This was posted 8 years 7 months 8 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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HTC One M9 32GB (Silver Only) $540.55 Delivered @ DWI

390
5OFFANY

Previous deal was $629 https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/206165
This one is for the silver model only though.

5% off Anything @ DWI Digital Cameras

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DWI Digital Cameras (Digital World International)
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  • +1

    This one or LG G4? Roughly the same price now.

    • G4…

      I doubt HTC will last very long now. They've been doing very badly for years, and now have been taken off the Taiwanese stock exchange market. Quite bad.

      (ALso the G4 has a much superior camera.)

      …but if music's your thing (portable boom box), then get this HTC.

      • +8

        now have been taken off the Taiwanese stock exchange market

        No, they have been moved from the FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 Index to the FTSE TWSE Taiwan Mid-Cap 100 Index.

        • OK…

          My point is that they've shrunk, big time. The change you've mentioned, is a downgrade. I've read somewhere that the HTC brand has no monetary value anymore or something like hat.

          It's really hard to tell if they'll exist in the coming years. At this rate though, they will be gone.

      • I have no experience with the g4 but a friend just got a g3 and he is having a few issues, and all are well documented.

    • +7

      It depends on what you want in a phone. The One m9 offers
      -Better build quality and more premium materials
      -One M9 uses faster SoC, it also uses a more sensible screen resolution which helps performance also.
      -Sense 7 is considered one of the fastest skins and HTC is better at keeping their phone's
      updated, usually guarantee latest Android version within 90 days.
      -Best stereo front facing speakers on a smartphone (most people probably don't care about this)

      The G4 pros to me
      -stellar camera arguably one of the best smartphone camera's
      -removable battery
      -great screen to body ratio

      Personally I'd prefer the M9 out of the two because of stereo front facing speakers and premium build quality. I also know Android flies on these phones, where with other makers you have to get used to living with lag. I had a M8 and the only thing that was negative was the camera. The camera on the M9 is a lot better than the old M8, but still isn't considered that great against other flagships. Since updates it's supposedly a lot better than initial reviews gave it.

      At this point in time with the new nexus around the corner, it's probably better just to wait. :)

      • +4

        Had an m7 for a couple of years and can second that even in that slightly aged chipet the phone flies, and if u ever got even the slightest slow down clearing apps resolved the issue in seconds. It also oozes quality in the hardware, and sound is a big deal for me as I often listen to music, podcasts and catch up TV while I do other things.

        It will be a sad say if this co. does go by the wayside, but I don't think it's about to happen any time too soon. In the build quality stakes only an iPhone could be better, and even then…

        • HTC has enough cash reserves to sustain losses for maybe two straight years, so we'll have at least a couple phone cycles yet (and Cher Wang's family is wealthy enough to prop up HTC as a hobby for even longer if they really wanted).

          HTC is hedging on the Vive to shore up the brand over the next year. I hope it works, because I'm not thrilled at the idea of a Chinese company buying out HTC. Lenovo is probably the only one that I could live with, but it has Motorola now, so that's not going to happen. The Asus rumours don't excite me either. Either way, HTC the brand won't be going away any time soon. But if things don't turn around over the next few years, it may have new owners…

    • i would say the M9 but im a HTC user and my wife is an LG user, she's had the G2 and now Flex2. To be honest you can go wrong with either at this price range, however the M9 has a better build quality feel to it .. :) either way both are a bargain! I went from an M7 to an M9 mainly because of the UI .. ive used samsung phones and in terms of UI it felt like a step backwards compared to the Sense from HTC.

    • I looked at the LG. I don't think it covers all Australian carriers (or all their frequency bands - one of the two). The HTC covered them all.

      The HTC music quality is impressive. (It's called Theatre Mode I think.)

      I think I read the LG is made of plastic. The HTC is aluminium and glass.

      Photos are better on LG, worse on HTC.

      Does the LG have an external memory slot? The HTC can take something ridiculously large, like 1TB card. They're not manufactured yet, but I do have 128GB in mine. That's ~182x 700MB mp4 videos; ~13,000 10MB photos in RAW format (which you can edit to improve later); or ~21,000 6MB mp3 files. (Assuming each album has an avg of 10 songs that's 2,100 albums.)

      I listed all that, because of the audio quality of the HTC, which is a big selling point.

      Basically if you want better photos, don't care about having no external memory, don't care for sound quality of video/audio, don't mind plastic over better build quality - and - the LG covers your required frequency bands - then get the LG.

      • The LG actually allows you to replace the battery easy, which is getting rare now on flagship phones. The LG covers most Australian frequencies I believe including the desirable band 28. The LG also offers expandable memory. Yes you are right the HTC strengths are the build quality, sound quality and the speakers. At the end of the day it horses for courses.

  • Is this import or AU stock? How would warranty work if import? (is it easy to deal with HTC directly?)

    • Grey import. Sorry no idea, I only dealt with Telstra when I had issues with my old HTC phone.

