HTC One (E8) review: Traveling light

Performance benchmarks

The HTC One (E8) comes with a quad-core 2.5GHz Krait 400 CPU and Adreno 330 GPU on a Qualcomm MSM8975AC Snapdragon 801 chipset. Including the 2GB of RAM, this is virtually the same configuration you'll find as on the HTC One (M8), except that the M8 sports the MSM8974AB chipset.

GeekBench 3 and AnTuTu 4 are benchmarks, which put to the test the hardware combo inside the smartphone. GeekBench 3 is more CPU-intensive, whereas AnTuTu 4 is a compound benchmark - testing CPU, GPU, memory performance, etc. The HTC One (E8) was able to pump out some excellent results in both tests. It managed to outdo the handily outclass its metal-clad counterpart in GeekBench, and was second only to the Oppo Find 7 in AnTuTu.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better is better

• HTC One (E8)
  3229
• Oppo Find 7
  3178
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  3011
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2856
• LG G3
  2687
• OnePlus One
  2663
• HTC One (M8)
  2367

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better is better

• Oppo Find 7
  38484
• HTC One (E8)
  37921
• OnePlus One
  37469
• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  36018
• Sony Xperia Z2
  33182
• LG G3
  30482

Next up we have GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan. In 1080p offscreen mode the GPU is tasked with performing graphical computations in 1920 x 1080px resolution, while the onscreen mode uses the screen's native resolution, which is also 1080p. Hence, the two onscreen and offscreen numbers are very close.

In both the older T-Rex test and the more advanced Manhattan benchmark, the device posted some very impressive numbers - in fact outdoing or matching many top flagships.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better is better

• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• OnePlus One
  28.3
• Oppo Find 7
  28
• HTC One (E8)
  28
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  27.8
• LG G3
  27.6
• Sony Xperia Z2
  27.2

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better is better

• HTC One (M8)
  30.1
• OnePlus One
  30
• HTC One (E8)
  29.9
• Sony Xperia Z2
  28.7
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  28.1
• LG G3
  20.6
• Oppo Find 7
  19.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better is better

• HTC One (E8)
  12.3
• OnePlus One
  12.1
• LG G3
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  11.7
• HTC One (M8)
  11.1
• Oppo Find 7
  11.1

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better is better

• OnePlus One
  12.9
• HTC One (E8)
  12.9
• Sony Xperia Z2
  12.2
• HTC One (M8)
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.7
• LG G3
  7.4
• Oppo Find 7
  6.7

When it comes to browsing performance, the E8 again performed well. BrowserMark 2.1 looks after HTML 5 performance, while Mozilla's Kraken 1.1 is JavaScript-centric. The HTC One (E8) again managed to trounce its M8 sibling, falling behind only to the Galaxy S5 and Oppo Find 7 in these benchmarks.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  6043
• Oppo Find 7
  6363
• HTC One (E8)
  6460
• OnePlus One
  7008
• Sony Xperia Z2
  7041
• LG G3
  7610
• HTC One (M8)
  10296

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better is better

• Oppo Find 7
  1452
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1398
• HTC One (E8)
  1362
• OnePlus One
  1339
• LG G3
  1254
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1224
• HTC One (M8)
  1069

Basemark OS II is another all-round benchmark. It gives an overall score along with single, multi-core performance, math performance and more. We focus on the overall and CPU scores. The HTC One (E8) got similar results in both the regular and anti-cheat, with the variation between results not being enough to indicate behind the scenes overclocking of the processor.

Here, the E8 was able to able to again post impressive results, although generally closer to those posted by the M8. The most noticeable difference is in the multi-core figures, where variations tend to be larger regardless.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better is better

• Oppo Find 7
  1212
• OnePlus One
  1196
• HTC One (E8)
  1146
• HTC One (M8)
  1126
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1082
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1080
• LG G3
  945

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better is better

• Oppo Find 7
  2606
• HTC One (E8)
  2579
• HTC One (M8)
  2428
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  2415
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2253
• OnePlus One
  2213
• LG G3
  1787

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better is better

• Oppo Find 7
  10391
• OnePlus One
  10234
• HTC One (E8)
  10219
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  10063
• Sony Xperia Z2
  10044
• HTC One (M8)
  9860
• LG G3
  8337

The HTC One (E8) has proven to be one of the best performing HTC devices to date, and goes a long way in compensating for its lack of metal. Whether it's subtle optimizations done to the software package, or improvements thrown in by the more robust Snapdragon 801 variant, the E8 handily outclasses the M8 when it comes to performance.