Introduction

Ease of Use

The HTC One (M8) is a large but quite light smartphone that just about fits into a trouser or jacket pocket, weighing 160g and measuring 146.36 x 70.6 x 9.35mm, slightly heavier and bigger than the original HTC One. It has a very solidly built unibody design that feels like it should more than withstand the odd knock or two, although we'd suggest investing in a suitable case to help protect it from scratches. The lens is a 28mm equivalent optic with a fast maximum aperture of f/2, alongside which is a twin LED Smart Flash that's a big improvement on last year's model. It works by making an instant light reading and firing the cool and warm LEDs in one of over a five hundred unique color temperature combinations that best match the scene, then automatically selecting the exact colour tone and light intensity for more natural skin tones.

The HTC One (M8) offers 32Gb of built-in memory and also an external microSD memory slot. There's no physical shutter release button on the device, with the shutter fired instead via the touchscreen, which is a rather strange design decision on such a photographer-friendly smartphone. You can take a shot either by tapping on the subject to focus and then pressing the camera icon at the side of the screen to fire the shutter, or tapping on the subject to focus and fire the shutter at the same time.

The combination of the wide-angle lens, f/2 aperture, effective built-in smart stabilizer, relatively large pixel size and the maximum ISO speed of 1600 makes this smartphone much better suited to hand-held low-light photography than most other comparable devices. Instead of the optical system of the original HTC One, the new M8 uses smart stabilization instead, as conventional image stabilization is incompatible with stereoscopic rangefinder
technology. In practice we found that we could still hand-hold the HTC One (M8) in fairly dark conditions and still get sharp results for both stills and video without resorting to using the rather ineffective built-in flash.

Front	Apps

There's no means of gripping the HTC One (M8) the front or rear, making it a little difficult to get to grips with, especially since its unibody design is very smooth. The lens isn't that close to the edge of the body, so you don't have to be too careful not to let your left forefinger stray into the frame. We had more problems shooting in portrait mode because the On/Off button is located directly under your left forefinger, inadvertently turning the device off on a few occasions.

Press the small On/Off button on the top and the HTC One (M8) quickly readies itself for action in around a second, jumping straight into the camera mode if you were previously using it. Even better, when the phone is picked up in landscape orientation the camera automatically launches by simply pressing the volume button. We'd describe the general performance of the HTC One (M8) as very snappy, with little waiting around for the camera to take a picture - its certainly just as responsive as the majority of compact cameras that we've reviewed.

By default the HTC One (M8) uses the Auto scene mode. The other available modes are Portrait, Landscape, Backlight, Text, Macro, Night, HDR, Anti Shake, Sweep Panorama and the new Manual mode. This latter mode allows you to set the white balance, exposure compensation, IOS speed, shutter speed and the manual focus point. via a series of onscreen sliders that are a little tricky to use.

Camera Mode	Image Displayed

The HTC One (M8) has an HDR function to help even out tricky exposures, for example where a bright background would normally throw the foreground into deep shadow. You can see from the examples on the Image Quality page that this feature produces a photo with noticeably more dynamic range than one taken using one of the standard shooting modes, but at the same time without replicating the often "false" look of many HDR programs. It also usefully works when shooting video too. The HTC One (M8) also offers an extensive range of 15 creative effects.

The Sweep Panorama mode lets you capture a panoramic image very easily without the use of a tripod. All you need to decide is whether you would like to start from left or right, top or bottom. Then press and hold down the shutter release while doing a "sweep" with the camera in hand. Exposure compensation is available before you start the sweep, but the exposure is fixed once you depress the shutter button. After you are done with the sweeping, the camera does all the processing required, and presents you with a finished panoramic image. Note that if you do the sweeping too slowly, or you let go of the shutter release button too early, the panorama will not be completed.

The HTC One (M8) can shoot High Definition video clips at full 1080p or 720p HD with stereo sound in the MP4 format at 30fps. There's also a QVGA (320x240pixels) and an MMS friendly option (176x144 pixels), plus Slow Motion, Fast FullHD (60fps) and even Video HDR options. Note that you can't take a still image during video recording.

