the brandish.

The two-toned design as well refers to the color of the metallic. The 1 M9 is the first smartphone to characteristic a single piece of metallic with two distinct colors: silver for the back section, and gold around the edges. Although the gilt is more of a copper color in my review unit, this combination of complementary colors looks fantastic. Factoring in the premium cease HTC has applied to the metallic, and the Ane M9 is one of the most bonny smartphones I've ever used.

For people who'd rather have a single-color smartphone, HTC offers an entirely gold model, and an entirely gunmetal grey model which should be familiar to those with a grayness M8. It'south surprising that HTC has only released one two-tone M9 considering how attractive it looks, and it'due south every bit surprising there's no all-silver model.

Perhaps the most relevant functional change HTC has introduced to the One blueprint is the power button location. The top-edge push has finally been removed in favour of a perfectly-positioned right-side push button, positioned beneath two distinct volume buttons. All 3 buttons are solid, clicky and responsive, though they don't travel very far.

The peak edge still includes a long strip of black plastic, which conceals the infrared LED that tin be used to control TVs and other home theatre equipment. On the opposite edge is where yous'll detect the microUSB charging port and 3.5mm sound jack. The only other features around the edges are the microSD carte du jour slot (a must-take for many) on the right side higher up the book rocker, and the nano-SIM slot on the left.

Like with the HTC Ane M7 and M8, there are two polycarbonate strips that break up the solid metal back console, and this is to ensure functional wireless connectivity. The regulatory logos at the bottom of the panel disrupt the otherwise minimalist panel, though this is inappreciably a meaning business.

On the front of the M9, HTC'southward signature BoomSound speaker array is seen above and beneath the 5.0-inch display. HTC'south utilise of dual front-facing speakers is still the best speaker implementation we've seen on a smartphone, and the M9'south iteration is loud, powerful and reasonable quality considering the small drivers. Hidden in the top speaker grill is an usual notification LED.

Unfortunately HTC yet hasn't managed to decrease the overall size of the One through slimming downward the top and bottom bezels. The big black strip that only features the HTC logo is however at that place on the I M9, and I'd actually similar to see this removed entirely to reduce the superlative of the handset. The width is fine, so the M9 is easy to hold, merely reducing the height would make the phone feel more compact.