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It took awhile, but it seems HTC may have finally gotten wind that their 4MP UltraPixel camera in the HTC One M8 wasn’t quite the selling point they had hoped. Despite performing better than most cameras in low-light, a dip in resolution was simply unacceptable to some. We’ve already seen HTC gradually make the move away from UltraPixels with the Sprint HTC One E8, a plastic-clad version of the M8 only ditching the Duo camera system in favor of a single 13MP.
Because you gotta have at least one gimmick to sell people on, HTC is now rumored to building an HTC One M8 with a 13MP Duo camera. The phone — known as the HTC One M8 EYE — was originally tipped by @upleaks on Twitter (the spiritual successor to @evleaks) and today, Android hacker/modder/developer LlabTooFeR confirmed on Twitter the device will launch next month with Android 4.4.4 and Sense 6.0.
No word on exactly which markets we can expect the phone to launch first. You can expect many a One M8 fan to get their feathers ruffled if an arguably “better” model launches only a few months after the original. Tis the way of the world, we suppose. So long, UltraPixels, we hardly knew you.
keep the good news coming bezel next!
OMG…. if HTC ditched the bottom bezel I would backflip. *crosses fingers*
No HTC bar, Snap 805, 3,000mah battery, 1080p screen, 13 mp camera… m9 phone of the year?
Thank you quad HD is useless on a phone size screen I hope HTC puts a 1080p panel on the m9 for insane performance.
I actually own a g3, and i wouldn’t call quad HD useless per say. 2k content does look amazing on the screen… it’s just that 2k content is really hard to come by. So at this moment, it’s not really worth the trade off.
Unfortunately, all the spectards won’t buy a phone unless it has the biggest numbers, even if those numbers are irrelevant, impractical, or even detrimental to performance.
You better upload that video of you back flipping. There are some things that just can’t be imagined.
About freakin time HTC woke up on this. No one wants a puny 4mp camera on their phone (unless it’s 2002 and you’re rockin a flip phone) as you can’t zoom/crop etc. I agree with moises- shrink the bezels (a lot) and this phone will sell a LOT better…
Their other normal camera still sucks.
Glad I waited.
I see this as one of two things. Either it’s just the M8 with the butterfly 2’s camera, otherwise identical to the point cases for one fit the other perfectly, or its the butterfly 2 rebranded for the Western world (DNA 2?)
HTC releasing a One M8.5 would just be damaging at this rate
Is this the fabled EYE PHONE?
Idk why htc doesn’t just add more mp to the up. A 8up lense.
Update the Max already, HTC !!
exactly… I want my Phablet variant not all these “samey” HTC devices with different material or camera types.
As long as the low light is still just as good. There’s no such thing as perfect lighting. =.=
And I always hang out with people at night time anyways. =.[
And just when I was thinking of getting an M8 and giving much thought to the camera. I’m so happy.
This is why I’m thankful for the T-Mobile Jump program. I would so Jump to this phone from my current M8.
T-Mobile must love you.
Won’t miss them, since I won’t be giving them up. Tiny pixels squeezed onto a tiny sensor to placate folks who mistakenly confuse more pixels with a better camera is the wrong direction to take. Better to keep the ultrapixel pixel size while increasing the sensor size.
Not really. There’s a balance between pixel number and pixel size. If all you want to do is Instagram then 4 mp is fine. If you think you might want to zoom and crop a bit, or print an 8×10 to hang on your wall, it is crap. Minimum 8 mp to print an 8×10. I think the happy balance is somewhere in the 8 to 16 mp range, and you can make a case for anything in that zone. If you never do post processing and only look at your pictures on your phone, 4 mp is sufficient but for anyone even modestly serious about their photos it just isn’t.
That is the one and only reason I passed the M8 by.
Anyone modestly serious about photography understands the megapixel myth. There’s a diminishing returns in image quality as you shrink the individual pixel sizes down to fit more onto the tiny sensor. Color accuracy, dynamic range and depth/dimension all suffer. A larger sensor would allow more of the ultrapixels (2-micron pixel size), while gathering more light per unit time. Print? Just put your phone down and shoot with your DSLR for that.
Then clearly one MP is even better.
Not everyone who wants decent photos has a DSLR and not everyone who does lugs it around everywhere they go. Most of the time, the camera on the phone is the only one you have with you.