Shooting Modes	Manual Mode

In the unique Zoe mode, activated via the combined camera/video icon on the middle-left of the screen, the HTC One (M8) automatically captures up to 20 photos, a 1 second video before you pressed the shutter button and a 3 second video after you pressed it. You can then choose the best shot from the sequence, combine them into one file to create a Sequence Shot, remove unwanted objects, retouch the imagess, and share the highlights from your day or an event in a 30 second video clip on the HTC Zoe Share server.

The 4 megapixel JPEG images are quickly committed to memory in a single second, the screen momentarily blanking out and then displaying the captured image before the user can go on to take a second shot. You can take a burst of images on the HTC One (M8) at 8fps as well as just a single-shot, a handy feature that many smartphones don't offer.

The small thumbnail icon in the top-right corner is for playing back your images. You can browse through your photos by flicking them from side-to-side, zoom in and out by pinching, highlight, share, and delete them. The HTC One (M8) also offers quite a comprehensive Edit option, with the ability to add effetcs, frames, retouch and transform the image. The Effects menu is home to the Duo Camera features - UFocus, Foregrounder, Seasons, Copy & Paste, and Dimension Plus - you can see exaples of each one on the Image Quality page.

The HTC One (M8) is a slim and stylish, full-featured and very responsive smartphone, with only the continued lack of a physical shutter button being a major disappointment for photographers. Now let's take a closer look at its image quality...

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 4 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 1.5Mb.

The HTC One (M8) produced images of very good quality during the review period. This camera handled noise well, not becoming too obvious until the ISO 800, with even the fastest setting of of ISO 1600 being usable, a great performance for a small image sensor with such a high pixel count.

Chromatic aberrations were in evidence but were well-controlled, with some limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The images were sharp enough out of the camera and don't really require any further sharpening. Macro performance is respectable enough at 8cms, while the built-in flash is fine for fill-in use. The optical image stabilization system works well when hand-holding the camera at slower shutter speeds.

The camera can capture just enough light for some after-dark situations, without having to resort to using the flash, while the HDR mode successfully captures more detail in the highlight and shadow areas of both stills and video, albeit at the expense of fine detail in the image. The Sweep Panorama mode is easy to use and produces well-stitched results, while the wide range of creative effects are designed to appeal to the Instagram generation.

Noise

There are 5 ISO settings available on the HTC One (M8). Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Focal Length

The HTC One (M8)'s lens offers a wide-angle focal length of 28mm in 35mm camera terms, as illustrated by this example:

28mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are already quite processed and don't really benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The HTC One (M8) handled chromatic aberrations well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card), with a minimum focusing distance of 8cms. The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the HTC One (M8) are Auto, On and Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off	Flash On

Night

The HTC One (M8)'s maximum shutter speed is 0.7 seconds in the Night scene mode. This shot was taken at 1/11th second at ISO 1250.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

HDR

High Dynamic Range Optimiser (HDR) is HTC's solution for capturing more contrast than a single exposure can handle by combining two exposures into one image.

Off	On

Sweep Panorama

The HTC One (M8) allows you to take panoramic images very easily by 'sweeping' with the camera. The camera does all the processing and stitching and even successfully compensates for moving subjects.

Special Effects

The HTC One (M8) offers an extensive range of 15 creative effects.

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3	4
5	6
7	8
9	10
11	12
13	14
15

UFocus

UFocus allows you to shoot first and focus later, as the HTC One (M8) has two independent lenses that allow it to detect and calculate the relative distance of subjects in the image. This allows the user to select the object or area of focus after the photo is taken. Additionally, UFocus uses the depth data collected by the dual lens system to allow for professional-looking portraits. With just a tap, a user can easily add an artistic blur effect known as “bokeh”. Note that UFocus only works when shooting in 16:9 crop mode, not 4:3, and it also doesn't work if one of the subjects is too close to the camera.

