#BeBrilliant With The Latest @HTC One A9 #HTCOneLifeSA

Hi Guys,

HTC unveiled the latest addition to the award-winning HTC One family, the HTC One A9. Melding the best of HTC’s acclaimed design and innovation with the latest from Google’s Android, this is a stunning, no-compromise smartphone that stands out from the crowd. Built for people who want a better choice, the HTC One A9 is a smartphone that combines striking design on the outside with the newest features of Android 6.0 Marshmallow with HTC Sense on the inside to create an unrivaled smartphone experience.

“HTC is a smartphone pioneer, having delivered the first Android smartphone, the first Windows smartphone, the first 4G smartphone, and the first all-metal smartphone,” said Cher Wang, chairwoman and CEO, HTC. “Today we’re taking that heritage of innovation to the next level, unveiling a phone that stands apart in a market increasingly dominated by a company which controls every aspect of your phone. The HTC One A9 breaks from this trend by offering an incredible design, fantastic performance, cutting-edge software features and the freedom to take full control of your smartphone experience.”

Metalmorphics: A new standard of all-metal design excellence 

An evolution of the iconic HTC One family design, the HTC One A9 draws on the natural beauty around us, by using rich, striking colors and unique finishes – an approach called “metalmorphics.” New curves, refined edges, and precision-cut ridges on the power button flawlessly combine with the super-thin metal frame giving the phone a natural and lightweight feel. The elegant dual finish, available in a Carbon Gray, Opal Silver, Topaz Gold and Deep Garnet, is painstakingly brushed with hairline detail and bead-blasted before the sides are polished, giving additional depth and richness that is unique to the smartphone market. Finally, in a stunning fusion of metal and glass, a 5-inch, edge-to-edge, 2.5D Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4, Full HD AMOLED screen cascades into the metal frame, giving you brighter and more vivid colors for brilliant graphics and gaming, even in direct sunlight. 

Unleash your inner photographer 

Your best camera is the one you use whenever the moment strikes, so it should be able to capture stunning shots in any situation. The HTC One A9’s front and rear cameras, coupled with powerful yet simple editing tools, mean epic photos and videos are only a tap away. Its main 13MP rear camera features Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which automatically minimises hand shake and corrects vibrations to give you a crystal-clear picture every time. Meanwhile, the front UltraPixel camera delivers the best self-portraits in any lighting condition, using HTC’s UltraPixel sensor to capture 300% more light than conventional smartphone cameras.

With the HTC One A9, no detail is too small. Offering an optional Pro mode to capture the perfect photo without being a photography expert, you can also save photos using RAW capture – a tool used by professional photographers – for an unmatched level of detail and post-shot editing flexibility. Or you can keep things simple with Photo Editor’s one-button enhancement feature, which automatically brightens colors and sharpens edges for unbelievably clear and crisp photos.

Sometimes a still photo just isn’t enough. With the HTC One A9’s Hyperlapse editing tool you can speed up your videos to 12 times as fast for a dramatic time-lapse effect, creating an immersive video that perfectly captures the moments that matter. Speed through your video or use capture mode to edit in slow motion, highlighting those unforgettable memories. Or use HTC Zoe to easily and automatically mix your best shots and videos into one professional-looking highlight reel that can be shared with friends and family to tell the story of any moment from every angle.

Awesome audio: music the way it’s supposed to sound 

Game changing audio has always been core to the HTC One family - the HTC One A9 delivers amazing sound quality, with HTC BoomSound™ integrated into the headset combined with Dolby Audio™ surround technology, delivering immersive, vibrant sound that matches a live experience in your headphones by taking high-resolution audio to the next level. With a built-in DAC that delivers audio at 24-bit, 192KHz quality – better than CD quality – it provides a richness and depth like you’ve never before heard from your music collection. A powerful high-output headphone amplifier, with double the output of other handsets, provides more power and dynamic range so you can hear every nuance of your favorite music, videos and games. Optional high-resolution audio certified HTC Pro Studio Earphones deliver both noise isolation and truly immersive sound.

Cutting-edge software: Android 6.0 Marshmallow

The first non-Nexus smartphone powered by Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the HTC One A9 brings Google’s latest innovations and the simplicity of HTC Sense right out of the box. Combined with a multi-directional fingerprint scanner, Android Pay makes purchasing items as secure and as easy as “tap, pay, done.” Google’s Now on Tap feature also intuitively provides contextual information about whatever is on your screen – look up reviews for a movie from a text, hear a song mentioned in a blog post, or book seats at a restaurant from an email, all at the press of the home button.

With so many new features, the HTC One A9 has also been designed with all new power-saving capabilities to maximize battery life. Doze automatically turns off power hungry applications when your phone is left idle, such as when charging overnight, while App Standby knows when an app open in the background isn’t being used and shuts it down until you need it again. In addition, the phone’s new processor, AMOLED screen and support for the optional HTC Rapid Charger 2.0, for up to 75% faster charging are all optimized to maximize battery life throughout the day7. In real terms this means, for example, that you can play 12 hours of HD video on one charge.

