HTC ONE E9+
The One E9+ is powered by a 1.95GHz octa-core Mediatek MT6795T processor with PowerVR G6200 graphics chip and 3GB RAM ( 2, 642MB available) . It’s basically the same processor that powers the M9+ , only that the E9+ has a slightly under clocked version. The RAM specifics are similar as well.
We’ve come to associate flagships with Qualcomm chips. In such a world HTC and Samsung are trying to be different. While HTC is using MediaTek, Samsung uses its own home-made Exynos.
Qualcomm’s flagship chips ( SD 810, SD 815) have been in news for the wrong reasons, therefore HTC and Samsung probably deciding to chuck them out in favour of other chips is not very surprising. What’s surprising though is that the E9+ carries the same chip that powers its costlier flagship M9+ .
Synthetic benchmark scores put MediaTek’s flagship Helio X10 chipset well below the SD 810. Nevertheless, benchmark scores don’t always give the full picture.
Having said that, we had our doubts with the E9+ . Why? Well, the 64-bit Mediatek MT6795T chipset with an octa-core setup consisting of 2.2GHz Cortex-A53 cores powered the M9+ , and that thing wasn’t the smoothest operator. The E9+ has a slightly under clocked version of the same processor, so, you can do the math.
Then again, the E9+ surprised us on this front as well. It handled pretty much everything we threw at it without breaking a sweat. Yes, there were occasional hiccups, but nothing drastic to break the momentum and user experience. In fact, this one offered a more consistent user experience, on more than one count when compared to the M9+ .
More importantly, it never got hot enough to a point that we had to put it down. Long usage ( particularly when using the camera or playing games for long) did warm it a little, but that’s pretty much usual stuff for most phones.
The 3GB RAM ensures multitasking is fast and peppy and the PowerVR G6200 GPU handles most of the high-end games pretty well even at maxed out settings.
The E9+ comes with 32GB of internal memory of which about 23GB is available for use. The device supports expandable storage of up to 128GB via micro-SD card slot.
HTC’s fantastic BoomSound speakers with Dolby Audio ( yes, they are still the best speakers on any smartphone) coupled with the QuadHD display on a big screen make the E9+ a complete multimedia package.
Phone calls made with the HTC One E9+ are of acceptable quality. That said, we did witness some call drop issues while switching between towers ( on an Airtel network) .