The Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC just launched its latest flagship smartphone, the HTC One M9, in March and rolled it out to the global retail markets starting in April.
While its latest flagship handset generated positive reviews from consumers citing that it was able to compete head-on with the latest flagship smartphones of Samsung and Apple to some extent, the major downside of the HTC One M9, just like its predecessor, the HTC One M8, was its average camera.
Despite claimed improvements in the camera of the HTC One M9 by way of software upgrade, the smartphone’s camera was still a disappointment when compared to the other flagship handsets.
During a recent blind camera shootout of several different Android phones conducted by Android Authority, the HTC One M9 was never in real contention at all.
Android Authority used the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, the HTC One M9 and two different Huawei smartphones for its recent blind camera shootout comparisons, and the end result was that the Taiwanese smartphone maker’s flagship did not top any of the categories at all, although it did manage to tie for the best in one of them.
Comparing the different pictures taken by the four phones, it was quite easy for Android Authority to recognize right away which ones were taken by the HTC One M9. The pictures taken by the HTC flagships had the dullest colors, worst resolution, and lowest contrast.
Making up for the HTC One M9
As if to sort of make up for HTC One M9, the Taiwanese smartphone maker is actually planning to launch the HTC Butterfly 3 (HTV31) in Japan, which is said to be the Japanese version of the latest flagship of HTC.
The problem with HTV31 is that it is reportedly several notches better than the HTC One M9, and many experts in the global tech community believe that the Taiwanese tech company is actually shooting itself in the foot by doing so, marketing-wise.
The HTC One M9 features the Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor and has the distinctive top-and-tail stereo front speakers that deliver superb sound quality for a smartphone, due to its BoomSound. The device also supports Dolby Audio too. The battery life of the HTC One M9 is similar to the HTC One M8 although it drains rather quickly if users browse the web.
It also features a 20-megapixel image sensor manufactured by Toshiba but does not offer class-leading dynamic range. And dynamic range is not something that a software update may be able to fix since it is more of a hardware issue. It is not clear how the software update will improve the camera of the HTC One M9 but it is unlikely that it would make groundbreaking improvements to it.