HTC One M8 UK SIM-Free Smartphone - Gunmetal Grey

Excellent phone! HTC has worked for me and several friends for years - and the M8 so far has been great for me. The price was good value through Amazon, and I've calculated it will work out as saving me money, purchasing a phone myself and going SIM only with a network rather than going onto another contract for 24months!! Especially as I'm hoping this phone lasts me a good few years if I look after it properly, with no need to upgrade after 2. I love the colour - as I was after something a bit different from the normal greys and silvers. The size isn't too big either - I had the M7 previously, which is slightly smaller but not much. And as always Android is so much easier to use and get on with than a certain fashionable brand which teenagers flock to. The HTC has a great camera and often takes better photos than my little digital camera, lots of storage, great screen organisation, and battery life is really good - On a normal day I often only use around 50% and even using my phone as a Sat Nav without charging it in the car I still have battery life left at the end of the day!! I imagine this will wane as the phone ages, but for now it's great. The HTC also has the best speakers of any phone on the market, no matter what model you have, and on the M* there's no exception. Fantastic sound from this phone! As with all phone changes there are some differences to get used to - but these are minimal here and easy to get used to - such as the home and back buttons no longer being physical buttons but part of the touch screen, and the power button on the top of the phone being on the opposite side to what I was used to! I had been toying with getting the more up to date M9 but after lots of comparison reading I decided on the M8, and am glad I did. I think for the hike in price for an upgrade to the M9 it's not worth it. The cost was a big factor for me - esp after finding that after 2.5 yrs the M7 had lost nearly all its value (originally £600 brand new down to £25!!!), so don't weant to invest such a huge amount when it's not going to be worth much in a couple years. And from what I've read it seems that the M9 doesn't have much of an edge over the M8 for me to warrant paying out for it. This phone is great, and in my opinion should be outselling the Samsungs and Apples out there!

Having bought a M7 in October 2013, (after reading a many reviews) and really loving it, I seriously doubted the M8 could be much of an improvement. How wrong I was! Took me a couple of months but I eventually took the plunge & invested in an M8 - boy, am I glad I did. Whilst the screen resolution is the same on the old & new models, the larger (5") M8 screen doesn't appear to have any clarity loss against the 4.7" M7 screen. Strangely, despite looking a fair bit bigger, the M8 feels as good as, if not better than, the M7. The ability to add (up to) 128Gb memory with a microSD card is a real bonus. With the M7 I used a USB flash drive connected via a micro USB cable. The beauty of the external memory on board means you can save considerable space by transferring a lot of apps on to it. The biggest improvement on the M8 is the battery charge life. The M7 would last 12 hours if you are lucky, but the M8 is usually good for at least 36 hours and I have seen times approaching 48 hours. I now leave my portable battery charger at home when I go out. Tablet wise, I have a Nexus 7 which I carried around when I was using the M7 but it too has been relegated to my bedside table when I go out since getting the M8. I also had a Nexus 5 which I sold in March which was a nice phone for the price but it lacked the quality feel & performance of the M7 and isn't in the same league as the M8. Software wise, the M8 has just enough & fortunately doesn't suffer from being overloaded with "bloatware apps" that take up space and can't be deleted and also slow down the phone. (My opinion of a popular manufacturer of cellphones whose name begins with 'S' & isn't Sony!) Be warned that the M8 uses a nanoSIM which is smaller than the currently popular microSIM. I simply went down to the high street shop of my service provider & they transferred my existing cell number onto the new nanoSIM while I waited & at no charge. The main beef that the critics point out on the M8 is the camera. I have used the camera several times & found it quite suitable for my needs. The photos have been reasonable & the quality acceptable. HTC's Zoë is a pleasure to use and gives the user the pick of a group of photos to choose the best shot. I doubt any serious photographer would ever sell their camera & replace it with a cellphone! Overall, HTC seem to have got it just right with the M8 and there isn't anything I could really fault. As I stated in the subject title: 1 word describes the HTC One M8 - SUPERB!

Beware I bought this phone in October 2015 from Amazon market place from a supplier called Mariner2007 who was based in Hong Kong, the phone worked good until February this year when it upgraded to Android 6 then it promptly died, when I got in touch with the supplier, I was emailed with a list of instructions to flash the phone and because I had the phone for over 3months the warranty was up (this was a brand new phone) I was quite shocked I tried to flash the phone but could not get it to work so I tried a independent phone engineer, who told me I should not have to flash the phone as its something best left to a engineer, he tried to flash it too but it would not work, he suspected a damaged board in the phone, I then contacted Amazon who were helpful up to a point when I put a claim in to there A to Z guarantee, it was turned down due to me not contacting the supplier by 30 days (this time was when the phone worked fine. All I then got from Amazon and there third party supplier was I should contact HTC directly, Don't take it for granted that your new electronic device comes with a 12 month guarantee, it may not, also mariner2007 as left Amazon market place. The long and short is now I am stuck with a phone I cannot use and a complete distrust in Amazon

