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Can decide between M9/S6 Edge

I

Incredible3000

Newbie
Ive been using htc phones my whole life. Started With the Incredible when it first came out, then upgraded to the rezound which I still have now. Its finally time to upgrade as the rezound is showing its age (no more software updates, increasing lag and bugs here and there and incompatibility with some newer apps)
Im torn between the M9 and S6 edge and have been doing countless hours at the verizon store trying both and many days of research and reading comparisons between the two and honestly im sick of it. What mainly attracts me to the m9 is the price, uh oh protection, splash proofing, micro sd card, and great speakers. With the S6 edge id probably have to go for the 128 gb since I have a lot of songs/movies/pics on my phone and that will cost just about $600 with upgrade after tax and fees from Verizon, then id have to purchase insurance another 150$ (I wont need insurance with the m9 because of the uh-oh protection)
I understand the s6 edge has a much better screen, camera, and killer high tech looks. I don't think ill ever use the fingerprint sensor or heart rate monitor and no mhl compatibility hurts me (I still have the htc branded mhl to hdmi adaptor that I use with my rezound) wireless charging is nice but im reading that it shortens long term battery life.
Is the M9 camera that bad (compared to the s6)? How about the heat throttling issue with the 810? Most of the reviews I read about the M9 aren't that good and sales are much lower then expected for htc.
I don't know what to do and I don't want to have buyers remorse after I get a new phone. I may just wait and check 0ut the LG G4 but I don't really like bigger phones that are difficult to use with one hand.
 
What is your gut instinct?
If you've compared side-by-side,is the S6 Edge's screen that much better than the M9's?
As for the cameras,I'm strictly a novice,but,I've posted a few pics snapped w/the M9 & JMHO,they look pretty decent & you could probably do much better w/little-to-no effort.
http://androidforums.com/threads/ht...-off-your-pictures.906130/page-2#post-6956657
http://androidforums.com/threads/ht...-off-your-pictures.906130/page-2#post-6956749
As for the heat issues,blown out of proportion,hottest I could get mine was 109'F & that was with a LOT of of extraordinary use,just to see how warm I could get it.
My vote is for the M9.
Pick either one,or both,one after the other.
I'm sure VZW has a 14-day return policy (with a restocking fee,I'm sure,all carriers have one).
That doesn't sit well w/most,but,best to find out which phone is truly the best for you than to wonder for 2yrs if you made the right choice..........................................
 
I had the rezound, talk about a phone that got hot and had bad battery life. After my rezound died i got the M8 which I loved. I then upgraded to the M9. The M9 is very fast and snappy I thought about the S6 but the M8 was a great phone the M9 was only better. The camera is not bad i just take casual pictures and it does a great job. I love having 160 gigs of space.
 
That's the problem Kolio usually my gut instinct is one or the other but im split down the middle here. Ive compared the 2 screens and yes the s6 is noticeably better especially when watching 1440p videos on youtube it just blew me away.
The M9 doesn't get hot that bad anymore because the software update introduced some heavy cpu throttling which im not sure will be noticeable to the average everyday user but I don't like to know my phone is constantly being throttled due to overheating.
Im not sure if I want to go the try the phone and then return it route because I still have unlimited data and in order to keep it I have to transfer my upgrade to another line, upgrade to the new phone and then swap the new phone back into my line so I can still have unlimited data, which I will be doing all online.
Then if I go into the Verizon store to try to exchange the phone it might complicate everything and Im afraid ill loose my unlimited data. Anyway ive played with each phone a good couple hours and I have a general feel for each already. I do like the s6 a little better but not really $500 more than the m9 better.
Funny thing is when I was in the Verizon store playing with the M9 a guy came in, returned his M9 and got the S6.
I think I might wait a little bit and try out the G4 in the store when it comes out.
 
Since the G4 release is so close,perhaps it's best to wait until you can take a look at it before deciding.
There's also talk of an S6 Active,but,not much to go on as specs/battery/storage/etc.......
 
Movies and music are my thing too. I've ripped over 200 CD's and keep them with me all the time using the Micro SD on my M8. I haven't ripped all my DVDs yet but that's a project I'm considering. When I do I will want to have them all with me all the time too so a Micro SD card is a must for me.

I'd hold out until the LG G4 is available for purchase on May 31 before making your decision and compare that with the M9. If your into Music and Movies than expandable storage is a must have on the phone you pick. HTH
 
I have also been trying to decide between the s6 (flat) and the m9. I am currently using a m7 and love it with the exception of the camera shooting purple shots in low light.

Personal taste in phones is subjective.... I am a visually oriented person so me choices often center around the design of the phone, the feel in the hand, the color temperature of the screen, the quality of the sound, the quality of the camera.

