The 2015 flagship from HTC has arrived as we have had it for a little over a week now. By now I think we can honestly give a critique on the cameras on the One M9.
This time around HTC wanted to up the ante by removing Ultrapixel from the rear & placing it in the front. Now on the back is a f/2.2 27.8mm 20MP rear sensor by Toshiba + dual LED flash on the rear. This was definitely a section that has plagued HTC devices for many years now and we're here to let you know if they got any better or not. (Spoiler: It didn't.)
HTC needs to start taking its photography as serious as they do their design.
HTC aims for the 20MP rear-shooter to be a better upgrade though lacking the joys of optical image stabilization. The real problem is that there isn't any noticeable benefits of having the new sensor. For the most part, you're getting around the same performance in regards to noticeable noise, lack of clarity, and the software overexposing your shots. And other cases, its actually slightly worse than last year's M9 especially in low-light.
The 4MP Ultrapixel front-facing shooter actually shines for the most part as being a great sensor for selfies and such. With the appropriate lighting, you can easily get some good details on your photos. This is where they somehow get better quality than most rather than a blurry selfie image.
Despite not being the best off the hip shooter, you can get good photos by tweaking settings & using the various shooting modes.
Not sure if its a poor choice of going w/ Toshiba for the sensor or they need to really redo their image processing software from scratch or combination of the two. Whatever the case is, their efforts to improve in the optics department isn't working. This is their last chance to drop the ball as they're already 0-3 in regards to equipping their shooters w/ non-flagship optics. I doubt the consumers can tolerate another one as every other manufacturer just keeps getting better. For next year's flagship, they have to do better than this. Relying on a great design will only get you so far.
