HTC One M9: Can it compete with the iPhone 6?

March 24, 2015

The iPhone 6 debuted in September 2014 and the HTC One M9 is just about to hit the shelves, but for the next 6 months they'll be going head-to-head.

That means a lot of people are going to be comparing them and wondering which to go home with. As luck would have it, Phil Nickinson and the team at Android Central have just posted their complete HTC One M9 review. Both have great build-quality, great screen quality, and more. But they also have a lot of differences, including the differences between Android and iOS. If you're a longtime HTC owner, the One M9 might just be enough to keep you. If not, it might give you reason to switch to iPhone. Either way, here's what you need to know!

HTC One M9

I have to admit, I've always had a soft-spot for HTC. I loved my Treo Pro back in the day, and have always preferred HTC's hardware to Samsung's. I've really been cheering for them for the past few years, and while they done some gutsy stuff, it hasn't really clicked with the market. While my heart hopes the third One is the charm, it sounds like it's really just as many steps back and forward.

The HTC One M7 was the company's best phone. The M8 also was its best phone. Both had flaws. The M9 does as well. The question we have to ask ourselves year after year is about the sum of the parts. The M9 is mostly familiar, both in form and function. But HTC still has some serious work to do in the camera department. It's perhaps a little overdramatic to say that it's an anchor pulling the ship down, but it's definitely an oar stuck in the water. And with all the advances from its competitors over the past we've just about reached that point in which it's extremely difficult to overlook that compromise.

So if you already like the HTC One, there's more to like, but probably not enough to make you switch.

Complete HTC One M9 review

iPhone 6

Unless you dislike Apple or really need to run Android, I still firmly believe the iPhone 6 should be the go-to phone for most people, most of the time. It's got a great — and newly enlarged — screen, excellent camera, high-quality apps, features like Apple Pay and compatibility with the Apple Watch, not to mention Apple's increased focus on privacy and security and all the potential benefits that come with it.

Yes, there's also a second generation 64-bit processor and motion coprocessor, improved cameras, and faster cellular and Wi-Fi networking. But none of that power matters as much as the empowerment the new iPhone has to offer.

With the iPhone 6 — and the simultaneously released iPhone 6 Plus and iOS 8 — Apple hasn't just made the iPhone bigger and better, they've made it something more capable and more accessible.

So if you were hoping for more or for different from HTC, you might well want to consider giving the iPhone 6 a try.