Monday, 26 May 2014

ASUS VivoPC: Benchmark results, ASUS WebStorage, AI Suite III and conclusion

Promotional Feature: Performance is what we all want when it comes to computing devices and it’s one such important aspect of any device that you cannot ignore it and purely base your choice only on features. So let’s benchmark the VivoPC.

The ASUS VivoPC has been with us for some time now and all this while we’ve looked at, tested and gauged almost everything that this mini PC has to offer. Be it its features, specifications and advantages of using its added accessories, we’ve covered them all. But one thing we left out for the end was its performance. Since the VivoPC is targeted primarily at people who’re looking for an HTPC or people who want ease of use with remote capabilities or even people who are fond of using touch based input devices, it’s imperative that the performance of the VivoPC should be somewhere in the middle. We say this because that’s what ASUS had in mind while building the VivoPC, as they wanted it to be the best mini PC in the mid-tier price range. No, we’re not talking about ultra high-end performance because it would be silly to ask that from a different device such as the VivoPC. But what we mean to say here is that the VivoPC should ideally be looked at as a mid-range HTPC offering with a boat-load of functions and capabilties, something that would not only fuel your desire for a standalone media device but also have a footprint the size of a small DVD player. The ASUS VivoPC aptly fits that description in most aspects and to know about the final piece of the puzzle that is its performance read on.


Profile

In order to get performance figures of the ASUS VivoPC, we ran a few benchmarks on the system and took a note of the results. We chose the 3DMark and PCMark benchmark suites to get the performance scores of the VivoPC.

3DMark Logo

In 3DMark, we ran the IceStorm performance benchmark. IceStorm performance benchmark is an apt benchmark for a mini PC and it offers comprehensive results and it provides a graphics score, a physics score and an overall score. The overall score is what gives a fair idea about what kind of performance a user can expect from the PC in terms of creativity and productivity offered. You’ll find the 3D IceStorm performance benchmark scores below.
3DMark IceStorm Results:
Overall Score: 26435;
Graphics Score: 30019;
Physics Score: 18645;
Graphics Test: 1152.87 fps;
Graphics Test: 2113.87 fps;
Physics Test: 59.19 fps;
Judging from the scores that we see for the 3DMark IceStorm benchmark, we can say that the ASUS VivoPC performs very well for the purposes it has been built. The overall score shows that the PC should easily be able to handle most regular tasks while also be able to hold itself up during demanding or resource-intensive tasks.


PCMark 8

Next, we ran the PCMark 8 Creative benchmark which can gauge the overall performance of the entire PC while running pre-made test loops of video playback, photo editing using Photoshop, heavy web browsing and also mainstream gaming. This benchmark is designed to provide the user with scores for judging the multimedia aspect of the PC. The score is also indicative of how well the PC can handle graphics intensive and heavy tasks one after another or even simultaneously. You can find the PCMark 8 Creative benchmark related scores below:
3DMark PCMark 8 Creative Accelerated:
Overall Score: 2013;
Test duration: 85 min 16 s;
Video Group Chat encoding: 23 ms;
Photo Editing: 6.6 s;
Video Editing part 1: 44 s;
Batch Photo Editing: 26 s;
Mainstream Gaming part 2: 1.2 s;
Web Browsing - Amazonia: 0.13984 s;
Video To Go part 2: 40 s;
Video Group Chat playback 3: 30 fps;
Mainstream Gaming part 1: 3.1 s;
Video To Go part 1: 22 s;
Web Browsing - JunglePin: 0.40339 s;
Video Group Chat playback 1: 30 fps;
Video Group Chat playback 2: 30 fps;
Video Editing part 2: 165 s;
Music To Go: 106 s
Taking a stock of the various scores generated from the PCMark 8 Creative benchmark, it must be noted that the ASUS VivoPC did admirably well considering its form-factor. The VivoPC can definitely replace your existing small home or office setup and it should be able to handle your multimedia workload without much effort.
Temperature readings:
A PC should always run cool and its temperatures must at least be within certain limits. This is why temperature readings are very important and they take up a major share in the performance of a computing device. After using the VivoPC for about two hours, at a surface temperature of 32°C around the PC, the internal temperature sensors reported a temperature of 43°C which if put into perspective is a really good temperature reading. This temperature shows that though the components inside the VivoPC are crammed together in a tight place, ASUS has made sure to design the PC in such a way that it doesn’t heat up much and always stay under a certain limit.
Other Extras:
ASUS AI Suite III:
The ASUS AI Suite has always been a special set of utilities on ASUS motherboards and this useful suite has made its way onto the ASUS VivoPC as well. Basically, the ASUS AI Suite III is an intuitive software suite or hub that encompasses and provides access to various control and monitoring utilities built into the VivoPC’s motherboard. It provides controls for TPU, EPU, DIGI+ VRM and Fan Xpert. All of these utilities are presented on the AI Suite III user interface which make it look like a dashboard for monitoring and tweaking needs.

