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  • jimbo2779 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    If only the camera had OIS this would be the perfect WP8 phone for what looks to be the rest of this year.
  • Marc007 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Even without optical image stabilization, the camera is still very good. The dual lens camera on the HTC M8 is unique. In my opinion, HTC One M8 is overall better than the Lumia 930, which is one of the best Windows phones: http://versus.com/en/htc-one-m8-for-windows-vs-nok...
  • testbug00 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Oh man, that versus has so many problems, I want to cry.
    1. battery life != battery size.
    2. CPU clock is meaningless on WP8 in the majority of cases, .1Ghz certainly isn't a case that changes anything.
    3. having memory slot (yay! a real, meaningful point!) +1
    4. Better FFC (yay! meaningful point) +1
    5. Stereo speakers (yay! meaningful point) +1
    6. weight is 100% user opinion, I like heavier phones, others don't.
    7. same for thinkness, but, thinner is typically better. +.5
    8. IPS screen... The 930 has an AMOLED screen. They have different advantages, why does that link talk about TN???
    9. apature being smaller does have some advantages also, if the basic research I did is correct.
    10. Every WP8 device has a power saving mode.. Given that you can now set a black background, and the 930 has a AMOLED screen, it likely has better power saving. -1
    11. Has a dual lens Camera? Well, let me zoom, er, well, how about in daylight, er, what about refocusing... oh, Nokia has a refocus application? Complete and utter BS. -1 for worse camera overall.
    12. slo-mo video capture.. Er, might be useful to very few people. +.5
    13. USB 3 v. USB 2.... +1
    14. "lots longer maximum focal length" of 28mm versus 26mm? In what world is that a lot longer? +.1

    Well, next time you have a link, make sure to check it makes sense.
  • maximumGPU - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Agree that VS is useless
  • althaz - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    The screen on the 930 blows the HTC screen out of the water in terms of contrast (aka the most noticeable aspect of a display). The 930 also feels nicer in hand and is overall just better quality hardware - including the camera (though both are acceptable).

    The HTC One is the higher performing phone, but the screen is the real turn-off for me (like most people who aren't phone reviewers, I vastly prefer the perfect blacks of AMOLED over LCD).
  • Alexvrb - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link

    I just checked Verizon's pricing... the M8 WP is indeed $99 with 2 year agreement, just as the article states. But the Icon is free with the same 2 year contract. If you need the SD card slot, get the M8. Otherwise, if the 32GB built-in is enough for you, the Icon is a great deal and probably the way to go. Either way it's good to see more competition in WP devices.
  • craighamilton - Saturday, December 6, 2014 - link

    This is truly an amazing phone. Highly reviewed at http://www.topreport.org/phones/
  • blckgrffn - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    The lack of a dedicated camera button is a bummer, but I would guess we'll see this a lot if Android handsets start getting ported over aggressively... The camera button is super handy at this point...
  • hughlle - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Define a dedicated button. Because i can use the volume buttons on the M7 for the camera without an issue. Nothing a dedicated button does that they can't.
  • Brandon Chester - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    My gripe with volume buttons as camera shutter buttons is they're not two stage. I miss being able to press down on my old Samsung Focus to focus and then press a bit more to click down and take the photo.
  • hughlle - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    I've never even been aware of this kind of thing other than on standalone cameras. Never really felt like a requirement due to touch to focus.
  • Flunk - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    It was a requirement in the Windows Phone 7 spec. It's a shame they didn't keep it.
  • blckgrffn - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Since I take more photos on my phone (925) than phone calls, I love the two stage button. It is just like a point and shoot in that regard...

    And yes, I was referring to all of the reports of the 630 and 635 having a hard time launching the camera app. 8.1 as it stands doesn't have a great way to launch the camera nearly so quickly as just holding down the camera button. Locked, etc.

    I didn't see this mentioned, but does this phone have Glance? A killer feature, IMHO.
  • Brett Howse - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Glance (as it's known) is a Nokia feature.
  • HangFire - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Nokia is now Microsoft. They can license Glance to anyone they please.
  • BMNify - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    There is no glance like Lumia phones but you get HTC Dot View case which serves the same function but implemented in a different way.
  • althaz - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    It doesn't have glance - but neither does Nokia's newest flagship (the 930, which is what I own).
  • uhuznaa - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Well, they can't launch the camera app to begin with.
  • hughlle - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    That is a pretty small reason to have a dedicated button. I have a button on the lock screen that takes me straight to the camera. It doesn't take a second.

