Dear Mr & Mrs HTC,<\/p>\n
Thank you so much for letting me play with your offspring, the HTC One M8 (do we say ’em-eight’? Or do we pronounce it in text-speak as ‘Mate’?).<\/p>\n
The last two weeks of M8 experience have been, on the whole, mediocre.<\/p>\n
I’ve loved playing with your offspring’s UI. I have to say the way the phone reacts to passes and motions, and the speed with which it processes taps and touches is just amazing.<\/p>\n
And that’s where the good stuff ends.<\/p>\n
You can’t pick the thing up without the phone activating itself through the silly double-tap screen experience. But what’s the point of switching such a fundamental feature off? It’s great to have, but when it activates every time you get up from your desk to go to a meeting… What the hell?<\/p>\n
The camera is beautiful. Easy to use, it captures stunning detail every single time. Such a shame your stupid-beyond-belief menu system doesn’t let you back out of the camera, though. Isn’t it?<\/p>\n
And then there’s the stunningly ridiculous logic of not being able to assign individual SMS alerts. Who, in the HTC household, thought this would be a good idea? Oh sure, I can (and did) download an app which let me assign individual SMS alerts. It let me assign individual SMS alerts right up until the time I rebooted the phone, a few days later. And then the phone switched the app off.<\/p>\n
And here’s another thing. Assigning ringtones to groups from my contact list? Hahahahahahahaha. Yeah. That. It’s just beyond stupid that the HTC M8 messes with this simple customisation.<\/p>\n
Now none of these things are unreasonable. In fact, they’re pretty ordinary requirements. I could do all of these things so easily, with my Samsung S3.<\/p>\n
Oh sure, the S3 is not as slick as your M8. And sure, the M8 is faster, and has a better UI than the S3.<\/p>\n
But ask yourself this.<\/p>\n
What is the point of a slicker, faster UI, on a phone, if the phone can’t do simple customisations that (probably) every other Android phone can do?<\/p>\n
I may as well have bought an iPhone for all the use the M8 has been.<\/p>\n
Away from the handset itself, let’s look at the knock-protection cover that comes in the box.<\/p>\n
It’s a half-phone cover, so it only protects the back and sides of the handset.<\/p>\n
This, obviously, leaves the whole of the front unprotected.<\/p>\n
Leaving such a fundamental (not to mention breakable) proportion of the handset unprotected s\u00a0is a good idea, in whose world?<\/p>\n
And then there’s the port, in the heel of the phone cover, where the charger plugs in.<\/p>\n
After less than two weeks (that’s fewer than 14 ‘plug-ins to charge’), the port won’t fold shut.<\/p>\n
So it hangs open to dust and the usual pocket detritus.<\/p>\n
Amazing.<\/p>\n
And, because it won’t fold shut, it’s a sticking-out object just waiting to get caught on clothing and other stuff.<\/p>\n
Which, I’m fairly sure, will result in a sudden visit to the floor.<\/p>\n
See the unprotected screen comment, above.<\/p>\n
So the bottom line, for me, is bits of the phone are stunning. And bits of it are rubbish.<\/p>\n
And I want to use a whole phone that isn’t at least a bit rubbish.<\/p>\n
So I’m sending my HTC One M8 back.<\/p>\n
And I’m getting another Samsung.<\/p>\n
Because Samsung understand the Android system.<\/p>\n
Something that HTC needs to take onboard pretty quickly.<\/p>\n
And Samsung came top of the class\u00a0in design.<\/p>\n
Whilst HTC are in design remedial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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