ASUS AI Suite III

ASUS EZ Update:
A component of the AI Suite III, ASUS EZ Update is a program designed to manage all ASUS programs in order to search for and update to any new versions of the different ASUS programs if available. Using EZ Update, you can also flash the BIOS of the ASUS VivoPC’ motherboard. You can also configure EZ Update to check for updates automatically.

ASUS EZ Update

ASUS WebStorage:
As the name would suggest, ASUS WebStorage is a cloud based application service that lets users back up, sync and share files across various connected desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets. ASUS WebStorage provides at least 5GB of space to regular users for free but if you own the VivoPC, ASUS gifts you free 100GB of space for a period of one year after which if you want to retain your space, you’ll have to look at the plans offered by ASUS.

ASUS WebStorage

ASUS VivoMouse WT720 and Metallic keyboard:
The VivoMouse Metallic Edition WT720 is a mouse with 3-in-1 PC control functions which can be bought as an add-on extra for the VivoPC as it’s not bundled with the PC. For starters, the VivoMouse can of course be used as a regular optical mouse but you also have an option to use it like a touchpad or even a wireless remote which is quite handy right? 

VivoMouse


The best part about the VivoMouse is that it provides full support for gestures in Windows 8/8.1 making it extremely easy to perform functions effortlessly. ASUS has also added a few of its own gestures for using in Windows 8/8.1.

VivoMouse Options

The metallic keyboard is another add-on accessory for the VivoPC that’s been designed to match with the VivoPC with a nice brushed aluminium front plate and chicklet keys. Like the VivoPC, the keyboard is also very slim and has a rubber coated back for adding more grip. The keyboard as a whole is built well.

Metallic Keyboard

Conclusion:
We had a good time with the ASUS VivoPC and over the course of 30 days that we used this PC, we were constantly amazed by its size in relation to the features that it had to offer. Not only is the VivoPC built-to-last, it also provides the users a ton of flexibility when it comes to upgrading it that too without voiding warranty. We especially liked the VivoMouse for the novelty that it offered in the form of gesture support through its touchpad. Even the pre-installed software programs and utilities that come with the VivoPC are very intuitive and offer a new level of management or control over the PC.
The addition of ASUS’ popular WiFi GO! feature is another thing that adds more gold to VivoPC’s pot thus making the VivoPC an irresistable offering.
In short, what ASUS was gunning for with the VivoPC is for it to be a PC that you can keep, hook, carry, flaunt or store anywhere and which would work flawlessly like any regular desktop PC should. But what ASUS finally made not only did hold all of the above points true, but it also added diverse yet helpful functionality to the VivoPC making it a well suited choice for small office, or home use. Using the VivoPC as an HTPC with all the remote control capabilities that it offers is yet another point to be noted in case you’re looking to buy an HTPC.

Sony D2403 specs leak, to take on Moto G?

The Sony D2403 features a 4.4-inch display, 8MP camera and quad-core processor. The smartphone is expected to go head to head with Motorola's popular Moto G.

Sony D2403 specs leak, to take on Moto G?

Sony is working on an affordable Android handset that is being speculated to go head to head with Motorola's popular Moto G. Codenamed D2403, the new Sony smartphone has been spotted GFXBench's benchmark listing, revealing specifications of the device.
The leaked Sony D2403 features a 4.4-inch 540 x 960 pixel (qHD) display. It runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chip with an Adreno 305 GPU (likely the Snapdragon 400 MSM8926) and 1GB of RAM. The smartphone has an 8MP rear camera and 0.3MP front facing camera and 16GB internal storage.
Right now it's yet revealed what would the official name of the smartphone. But, considering the specifications the Sony Xperia D2403 seems to be an upgrade to the Xperia L. While focussing on the high end segment, Sony has launched quite a few mid range Android devices. It recently launched the Xperia M2 Dual, featuring 4.8-inch display, quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM.
With Motorola's Moto G gaining massive popularity globally, brands such as Sony and Samsung are under pressure to deliver a high spec'd smartphone in that price category.

