HTC unveils One M8 Android smartphone with Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor

Flagship handset to feature radically upgraded UltraPixel imaging powers

HTC has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the One M8, claiming it is its most advanced device to date.

The One M8 features a reworked design and boasts a single-piece, curved metal chassis that wraps around the phone's sides and larger 5in full HD, 441ppi display.

HTC director of Commercialisation Product Management Graham Wheeler unveiled the One M8 at an event attended by V3.

He said the One M8 is designed to build on the legacy set by the company's previous HTC One 2013 flagship, also known as the M7.

"The One M8 is designed to build on the success of our previous One M7," he said. "Unlike a lot of smartphone makers, design is at the heart of what we do. Creating the One M8 we put design at the centre of the creation process and fitted engineering around it to upgrade it in every way."

Wheeler listed the One M8's camera technology as a key selling point, claiming the 4.1MP UltraPixel rear camera's enhanced imaging processor and Duo Camera technology will offer users significantly improved imaging performance.

UltraPixel is a technology that HTC debuted on the original One. It aims to improve the phone's imaging performance by making the camera capture larger pixels than regular smartphones. Wheeler said this means the One can capture 300 percent more light than competing top-end smartphones.

Duo Camera is a new technology by HTC designed to let the One M8's camera sensor detect and capture spatial information, so users can tweak images to focus on specific points. "Unlike most software based applications that capture a number of images and let you focus to one of them, the One M8's camera captures spatial information so you can refocus [images] to any depth off one shot," explained Wheeler.

The HTC One M8 features radically upgraded internal specifications compared with the One M7. It is powered by Qualcomm's latest quad-core 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 processor and has 2GB of RAM. It will also feature a larger 2,600mAh battery.

HTC confirmed it will only release a 16GB version of the One M8 in the UK. The device's storage can be upgraded using its micro SD card slot to a maximum of 128GB.

The One M8 is also confirmed to run using Google's latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system overlaid with HTC's custom Sense 6.0 skin. The skin replaces Android's regular homepage with the latest version of HTC's BlinkFeed news aggregation service. The feature pulls content from regularly visited news outlets and the user's social media feeds into a central tiled interface.

The new version of BlinkFeed also lets users set the service up to create "bundles of news" about specific topics. This means they can create a feed dedicated to a particular event, topic or hashtag.

Sense 6.0 also adds a number of new gesture control options to Android. It lets users activate the phone from its sleep mode by double tapping the screen, or launch to the home screen by swiping right from the screen's left-hand bezel, for example.

The HTC One M8 is available for purchase at select stores in the UK now with prices starting at £550 SIM-free or £42 per mont on contract.

Check back with V3 later for a full review of the HTC One M8.