The notion that fewer is better is also a myth. There are tradeoffs in both directions. You lose resolution and increase the likelihood of blown out highlights (both problems the HTC suffers from already).
So a good design would be one that balances these problems, and anyone modestly serious about photography understands this. Apple, for instance, has decided the best balance is at 8 MP — enough resolution to work with without surrendering too much color accuracy. You could arguable go up a bit from there but you couldn’t really go down much, as HTC has shown.
A larger sensor would indeed obviate this problem but it introduces compromises of its own. The larger the chip, the more difficult and expensive it is to fabricate, increasing the overall cost. An even more serious problem is that a larger sensor requires larger optics which then protrude from the back of the phone. This is not just unaesthetic; it runs the risk of damaging the optics.
Any camera on a phone is a compromise. That’s the part that HTC has not understood. They’ve created a camera that does one thing well (low light photography) rather than many things pretty well. Since I don’t spend my entire life in the dark, it isn’t suitable for me. Your mileage may vary.
Max 2?
I bought an HTC One m8 when my contract was up in July. I think the phone is great, even though the camera is a bit of a weak point. It wasn’t a deal breaker because for me, the camera on my cellphone is there only for convenience. When I really want good pictures, I’ll use my camera. So many other features where the HTC One m8 excels are more important to me, including battery life, processor speed, expandable memory, the high def display and those fantastic speakers. In a perfect world, I think HTC should hold off major updates to this phone until next year. Another major update to their flagship at this time just sort of smacks of desperation. But the phone itself is a beautiful piece of hardware and the software is mostly a pleasure, too. So I’m happy I bought it, any future updates notwithstanding.
I have the HTC one e8 and I personally think the camera is pretty good. To have two on board would be great. I personally went for the best cheap phone I could get from Sprint at the time and this e8 was it. My brother liked my phone so well he got one as well. The 13mp camera on this is great. I can’t complain about any issues. I think another m8 with the different camera options would be good
I was considering the regular M8 as my next phone (still on a Galaxy Nexus) so if this rumor turns out to be true I’ll be happy as a clam.
I have the m8, don’t let the sound of 4MP fool you!!! I’ve had iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S2, S3, Note 2, Note 3 and now the m8 and it has the best camera out of all those phones. Its an amazing phone. If you love music you’ll love the stock music app and if you love taking pics you’ll love the camera and everything you can do without needing extra apps. Trust me….way better than Samsung has ever been!
Wellllll I have the m7 and the camera is awful. I love love this phone so much but it is really frustrating. And both phones have a 4 ultrapixel camera. The only time the camera is good is in broad daylight. But glad to hear the m8 is apparently better. The only two things I would change about this phone are the camera and the battery life. Waiting for the m9.
It’s better, but not much. The camera software is awesome, but the actual camera isn’t that great. It lacks a lot of detail because of the low pixel count.
I wasn’t insinuating that the “ultrapixel” camera on the current M8 is bad per se, but the fact remains that a 4MP sensor can’t capture the same visual fidelity as a 13MP sensor. If I wanted to blow up an image I had shot with my phone in Photoshop or something I’d like to retain as much clarity as possible.
I’m happy to hear the M8’s camera is working well for you though. I can’t give an opinion on it as I’ve never used it extensively (just when checking the phone out at a Verizon store), but I’ll probably still pick up an M8 even if the M8 Eye doesn’t turn out to be a real thing.
Having come from a Galaxy Nexus myself, then yeah it would be hard to do worse with almost any new phone. Even my 1st gen Moto G is slightly better than the Galaxy Nexus.
Indeed, outclassing the GN in this current market would be a breeze, but I’m a little more picky than that. I’m looking for something that has better specs than my current phone (obviously) but also equipped with a memory expansion slot (preferably up to SDXC standard) and an IPS LCD. Pretty much anything that isn’t LED actually, I don’t care what sort of counter measures companies say they’ve installed, I want a screen that I know for a fact isn’t susceptible to screen burn-in.
So my options are limited to the LG G3 and the M8 on the high end. I haven’t really done much research on mid range/low end devices.
Whatever, we’ve all seen the samples and the camera sucks, owning one doesn’t make your opinion any more valid, in fact it’s the other way round as you just come across as another fanboy in denial.
You may need your eyes tested.