    There may be arguments for a dedicated button, but on the whole, people do not need them, and manufacturers normally deisgn things for the largest audience, not a niche audience.
  • MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    A dedicated button is handy for 2 reasons. One, two stage makes it much more like a "real" camera. Two, you can launch into the camera from the lock screen with minimal fuss. I can pull the phone from my pocket and hit the button on the way and have the camera launched quickly. Seems trivial on the surface, but consider that Lumias usually have good cameras, so they start becoming your only camera. I own a 1020 mainly for the camera, but I also happen to like WP8.1, too.
  • Sushisamurai - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Yeah, I'd have to say the #1 thing I miss from these smart phones is a dedicated 2 stage camera button. It's not to activate the camera app that's important, it's the 2 stage button part that's useful.

    With 2 stage, u can lock in a specific focal distance (and exposure), and then pan to a different scene and capture crazy pictures. To do the exact same thing on a touch to focus, you have to touch the screen, and hope it doesn't lose focus when u move/pan to a different scene. That or try holding ur finger on the screen when panning (which never seems to work)
  • flutberf - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    The best feature IMO is that if you hold it down it will wake the device directly into the camera. It's one of my favorite features on my Z1s.
  • althaz - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    You mean except be a genuine 2-stage camera button that's in the correct place for a right-handed person to use?
  • Brett Howse - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Yes Microsoft needs to add a swipe to go to camera feature to WP much like they have on Windows 8.1. One of my biggest issues with the Lumia 630 trying to use it as a daily phone was that Windows Phone wasn't set up for this no camera button on the software side. Yes you can add it to the action center, and yes you can add it to the start screen, but being able to access the camera from the lock screen on devices without a camera button would be much better and faster.

    Hopefully it's going to come with Threshold I can't see why it wouldn't.
  • Brett Howse - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    First Windows Phone with Snapdragon 801. This is what Windows Phone needed more than anything - to be on hardware parity with Android in a reasonable timeframe.
  • inighthawki - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    What is with this strange fascination of people to judge the quality of a phone by whether or not it has the highest end processor in it? Almost nobody needs that kind of high end chip in their phone. Such a spec is completely useless to 98% of the population.
  • Brett Howse - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    First off, it's not useless. If that was the case, the Lumia 630 would be all you ever needed but that's certainly not the case. The UI on Windows Phone has always been excellent even with low end hardware but everything is improved with a more powerful CPU.

    Web browsing is faster, opening apps is faster, navigating apps is faster, opening the camera is faster, getting focus is faster, taking pictures is faster.

    Plus, with Windows Phone marketshare, they can't afford to always be way behind on features. It's a big win for Microsoft that HTC was able to use the EXACT same hardware and just put their OS on it - that wasn't always the case.

    You can't expect to gain ground on the competition when you are always behind. My point regardless wasn't that this is instantly a better phone than any Nokia because of the SoC, but that Windows Phone has hardware parity with Android in a short time frame. It's a big win whether you discount it personally or not.

    As someone who uses a Lumia 1020 every single day, I can say unequivocally that yes I need a faster SoC.
  • inighthawki - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    No, you're misinterpreting me. I don't mean that faster hardware cannot b a great selling point. What I mean is there are people who place far too much weight on whether or not it's literally *THE* top of the line, even if the next best thing is, for all intents and purposes, a negligible performance difference. I've literally seen people say a phone was bad because it *only* had a snapdragon 800, and it was midrange trash compared to an 801 or 805. Yet the difference between them is pretty much unnoticeable to all but the absolute most hardcore users who run benchmarks and actually generate numbers to prove their point.

    There seems to be some sort of cult around phones where this is ay too important. I've seen people build gaming computers where "an i5 is perfectly fine" over the choice of an i7, but suddenly in the mobile space with phones, a Snapdragon 800 is completely unacceptable, despite the only difference is that your webpages take 1.2ms longer to load.
  • Brett Howse - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Ah ok I see what you mean. My point was it's exciting to see a Windows Phone that's on the current top hardware in the same quarter as Android :) Hopefully it continues going forward.
  • inighthawki - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    Yep. It will definitely be nice too see them competing on all fronts.
  • andrejg - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    I have 920 WP81cyan and 1520 with 81/cyan. For most stuff I'd say, that SoC doesn't matter at all, but when I work with camer, launch camera etc..., 1520 is just faster and better.
    But fact is, as I read today's media, most judge by numbers an have no clue, what else to compare. And it is kind of crazy, as I was installing servers in 1995, that had much less computing power and storage, than my today's phone.
    Anyway, can someone put up a comparison table of 90's PC or server cpu's against today's phone cpu's?
  • Da W - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Cause its been that way in computers forever.
  • bleh0 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    This being a Verizon exclusive really kills this for me.
  • BMNify - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    An International version should be launched soon, so i don't care and carriers in USA are way too powerful for allowing an HTC WP8 device on all carriers, they can demand exclusives or refuse to carry such device, such tactics should have been banned and Anti-trust should focus on these but i doubt the fucked up state of USA telecom operators/ carriers can be salvaged now and returned anywhere near to the telecom markets of "Rest of the world".
  • Da W - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Bring it to Canada plz. Gonna sell my HTC one (M7) and my HTC 8X for this one!
  • Devilstar - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    For me as we'll, if it was on AT&T or even better sprint (which I am already on) it would be a n brainer for me to drop my m7 (and give to he wife haha )
  • BMNify - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Good news for you, AT&T have confirmed that they will be carrying this phone soon :) I guess maybe 3 months max exclusive for Verizon as AT&T won't confirm unless the launch was near.
  • BMNify - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Micro SD card implementation is the best in WP8.1 as stated by Anandtech :) As WP8.1 allows you to install apps and games to Micro SD, the 8.1 update 1 added the capability to even store OS updates on SD card, so that you can update the OS even if you have low phone storage.
  • BMNify - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    @Brandon: Can you recheck your camera app information as wpcentral is reporting quite the opposite to what you have posted, here is the camera app info from wpcentral:

    "There are still a few surprises on the software side from HTC, but they come in the form of apps. You can use the stock Windows Phone camera app if you want, or you can use the camera app from HTC. The UI and controls of this camera app are carried over from the one found on the Android version of the HTC One M8. With it you get control over ISO levels, white balance, exposure value and more. You can switch between various modes like HDR, panorama, anti-shake, landscape, portrait and more. You can also use UFocus to change the focus point of your photos after you've taken them."
  • Brandon Chester - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    I'll have to check with Josh. He was the one who ended up doing the hands on with the phone itself.
  • BMNify - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Even Engadget is reporting about HTC camera app with all the features carried over from Android version, so either Josh has missed it or maybe he is not used to windows phone OS.
  • JoshHo - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    In my hands on time I noticed the lack of manual mode in the camera controls immediately. The auto max ISO feature is still present but full manual control is gone for now.
  • haukionkannel - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Is the coming a test One vs One. It would be interesting to see same hardware, different os.
  • pt2501 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    That is an excellent point. Since the hardware is exactly the same, it would be a great test to see which OS is more efficient. Anandtech could test identical browser load times, battery life while performing identical tasks, and ever application load and multitasking efficiency. I have been waiting for this phone to make the jump cross platform and would love to know if windows phone has become a full fledged alternative to android.
  • sr1030nx - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    I would really like to see this.
  • kspirit - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Yes! +1 for this. Please make this happen, AT! :)
  • Morawka - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    I really wish Verizon wouldn't plaster their logo on the back of this phone. It looks like a piece of art otherwise.

    Wonder if it will come to ATT
  • Gigaplex - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    Assuming the hardware truly is identical, is it possible to flash between Android and Windows Phone on the same device? If HTC offered the ability to change the OS as desired with an official firmware replacement, I'd buy one in an instant.
  • danbob999 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link

    The problem with Windows Phones is that they lag behind Android phones by about 6-12 months. Here is another example of this. They could have released both at the same time if they wanted to. Heck, they could even release a single phone and allow to choose the OS. Just like we can choose Linux or Windows on a PC.
  • Laxaa - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    If this phone becomes a success, I think there will be a fair chance that next years model will launch with both OS'es out of the gate.
  • danbob999 - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    They have been releasing Windows Phones similar to Androids 6-12 months late for quite a few years already. And with Windows Phone having lost market share, I don't see how this is going to change.
  • Laxaa - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    But this is the exact same phone, and HTC needs all the marketshare it can get.
  • Gigaplex - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    It takes time and effort to integrate the software with the hardware, and since HTC is struggling compared to other OEMs it's understandable that they prioritise their resources.
  • acccddccc - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    Darn Verizon only....
  • Laxaa - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    Fear not, because the AT&T version has been announced as well.
  • theNiZer - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    Great development for the WP8 eco system with the addition of the HTC One. I will be looking in to this device.
  • dsraa - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    Ok, here you go reclaimer......here's your bleeding edge Top of the line Flagship Windows Phone that you were whining about that didn't exist. And its damn sexy. Now what do you have to say????
  • Prod1702 - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - link

    I hope there is away to get this to run on a android M8 that would make this a lot nicer.
  • HangFire - Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - link

    Still nothing from AT on BlueTooth compatibility with major auto manufacturers and auto A/V mfg equipment. I guess everyone at AT takes the bus and taxis and is oblivious to this huge part of the market.
  • ritwik - Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - link

    I will still go with Huawei's Honor 6 in comparison to this device, as I feel I can get the same features at much better price http://goo.gl/4wojuW

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