S6 Advantages:

  • Color Temperature of Screen - s6 wins as long as you go into the settings and dial back the saturation. My m7 has beautiful warm whites but the white in the new m9 are cold. 6500k has been the defacto screen temperature for a very long time. The m9's color looks off and I have read that the screen color temperature int he m9 is around 8000k.
  • The lens on the camera - Not the sensor, but the lens allows the S6 to have much better low light performance when taking photos. The s6 has a 1.9 aperture, where as the m9 has a 2.4 aperture. If you don't know anything about lenses this means that the s6 allows a lot more light to get to the sensor which will greatly improve low light photography. The G4 will have a 1.8 aperture lens. (lower is better)
  • Additional Features - The s6 also has a finger print reader and wireless charging, both would be incredibly nice to have.

M9 Adavantages:
  • Speakers - Enough said. M9 wins hands down in speakers.
  • Industrial Design - This one is subjective. I love the m7 industrial design. Clean, the corners are not to rounded, feels awesome in the hand, sophisticated looking. I feel HTC took a step backwards with the m8 and m9 designs but I still prefer them to Samsung. Yes Samsung has upped their game quite a bit but to me the over shape of the phone still leaves something to be desired.

I told myself I would never buy another Samsung phone after owning a Galaxy s2 but I am leaning to towards the s6 over the m9. I am planning on buying the phone outright this time and skipping the contract. ...which may mean I sell the s6 for a m10 when that comes out next year, providing that HTC matches the advantages the s6 has. It is a tough decision because I am trying to convince myself to buy the m9 but it is a touch sell trying to convince myself.

I want to wait and see how the G4 feels in my hand but I have little hopes that their plastic (besides the leather) will feel and look as nice as either the s6 or m9.
 
Incredible3000 said:
I've compared the 2 screens and yes the s6 is noticeably better especially when watching 1440p videos on youtube it just blew me away
Click to expand...

I want to try/see this side by side. Would be interesting

CrazyHomelessGuy said:
My M7 has beautiful warm whites but the white in the new M9 are cold. 6500K has been the defacto screen temperature for a very long time. The M9's color looks off and I have read that the screen color temperature int he M9 is around 8000K
Click to expand...

HTC has been using multiple screen suppliers for years. Each display manufacturer and each handset itself has its own color calibration. One of the easiest ways to see the difference in these color calibrations is in the white value.

It has been well documented that there are some M7s that display cooler white and some that produce warmer whites. Same with the M8. And the same again with the M9. I've seen it in two display M9s side by side.
The color temperature of your M7 is not a consistent and know quantity to anyone besides yourself so it is not a great compare tool. It also should probably not be a knock on the M9, as somewhere out there you might be able to find an M9 with a color temperature that is similar to your M7.
If anything we should knock HTC for CONTINUING to utilize multiple suppliers for their screens and CONTINUING to cause this frustrating inconsistency .
 
Since you mention thermal throttling, from what users are saying here and elsewhere I'd say it's really not an issue. Indeed for some uses the S6 throttles more. Why have you not heard more about that? I'd guess because most reviewers write their reviews with the "received wisdom" already in their minds, and "S810 hot, 14nm Exynos not" was an established story before they got their hands on either device.

So why do I say the S6 can throttle worse? Let's look at some evidence: Anandtech ran the T-Rex graphics benchmark continuously on both phones as part of their reviews (M9 and S6) and plotted the frame rate vs time. The plot for the release M9 is here (pre-release models showed essentially no gpu throttling, but did get warmer). What it shows is that running this intensive graphics benchmark continuously the frame rate hold steady at 50 fps for 10 minutes, then throttles smoothly in 2 stages, reaching its final stable framerate of around 27 fps after about 80-90 minutes continuous running.

Now look at the same plot for the S6. Now the S6 has to do more work because of the extra pixels (and the subpixel structure probably has a processing overhead too), so this is a comparison of system rather than pure gpu/cpu performance. But the S6 starts to throttle after about 1 minute, dropping from 39 to ~31 fps by 4 minutes, which it holds until 18 minutes. But look what's happening after 30 minutes: the frame rate is oscillating sharply between 21fps and 30-35 fps - in fact what it seems to be doing is throttling down to 21, then when the temperature drops it tries to drive the frame rate up, immediately overheats and throttles down again. That is just poor software optimisation, and so should be fixable, but if I were playing a long gaming session I'd certainly rather have a steady frame rate than that behaviour!

