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If you love the HTC One M8 hardware, but prefer a stock Android experience (and one that will likely get updated sooner), this is where the Google Play edition comes in handy.
UFOCUS ON HTC ONE M8 FOR FREE
There's one other nicety about the phone that shouldn't go unnoticed: Despite its Google branding, HTC still includes the device as part of its Advantage program, which means HTC will replace your screen for free if you break it within the first six months. On the Google Play edition, you can view the time and weather, but from what we can tell, there are no other notifications to take advantage of.
UFOCUS ON HTC ONE M8 FULL
The Dot View case also works, but again, it doesn't get the full functionality it enjoys on the Sense version. The only thing it lacks is the ability to swipe in different directions and have it do different things (e.g., swipe down to activate voice dial). You can still double-tap to wake, press the volume button and lift the phone to activate the camera and swipe the screen in any direction to unlock it - all of the core features remain. Motion Launch is also around and it's still pretty useful, but there's one caveat. (Filters, frames and tools are still hanging out on the right sidebar.) UFocus is our favorite of the Duo Camera options, so we're glad to see it there, but Dimension Plus is a useless and gimmicky feature that we just don't use very often. You'll be prompted to open up "HTC Photo Edit," and you'll see a screen that looks much like what you'd find in the Sense gallery, but with fewer options: UFocus, Dimension Plus and Touch Up are the only Duo Camera-esque effects listed, which means the Foregrounder, Seasons and Copy/Paste functions didn't make the cut. Predictably, the app itself is the stock Google version, but the HTC magic comes out as soon as you enter the Photos app and try editing your shots. HTC will also be throwing in options for developers to take advantage of the two rear cameras.įrankly, it'd be silly to have extra hardware on a phone that's completely unusable, so the Google Play edition will still take advantage of the Duo Camera functionality. This setup gives you the ability to mess with a few more post-processing editing tricks than are offered on most other smartphones. The M8 comes with two cameras on the back: There's HTC's 4MP UltraPixel sensor on the bottom and a smaller sensor on the top that's primarily used for depth imaging.
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If you've read our review, you'll have a good grasp on what it's all about. Let's move onto the software, which is what makes the GPe unique and interesting.
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Finally, the GPe also has quad-band HSPA+ 21 Mbps (850/AWS/1900/2100) and quad-band GSM/EDGE. This particular model is a silver-colored 32GB version and comes with dual-band LTE (700MHz and AWS), which gives you next-gen speeds on AT&T and T-Mobile no word yet on if we'll see any regional variants outside the US.
UFOCUS ON HTC ONE M8 1080P
You're still going to get the same 5-inch 1080p display, 2,600mAh battery, BoomSound speakers, rear UltraPixel camera and 5MP front-facing selfie shooter. We won't spend much time on the GPe's hardware, because it's exactly the same.