My HTC One M8 has just failed completely so whilst I look for what my next phone will be, this is my final verdict on this. When I first purchased this phone it was £485, this was in June 2014, so it has lasted me almost exactly 4 years before it gave up completely though I think the really hot weather we have been having finally finished it off. ----------------- Good Points ----------------- - Large Screen, amazing speakers and headphone hack, makes it a great phone to have with you on long journeys as you can use it to watch movies and listen to music - Headphone jack, though I have said this already, with new models getting rid of the headphone jack, I think it's important to mention this one hasn't done that - Great camera, it has dual camera which I never made use of but the picture quality was amazing - Great user interface, I had my main pane where I select what apps I wanted set up really easily and it would easy to turn off any notifications I didn't want to see - Notifications were easy to see, e.g. if someone sent a message on a particular application or someone posted a new video, it was very good at notifying you of the news --------------- Bad Points --------------- - Large screen, this is a good point and a bad point, being so big combined with it's slim design means it feel a bit over the top, the phone could easily fall out of your pocket if you have other things at the bottom of it - Poor battery life, towards the end my phone started cutting out at 20%, the battery would go down so quickly especially if you watched any videos, the battery life was never great to begin with - Poor phone reception, people calling me couldn't always get through, I had another phone to compare it to so I know it's not the greatest in this area - Confusing contact list, when adding people to my contact list, I didn't find this so user friendly - Slim design, it's great that it is so light and thin but it's so thin you can easily drop it which meant I always used a case, in turn this meant I never felt motivated to test out the dual camera as the second camera was always covered - Difficult to repair, I took this to a repair shop and they wouldn't repair it and if you watch a video of someone replacing the battery, you'll see what I mean, it's like mission impossible, I know people have successfully replaced their battery however, in my case the phone is completely dead so I think it's destined for the scrap heap - Screen Time Out function kept resetting, meaning my phone would go into sleep mode sooner than I would like and when I changed the settings, one day it would randomly reset and I would have to set it again. - Unwanted notifications, though I could turn this off easily, there were way too many and HTC kept asking if I wanted to share my data and every time I let it know and it wouldn't be long before it asked again, I found this bit a little intrusive. - Small Internal Storage, the amount of updates that come through, I barely had anything installed on my phone so expect to run out of space, though you can purchase an external memory card to compensate for this. ---------- Overall ---------- Though I gave this lots of bad points, I was happy with the experience this phone gave me and definitely helped me decide what type of phone I want to buy next. It was a series of little things that let this phone down but the things it did well at, it did them very well. The fact that this phone is a lot cheaper now, if you want a good experience without paying a mountain of cash and you are okay with the bad battery life then you will like this phone. It's an inspirational model and worth a look.

I write this after half a year of use. Great phone. If you are or were an Apple fan, you just have to accept, that as every android phone it needs basic attention as clearing the memory sometimes, turning it off once a week, reinstall it once a year, etc. I always try to keep my phone fresh and clear, and so it never let me down, did not freeze at all in the last 6 months. Runs everything on google store. A proper high end phone. I chose this over the One M9 because I also needed a good camera, and as I see it, the Ultra Pixel dual camera wins over the M9's 20 megapixels, especially in nasty light conditions. Also I think if you ever try the android interpretation of the HTC, the Samsung or Lg, or Sony, can't satisfy you any longer. I just love it since I had my first Desire C back in the day. Blink Feed is nice, although it needs care and patience to make it display the contents you are interested in. The motion launch features are great, but I actually use only one of them. The double tap. I just love that I don't have to find the buttons on the phone to turn on the display. It is very stylish that it wakes with a double tap. The camera has great features, it's like you have a basic photoshop in your device - but I don't really use those. I just need nice regular pictures. I also like that you can change the focus of the pictures even after the picture is taken, thanks to the dual camera. What I also like is the built-in face primer/makeup effect that you can set on a scale, to make your skin look as you want on the picture, when you use the selfie cam.

