The HTC One E9+ has finally landed in Malaysia. The device packs the best of the company’s flagship, HTC One M9+, but into a plastic shell and with a much more affordable price tag of RM1,899. We spent a couple of hours with the device, and here’s our first impression.
When you pick up the phone, the first thing you’ll notice is just now light it is. Made entirely out of plastic, there is a nice shiny outline at the front to give it a more premium finish. Don’t get me wrong though, while it may not feel as solid as its metal sibling, it doesn’t feel cheap.
Like the One M9+, the power button and volume rocker are all located on the right side of the device. The dual nano-SIM slots and microSD slot are all located on the right side of the phone, covered by a single-piece flap for easy removal without a pin. I like how HTC picked a matte finish for the back that gives you a better grip when holding the phone.
The HTC One E9+ runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, giving it all the latest software features that HTC is very proud of. HTC Sense Home is a widget that will automatically put your most frequently used apps on the home screen depending on your locations. This means that if you’re at work, it will pull out apps like Evernote, calculator, calendar and such, when you’re at home you’ll get games, Facebook, and more, and when you’re on the go, HTC will put the camera, HTC Car app, and other related apps right on the home screen. All these will change according to the apps you use the most.
HTC Sense Home Widget (left), HTC Themes (middle and right)
Another feature is HTC’s own theme maker on Sense 7.0. Download new themes, or customise your very own by picking your own wallpaper, colour theme, fonts and icons. There are a lot more new fonts and icons you can download from the Themes Store now compared to when we reviewed the HTC One M9+.
The camera has always been HTC’s weakest point. While HTC has improved a lot since the UltraPixel (for rear camera) days, the 20MP camera on the One M9+ still isn’t as good as other flagship smartphones. HTC says that they are constantly updating the camera and finding solution to help improve things, so let’s hope that they stay true to their promise.
In our short hands on, the camera on the One E9+ was still underwhelming and is quite noisy when taking low-light pictures, but performs just fine in bright light. Of course, there’s a lot more to explore about the device on top of its camera performance, which we’ll go into soon.
Low light environment, both pictures look very soft and noisy (click on image for full resolution)
With the spot lights turned on, the pictures look much sharper here (click on image for full resolution)
Stay tuned for our full review of the HTC One E9+.
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