The MWC has come and gone, and left us with some amazing memories — and devices. Though many new devices saw the sunlight with the likes of Huwaei, Zopo, Archos launching their own, most of the eyes were on the established dynasties and they certainly weren’t disappointed. With HTC One M9, Samsung S6 Galaxy and Galaxy S6 Edge, HTC and Samsung have continued their long running series. However, the flagships this year, mark a sharp contrast between HTC and Samsung’s design policies while clearly reflecting the response received by the companies in recent times.
Samsung, whose S4 and S5 received almost as much criticism as appreciation in spite of combining top-end hardware with the most advanced software due to their plastic bodies and enormous price tags, went for a major revamp and the S6 and the S6 edge resemble their ancestors only in name. The plastic is finally gone, and we have a much better looking metal-glass combination. Samsung has also replaced the Snapdragon with its homegrown Exynos processor. The South Korean company went all out and integrated several brand new technologies such as dual edge screens in what is being seen as a desperate bid to recover from sharply declining business prospects.
HTC on the other hand, can be seen sticking to the tried and tested designs of its previous models. The Taiwanese company choose to combine and improve upon its designs rather than bring about any major changes and the M7 and the M8 are clearly visible in HTC’s newest flagship phone. The company’s industrial design chief, Claude Zellweger stressed the fact when he said that “The aim was to create a phone that could be easily identified as a One M9 product. To this purpose, we combined the crispness of the M7 with the softness of the M8 and further refined it to create a great new product.” He also addressed issues associated with M9’s protruding camera bump — nothing new, HTC is merely following Samsung and Apple here — with the claim that the bump while necessary to accommodate a better camera is minimal and adds to the overall allure of the device rather than take from it.
Do watch the video and be fascinated by the thought process involved in the design process of the One M9.
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