Friday, 23 May 2014

Micromax launches Unite 2 A106 to compete with Motorola Moto E

The Unite 2 A106 is expected to go head to head with Moto E- Motorola's newly launched cell phone





Soon after the Motorola launched the sub-7k smartphone Moto E, Indian smartphone brand Micromax has announced the launch of a new Android smartphone in the same price range and with similar specifications – Unite 2 A106. Micromax claims its Unite 2 is the first smartphone to support 21 languages including English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and others.
Priced at Rs. 6,999, the Micromax Unite 2 A106 is a dual-SIM smartphone, sporting a 4.7-inch IPS display with 800 x 480 pixels resolution. It runs Android KitKat 4.4.2 (supports upgrades via FOTA) and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor along with 1GB of RAM.
The Unite 2 A106 has a 5MP rear camera with flash and a 2MP front facing camera – a feature missing in the Moto E. The smartphone has 4GB of ROM and supports expandable storage up to 32GB. For connectivity, the Unite 2 supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. It is powered by a 2,000 mAh battery.

Micromax launches Unite 2 A106 to compete with Motorola Moto E


The Unite 2 A106 is expected to go head to head with Moto E- Motorola's newly launched cell phone



Soon after the Motorola launched the sub-7k smartphone Moto E, Indian smartphone brand Micromax has announced the launch of a new Android smartphone in the same price range and with similar specifications – Unite 2 A106. Micromax claims its Unite 2 is the first smartphone to support 21 languages including English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and others.
Priced at Rs. 6,999, the Micromax Unite 2 A106 is a dual-SIM smartphone, sporting a 4.7-inch IPS display with 800 x 480 pixels resolution. It runs Android KitKat 4.4.2 (supports upgrades via FOTA) and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor along with 1GB of RAM.
The Unite 2 A106 has a 5MP rear camera with flash and a 2MP front facing camera – a feature missing in the Moto E. The smartphone has 4GB of ROM and supports expandable storage up to 32GB. For connectivity, the Unite 2 supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. It is powered by a 2,000 mAh battery.
The Micromax Unite 2 comes preloaded with a slew of apps including Mad, Getit, Kingsoft Office, Opera Mini Browser and Hike. There are a few pre-loaded games like Marble, Burn the Rope, Toystory Smash.



Microsoft Surface Pro 3: What's good, where it lacks and who should buy it

Microsoft is selling the newly launched Surface Pro 3 as a tablet that can replace your laptop. But, we see the Surface Pro 3 more as a laptop than a tablet.




The third generation of Surface tablet, the Microsoft Surface Pro   3 is upon us, and Microsoft has chosen a different route this time, offering a large, 12-inch tablet which is designed to double up as a ultraportable laptop/ultrabook.
Given that the Surface Pro 3 is targeting tablet and ultraportable laptop buyers, let’s analyze the Surface Pro 3 individually as a tablet and as a laptop.

Sony's PlayStation 4 is already profitable and on course to beat the PS2's success


If Sony is to reverse its heavy losses, big-selling products like the PlayStation 4 need to turn a profit. The good news is that the company's newest console is already fulfilling that requirement, having already recouped Sony's investment in the hardware, and it now looks set to beat profits achieved by the internationally legendary PS2. Speaking at a corporate strategy meeting, Sony president Kaz Hirai said the PS4 was "already contributing profit on a hardware unit basis, establishing a very different business framework from that of previous platform businesses." There's no doubt over which console Hirai is referring to here: the PS3 took three years to shed its loss-leading status, after cancelling out gains made from Sony's "biggest gaming success," the PlayStation 2.