    • I have the grey version and prefer to. Why? Because you get bug-fixes and updates weeks earlier.

  • -4

    this phone has lag and over heat problems, go to LG G4 or samasung galaxy s6 void this phone at all costs, its not worth it when this phone over heats it damages the motherboard and every little thing like battery

    • +1

      I'm personally not a M9 fan, but you'd be naive if you think the G4 and S6 don't lag, I guarantee both lag more than the M9. (especially the S6, after using it for a while you'll see it)

      • Yeah the s810 is known for getting hot and throttling. With that being said that issue has been addressed with updates, and from all I've read it was only an issue if you ran benchmarks like Antutu repeatedly over and over. In the real world lots of reviewer's and owner claim you never notice performance issues from throttling with the M9. The Galaxy S6 is probably the best of the bunch this gen. However Touchwiz is still it's Achilles heel, and some people really like to have expandable storage. The G4 is a good phone too, with it own set of strengths and weaknesses. They all have their own niche at the end of the day. If you value the speakers and build quality then that's the M9 strong point. The problem for the M9 though, it wasn't really much of an improvement over the M8 because the M8 was already so strong in the same areas. And I suppose that has become an issue with all smartphones, each generation has diminishing returns because we have reached a stage where there's little room for improvement between each gen.

      • I had a s6 but mine was fautly , it did suck but others love it, My lg g4 is so awesome it has lower specs but I dont notice it, the battery life is good. speakers are good and the cam is awesome. dont know why im downvoted when its true m9 overheats and its doing so poorly

    • +1

      I'm typing this reply on my m9 now and it hasn't lagged or overheated once. You sir are ill-informed.

    • +1

      i have the m9 there were heating issues during charging (it did not overheat just got hot) but all have been fixed via updates, there is no lag whatsoever with the 3gig ram and the snapdragon cpu also imo a superior UI to most other androids.

    • It does not have heat problems. It did run hot (as do other phones) to begin with. But this has since been corrected in firmware.

      I own one and it does not lag. Any phone WILL lag though, depending on what apps you leave running. So someone that turns the garbage off, will have a faster HTC than someone who doesn't turn off apps in an LG/Samsung/etc.

      I've also seen an online video review, where the guy tested the speed of different phones. The HTC started slow, but by the end of the task had finished ahead of the other phones.

      In short - the 'problems' mentioned are in a lot of online reviews. The problem is, those reviews were written before the firmware updates.

      Photo quality is also mentioned in the reviews. I don't use it for photos, but whilst I have read it's still not quite as good as other phones, firmware updates have helped that improve too.

      Considering it had only been released a few months before I bought it, and upon accessing wifi, it had wanted to install something like 5 firmware updates, I think it's a pretty obvious the company is serious about correcting any further issues that turn up.

  • +1

    Had M7 (Still have) and now using M8 - still going strong, no lag. Maybe M8 gets hot a little bit but thats because I have a million apps/music/movies open at once. Waiting for M9+ to get a bit cheaper before snatching a deal..

    • wait for the A9 :) imo

      • If that's the new one coming, people are already unimpressed with the CPU it's going to have. If you don't have an M8, I'd still be buying the M9 or M9+.

        • The M9plus also has a weak cpu as well, the snapdragon in the M9 is one of the quicker cpus around but alot of phone manufacturers opted to move away from it due to the heating issues (not that my m9 has any issues after the 5.1 update). As you can see the G4 used the 808 which is a step down from the 810 which was in the flex2. In terms of benchmarks the 810 is the only one that kept up with the Sammy CPUs. I wouldn't read too much into the cpu reviews mainly because the mediatek chipsets haven't been used enough for the software to be optimized for them. To be fair phone manufacturers haven't got many choices specifically if the phone is being released before the snapdragon 820 release.

  • Wouldn't buy anything HTC. Terrible aftersale service, virtually non existence in Australia (this deal being grey only makes it worse).

    As someone has said above HTC is going down and close to bankruptcy, buy at your own risks!

    • The company could crash and burn. It wouldn't mean the item I already own, evaporates with them. Most people change phones every 2/3 at the most anyway. So who cares if HTC aren't around then. The fact remains the phone is quite good; yes, they rushed the hardware release before the phone was software-ready; HTC have worked at fixing that (maybe still are); and other manufacturers (of all types of electronics) have similar issues. (If they didn't, the term 'firmware' would unfamiliar to most of us.)

  • +2

    Used a M9 for some days . It is NO upgrade over the M8 at all, battery and camera wise. Also, Snapdragon 810 cpu is definitely a downgrade with throttling here and there.
    I'd personally avoid any Snapdragon 810 phones for now.

    • Can you please tell me… Does your M8 still get firmware and Android OS updates? What I mean is, I'm wondering if my M9 will still receive whatever the newest version of Android is, in 3/4 years time?

