HTC announced earlier today the details of the new HTC One (now called the HTC One M8). The first ten minutes of the announcement contain the product name and a short video of chips and the phone being splashed with water (I don’t think it’s meant to indicate that it’s waterproof).
While several details of the smartphone have already been leaked, the word from the company breaks down the features and news as such:
- The name seems to be officially the HTC One M8
- Gun metal finish
- 5-inch 440ppi display
- Snapdragon 801 processor
- SD card slot
- Duo Camera
- Dual front facing stereo speakers
- Extreme power saving mode
- Motion Launch
- Sense 6
- Zoe
- Sense TV
- Dual primary camera – captures depth information – smartsensor? (3D capable?)
- 90% of the housing is metal
- Mirror polished with hairline brushed finish
- No polycarbon sidewalls like the HTC One has
- Sense 6 has been completely redesigned with hints of color to make it warm and approachable. Color also marks activities to help you understand where you’re at.
- New layout for Blinkfeed makes reading easier
- Google Now-like integration into Blinkfeed
- Blinkfeed opened to developers to integrate content
- Fitbit and Foursquare will be making Blinkfeed-enabled application interfaces to show latest achievements and where to eat to get rid of those achievements
- Sense TV includes real time social feeds and sports stats for what you’re watching, also still includes the ability to change the channel with the IR blaster.
- New Boomsound with new multiband amp and redesigned speaker chambers for 25% louder audio and more depth
- Several vendors will allow with the swipe of three fingers to send music or video to them
- Battery life claims of 40% longer
- Power saver mode for normal use
- Extreme power saver mode to be revealed sometime after launch
- Claims of two full weeks in standby mode? Mentions you’re still connected in standby?
- Gestures in Sense 6 can launch apps even when the screen is off
- Volume down while off and vertical can wake up and take pictures
- Holding phone up to ear answers call automatically so no need to swipe or press to answer
- Dot You case sold separately that looks a bit like a see-through dot matrix printer
- Focus time under 300ms
- Camera switcher allows several modes such as dual capture, selfies, etc.
- Ability to pause taking video
- Slow motion mode allows to take HD slow motion video
- Redesigned gallery allows for easier finding of images and video
- Imagematch will tag and find photos of people you want
- 5MP wide angle front camera
- Two camera on the back, one captures depth information, allows for several effects to be created instantly
- Ability to apply effects to the foreground and background of photos separately
- Camera API opened to outside developers, but probably not source
- Dynamic beat mapping to match videos to music
- Cloud hosting of Zoe videos coming soon to allow friends to see, edit, etc
- Several pieces of software will be released via Google Play, no waiting months for carrier integration/carriers to get off their rump to support something they’ve already sold you
- Near global availability before the end of April with 4/10/14 seeming to be the official date expected
- Sense 6 coming to any HTC One later this Spring
- Two year upgrade commitment for upgrades
- First six months damage to screen covered free of charge for new customers
- US availability should be before April 10th across all carriers
- Right now you can go online to your carrier and order an M8 now, depending on shipping options you could get it tomorrow. Verizon customers should have it in store at the moment
That’s it. You can get one now if you’re a Verizon customer, tomorrow if you’re any other carrier’s customer as long as you choose next day shipping.