The Sony president's comments don't come as much of a surprise. In fact, they back up the company's recent full-year earnings report that showed gaming-related sales had shot up 53 percent on the back of the PS4. The bottom line was also helped by Sony's gaming services, with "approximately half" of the 7 million PlayStation 4 owners worldwide having subscribed to PlayStation Plus. While none of this is likely to fix the company's deeper financial issues any time soon -- it still forecasts an overall loss in 2014 -- Hirai believes the upcoming launches of PlayStation Now (now in beta) and Sony's new cloud-based TV-streaming service (coming later this year) "have the potential to combine and develop into a platform capable of generating even greater profit." A few more solid exclusive PS4 titles probably also wouldn't hurt.

Click here to read full review of Motolrola Moto E

Thursday, 22 May 2014

Microsoft Surface Pro 3: What's good, where it lacks and who should buy it

Microsoft is selling the newly launched Surface Pro 3 as a tablet that can replace your laptop. But, we see the Surface Pro 3 more as a laptop than a tablet.



The third generation of Surface tablet, the Microsoft Surface Pro   3 is upon us, and Microsoft has chosen a different route this time, offering a large, 12-inch tablet which is designed to double up as a ultraportable laptop/ultrabook.
Given that the Surface Pro 3 is targeting tablet and ultraportable laptop buyers, let’s analyze the Surface Pro 3 individually as a tablet and as a laptop.
Surface Pro 3 as a laptop/ultrabook
Fast core hardware that will get the Job done
The Surface Pro 3 runs on a proper laptop engine- Intel Haswell series core processors, 4-8GB of RAM and 64-256GB of solid state memory. Running on Windows 8.1, you won’t find the Surface Pro 3 running out of breath for most mainstream tasks and applications, apart from running latest game titles (which it isn’t built for). Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is running on the Intel Haswell platform, understandably so, given that Intel’s next-gen Broadwell platform wasn’t ready when MS finalized the Surface Pro 3. So, we expect the Surface Pro 3 to receive a platform upgrade pretty soon once Broadwell based devices hit the market. The fact that Surface Pro 3 comes with SATA 3 interface is a tad disappointing. PCIe interface would have made the Pro 3 a whole lot faster in terms of storage performance. Going by the choice of components, Microsoft must have been working on the Surface Pro 3 project for quite a while.
12-inch, 3:2 display with 2160 x 1440 pixels (216ppi), enough real estate and screen-size for a laptop
The biggest change on the Surface Pro 3 is the screen size and aspect ratio. Microsoft has ditched the common 16:9 aspect ratio for a more “squarish” 3:2 display capable of 2160 x 1440 pixels. The new aspect ratio for the surface allows more screen area vertically, similar to the iPad’s 4:3 aspect ratio. Surface Pro 3’s 3:2 aspect ratio should work well for office applications and its high pixel density will go well with the split screen multitasking feature offered in Windows 8.1. Overall the display is large and sharp enough for a ultraportable laptop-like use case scenario. The fact that it is a touchscreen device further aids ease of use, even when using the Surface Pro 3 as a laptop.
While the screen is good enough for office tasks (browsing, mailing, video conferencing, chats, office documents, etc.) The 3:2 aspect ratio isn’t as suitable for videos and movies, you will have to do with black bars running across the screen at the top and bottom.
9 hours of promised battery life (Browsing over WiFi)
For ultraportable laptop users, 9 hours of battery life is premium territory, most Windows 8.1 ultrabooks tread in the 6-8 hours range for battery life. Though one must note the fine print under the 9 hour battery-life claim made by Microsoft – “Testing consisted of full battery discharge while Internet browsing over WiFi. Internet browsing was tested browsing 25 popular web pages. All settings were default except: Wi Fi was associated with a network, Auto-Brightness disabled, and Bluetooth Radio was turned off. Battery life varies with settings, usage, and other factors”. Yeah, we are pointing at the “Auto-Brightness disabled” scenario, questioning the brightness level of the display at the time of test. In real world usage, one surely will have the auto brightness turned on and that might just reduce the battery life of the device.
