HTC One M9

The HTC One M9 is a bump up from last year's HTC One M8 in two important areas: specs (it has two quad-core 64-bit processors, 3GB RAM and an Adreno 430 GPU) and the camera: it now has a high resolution rear-facing camera, which will please many people because it was the low resolution "ultrapixel" camera on the first two versions on the HTC One that many found was the only thing letting the phone down. So what about the camera?

While the camera UI is very nice and there are lots of nice features such as HDR, auto-focus, picture-taking during video capture and really quick image capture, the camera is unfortunately, a little disappointing. While colour reproduction and detail is generally very good, many pictures show luminance noise and it struggles with dynamic range when there are light and dark areas in the scene. It also struggles in low-light situations compared to other high end phones, which is a little ironic considering that the last two HTC One's were touted for their superior low-light performance.

Video recording is also not as good as we would have expected, perhaps down to the lack of optical image stabilisation, which according to HTC is mostly due to lack of physical space inside the device, as well as quality control issues. Focusing is the main issue when moving around and this results in some blurred footage in the final result. It seems that the software tends to swing a little too much between over sharpening and not focusing enough. On the positive side, the front-facing 4MP (ultrapixel) camera is excellent for selfies.

Overall, the camera is fun to use, offering lots of cool enhancements and manual adjustments if required, but we can't help feeling disappointed for camera hardware that promised so much.

It's good to see that the One M9 still offers expandable storage up to 128GB like last year's model and the dual front-facing speakers remain - this time with Dolby Sound, offering simply the best audio experience currently available on a mobile phone.

Though the battery has been bumped up in capacity from 2,600 to 2840 mAh, we found battery life to be a little disappointing, actually down a little from last year's model for most everyday use (though you can charge it to over 50% in just 30 minutes). While some people may feel a little disappointed that the screen has not been upgraded to 4K resolution, we feel that 1080p on a 5-inch display is more than enough and the Super LCD display is still excellent. The phone size is still a sweet spot for many users, who find the latest 'phablets' too large to be practical.

Finally, from a software perspective, HTC Sense 7 layered on top of Android 5 is quite possibly the slickest experience available on any Android phone. Though it offers a lot of customisation options, it's very quick and fluid and less cumbersome than other manufaturer skins. In fact, we prefer it over the stock Android experience.