Summary: AT&T Mobile sent us the HTC One M8 for review. If your a mom that loves taking tons of pictures of your kids this a great phone for you. This is the perfect phone for Mom’s who love photos of busy and active kids.
Pros:
- Easy to capture quick moving children in photos
- Amazing low light photos
- Great depth of field with photos with the HTC Duo Camera™
- Good sound quality with the HTC BOOMSOUND™
- Great screen, bright with brilliant colors
Cons:
- Aluminum body is easy to nick
- Comes with Sense built in?
- No ability to have a back up battery
The Android Moms Review:
The HTC One is the phone for me! I loved almost everything about this phone! I even loved the feel of the aluminum body in my hand. The HTC One is beautifully crafted and I had my fair share of people jump at me to ask me about my pretty phone.
Camera
I have a DSLR camera but sometimes you just can’t carry a large camera and deal with two wild and crazy boys. I have a point and shoot but have found it much easier to use my phone to capture our everyday life! Plus I always have my phone with me and I almost always forget the point and shoot camera. So I always make sure I get the best camera I can when looking at phones. The HTC One is the perfect phone that’s on the market to give me what I need in a camera.
Photos in Action
The above picture was done while Zarek ran up to me and look how well the camera captured the photo! Most phones I have used before would have blur throughout this photo.
The HTC One has a special feature called UltraPixel which is made to capture more light. When you look at the megapixel count on this phone it will be lower than some others, but it can be compared to the Samsung S4 or the iPhone4 with high megapixels.
Photos in Low Light
We live in a very dark home so there is very little light when we have family fun in our living room. Look at these great Easter shots I got. The HTC One actually takes better photos than my DSLR when it comes to low light. I’m sure if I fiddled with the settings on my DSLR I could have gotten this photo, but having my phone ready at a click of a button for great photos like this is awesome. My great photos were created with help from the UltraPixels super light sensitivity. I have to say I will be leaving my DSLR at home now on when we go to the aquarium or other low light venues.
Video
Even if your are not a vlogging family I’m sure that you will love capturing your family events on video! With the HTC One you get HD videos with just a touch of the screen. You can see all the fun we had on Table Top Day with the boys in this vlog that I made with the HTC One. Below is a video from Easter and you can see how the video performs in low light.
First Time with 4G LTE
For me 4G LTE is a must have! I need to be able to pull websites & photos up fast and upload fast on my phone. I think my favorite part of the the 4G LTE was being able to hotspot the phone so I could work while outside letting the boys play. I work online so sometimes it’s no fun when mom is stuck on the computer and all our friends are outside playing. But with the 4G LTE it was easy to just pick up my laptop and sit outside working off my own personal hotspot.
Sense & Sensibility?
Is Sense a pro or a con? Really for me I barely notice it. I know that when I’ve read about the HTC One a lot of reviewers complained about HTC Sense. But if you are not a full on tech nerd I don’t think you will really notice it. Honestly – if you don’t know what Android Vanilla means I think you can ignore most reviews that bash Sense.
Get a Case
Even though the HTC One is beautiful in it’s aluminum design I have found that this is a negative as well. I got this review phone with these dings already. I experienced this with my M7 as well when I dropped the phone about 2 feet onto concrete and got this ding. It was not a very long fall and as a mom keeping ahold of a phone can be hard sometimes. I actually remember I was bent over dealing with Zarek who had fallen when the phone slipped out of my hand. So as a mom I highly recommend getting a case for this phone! There are even some nice gel ones that will show off the beauty of the design but still protect it as well. This is an affiliate link to the HTC One M8 Ultra Slim Fit Cover that I got.
Battery Life
Android always fights with battery life on it’s phones. But on top of that you have to be aware that you can’t take an extra battery for the HTC One. If you learn a few tricks on how to save on your battery you should be fine. HTC does also offer a battery saver feature I recommend using. Also make sure if you have Google+ saving your photos that you only do it while charging. Be aware that having using bluetooth or GPS will drain your battery as well.
Conclusion
The HTC One is a great phone and I’m so glad AT&T Mobile gave me a chance to try it out. I think this is a great phone for moms and especially moms who love photography and taking photos of their kids. I have actually chosen this phone for my newest upgrade because I really fell in love with it and I think you will too.
I’m really impressed with the low-light photo from the aquarium.
I can’t believe how good the camera is in terms of capturing motion and in less than ideal light situations- which is the reason I carry a small point and shoot as the backup to my phone. I’m glad phone manufacturers are stepping up to fill that gap in their camera phones!
With the One it is also incredibly easy to use “Zoe” mode to capture action shots and not miss that perfect moment! Highlight videos are pretty neat too- my friends have been very impressed when I have taken a bunch of shots at an event and without my having to do anything else I automatically have a 30 second montage video of my pictures complete with music.
OK. I want this! My phone is my camera and I take pictures all the time. The app that I’ve put on my iPhone just reminds me that this isn’t truly a CAMERA, I have a phone that is doing it’s best to be a camera.
The clarity looks great in your photos. I’m having difficulty with clear looking zoom images with my iPhone Camera+ app. What do you think of the HTC on zoom?
Low-light pictures were the bain of my existence with my old Android phone. So glad they’ve solved it with this one!
Great review from a mom’s perspective.
/hi, I am also a mom and its been painful 6 months trying to get a decent smart ph for capturing my sons pics while is running around. I have tried lumia 920, 925, lg g2 and now I am not sure what else to try. Im also considering buying a dslr but the lack of portability keeps me thinking. Would you still sugest going in for hrc one, would it give 0 blur, as in not 0 blur but atleast capture the moment? Or would u recommend another smartphn. Pl advise, thank you.
Zarek didn’t like my egg cream either lol. So cute! That phone looks awesome. Love the pics!
He’s in a super picky stage!
Looks like I have something to keep my eye on when I eventually upgrade!
You should really try it out! I love how it works at places like the aquarium and at events!
wow those are some great pictures thanks for the review good info to know when im ready to shop for my next phone
We were going to get this phone for our daughter as we had heard it was good too. The videos are so sweet with your cute kids.
It’s impressive that you are getting thoughts from this article as well as from our argument made at this time.|