Principal Camera Quality

The photographic camera is one of the well-nigh important aspects of a smartphone, and in the past few years, HTC hasn't nailed it. The Ultrapixel camera used in the One and Ane M8 was an interesting thought that had its merits, just up confronting excellent sensors used in Apple and Samsung devices, it but wasn't skillful plenty for a flagship handset.

And then with the One M9, HTC has completely changed tune. The OmniVision OV4688 "Ultrapixel" 1/iii" sensor has been relegated to the front selfie camera, and information technology withal packs the very same 4-megapixel resolution, two.0 micron pixels, and f/ii.0 27mm lens. Like with the M8, this photographic camera isn't optically stabilized, simply its big pixel size volition help with selfies in all weather condition.

The rear camera is a brand new CMOS sensor from Toshiba, the T4KA7, which is a 1/2.4" twenty-megapixel sensor with 1.12-micron pixels. HTC has paired the sensor with an f/2.two 28mm lens, and once more at that place'south no OIS, so this camera isn't well suited to depression calorie-free photography from a spec sheet perspective. Notwithstanding, dissimilar with the previous Ultrapixel setup, this photographic camera is finally capable of 4K video recording.

Before I take a await at the quality of this photographic camera, it'due south important to notation that HTC rolled out a major operating system update a couple of days before this review went live. The update, version 1.32.710.14, delivered widespread camera processing upgrades, and all the photos yous'll see beneath were captured after I installed this update. You lot might have seen some camera samples around the spider web that were taken before this update, and they are noticeably worse than what is delivered in final, retail models.

So how good is the camera? Well, information technology'due south a definite comeback over the One M8 photographic camera from a number of standpoints. All the same, HTC nevertheless hasn't quite nailed it, leaving the One M9 camera behind the best of the all-time in the flagship infinite.

The almost obvious upgrade comes in terms of resolution. The I M9 photographic camera has five times the pixels of the Ane M8, which makes photos much sharper when downscaling to standard resolutions like 1080p or 1440p. There'due south too more room for cropping, and now that the camera is larger than 8-megapixels, it can shoot 4K video too. The lens and mail processing algorithms can brand images look soft, though this is just actually noticeable when viewing total resolution crops.

Quality on the whole has also improved, specially in good atmospheric condition. The One M9 has fantastic camera metering, almost always nailing white residual and colour tone, regardless of the atmospheric condition. This leads to generally great accuracy, although saturation isn't every bit good as what you become from the best smartphone cameras. In that sense, the 1 M9 delivers results similar in quality to the Xperia Z3: not always wowing with vibrant colors, but capable of a great shot from time to time.

The Toshiba sensor in the Ane M9 is slightly backside the Exmor RS sensor in the Xperia Z3 when it comes to dissimilarity and, to a less extent, dynamic range. This leads to some images that look lightly washed out, especially wide shots on sunny days, while shadows are occasionally a minor concern. These problems are less noticeable when using the great HDR way, which could simply be improved if it implemented real-fourth dimension HDR technology.

The two main issues with the One M8 camera – indoor performance, and cloudy twenty-four hours shots – have been addressed with the One M9. While the M9 doesn't produce the best images in these conditions, and I feel OIS would help in improving the quality of these shots, information technology's a definite upgrade on previous HTC smartphones. Again, color accurateness and white balance tends to be great here, though I'd like a college level of saturation.

Low light operation is interesting, every bit it's the one area where the One M9 photographic camera is a definite downgrade on the M8. This isn't surprising, as the Ultrapixel camera was well suited to night fourth dimension photos. The 1 M9'due south camera is very susceptible to grain and processing artefacts in depression light, which is a product of HTC opting for fast shutter speeds to continue images sharp, while color quality is similar to other conditions. Dark mode improves the state of affairs somewhat, equally information technology slows down the shutter to allow in more light, although this can introduce mistiness.