HTC One E8

If the M in the name of its progenitor stands for Metal, we can put our money on the E in its affordable variant stands for ‘Elegant’. To bring the E8 to an affordable price point, the brand may have cut a few corners, but they certainly don’t affect the looks department. If both the M8 and E8 and placed together, then it could be difficult to tell the two apart, especially from a distance. The HTC One (E8) looks almost exactly like the M8 right from the BoomSound speakers on the front, to the placement of buttons and ports. The rounded edges and curved rear also give the same impression and so does the zero-gap construction.

HTC always tries to tread its own path compared to its competitors. When it launched the One last year, it was the only flagship with a screen size of 4.7-inches, and its successor also holds the same title with its 5-inch display. Most other premium flagships these days sport larger screens. The E8 also has the same 5-inch display based on Super LCD 3 technology and bears a full HD resolution like its sibling. With a pixel density of 441ppi, the display is really gorgeous. The viewing angles are great and ample brightness levels lets you view the screen even under direct sunlight.

The HTC One launched last year was a bold step from the brand considering it openly challenged smartphone manufacturers to innovate in the camera department beyond megapixels. With its 4MP UltraPixel camera, the One proved that the quality of an image can be improved by packing in larger pixels, instead of a large sensor. Its successor, the M8, took camera innovation to another level by adding a dedicated sensor at the rear along with main sensor – a first for any smartphone camera. The additional sensor captures depth information and hence allows Lytro-like effects including the ability to change focus between subjects, copy and paste, add seasons, and more.

HTC was one of the first Android manufacturers to differentiate its software interface with a custom layer referred as Sense. The custom overlay has now reached the sixth iteration and it’s also available on HTC One (E8). Sense 6 is based on Android KitKat 4.4.2 and comes with a vastly-different UI than stock Android along with a number of features baked in.

While the outards of both the HTC One (M8) and its affordable sibling, the One (E8) might be different, their innards are the same. This means that the One E8 delivers top-notch performance all thanks to Qualcomm’s latest-gen Snapdragon 801 processor sporting four cores ticking at 2.5GHz. Complementing the chipset is 2GB of RAM. As expected, the smartphone didn’t show any trace of lag while moving between screens or switching between multiple apps. The Adreno 330 graphics processor ensures that the device offers smooth gaming experience and we loved the speediness of playing resource-intensive titles such as Riptide GP2 and Shadowgun: Deadzone.

In terms of connectivity, the mobile is as loaded as it gets. In fact, it boasts of a few features which none other flagship can. Not only does it offer dual-SIM support, it’s also compatible with CDMA networks. Although, it must be noted that the One E8 is one of the very few devices accepting nano-SIMs, and while the first slot supports CDMA or 3G networks, the second only supports GSM.