HTC One M9 vs Microsoft Lumia 950 XL: Vote best smartphone – Mobile Madness 2016

Welcome back to another round of Mobile Madness.  Today’s match-up features the HTCOne M9  and the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL. Where will your vote go?

We know that the HTC One M9 is nearing the end of its life cycle, as HTC has already begun teasing its successor’s arrival. The One M9 still has a lot to offer. HTC has always kept its OS skin to a minimum with Sense and the hardware is certainly one of my favorite designs, even if we’ve seen similar iterations of it. Clean, smooth, and metallic, even before metallic was trendy. The display is 1080, and in the world of 2K and 4K displays, doesn’t really play nicely. However, I could make the argument of whether we NEED 4K displays on 5-inch screens. 1080P is just fine in most cases. The camera? I don’t love it. But it isn’t the worst. As far HTC phones are concerned this is the company’s best, so far.

What about the Lumia 950 XL? You know I’m one of the few people that really like whatWindows Phone has to offer. The apps are still lacking, but with Windows 10, Microsoftswears we’ll see more apps enter the ecosystem. We’ll see. Continuum is a really strong selling point. Is that a computer in your pants? Yes, well sort of. Windows Hello is pretty much the coolest unlocking tool around, be it on a phone or PC.  It is so quick and who needs fingerprints when you really just have to face something for half a second. IfMicrosoft sticks with mobile devices, I’m excited to see what else is around the corner.

Check out the galleries, specs, and coverage below, and submit your votes.  Have fun!

HTC One M9

The HTC One M9 is a great phone, but it’s so much of the same. In a lot of ways, this is almost like a One M8+, which would be fine, except we essentially saw this same device when the M7 came out two years ago, too. The specs are better, and HTC added some neat software tricks. However, if you were looking for a major upgrade over last year’s model, you won’t find it here, especially if you plan on cozying up with a lengthy contract.

That said, I’m not upset the hardware hasn’t changed, though I would prefer a home button with fingerprint sensor rather than BoomSound speakers. The two-tone color scheme does give the M9 a more elegant look, and the brushed aluminum and flatter sides means it’s not quite as slippery as last year’s M8. Good news if you don’t use acase on your device. But the strong design is no longer a standout feature when many of the top OEMs have their own aluminum wonders… read more

Lumia 950 XL

The phone felt really light in the hand — you can tell it’s made out of polycarbonate and not a really strong metal, but that’s fine. It packs a ton of power, including a water-cooled processor (a Snapdragon 810), which itself is enough to make the inner geek in me excited for its launch, a 20-megapixel camera, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and amicroSD card slot for adding more.

I really love Windows Hello and how the iris scanner on the front of the phone can identify the user and automatically unlock the device without any need for a fingerprint sensor. And I love that Microsoft is sticking by with its dedicated camera button, which I wish more manufacturers would continue to add… read more

		HTC One M9		Microsoft Lumia 950 XL
DISPLAY SIZE		5-inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display (441 ppi)		5.7-inch, 2560 x 1440 pixel display (515 ppi)
DISPLAY TYPE		N/A		QHD AMOLED
OPERATING SYSTEM		Android 5.0 (at launch)		Windows 10 (at launch)
PROCESSOR		2.2 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810		Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810
RAM		3GB		N/A
STORAGE		32GB		32GB
EXTERNAL STORAGE		Yes		Yes
EXTERNAL STORAGE SPECS		Micro SD up to 128GB		Micro SD up to 2 TB
MAIN CAMERA (BACK)		20MP		20MP
SECONDARY CAMERA (FRONT)		HTC UltraPixel		5MP
NETWORKS		GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS: 850/900/1900/2100 LTE (FDD): 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28 LTE (TDD): 38, 40, 41		N/A
WI-FI		802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz)		802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
BLUETOOTH		Bluetooth 4.1		Bluetooth 4.1
BATTERY		2840mAh		3340mAh
NFC		Yes		Yes
CONNECTIVITY		3.5mm Headphone jack DLNA MHL Micro USB		3.5mm Headphone jack USB Type-C
SENSORS		Accelerometer Ambient light Gyro Magnetic Proximity		Accelerometer Ambient light Barometer Gyroscope Magnetometer Proximity
GPS		Digital compass GLONASS GPS		A-GLONASS A-GPS
HEIGHT		144.6 mm (5.69 inches)		151.9 mm (5.98 inches)
WIDTH		69.7 mm (2.74 inches)		78.4 mm (3.09 inches)
DEPTH		9.61 mm (0.38 inches)		8.1 mm (0.32 inches)
WEIGHT		157 g (5.54 oz)		165 g (5.82 oz)
COLORS		Gold, Grey, Silver, Pink		Black, White
SUPPORTED AUDIO FORMATS		.aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma, .flac		N/A
SUPPORTED VIDEO FORMATS		.3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv, .avi, .mkv		N/A
OTHER FEATURES		IR Remote		N/A
IN THE BOX		N/A		Array

This poll closes within 24 hours (2:00 PM PT, the following day).

*Winners from previous rounds are marked bold.

Play-In

Round 2 – Quarterfinals