HTC One (M8) for Windows review: Tinker, Tailor

Nice Photos app

In Windows Phone 8.1 the Photo Hub has lost the magazine UI in favor of the traditional WP page view. You get three swipe-able pages - all, albums and favorites - all pretty much self-explanatory.

Automatic OneDrive backup is available, you just need to enable it from the settings. Microsoft gives you 7GB for free plus 3GB for the each device on which you turn on the automatic OneDrive camera upload.

Pictures hub

Sharing options include Bluetooth file transfer, messaging, email, Facebook, OneDrive and other available social services.

Editing and sharing options

Xbox music app

The default Xbox music player in Windows Phone 8.1 uses the familiar page layout - you get Now Playing page; Collection view with shortcuts to artists, albums, songs, genres, playlists, and Music Store highlights. It also allows you to create, edit and delete playlists straight from your phone.

Music app with Now Playing screen and its album view • Collection and Music Store

The player is compatible with your Xbox Music account and can stream your songs if you have active connection without saving them on the phone.

Browsing your collection

Unfortunately, the Music app doesn't support WAV or FLAC playback. There are no equalizer options either.

FM radio with RDS

There's an FM radio with RDS support on board the HTC One (M8) for Windows. You can use the loudspeaker for the FM radio, though you still need the headset connected as it doubles as an antenna.

FM radio

Same video player with limited codec support

The video player is a separate app called Video. It has a four-page layout - your collection, movie store, TV store and spotlight.

The Video hub

The video player supports XviD, DivX, MOV and MP4 videos up to 1080p resolution. The few things it won't play are MKV files and videos using the AC3 audio codec. There is a limited subtitles support.

Playing a video

Audio quality as good as they come

The HTC One (M8) for Windows was yet another stellar performer in our audio quality test delivered by the Taiwanese manufacturer. When connected to an active external amplifier, the WP-powered handset managed excellent scores top to bottom with no weak points to its performance whatsoever.

Even better, the degradation when we plugged in a pair of headphones was so minor that we would have considered the scores great even if that was a no-headphones test. The very minor increase in stereo crosstalk means the smartphone can handle large powerful headphones with ease, still delivering some of the cleanest output in business. Once again HTC shows that as far as audio quality is concerned there's no match for it in the smartphone game - no matter if the name is Windows Phone or Android.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
HTC One (M8) for Windows	+0.05, -0.09	-94.2	93.5	0.0016	0.0084	-94.8
HTC One (M8) for Windows (headphones attached)	+0.01, -0.13	-94.1	93.4	0.0027	0.036	-85.6
Nokia Lumia 930	+0.12, -0.02	-91.4	90.7	0.0099	0.101	-90.3
Nokia Lumia 930 (headphones attached)	+0.19, -0.43	-89.4	90.7	0.012	0.501	-55.8
HTC One (M8)	+0.04, -0.10	-95.4	93.4	0.0012	0.010	-93.2
HTC One (M8) (headphones attached)	+0.04, -0.08	-94.9	93.9	0.0014	0.018	-79.7
Samsung Galaxy S5	+0.02, -0.08	-96.3	93.3	0.0017	0.0089	-95.2
Samsung Galaxy S5 (headphones attached)	+0.01, -0.08	-96.3	93.3	0.0095	0.018	-61.9
LG G3	+0.02, -0.08	-99.4	98.9	0.0016	0.035	-100.0
LG G3 (headphones attached)	+0.02, -0.09	-93.7	93.3	0.0060	0.032	-78.5

HTC One (M8) for Windows frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.