I've had the pleasure to own quite literally every single high end flagship Android device over the past few years and the HTC One M8 is up there. It's extremely quick almost on par with the Google Nexus 5 and Sense 6 is the best iteration yet by HTC, it's light enough and doesn't have much bloatware unlike the bloat heavy Touchwiz skin that Samsung use on their phones. Sense 6 looks great and behaves in a very fluid manner and the phone is a joy to use, although ergonomically it is slightly tall and the HTC logo strip at the bottom of the screen is a design quirk that takes getting used to. The screen tech that HTC have deployed in this years version is as good as usual although not as many PPI's as its predecessor but that's due to the screen size being increased to 5 inches. The sound quality from the HTC One M8 is the best I've ever heard and that's via its boomsound speakers and headphones, the sound is rich in quality and music has never sounded so good. Battery life is above average and can almost go toe to toe with the battery king of non phablet style phones the LG G2. This is where all the goodness ends HTC are pushing their premium design and build to the masses, however I'm very sad to say that the HTC One M8 is plagued with build quality issues much like its predecessor. HTC have next to little or no QC during the production process and I've had four replacements all of which have either come with scratches, raised speaker grilles, wonky screens / dead pixels, wobbly power / volume buttons and a handset with a defective battery which would eat through it in no time. When paying well over £530 I expect the product to reflect such an expensive outlay and after four exchanges I gave up on the phone. HTC need to seriously look at their quality control during the manufacturing process, I would highly recommend this phone but for the QC issues that plague it I'm hard pushed to recommend it to anyone seeing as it's so expensive anyway. Nice try HTC but with upcoming phones like the LG G3 and the recently released OneplusOne phone (the latter can be had for £350) once the invite system ceases and is available to general public in mid June, you won't be King of the Android hill for long.

Good Points; Great phone. Battery seems to last ages and the software is super fast. Even the screen seems to have improved versus the previous version. The navigation buttons are now part of the screen and disappear when not in use. Vastly improved blink feed. Not so good points: The phone requires a "nano sim". If you are upgrading from a HTC one M7 then that sim does not work in this phone. You can not even cut it to fit ( I cut it and it still didn't work) You have to order a new sim from your network :( Also be aware that this is not a compact/light phone . The brushed aluminium looks good but is very slippery to hold. The TV/Media Infrared remote control function not as good as the previous version of the phone as it struggled to find my some of my gadgets, hopefully this can be improved in software updates. and the final negative point - If you break this phone you are fxxxxx. Like the previous version, if you break the screen the whole phone needs to be pulled apart and a new screen fixed. I have heard that you have to send it off to HTC and they supply you with a new phone. I don't think it has been built to be repaired, therefore invest in a decent case. Overall top quality premium phone. Probably the best smartphone on the market and I would buy again

The phone succeeds on many levels but ultimately I switched back to an S5. It's a large phone and heavy. It feels heavier than an S5 which is to be expected as it's one solid chunk of metal. The metal finish is nice, although I felt the buttons were poorly integrated (feel a little wiggly). The sim and sd card sit under separate covers iPhone style. The sim card has to be cut down to micro mini ittsybitsy size which is not always straight forward even with a dedicated cutter. The metal is also a bit slippery. It's surprising how many times I've dropped it while grappling one handed with it in bed or at my desk at work. The screen is disappointing. It's no where near as bright or rich as the Samsung screen. Depending on whether you use any other shiny toys during the day you may or may not notice after a while. It was a constant disappointment to me though. The HTC take on Android is good. It scores better than the Samsung in this. HTC appear to have designers doing the design instead of lawyers and it works for the most part. One thing that fails miserably is the tap screen to wake feature. Tapping works occasionally, picking the phone up and accidentally touching the screen works 100pc, usually launching the camera app or dialing someone. The lock screen is bypassed by such actions seemingly. The biggest let down is the camera. It's only 4mp, but promises great low light performance. It's a promise it breaks. Worse, bright light performance is pretty horrendous too. If the scene is very bright, the camera won't function at all. If the scene is normally lit the auto focus feels slow and lazy. The less light the slower and more lazy it becomes. I've kept none of the photos I've taken in the few weeks I've had it. Sound quality is excellent through decent headphones. I was going to give it three stars, but proof reading what I've written, I think it's worth 2 now. For me the camera, touch to wake, screen and slippery surface cost it dear.

I had HTC DESIRE HD, great phone got it 2010 and still working, battery last about 50%, and the phone lags but after 4 years of work is amazing that still works. That's the first reason I decided to stick with HTC, and the one M8 promise to be handsome phone. Comparing with the competitions S5, as far as performance they are quite the same, maybe a difference in the camera. The Samsung has extra features like the fingerprint scanner, the hart rate monitor, etc that can make the difference if you enjoy having a phone with many feature. But for me is the daily working, and I got to say the phone beats S5 in daily use, the sound is amazing never heard a cell sound like it, the phone is the best looking phone in the market, the screen performs great outdoor with direct sunlight. And about the camera, maybe not that much megapixels but ultra-pixels performs better in low light environments and many pictures are taken in those conditions, in other conditions you will get good pictures. I'm getting about two days of battery life with regular/high use, remember I just got the phone, and when you get new toy, you usually play with it extra time to learn all the features. I got de European model because of the 4g band with Digitel in Venezuela. The phone picks 4g, and I got to say it really makes a difference upgrading to 4g, my patience is less stress. I recommend these phone.