Now let's be clear: any phone can be made to throttle if you push it, and looping a benchmark is not what people usually buy their phones to do. But the point is that even we ignore the oscillation as something that's fixable, when pushed the S6 is actually throttling at least as hard as the M9 and the throttling is taking hold much sooner. But the popular narrative is that the M9 has a problem with thermal throttling and the S6 does not...
 
PyroSporker said:
HTC has been using multiple screen suppliers for years. Each display manufacturer and each handset itself has its own color calibration. One of the easiest ways to see the difference in these color calibrations is in the white value.

It has been well documented that there are some M7s that display cooler white and some that produce warmer whites. Same with the M8. And the same again with the M9. I've seen it in two display M9s side by side.
The color temperature of your M7 is not a consistent and know quantity to anyone besides yourself so it is not a great compare tool. It also should probably not be a knock on the M9, as somewhere out there you might be able to find an M9 with a color temperature that is similar to your M7.
If anything we should knock HTC for CONTINUING to utilize multiple suppliers for their screens and CONTINUING to cause this frustrating inconsistency .
Click to expand...

Interesting. Do you know if there is a way to tell from the serial # who made the screen? Is there anyway to tell besides turning them on? I have only looked at the m9 display model in the closest AT&T store where I live.
 
I started of with HTC namely the Desire, followed by the One x.
Then i switched to the Galaxy S4, i have since also got the One M7 which i prefer to the S4 for more reason than i can list.
Sense is as far as i am concerned streets ahead of touch wiz.
The build quality of the M9 & S6 are much closer than it was on the previous models though, for me though sense decides it.
For you though it would be wise to compare them closely & then decide.
 
Go to a store and try both of them out.
I did say both are closely matched also you can consider G4 which is good if you don't mind the design and if you don't game.
Many S6 displays have QC issues so watch out for that.
However if you want Samsung only and are alright with bigger display then wait for note 5 for sure , which would basically be a bigger and better version of S6 with mistakes rectified.

As for gaming both are evenly matched with S6 having a better SoC but a glass back too which traps heat but M9 has its CPU located above battery which transfers the heat from CPU to battery pretty fast.

Edit: To sum up for you
S6E over M9:
▪Design is different/refreshing as you are a HTC owner , but not necessarily better as that is your personal preference Also it is Smaller in size and lighter
▪Better display for the most of the part (More accurate in basic mode,more saturated in dynamic mode and goes brighter than M9 or any phone for that matter in auto brightness mode,better blacks,can go more dim too)
▪Wolfson DAC
▪Better stock camera overall
▪A more 'advanced' SoC even though the difference is offset by smaller battery ,high resolution display and heat insulating glass back
▪Touchwiz has more features (?)
▪Much better out of the box

M9 over S6E:
▪Speakers (need I say more?)
▪Sense UI is faaast (even though touch wiz has gained some ground this time)
▪Design (Old but premium ;Subjective)
▪Less display QC issues than S6E from what I have seen
▪Raw camera support which can turn the tables for camera part (S6/S6E is rumoured to get RAW support too ,we will see)
▪Better whites on display
▪Gets much better as you spend more time with it (Hurried up software imo )
○Battery is more or less same on both
 
Last edited:
Incredible3000 said:
Ive been using htc phones my whole life. Started With the Incredible when it first came out, then upgraded to the rezound which I still have now. Its finally time to upgrade as the rezound is showing its age (no more software updates, increasing lag and bugs here and there and incompatibility with some newer apps)
Im torn between the M9 and S6 edge and have been doing countless hours at the verizon store trying both and many days of research and reading comparisons between the two and honestly im sick of it. What mainly attracts me to the m9 is the price, uh oh protection, splash proofing, micro sd card, and great speakers. With the S6 edge id probably have to go for the 128 gb since I have a lot of songs/movies/pics on my phone and that will cost just about $600 with upgrade after tax and fees from Verizon, then id have to purchase insurance another 150$ (I wont need insurance with the m9 because of the uh-oh protection)
I understand the s6 edge has a much better screen, camera, and killer high tech looks. I don't think ill ever use the fingerprint sensor or heart rate monitor and no mhl compatibility hurts me (I still have the htc branded mhl to hdmi adaptor that I use with my rezound) wireless charging is nice but im reading that it shortens long term battery life.
Is the M9 camera that bad (compared to the s6)? How about the heat throttling issue with the 810? Most of the reviews I read about the M9 aren't that good and sales are much lower then expected for htc.
I don't know what to do and I don't want to have buyers remorse after I get a new phone. I may just wait and check 0ut the LG G4 but I don't really like bigger phones that are difficult to use with one hand.
Click to expand...

I would get the M9. It is just better phone and it offers a superior user experience
 
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