Much improved Surface Pro Type Cover
The Surface Pro Type cover for the Surface Pro 3 is larger than previous versions, matching the larger screen size. The larger dimensions allow the cover to offer an almost full-size keypad, making typing a comfortable experience. Having said that, you still don’t get the same tactile feedback as that of ultrabooks/laptops due to the shallow (low depth) of the keypad. The trackpad is slightly larger compared to previous gen and that should again improve the experience over the Surface Pro 2 but not match the performance from larger glass based trackpads offered by modern day Windows 8.1 ultrabooks.
Weight and portability
Surface Pro 3 is most definitely a lot more portable compared to laptops and ultrabooks, thanks to its 0.8kg (800 grams) weight profile and compact dimensions. But, when using the Surface Pro 3 as a laptop, you’d have to factor in the weight of the Surface Pro Type cover to arrive at the final weight- adding the cover takes the weight to approximately 1.1kg, bringing it closer to the 1.3 kg ultrabook territory. In fact, the Sony Vaio Pro 13 launched in 2013 weighs lesser at 1.06kg while offering a proper full sized keyboard, 13-inch 1080p touch-screen and running on same Intel Haswell platform, delivering 8 hours of battery life. So, the Surface Pro 3 cannot be termed as the lightest Windows 8.1 laptop in the market.
As a laptop, it will cost $1128 and not $799
Priced at $799 (Rs 48,000 as direct conversion), the Surface Pro 3 seems well priced. But, adding $130 for the “Type cover” pushes the price tag to $930 for a 64GB version with base Core i3 processor. Add 128GB flash drive and a Core i5 processor (same as all base versions of ultrabooks/laptops) and you end up with a final price tag that reads more like $1128 rather than $799. At $1128, the Surface Pro 3 competes with all the latest ultrabooks and is expensive when compared to Apple MacBook Air 13 (Microsoft chose to compare the Surface Pro 3 to MBA 13, at the launch event).
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 as a tablet
It’s heavy, cumbersome and awkward to hold
A 12-inch tablet, weighing 800 grams isn’t the most comfortable to use, especially if you have used or have been using the Apple iPad or any of the other 10-inch Android or Windows 8.1 tablets.
$799 is too much for a tablet, if you don’t intend to replace your laptop with a Surface Pro 3
The best tablet in the business costs less, and with next generation tablets around the corner, investing $799 on a tablet isn’t an easy decision.
No 3G/LTE for a $799 tablet
Yes, the launch models don’t offer cellular data connectivity, WiFi is the only way to get the Surface Pro 3 connected to the web. Microsoft will obviously add LTE variants to the lineup, we suspect that it might just happen along with the hardware refresh to Intel Broadwell platform.
The unknowns- fan noise, heat, etc.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 does house a fan inside its slim chassis to keep things cool and while it might not be as audible (we’ll reserve our judgment on the fan noise once we get the review unit), holding it close to you when using in tablet mode could make the fan noise an irritant, especially in quite environments.
Apps
The Windows 8 App store isn’t at the same level as Apple iTunes store and Android Play Store. Microsoft Surface Pro 3 might have the hardware but currently it does look a little thin on the Apps front, marring the sheer practical utility of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 as a tablet.
Summing it up
As stated at the beginning of this story, the Surface Pro 3 is a lot more of a laptop than a tablet, it does offer benefits in terms of portability and flexibility. But, we doubt whether it will make you dump your laptop and make the switch without making any compromises.