Normal Shot

Focus on Near Subject

Focus on Middle Subject

Focus on Far Subject

Foregrounder

The Foregrounder tool allows you to alter the background with four different creative effects.

Sketch

Zoom Blur

Cartoon

Colorize

Dimension Plus

Dimension Plus allows you to view and save your image from a different angle by simply tilting the screen.

Dimension Plus

Cut and Paste

Cut and Paaste allows you to place your family and friends in a different photo entirely.

Cut and Paste

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the HTC One (M8) camera, which were all taken using the 4 megapixel JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movies & Video

As of February 2025, we are no longer providing full size sample images or videos for download.

Please contact us if you have any feedback on our new policy.

Product Images

Rear of the HTC One (M8)

Front of the HTC One (M8)

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Turned On

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Home Screen

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Unlocked

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Apps Menu

Front of the HTC One (M8) / BlinkFeed Screen

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Camera

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Shooting Modes

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Camera Settings

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Settings Menu

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Camera Shooting Modes

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Manual Mode

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Selfie Mode

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Dual Mode

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Video Mode

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Panorama Mode

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Zoe Mode

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Image Playback

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Effects Menu

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Filters Menu

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Frames Menu

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Tools Menu

Front of the HTC One (M8) / Share Menu

Conclusion

From a photographer's point of view, the HTC One (M8) improves on the original HTC One smartphone by speeding up the autofocus system, improving the built-in flash and principally by adding the feature that everyone is talking about, the so-called Duo Camera.

Using a built-in depth sensor, the Duo Camera's most useful purpose is allowing the point of focus to be changed after the picture has been taken, introducing DSLR-like levels of depth-of-field and achieving something that smartphones have always failed to offer. Sure, the effect isn't particuarly subtle and you certainly can't create actual bokeh, just a general depth-of-field-like blurring, but the ability to change the point of focus and blur the background of any picture that you've taken is a compelling one. With Nokia having already introduced their Refocus Lens app and Apple also rumoured to be working on a dual-camera approach for the iPhone, it seems that this new approach to making smartphone pictures more appealing is gainingtraction. The other Duo Camera effects - Foregrounder, Seasons, Copy & Paste, and Dimension Plus - are unfortunately much more gimmicky. HTC have relased the API for the Duo Camera, so hopefully we'll see further, ore useful innovations from third-party developers in the future.

Using the same "UltraPixel" camera technology as the original HTC One, the new M8 continues to be a brave attempt to do something different from a photography point of view. While its main smartphone rivals feature 8 or 13 megapixel cameras, at first glance the 4 megapixel sensor inside the HTC One (M8) looks like yesterday's technology. A closer look at the science behind the sensor and the images themselves soon reveals that the HTC One (M8) can still compete with the likes of the iPhone 5 and Galaxy 5, if not on out and out resolution, then certainly in terms of noise and low-light shooting.

You really need to ask yourself what you want to do with your photos. If you want to make large prints or crop heavily, then the relatively low resolution of the HTC One (M8)'s camera is going to limit what you can achieve (HTC themselves suggest up to 10x8 inch prints). This is especially true if you want to shoot in the 4:3 aspect ratio, rather than the default 16:9 widescreen format, as the resolution drops even further to 3 megapixels. If you want to share your images on social networks and make the odd small print, then the HTC One (M8) makes a lot more sense, as resolution is much less of a factor. And if you shoot a lot in low-light environments, it definitely still has the edge over the competition.

So in summary, the new HTC One (M8) and its clever Duo Camera cleverly provides shallow depth of field effects and refocusing at the touch of a finger. If you've always wanted to emulate using fast camera lenses wide-open on a smartphone, then the HTC One (M8) at least partly delivers by blurring the back/fore ground. You'll still need to buy-into the UltraPixel concept though...

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4
Value for money	3.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the HTC One (M8).

Review Roundup

Reviews of the HTC One (M8) from around the web.

Specifications

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