      • It does. It should get Android M too, according to HTC

        • FWIW the M7 is only getting one last update. So around 30 month support cycle. Not that great, but typically better than other Android makers.

        • +1

          @Ronnnie: agreed. Android still sucks on updates but hey, you can still use cyanogenmod or other ROMs.

          Also, iOS 8 on iPhone 4s made me feel good about Android not receiving updates since it nearly made that beauty unusable .

        • +1

          @GeneralZod:

          Ah ok, this was my next question - thanks!

        • +1

          Yeah it quite often a good thing not getting updates. And it's also good that Android allows the flexibility of installing custom roms to still get the newest OS on older devices. I have no issue with 2 years support, that is usually when most people upgrade nowadays. I guess for people who like to keep their phones till they die, then lack of support would be a real negative. My main gripe with Android, is the time it takes from the manufacturer to release the latest version.

        • @Ronnnie:
          Hopefully, with Android M, that won't be the case. With Apple mocking Android publicly, I reckon this time Google is giving time to the manufacturers so that most of the devices get Android M in around the same time slot.

  • Is DWI reputable? I've never dealt with them.

  • +1

    The 'biggest' issue (if you call it 'big') that remains with this phone, is the camera. It doesn't have Optical Image Stabilisation. That's missing from the hardware. i.e. The camera just doesn't have it. So that won't ever be fully 'fixed'. So if you need to photo people bouncing around in a dark nightclub, avoid this phone. If you want a quality build, with great sound, external memory slot, fast user interface… hard to walk away from this one. The battery could be better, but from what I understand most people have to recharge their other-branded phone daily too.

    The choice is pretty simple. If photos are your biggest concern (moving objects and low light settings are the main problem here) then don't buy HTC.

    If you want external memory, aluminium instead of plastic, etc. - things I've mentioned above, and you're not a photographer - then it's hard to discount the M9. Especially if you want the sound quality.

    • one thing I find interesting about OIS is that it actually doesn't help phone cameras much, if you are taking a pic in a really dark club it's still gonna be blurry unless you have a tripod. That said, OIS does help with video capturing but the "jelly effect" does not go away, there are plenty of examples on youtube, most obvious on the walking while filming ones. I guess there's just still plenty of room to improve OIS. (of course, that doesn't mean the M9 shouldn't have it)

    • To be fair though, the iPhone 6 and 6s don't have ois either, yet the camera's still perform fantastic. Which shows leaving out ois doesn't necessary means a bad camera. HTC tried the experiment with their ultrapixel (marketing term) camera and failed. The pro of their ultrapixel camera was it fast speed and awesome low light performance, but in good light it had overexposure issues. Now they seem to be playing catch up, and really have to get that part of their phone sorted if they want to be competitive again. I hope that the M10 or whatever they call it will have the camera at the level of other flagships and the s820 or whatever SoC they use is good next time around. The One M phones have almost been the perfect phone imo.

  • I'm too disappointed with my expensive M8. Everyone told me I should get this phone and reckoned HTC is better for music because of two external speakers. However, it lags more often than my ancient Xperia Z and Galaxy S3 and Sesne UI isn't prettier than I expected. Bezel is thick which bothers me a lot when I am watching a video.

    Though I think this is a great deal for HTC fans, but here is two cents - get cheap Sony Xperia Z series. I think any of them will give you better Android experience.

    • it lags more often than my ancient Xperia Z and Galaxy S3

      Not trying to say you're lying or anything, but if it is slower than the Z and S3, especially the S3 - there's something wrong with your M8. Not even kidding, you need to get it checked out.

      • Yeah, I have an M8 and I know plenty of people with Xperia Zs.. They often complain about lag, I have none. Something wrong with your device/time to do a reset.

      • I really wanted to buy the Sony… but I read of too many easy-screen-smashes.

    • If you didnt factory reset after getting the andorid 5.1.1 update, maybe that's the root for lag. Personally, HTC phones have literally no lag since the M7.

      • +1

        I regret going to Samsung from the lag perspective. Sense is awesome how fluid it is compared to other Android devices. Really you have to go to Apple or nexus to get better experience. And I personally like some of the HTC apps like zoe for instance.

        • Exactly. After using one M7, I was quite excited about the future of HTC. It was far better than my Note 3 in all areas except for battery life and camera. It was fluid, no lags, the UI looked stunning.
          But I think HTC didn't bother much after that in M8 and M9. I mean, they had 2 years, and they still couldn't fix the damn camera and the Bezels.
          I still have high hopes for them for the VR headset they are building and hope the next phone turns out to be the same groundbreaking as the M7.

        • @GeneralZod: Yep got an M9, upgrade from an m7 I dnt care about camera much so not a huge deal for me but def not a leap forward like the m7 was… That phone brought me back to android from ios and I seriously don't want a phone that doesn't have sense ui and blink feed ..(shocking cuz I thought blink feed was stupid when I bought the m7 now I can't do without it lol)

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