Click here to read about Sony's latest PS4

Monday, 19 May 2014

HTC One (M8) Review


PROS

  • Excellent build and design quality
  • High-end performance hardware
  • Loudspeaker offers a great output
  • Duo-lens camera with refocusing and other camera features
  • Unlock gestures and active display






CONS

  • Brushed metal finish doesn't offer a good grip
  • Nano SIM card slot
  • Camera supports only 4MP resolution



MRP: 49990


Summary 

The HTC One (M8) offers a great blend of premium design and performance hardware and is definitely the best looking Android smartphone today. It does however lack in features when compared to other flagship devices. If you are planning to invest in a flagship smartphone, then the M8 is not a bad recommendation. But if you are looking for a beast, then you should probably look at other options.


Review

The Taiwan-based handset maker HTC, is known for producing the first Android devices. But in the last couple of years, the company has been facing major financial losses. Some rumours even pointed that the company might just end up bankrupted. Thankfully, the brand is strong and with bunch of new smartphones including new flagship models, we are seeing HTC bounce back into the game. Their flagship, the HTC One, was probably the best looking smartphone for the year 2013 and won many awards as well. Now we have an upgrade and boy does it look good. The all new HTC One (M8) is bolder and looks as elegant as the last year’s model.

SPECIFICATIONS
  • Display: 5 inches Super LCD3, 1920x1080 resolution with Gorilla Glass 3 (441ppi)
  • Battery: 2600mAh
  • Storage: 16GB
  • Camera:  4MP dual-lens rear with dual-tone flash, 5MP front
  • SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
  • CPU: Quad-core 2.5 GHz
  • GPU: Adreno 330
  • RAM: 2GB
  • Operating system: Android 4.4.2 with Sense 6
  • Connectivity: 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB with OTG

BODY AND DESIGN
Last year’s HTC One was without doubt THE best looking Android smartphone and for 2014, HTC had a huge challenge to make it even better. The HTC One (M8) is exceptionally striking and the metal body gives you a reason to hold it in your hand. The design is quite similar to the last year’s flagship with some welcoming changes including a larger display and a microSD card slot (finally).






The HTC One (M8) has more metal and a more curvaceous design that fits well in the hand. Yes, it is bigger in size than the original HTC One and now boasting a 5-inch display, the M8 isn’t so easy to operate with one hand although it is quite sleek with a thickness of 9.4mm. And thanks to the curved design, it isn’t all that bulky.





The capacitive touch-sensitive keys have been replaced by onscreen ones giving more real-estate for the display. Above the display, we now have a 5MP camera with a wide angle lens to get those perfect selfies. Of course we have the BoomSound equipped stereo speakers on either sides of the display which are now louder and crisper. There is also a notification LED placed inside the top speaker to notify you about miss calls, messages, and so on.




The right side has the volume control keys and the nanoSIM card slot (a pain as everyone doesn’t have a nanoSIM card). The left side has a slot for a microSD card which supports up to 128GB of capacity. The top has the power/lock key while the bottom has the 3.5mm audio jack and the microUSB port. The back has an elegant brushed metal look housing a new duo-lens camera with a dual-tone flash. The resolution on the camera has not been improved leaving you with 4MP pictures, but lesser pixels does not mean bad quality pictures (more on that later). There is also a distinct laser-cut HTC logo in the middle of the back panel.








The display is a Super LCD3 again and the viewing angles are pretty good for an LCD display. Colours don’t wash out when viewed from various angles and readability under bright sunlight is quite good.
For a 5-inch smartphone the HTC One (M8) is by far the best looking handsets that we have laid our hands on. The detail to finish and quality of materials is so good that one has to put an effort to point out any flaws. Probably the only minor thing we didn’t like is that it feels quite slippery and fragile in the hand. One would be extra cautious when placing the smartphone on their desk or even in their pockets. Also, since there is a lot of metal, there are chances of having scuffs on the edges if you are a rugged smartphone user.
UI AND PERFORMANCE
The HTC One (M8) comes with the new Sense 6 UI which is almost similar to 5.5 with a new theme option that changes the colour scheme of the UI, a new lockscreen with gestures, updated BlinkFeed and Camera apps. We have always loved HTC's minimalistic approach when it comes to the UI. The icons and widgets are same as seen on Sense 5.5 with a very flat look. The new Sense 6 is really smooth and doesn’t show any signs of lag or delay in response time.





The most useful update is the new gestures to unlock the smartphone. Double-tapping on the display wakes up the smartphone and double tapping again on the lockscreen deactivates the display. Once you are on the lockscreen you can then swipe right to unlock and jump to BlinkFeed or swipe left to jump to the first homescreen. Similarly, you can perform these gestures even when the display is not active. The lockscreen has a dock at the bottom that houses icons for 4 apps (dialer, messaging, browser and camera) that can be swiped up to open.
The news and social media aggregator, BlinkFeed, is now more colourful thanks to the added themes options. The app has been updated with new topics and feeds which means you can get more out of the app. Of course there is support for Facebook and Twitter, we only wish that more social networks could be added including Foursquare and Instagram. Apps like the browser, music player, gallery, etc. are all similar to the ones seen on previous HTC devices. HTC, just like Samsung, has added a TV control app which lets you control your TV and set-top box via the the infra-red port on the top. It is a pretty handy feature although getting used to the app takes a bit of your time.

