HTC's One (M8) is another work of art, with performance to match. The camera isn't a big step up from the original, but it's still perfectly competent. When looking around, try not to forget this exists. Or if you do, it's your loss

From the moment you pick up the HTC One (M8) it feels like a premium device should, with its aluminium unibody casing featuring a beautiful brushed effect. The increase of display size results in a larger and heavier device that measures 70.6 mm wide and 146.4 mm long.

Fantastic design and solid construction; Intuitive and responsive Sense 6 UI; Strong processing and multitasking capability; Relatively well priced

HTC proprietary keyboard slightly inaccurate; Volume button oddly placed

Think of the HTC One M8 as the big-budget sequel to an Oscar-winning indie film. Last year's HTC One won rave reviews and obsessed fans, but not enough customers to keep HTC growing. This year, HTC needs a rip-roaring box-office hit with its flagship phone.

Elegant style, raw power, and sophisticated features make the HTC One M8 an excellent smartphone choice for anyone but the most exacting photographer.

The HTC One M8's sumptuous aluminum body makes a beautiful background for this top-flight smartphone's brilliant 5-inch display; It runs on a powerful quad-core processor and Android KitKat, the stereo speakers deliver excellent sound, and the depth-sensing camera brings a ton of useful features.

The One M8’s battery is not user-removable, making it harder to replace once the battery inevitably wears out; The phone's sealed chassis is not water-resistant, and the One M8's photos look less sharp than competitors'.

Like the Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2, the new HTC One M8 isn't a big leap compared to the previous model. What HTC has done is taken a great phone and made it better. The M8 looks and feels gorgeous and with important upgrades including a microSD card slot and an innovative camera. This is one desirable smartphone. The HTC One M9 is now available but the M8 remains a good choice since the 2015 model is very similar.

The HTC One M8 is loaded with features and beautifully designed and built but the image quality of its camera cannot keep up with the otherwise great performance of the phone. Images show little detail and a variety of artifacts across the ISO range. Panorama and HDR modes produce underwhelming results and the DuoCam is in its current state of development not more than a gimmick. The One M8 can make a great device for gadget lovers without any imaging aspirations but mobile photographers are better served elsewhere.

Good color and exposure up to highest ISO settings; Very comprehensive imaging feature set including DuoCam; High degree of user control in camera app; Responsive and quick in operation; Useful manual mode, allows up to 4 sec shutter speed; Excellent build quality and premium materials; Nice 1080p screen with good viewing angles ; Decent 5MP front camera; Very good stereo speakers; Good sound quality in video mode; Comprehensive editing options in gallery app;

Less image detail than competitors; Grain and and loss off fine detail even at lowest ISOs; Tendency to slightly underexpose in bright conditions; No OIS means more danger of image blur in low light and shaky video; Strong moiré and purple fringing; Channel clipping in highlight areas leads to cyan skies; Slightly convoluted menu structure in camera app; No focus assist light means camera has trouble focusing in very low light; Unusable digital zoom; Inefficient HDR mode; Small panorama output, many stitching errors in Pan 360 images; DuoCam features not more than a gimmick in current state of development; DuoCam easily covered with index finger; Strong compression and artifacts in video footage; Strong rolling shutter in video recording;

Editors' note: This review shares many sections with the standard HTC One M8 review , as the devices are almost identical.

Unless you need a great deal on earbuds, there’s no reason to buy the HTC One M8 Harman Kardon Edition.

The HTC One M8 HKE's sumptuous aluminum body makes a beautiful background for this top-flight smartphone's brilliant 5-inch display. It runs on a powerful quad-core processor and Android KitKat, the stereo speakers deliver excellent sound, and the depth-sensing camera brings a ton of useful features. It comes with premium Harman Kardon earbuds.

The One M8 HKE’s special audio prowess is overrated and slathers on the bloatware extra thickly. The One M8’s battery is not user-removable. The phone's sealed chassis is not water-resistant, and the One M8's photos look less sharp than competitors'.

Editors' note: Due to their similarities, sections of this review have been taken from our review of the original HTC One M8 and HTC One M8 Harman Kardon Edition .

While its camera isn't best-in-class and Windows Phone's underwhelming app selection still stings, the elegant and sophisticated HTC One M8 is an enticing alternative to Nokia models.

Verizon's HTC One M8 brings premium style to the Windows Phone franchise, has a brilliant 1080p display and excellent audio speakers, and it's powered by a robust quad-core processor.

The Windows Phone OS has a smaller app market, the handset's battery is nonremovable, and like the Android M8s before it, photos aren't as sharp as those from its competitors.

The most powerful phone we’ve tested; Beautiful build and styling; Slick, fluid and flawless in operation; Fun and useful camera features;

UltraPixels prioritise light over detail; Won’t stay top of the power charts for long;

The most powerful phone we’ve tested; Beautiful build and styling; Slick, fluid and flawless in operation; Fun and useful camera features;

UltraPixels prioritise light over detail; Won’t stay top of the power charts for long;