I’m an iPhone user. I’ve been an iPhone user for the past 4 years. There hasn’t really been a non-Apple smartphone out there that has really caught my attention enough to switch. I’ve use various other Android devices over the past couple of years and though I have come to appreciate Android as a platform, I’ve never really quite been that impressed with the hardware. Most of the devices I’ve seen have just been overly plastic feeling despite having some impressive hardware specs and screens. I don’t want a plastic phone. I know a lot of people who have often said that if there was an Android phone out there with the build quality of an iPhone that used high end feeling material, they would probably switch. Well, that day may finally be upon us as what I hold in my hand right now is probably the closest thing I’ve seen to being an iPhone without being an iPhone. This is the brand new, HTC One M8. It is one of the few Android phones that comes to mind that is made almost entirely out of aluminum.

Design and Build

The previous HTC One was a good looking device but I never really got a good look at it close up. For the sake of this review, I’m not comparing the new HTC One M8 to that one as I have no experience with the previous device. I’m basically looking at the new One M8 with a fresh pair of eyes as many of you probably will as well. This post will mainly deal with my first impressions of the device upon taking it out of the box and examining the hardware. I won’t be talking about the software in this post as that will be saved for another time.

When removing the HTC One M8 from its box, I noticed just how much heft and weight it had. It seems to weigh quite a bit more than my iPhone 5 but that’s to be expected since it’s a much larger phone. It’s even heavier than something like the Galaxy S4, but again it’s to be expected as that device is mainly all plastic and this one is not. The weight however is not really an issue as to me, I actually like the added weight. It gives the phone a feeling of quality and that of being a solid device.

The main area I wanted to take a look at was the rear of the HTC One M8. This is the part of the device where most other phones fail at capturing my interest because they decide to use cheap materials. Not so with the HTC One M8. The entire back of this phone is aluminum. The unit I was sent is in gunmetal and features a brushed look that is quite slick looking. The back also wraps all the way around past the edges and onto the side of the phone in one seamless piece. There is no band that wraps around the side like on other devices. It’s a very clean design and gives the HTC One M8 a smooth, sleek look.

Another thing you may notice about the rear of the phone is that there are two cameras and two flashes. The dual cameras are called the Duo Camera setup. One is used for actually snapping photos while the other is used for sensing depth to allow for much faster focusing. The dual flashes too are important as they allow for much more natural flesh tones. More on that in a separate post. The placement of the cameras is pretty good and in a centered position up top which I like more than the iPhone’s corner position which can be blocked by my fingers. That’s about it for the back. It’s clean, functional, and quite elegant looking.

Moving on to the sides of the HTC One M8, you’ll find that it’s equally as clean here too. The right side houses the volume control as well as the SDHC slot, which is a first for this phone. This allows you to expand the memory up to 128GB which is an improvement over the last model which did not have expandable memory. It’s a great addition, although it’s not the easiest thing to access as you need to use a pin to pop the tray out. The left side of the phone has a similar looking tray that is for the SIM card. You too need to pop this out with a pin. The bottom is where the USB port resides as well as the audio jack. The power button it up top and here is where the IR blaster sits too.

Of course the biggest difference between the new M8 and the old M7 is the larger 5-inch display. It’s not edge to edge, but it does take up quite a bit of real estate. There’s also a black bezel surrounding the actual screen as well as a fairly thick one near the bottom. The screen is bordered on the top and bottom with metal accents that house speakers like the previous phone. This is probably one of my favorite features about the phone and it’s the fact that it has front facing speakers for much better sound when you are watching video or playing games. The front also houses a 5MP front camera which is quite high for a front facing camera.

Final Thoughts

I am really impressed with what I see here in the hardware. The HTC One M8 feels really solid with a good amount of heft thanks to the curved metal back, it’s actually quite comfortable to hold. There are no sharp edges digging into your palm and despite it being larger than an iPhone 5, it’s actually not unpleasant at all to use one handed. The phone however is a bit slippery in your hand, but not as slippery as the iPhone 5 was.

Overall, this is one of the best looking and feeling Android phones I have personally seen. The quality on the HTC One M8 is excellent and I will say that I am very impressed with what I see so far. This is the kind of phone that could possible get me to switch from an iPhone, but of course the hardware is only part of the equation. I’ll be looking at the software side of things soon and hopefully, it’s as good as the hardware is.