HTC One M9 goes on sale today: 11 things you should know

We’ve already taken a look at what you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy S6 now that its big day has arrived, and we’ve even shown you were to pick it up from. Let’s not forget that the HTC One M9 is also hitting retailers in the US (and several other markets) today.

While some of you may have not only pre-ordered the One M9 already, there’s a good chance you received it days ago. For those that aren’t sure if the HTC One M9 is right for them, here’s few important things you might want to know before (and after) buying HTC’s latest.

1. Check out the reviews

If you haven’t already, you’ll want to check out our full review on the HTC One M9 in order to give you a better idea of what to expect.

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2. The competitors

The One M9 is up against some very big competition. While the most obvious competitor is the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, there’s also the LG G Flex 2, the Note 4, and the upcoming LG G4.

4. Availability

While we will be bringing you a more detailed look at HTC One availability in the United States a bit later today, the HTC One M9 through most major retailers and all major carriers in the United States. Pricing will vary considerably, depending on if you go with a contract, a payment plan, or buy it outright. For those simply interested in paying full retail price, you’re looking at around $599.99.

5. Colors

The HTC One M9 might not be available in the myriad of colors that you’ll find the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, but you do have the choice between gunmetal gray and a silver that has a subtle hint of gold that helps it stand out a bit. Most carriers and retailers are offering both color choices, regardless of what country you are buying the One M9 — though there’s probably some exceptions to that rule.

6. Storage

While the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are breaking away from Samsung tradition and ditching microSD, the One M9 still keeps the expandable slot. This could be a big enough advantage to sway some of our readers over the One M9 and away from Samsung, especially if local storage is important to you. That said, unless you live in Taiwan, the only internal storage option you have is 32GB, though you can easily pair it with an 128GB microSD card.

7. Uh-Oh

For US HTC ONe M9 owners, HTC is offering its Uh-Oh program, a major upgrade to its existing Advantage warranty program. Customers who sign up for Uh-Oh will receive a free one-time replacement if their One M9 or One M8 suffers a broken screen or any water damage. The coverage lasts for 12 months from the purchase of a device, and all users are automatically signed up upon purchasing a device.

8. Ultrapixel camera moves to the front

Ultrapixels aren’t gone with the One M9, but they are moved to a new location. The Ultrapixel camera is now on the front, with the rear receiving a new 20.7MP shooter. While this should allow for a better camera experience than found with the M8, many reviews indicate that the One M9 photo-taking experience still is behind the curve due to post-processing and other camera software issues, and not the new sensor itself. For what it is worth, HTC has updated its camera software to help improve this situation, though most reviews say, even after the update, the camera experience could use a bit more fine tuning.

9. You won’t burst into flames

The HTC One M9 had some early reports claiming it gets super hot, due to the Snapdragon 810 processor. Since then, it’s been proven that this isn’t necessarily the case. Our own Josh Vergara indicated in his review that the phone gets a bit warm, but he wouldn’t go so far as to call it hot. In other words, if you are on the fence about buying the One M9 due to possibly overheating issues, you have nothing to worry about.

10. A beautiful design gets further refined

The One M9 is very similar in design to the One M8, but not indentical. The handset actually feels more like a merger between the One M7 and One M8, taking both phones best features and adding on a few extra coats of paint. Bottom-line, the One M9 is a beautiful phone, even if it’s design isn’t a massive departure from the One M8 and the M7 before it.

11. HTC themes make Sense UI more flexible than ever

If you enjoy theming, you’ll be happy to know that the improved Sense 7 software includes a very robust theming engine. The HTC Theme engine lets you quickly change the entire look and feel of your phone, with built-in themes, add-on themes, the ability to snap pic and use the colors for themes, and so much more.

HTC has really done a great job at making its software experience a bit more customizable.

HTC One M9 to launch in India on April 14?

HTC’s new One M9 flagship handset could launch in India on April 14th after the company issues invites to an event in Delhi. The invite says that the company is “unveiling brilliance” and is “going to showcase the most exciting revelation in the history of smartphones” which suggests the company will announce the One M9 for India at the event.

The HTC One M9 was announced at MWC and features a 5 inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display with HTC’s trademark front-facing BoomSound speakers. Under the hood, there’s a 2GHz octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 810 chipset, 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage which can be expanded using a microSD card.

As we covered in our One M9 review, the biggest change over the One M8 is in the camera department with HTC opting to replace the Ultrapixel rear camera from the One M8 with a 20MP Sony sensor, dual LED flash and 4K video recording. Sadly the One M9 also drops the dual camera functionality of the One M8 but the Ultrapixel camera does stick around, instead making its way to the front of the One M9.

The rest of the One M9 specs include 5.1 Dolby Surround sound playback, LTE Cat 6, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 and a 2840 mAh battery. The One M9 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with HTC’s Sense 7 UI on top which brings new features including a theme manager and separate work and home modes.

The event in India could also be the launch of the One M9+ which was announced yesterday but with this handset limited to China at the moment, it’s unlikely it’ll be released alongside the One M9 in India on April 14th.

Surprise, surprise: The HTC One M9 Plus is now official, brings back the Duo Camera

As expected, today’s HTC event has announced that the HTC One M9 Plus is now official. The heavily leaked device has been on the radar pretty much since the HTC One M9 was released, and has somewhat undermined the M9’s release seeing as the M9 Plus can be seen as superior in several areas. Chief among the […]

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HTC publishes kernel source code for the One M9

HTC has just published the kernel source code for the new One M9 handset on the HTC Dev site. If you’re a developer looking to enhance your application functionality on the One M9, you can head to the dev site and download the kernel that clocks in at 517MB. Regular consumers don’t really have much use for the source code, but it’s there for the taking if developers want it. The kernel can also be used to create custom ROMs for the device, so we’ll hopefully get to see some new ROMs become available in the near future.

The kernel is based on Android 5.0.1 and is available for a number of different regions and carriers. As of right now, there’s no U.S. specific version of the code but more options will most likely be added in the future.

With the mostly positive reviews the device has been getting thus far, it’s nice to see HTC making the code available in a timely fashion. If you’re interested in grabbing the download, head to the source link below.