HTC One (M8) for Windows

Samsung appear more or less done with disadvantaged Microsoft mobile OS, while the final Earnest efforts of HTC Windows Phone 8X almost two years ago. The ebb and flow of the Windows Phone so far been almost exclusively tied to smartphone Nokia's release cycle. That may change soon, and the HTC One (M8) for Windows is reason for Optimism. Nothing new's here, it's the exact same device as ready as we are familiar, only now with shiny Microsoft UI slapped on top. It was immediately in contention for the best looking and most feature-rich Windows Phone, though it is not a worthy match for Choice Nokia Lumia Icon editors'. But why the One (M8) for Windows is all the more exciting is what you can say: greater variety of hardware for Windows Phone.

One (M8) for Windows facing much less competition than its Android counterpart, but its $ 99.99 (with two-year contract) complicates things retail price. Current offers Verizon Nokia Lumia Icon for free and the Samsung Ativ SE for $ 99.99. And since Windows Phone behaves so similar in all three, more recent specs the M8 is not a big advantage. In style, I would take the M8, but superior camera Lumia Icon and lower prices help them keep our Editors Choice award 'for Windows Phones on Verizon.

Because both versions of One (M8) physically identical, I will not Dwell on Design. You get the same well-built aluminum body, 5-inch LCD 1080p, and BoomSound speaker, so go to our original One (M8) review for details. For this review, I'll focus on call quality, performance, camera quality, and, of course, the new Windows Phone 8.1 software.

Call Quality and Performance
One (M8) for Windows supports Verizon's CDMA / 1xEVDO Rev. A (800 / 1900MHz) and LTE (700 / 1700MHz) network. Proved recently rebranded Verizon XLTE more heavily in our latest test Fastest Mobile Networks, and the M8 taps fast spectrum. Call quality is not lost from what we've come to expect from the M8. That means lots of volume in the earpiece and clean transmitting through the mic. Noise cancellation is average in my test, drowning out most of the noise in the background, although it made my voice sound a bit digitized louder environments.

In a preliminary test, the built-in battery 2,600mAh take several hours only 10, 50 minutes of continuous talk time, which is a good deal less than 18 hours of its Android counterpart. Mother battery saver software Windows Phone OS is rigged, but no extra Power Saving Mode, which HTC claims may add 30 hours of standby time in the last 10 percent of the batteries for the version of Android.

We witnessed run the Windows Phone as underpowered devices, so it should be no surprise that the M8 Quad-core, 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon is proved in our tests peppy 801 SoC. Animation is smooth and quick launch apps, but not appreciably faster than what we've seen in the Lumia Icon or Ativ TS. Quality Web browsing, for example, is comparable across the board, with M8 Finishing the test SunSpider JavaScript to 533 milliseconds to 519 milliseconds as opposed to Ativ SE's. Curiously, the M8 for Windows scored slightly lower than its Android counterpart test GFXBench T-Rex, managing 25fps (on screen) and 19fps (off screen) to 30fps Android M8's (in) and 28fps (off). I'm not knocking the M8 for Windows here, but do not expect any significant advantage over 800 Snapdragon powered Ativ Icon or TS.