One of the perks of working in a technology company is that frequently at least one of your tech-savvy coworkers may purchase the hot new product before its been widely adopted.
Not even out for a month, we have two employees already using the New HTC One phone (M8). I interviewed them to find out more about their experiences so far.
The Pros
The Camera
One of the biggest improvements on this phone over previous versions in the quality and capabilities of the camera. Users are able to take complete panorama shots using this phone. They can also adjust the pictures to remove blurriness, or refocus the shot. The pixels are twice as big as average, helping the camera to utilize more light, resulting in better night pictures. The camera also has a selfie mode to make taking profile pictures even easier.
The Battery
While battery time is subject to usage, talk time and standby time, our HTC user whose had his phone for a few weeks now says he can go two days without charging the battery.
The Apps
BlinkFeed puts the users favorite content on their home screen in a highlight reel similar to FlipBook, allowing those who use their phone as more than just a phone to browse the web without accessing any additional apps.
The Dot View Case
The Dot View is not included with the phone (it costs and additional $49.99) and is not the only case option, but it is one of the cooler benefits of the phone if you should choose it as an add-on. The Dot View protects your phone while letting you see notifications and check the time through a series of holes in the front, even while the case is closed. The Dot View cover keeps itself closed with a magnet. Our Dot View user’s only complaint about this case is keeping the cover open when he is using the phone.
The Cons
One huge issue for our employee who has been using the HTC phone for a few weeks now is that while the smartphone has a lot of cool features, it’s not working well as a phone. While this is a problem specific to this user, and we are in no way implying it will happen to other users, he is having a problem where the phone only works when set to speaker phone. Voice searches also are not working for him.
However, one of the benefits of this phone (for Verizon customers anyway) is the EDGE plan, where customers pay for their phone over 24 months, instead of upfront and are eligible to upgrade after just 30 days once they have paid off at least 50% of the phones value.
Photo credit: HTC