Performance designed for the way YOU use your phone

Featuring the newest Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 617 processor with integrated X8 LTE and 64-bit octa-core CPUs, the HTC One A9 is designed to deliver a perfect balance of powerful performance, fast connectivity and better battery life. With support for epic LTE wireless speeds through next-generation carrier aggregation technology, it delivers more high-definition streaming videos, more pulse-pounding high-resolution audio and more storage in the cloud to hold everything your heart desires. The phone is available in both 16 and 32GB configurations and features expandable memory, supporting up to 2TB in SD card storage, perfect for storing all your apps, games, photos, music and videos. 

To protect your smartphone, pair it with the HTC Dot View™ II case, available in Obsidian, Deep Garnet, Sea Coral and Turquoise Blue. Its retro-inspired dot matrix cover reveals instant notifications, weather updates, caller ID and more, even while closed, and simple gesture controls bring music, flashlight, radio and voice recording tools closer than ever. I am looking forward to see this phone in South Africa asap!

Cheers!!!

Follow me on twitter @araijain or @thelifesway 

Email - thelifesway@gmail.com for invites to launch events / sponsored posts and product reviews!

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Product Review - HTC One #M8 #HTCTheOne

Hi Guys,

HTC launched another device called HTC ONE M8 in April 2014 after the first HTC One M7 was launched a year earlier in 2013. I love HTC phones because of their great quality and awesome after sales support. I never expected that they will give me a brand new phone after there was some problem in my battery and phone. I got to review the HTC M8 some days back and I was totally amazed by the upgrades it offered on my earlier version of the device. This blogpost is written after the unit is back in the office of HTC's PR agency. I thank them for organizing a HTC ONE M8 for me and it came in a mint condition & it felt great to unbox the device myself. Check out the post on HTC ONE M7 which I did earlier and now I am comparing the phone with this latest version from HTC. 

HTC ONE M8 package contains the HTC One mobile, charger, usb cable, noise isolation HTC earphones and a HTC silicon cover for mobile and a pin to open SIM tray and micro-SD card tray. Also the M8 device takes nano-SIM as compared to M7 which uses micro-SIM card to connect to the telecom providers. The device is around 160 grams of sleek metallic design from it's predecessor with great effects on the aluminum back. 

HTC One M8 has 5inch Full HD 1080p display (441ppi) which can bring all the colors and graphics to life. The device has enough processing power to take care of everything you throw at the device. It is made possible by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core CPUs and 2GB RAM. The phone comes in various inbuilt memory capacity of 16GB and 32GB. You can increase the storage capacity of the phone by using an micro-SD card upto 128GBs. The battery capacity is 2600mAh which can easily last a day on moderate consumption of data and calls. It lasted me around 13-14 hours on continuous usage of 3G data and calls. 

HTC One M8 has some unique changes to the predecessor M7 in terms of camera, style, size and panel buttons. The polycarbonate sides on M7 are now covered with metal finish which makes it unibody design and the phone looks highly expensive and great in your hands. There are no buttons on the bottom of the phone as in M7 as all those three capacitive buttons are moved to the on-screen software buttons. So if you upgrading to M8 from M7, it will be annoying in the start as you will take some time to adapt to the same. But it also solves the bigger problem of touching the back button and going out of the apps or games you are using at that moment. In M7, that was one of the problems critics said a lot about. HTC improved the same in this new version of the smartphone.

The screen size has been increase marginally to 5 inches making it more attractive to customers wanting big screens but not going into the phablet range. The display is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass 3 with scratch resistance coating. I have never used any protective film on my M7 and there is no line or scratch on the same till now. M8 has improved protection so I hope there will be no scratch on the same too in the longer run of the phone. Motion Launch also helped phone to be opened using double tap on screen as well as turning the phone horizontally & by pressing the volume key opens us camera app. 

BeatsAudio in M7 was replaced by BOOMSOUND stereo speakers in M8 with improved sound quality by more than a margin for audio enthusiasts. Literally, HTC One M8 has the highest volume levels while playing any audio or video among all it's competitors. Harmon Kardon edition of the phone was also launched in USA which offered HK earphones and HK software etc. The audio quality was superb when I used my BOSE inearphones with Boomsound switched on. It was much better than the M7 which I am using at the moment. The HTC earphones that comes packaged with M8 are very much similar to M7 so there is not much improvement in the same. 

Finally the dual camera on the phone was a welcome move and brought a lot of features to HTC One M8 for the photography enthusiasts. The device has dual tone flash now along with main camera as Ultrapixel camera with 2.0 µm in size. The second camera captures the depth details of the photograph clicked and then you can make changes to the same using UFOCUS to bring depth of field effects that DSLR can bring to the images. Also, it can take some 3D images which is really cool to capture some extra detail which gives some great effects on the M8 screen. There are many more modes and filters that can be applied to your photographs in the new HTC One M8. 

The phone can be upgraded to the latest Lollipop android OS making it a great performance smartphone in all departments be it calls, games, graphics, camera, sound or battery life. I would love to buy this phone as the new version M9 has also been launched by HTC on much cheaper prices but for those who wants to enjoy great android experience for the first time, it's a great phone to start with. Even someone who wants to learn more techniques of photography and wants to become country's number ONE instagrammer can use this phone to click and edit some great captures using this phone. HTC products are great in quality and pays the money you spent to buy them in the longer run. I would love to have this phone as a secondary camera for my trips to launch events/product reviews etc to take some amazingly great photographs. 

