**Full Disclosure: I participated in an Influencer Activation Program on behalf Influence Central for Sprint. I received sample devices to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.
Not long ago I dropped and shattered my phone. I was 12 weeks shy of being eligible for an upgrade so a new phone was going to cost me over $600 (which I was not willing to spend). My husband qualified, though, so I used his upgrade to get a new phone. Whew!
About three days after that, I was asked to attend an event at a Dallas Sprint store to learn about the HTC One M8 Harmon Kardon edition. HTC was going to let me bring the phone home and Sprint was going to provide the serivce. Immediately, I called my sister and asked if I could sleep in her spare room and made arrangements for my husband to go in to work late and take off early.
Everything was covered, so on October 21, I got to meet with Mary, the territory sales rep for HTC, and Oscar, the Sprint communications guy, for a special ‘class’ about the M8 and its features. Below are two tweets I sent out about the phone.
HTC Magic is 90% metal. Has 2 cameras in back. You can edit photos after the fact. 5 mega pixel front camera #sprintmom
— Sara P. (@SensiblySara) October 21, 2014
Sprint and HTC are great partners! HTC focuses on 3 things: design, sound & camera #sprintmom — Sara P. (@SensiblySara) October 21, 2014
There are so many cool features on the HTC One M8 but the camera is probably my favorite because you can do so much with it. The dual front speakers are pretty great, too, though! I had the opportunity to play with the phone for about an hour at the Sprint store before it was time to go. As soon as I got home, my husband took possession of the phone and has been playing with it since. The following are his thoughts and opinions on the phone.
The HTC One M8 phone is fast and responsive. It’s everything you would expect from a flagship phone. There are three unexpected features that make this phone fun to use. The first feature I want to talk about is a small part of the HTC sense – when you pick up the M8 in portrait you can swipe up down, left or right on the screen to quickly access the phone’s functions. This is by far the fastest I’ve ever been able to wake a phone up and have it ready for use.
The second is a little-known feature that I love – the HTC TV remote. I enjoy my home theater with all the connected devices and my favorite device is my programmable universal remote. I am astounded that I can control all my devices and activities with just the HTC One M8. Set up took less than two minutes and the phone works wonderfully as a remote. I have the ability to browse the programming guide for my cable provider, select the show I want to watch and station changes almost like magic.
Lastly, I want to talk about the two forward facing speakers and the sound quality they produce. Isn’t it silly to have a phone that only has speakers on the back? The M8 is changing that. There are dual front-facing HTC BoomSound™ speakers that create an audio soundstage just for you. I never really listened to music on my phone before (with or without headphones) but that is changing! Sometimes I just turn on my music and slip it in my back pocket while I walk around. It’s like having my own personal concert that just follows me around. The sound quality is impressive. Music comes out very clearly and is quite loud.
What phone do you currently use? What, if anything, are you looking to upgrade to?
I like the idea of having 2 cameras in the back. The speakers would be the biggest thing for me though. I love music and the easier to listen to the better.
I love this phone! It takes wonderful photos and has great sound.
I got to review the regular HCT M8 and loved the front facing dual speakers. I cannot imagine how wonderful the speakers must sound on the Harmon Kardon edition.
I use an iphone right now, and I take a lot of photos with it. Considering what I have learned here, this might be a better phone for me, if only for that purpose. Do you find that your pictures are great enough to use for posts?
I currently have an iPhone5S I have no plans to upgrade it at this time.