Hands-on: HTC One M9 keeps the metal body

There are two true flagship that have been launched at MWC this year, at least the two have been much awaited by the Android users. One is the Samsung Galaxy S6 and its Edge variant. We covered both in a lot of detail on Monday. The second is HTC One M9, the new flagship phone from Taiwanese manufacturer.
HTC One M9 replaces the HTC One M8 in the company's lineup. But it is a very incremental update, at least as far as smartphones go. The design of the M9 and M8 is exactly the same. In fact, you put both of them together most users will find it hard to tell the differences in the looks between the two.
This is both a good thing and bad. It is good because the HTC One M8 has a fantastic design. And so does the M9. It uses a well-crafted and polished metal body with rounded edges. It is also fairly compact and fits well in hands. But as much as we like the design of the M9 (and the M8) we can't help feel that it is also stale. HTC is using this design for almost three years now. The HTC One (which launched in 2013) had a similar design. Then it was tweaked for the M8 and now with M9 the design changes - like squarish camera lens unlike round one on the M8- are so subtle that most people won't notice them.
The fact that HTC uses the same design for the M8 Eye and may use it again for the rumoured slower variant of the M8 also adds to the feeling that there is not much unique about the M9.
HTC also doesn't help much here. The new phone comes with hardware upgrades but they too are modest. The performance was never an issue for the HTC One M8 and it is not an issue for the HTC One M9. When we tried the device we found it fast and extremely responsive. With Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, which is the latest and greatest processor from the chip company, inside the M9, it deals with apps and games with ease and without showing any lag. Scrolling is smooth and so is switching between tasks.
Sense, the user interface that runs on top of the Android Lollipop in HTC Phones, continues to be a joy to use. Although here too, you won't much differences between the Sense running on the M8 and the user interface on the M9
But there is one area where we did not find any improvement and that is screen. The M9 comes with a 5-inch screen with 1080p resolution. The screen is sharp and vibrant but it is not the league of what is available on phones like the Galaxy S6.
Camera too has been changed. Unlike the ultrapixel camera in the M8 the M9 comes with a regular camera on the rear. It is a 20MP camera and while we will have more to say about it when the devices launch in India, from some of the photos we clicked with it in the dimly-lit demo zone we get the impression that it is a very capable camera. Although it may not turn out to be as good as the one in the iPhone 6 or the Galaxy S6. However, HTC has said that currently camera software on the M9 is not final and performance will be better with updated software.

Of course, there is a lot more to HTC M9 than what we can cover in first impressions. But for that we will need to spend more time with the device, something we will possibly do when it launches in India.
For now, we can say that it seems to be a rather incremental - but solid - update to the M8. It doesn't dazzle (anymore) because of its rather old - but still awesome - design. But it seems that when it comes to providing good smartphone experience, the One M9 is going to be as impressive (even more on aspects like camera) as the One M8.