On the synthetic benchmarks, the HTC One (M8) showed good results matching and even surpassing the capabilities of the Galaxy S5 and the Xperia Z2. Even day to day tasks including multitasking, gaming, video playback and internet browsing is a piece of cake for the smartphone. The Snapdragon 801 proves to be as powerful as the 800 providing immense power to play high-end games or uncompressed video.
BenchmarkSamsung Galaxy S5Sony Xperia Z2HTC One (M8)
Antutu X370473342934940
Quadrant244701781625773
Smartbench (productivity)614572109873
3D Mark Unlimited130321838317925

The results show that the M8 does have a slight edge over the Galaxy S5 and the Xperia Z2. Although after testing all the three smartphones, we've noticed that all of them offer a similar bug-free experience.
In our standard battery test, we charged the smartphone to a full 100% and then pumped up the brightness to full and connected the smartphone to Wi-Fi. Next we played a full HD video for one hour to the see the amount of battery loss. The 2600mAH managed to have 88% of battery that was still left after the test, which means that you can play a full HD video for about 8 and a half hours continuously. For daily usage, we found that you get a battery backup of a full day on normal usage and slightly less than a day on heavy usage.



CAMERA
The snapper on the HTC One has been upgraded with the new dual-lens system which allows you to refocus your images and have a shallow depth-of-field giving a natural feel to the pictures. There is also a duo-tone flash which automatically throws a warm or cool beam of light according to the conditions.
The camera app has been redesigned with major modes accessible from the icon on the bottom right. It opens up a large window with big icons to select any shooting modes which include single camera shot, video, Zoe, Selfie (opens up the front camera), dual capture, and a panorama mode. You also get some tweaking options such as ISO, exposure compensation, white balance presets, some filters, and also a scene mode which includes HDR, night mode, portrait, handheld, macro mode, and so on.







There is also a manual mode which gives you total control of your focus, ISO, shutter speeds, exposure compensation and colour temperature. Very few smartphones out there offer such advanced controls.
A number of people have criticized the low resolution of the sensor on the HTC One. Yes, it only supports 4MP pictures but it doesn’t mean that the pictures produced are of low quality. If we go to the technical side, a sensor having 16 million pixels will obviously require more space than 4 million pixels. But since the 4 million pixels will take less space, each pixel will also be much bigger than the one on the 16 million pixel sensor. This means more information per pixel is stored. In short, yes you do get a lower resolution image, but there won’t be compromise on quality.



Coming back to the capabilities of the camera on the M8, pictures come out quite well and the camera app is super quick to take pictures. Thanks to the dual-lens system, when a picture is taken in optimum light (without flash) you can immediately select the picture and refocus on the area you want. There are other post-editing tools including a background shader, seasons effects, 3D dimension mode, stickers and also a neat feature that allows you to cut out parts or people from an image and paste it onto other pictures. You can add filters rotate, crop and even add frames.
Focusing is smooth and fast and the camera manages to focus well in dim lighting conditions. If you are using tap-to-focus in the auto-mode, apart from the focusing, the camera also adjusts the exposure of the area selected for focusing and this is something which is quite innovative. Pictures in low light are decent although we have seen better performance on other smartphones. The duo-toned flash works well but quite honestly we don’t think it is something that can bring in a huge difference in the pictures.




Capturing video is pretty standard on the M8 and you can capture a maximum resolution of 1920x1080. Audio quality in the videos is decent and sounds pretty clear but we wish there was a sound normalization as some high levels of audio sound terrible. Now we know that it can’t shoot 4K videos like its other competitors, but the question here is, do you really need 4K video recording? Full HD videos, in our opinion, are sufficient enough and anything beyond the resolution just seems overkill on a portable device.
CONCLUSION
We would suggest the M8 for the ones who want to upgrade from last year's HTC One, as you get a slightly upgraded and better looking design along with the new duo-lens camera, and of course a microSD card slot. The areas where the M8 lacks are probably some high-end features that are otherwise available on the Galaxy S5 and/or the Xperia Z2 at the same price point. If you can compromise on the looks but not on features, then we would recommend that you look elsewhere. For those who crave for a stylish looking smartphone, this is the Android smartphone to get. The curved metal body with a brushed metal finish and the detail is just top notch and in our opinion, the HTC One (M8) is definitely one of the best crafted handsets for this year.