Great phone. Sense UI is very intuitive and looks great. Love the news feed. The screen is very responsive. Battery lasts ~1day under heavy use; moderate use 2/3 days (which i'm satisfied with). HTC regularly updates the dot view (wich i very much love) for the dot case with charming themes. The camera is really good; i don't really use the 3D thingy; i brag about it though (and ppl are like wtf. Aliens!). The sound is really good. I also had the M7 with beats audio and the Boomsound on M8 sounds better; +bass and +sweeter sounds overall. The phone looks so darn good i hate to wear a case; it has the right weight so it does not feel like a cheap toy wheb holding it. I am also glad that it has a card slot which it's rly useful. Everything starts up fast and runs well. The phone is rootable and s-off-able. The signal is strong, wireless as well. The only small downside would be that the screen is too responsive at times and it detects your finger when it's just above the screen (very very very close to screen, i'm talking about 0.2mm); after i got used with the keyboard layout I magically managed to get over this. A friend just bought Note 4 and it has the same issue; maybe it's from gorilla glass I have the phone for half a year now and i'm still in love with it. I dropped it once from ~1m, without case, on gritstone and it just got 2 tiny tiny white spots. I bought this phone along with 2 other friends of mine. I liked it so much that i bought for my dad one too

Bonjours cher futurs acheteurs! Je vous conseil vivement d'acheter ce portable pour de multiples raisons: La qualité HTC avant tout: son merveilleux, pixels impressionnant, photos bluffantes,taille remarquable .... Bref cette marque à vraiment tout pour plaire et la prise en main est très facile! Le seule petit hic est que cet acheteur propose une version anglophone du portable, et il n'y a pas moyen de l'avoir en français... Personnellement ça ne m'a pas dérangé mais pour les non bilingues la compréhension peut être difficile.... A part ça, il semble plutôt solide (est déjà tombé 4 fois en 2 jours sur le sol est rien n'a bougé) ^^ Alors si vous hésitiez, et bien n'hésitez plus! Ce portable est parfait et pour tout vous dire c'est le meilleur que je n'ai jamais eu! Comme toujours il est arrivé à temps, avec 2 jours d'avance, super bien emballé! PS: prévoir une carte sim Nano (ils vous suffit d'aller la demander chez votre opérateur, c'est gratuit). PS2: vous trouverez aussi une coque très résistante pour le portable dans la boîte. HTC toujours fidèle à lui même et au petit soins de ses acheteur ^^

Trovo che sia stata una delle migliori scelte quella di acquistare questo telefono, che reputo un ottimo dispositivo, con pochissimi difetti. Premetto che il MIGLIORE smartphone a mio avviso non esiste, si cerca quello che si adatta meglio alla persona, e questo cellulare è riuscito a stupirmi,lo valuto come la migliore opzione per quanto riguarda il mio conto. Un fulmine in tutte le attività con minimo lag anche nelle operazioni più pesanti (giochi, video...), grazie allo snap.801 ma anche alla sense, che credo sia una tra le interfacce più reattive e simili ad android stock. Schermo fantastico con riproduzione colori magnifica, ottimi anche angoli di visione e ppi; casse frontali da paura, le migliori nel settore; una batteria che mi ha parecchio soddisfatto, con cui si riescono a compiere due giorni di uso intenso. Da non dimenticare è il look, moderno, rifinito, dotato di materiali ricercati... Nulla da criticare a riguardo, se non che si rovina visibilmente se lasciato cadere . L'unico difetto è la fotocamera (posteriore, quella anteriore, per amanti di selfie, è moto buona), non eccellente ma nemmeno così scarsa come è stata venduta da alcuni recensori, che si è rivelata più che decente per il mio utilizzo, anche se spesso bisogna aggiustarla manualmente per ottenere buoni risultati (in condizioni in cui ci sono luci forti fa fatica a sistemare correttamente colori, contrasto...). Non è un problema per il sottoscritto poichè è di livello sufficiente per condividere, fare video per amici, divertirsi con effetti, slow-motion incredibili, editare con re-focus... Insomma, se volessi fare foto professionali, preferirei portarmi dietro la mia macchina fotografica. A chi consigliarlo? A chi, avendo valutato gli altri top di gamma, preferisce fluidità, velocità, ottimo comparto multimediale e design e materiali da fare invidia a tutti gli altri.

Great phone except can't make or accept phone calls on any local carriers. Shame. Will likely factory reset and drop in one of those electronic recycling boxes.