Cheers!!!

Follow me on twitter @araijain or @thelifesway 
Email - thelifesway@gmail.com for invites to launch events / sponsored posts and product reviews!

Checkout my Instagram (araijain) page 

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Product Review - HTC One #M7 #HTCOne

Hi Guys,

My Nexus One died on me as it's power button got broken way back in 2013 and I never wanted to get it corrected as my experience with repair was really bad as I lost my Motorola Rokr to repair before just using it for paper weight. My family said that go and check whichever phone you want in the market for your birthday and then never say again that you wanted that phone and we didn't  allowed you to buy the same. 

I went to check phones at MGF Metropolitan Mall, M.G. Road and came across the phones from Samsung, Nokia, LG and many other OEMs. I saw the various phones and narrowed down my choice to Sasmung S4, Galaxy Note 2, Nokia 1020 and HTC One. I read the reviews from all the tech blogs and really fall in love with Galaxy S4's awesome features, Note2's S-Pen, 1020's 41megapixel camera and HTC One's sleek design and ultrapixel camera.

I went back to store and again checked the phones and tested them for video and songs output on my Bose earphones. The moment I switched on Beats Audio on HTC One, the sound quality took my heart away. I immediately decided to buy HTC One because at that time, I was using mobile to listen to songs and watching serials and movies most of the time along with twitter and facebook. The audio output on Note2 and S4 was also nice but HTC One has great advantage due to it's Beats Audio software built into it and also of it's BoomSound front speakers which throws sound directly towards your face and ears.

I waited again till my birthday for decrease in prices but one fine day flipkart launched a scheme in collaboration with Citibank credit cards for 6 months interest free EMI along with 10% cashback offer. I immediately bought one 32gb version for myself and the phone came with free 8gb Sandisk card and Eveready Portable Mobile Charger.The device package contains the mobile device, one usb cable, charger and HTC branded red noise-isolation earphones with mic.

HTC One #M7 has 4.7 inch full HD 468ppi display which shows brilliant colors and video's. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad core processor has clock set at 1.7GHz to take care of all your apps and games along with 2GB of RAM capacity. The phone has inbuilt 2300mAh battery which can last 9-11 hours based on my high usage of 3G always on and several apps running in parallel. The device looks really awesome and weighs only 143g, moreover aluminium back catches attention of everyone. The device takes micro-SIM into it's slot on one side of the phone. The other side has volume rocker buttons only. The top side contains the power on-off button which also serves as Infra-Red remote along with 3.5mm jack for earphones. The bottom side has mini-USB charger along with a microphone for the mobile calls. The HTC earphones are good  for their sound quality but you can use your Sennheiser or Bose for better sound quality.

The HTC UltraPixel camera was a breakthrough design with Pixel size 2.0 µm, Sensor size 1/3' and F2.0 aperture and 28 mm lens. The front camera has 2.1 MP camera with 88degree wide angles lens to capture your selfies. The rear camera can take great low light photographs and captures awesome day light photographs. HTC Zoe was also launched which can do Sequence Shot, Always Smile and Object Removals. Zoe was awesome feature as it used to take 20 quick photographs and made them into a video of around 3 seconds. The video captured by the camera is in .mp4 format and slow motion with variable speed playback was a new introduction to this smartphone. HTC Blinkfeed with give you all the latest social media news from your networks along with your subscribed news channels etc on the first page of the phone.

Overall, I fell in love with the speed of the phone for my twitter and social apps usage along with high quality video output. I felt that the ultra-pixels images captured by the camera sometimes contains noise when zoomed out and increasing the megapixels could improve the same. The Beats audio and BoomSound remained the love of my life till now on this device. Last year, there was some problems with the battery on my HTC One and they replaced the whole phone within 2 days of my complaint which was awesome service quality from the brand.

The phone has the processing power to play most of the high quality graphics games without any lags but phone does gets warm and battery drains very quickly too. HTC Sense always has some great features to use on HTC devices and the phone is now working on the latest Lollipop android OS. Lollipop OS offers some new features on HTC One M7 like floating notifications along with some added new camera capabilities like Camera booth, Split Capture along with earlier features to take selfie, Zoe, video etc. My phone is behaving extremely slow after this first update and I am waiting for the second update to stable the device. I will ask you to wait for the improvement package and continue on the earlier OS on this device.

HTC announced new phone and M7 was upgraded to HTC One M8 (#HTCTheOne) and the latest one is HTC One M9 (#HTCOneLife) in the same series of smartphones. Review for these devices will also be done soon on my blog.

Cheers!!!

Follow me on twitter @araijain or @thelifesway  

Email - thelifesway@gmail.com   for invites to launch events / sponsored posts and product reviews!

Checkout my Instagram (araijain) page 

Checkout my photo blog - www.photoyatra.blogspot.in  

Like The Life's Way Page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheLifesWay