It comes with the infrared blaster embedded into the power button as before, and all of the buttons, LED flashes and card slots are all precisely in the same place. (Why the name omits 'Phone' is beyond me, however.) The aluminum unibody chassis, 1080p display, Snapdragon 801 processor, BoomSound speakers, 2,600mAh battery, even the UltraPixel Duo Camera setup - it's all there. That's because the HTC One M8 for Windows, as awkward as the name is, is exactly that: an HTC One M8 that happens to run Windows Phone instead of Android. The hardware section is typically one of the longest in a phone review, but this time, the opposite is true. If it's successful, it may inspire other manufacturers to follow suit, resulting in a market with a wide variety of Windows Phones to choose from. If it fails, neither company loses much from the deal since they're using an existing phone, the cost of design and engineering is far lower than it would be on a standalone device. There's absolutely no change to the hardware - and it's a fantastic idea. The software giant has buddied up with HTC to convert the One M8, its Android flagship, into a Windows Phone. They put more focus on Android products, which meant anyone interested in Windows Phone had a small selection of devices to choose from.įor Microsoft, it's time to experiment with a new, simpler approach. The one element that Microsoft continued to lack, however, was buy-in from large phone makers. Let's give the company credit for pushing forward, improving its platform and not giving up, though: When I reviewed the last major OS update, I said I could finally use Windows Phone as my daily driver. Even then, it's got a long way to go before catching up to Android and iOS. Four years later, nothing's changed - except, perhaps, a few more percentage points of market share. Since Windows Phone's humble beginnings, Microsoft has been the underdog in the wireless industry.

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