Love The New HTC One M8 : Review

I received a HTC One M8 unit from HTC to review as part of a testing program.  It was great to have a chance to test out this 2014 HTC’s flagship model  with the much anticipated HTC Sense 6 and Android Kit Kat 4.4.  The design of the phone itself is gorgeous - 90% metal unibody (weighing in at 160 grams)  and soft curves along the edges (as compared to the 2013 HTC One model), it looks and feels solid in the hands like a premium smartphone should, especially the clarity of the stunning 5-inch, full 1080p HD display.  

The gorgeous HTC One M8 metal unibody with the Duo Camera lens feature

Here are some of the features that I truly love about the new HTC One M8 :-

·       DUO CAMERA with Ultrapixel and a dual colour flash.  I really love taking photos with the HTC One M8.  With the Duo Camera adding a depth sensor, I can make my images more professional looking with effects like Ufocus which allows me to choose the focus area of my image after I take my shots.   There’s also the Foregrounder that allows me to choose from four variants; Sketch, Zoom Blur, Cartoon and Colorize.  These are the two most frequent effects I use amongst the many others like Seasons, 3D Dimension Plus, Sticker, Copy & Paste and Touch Up. The 5 MP wide angle front facing camera is a great feature too as its clarity is the best I’ve seen so far for taking “selfie” or “wefie”  photos.  The Ultrapixel also works best in low light conditions.  It gets the job done and done well.  Of course, we are not talking about enlarging images to poster size.

 Here's a pic I took and one which I used the Foregrounder "Sketch" to edit the pic.  Cute!

Here's a shot I took in a rather dim place but with lights surrounding this cafe counter. The words on the blackboard are still relatively clear; this is the Ultrapixel at work.

·       MOTION LAUNCH - Along with the HTC Sense 6, the HTC One M8 has this new feature which I love.  A double tap on the screen is all you need to do to see the time.  It turns the lock screen off and on! I love that I can prolong the life of the power button! A swipe downwards while phone is in sleep mode) activates the device that prompts you to say the name of the person you would like to call.  There’s also Auto Answer which allows me to answer a call when I put the phone to my ear, done without touching the screen.  Another great feature for those who have their hands dirty from eating some tasty buffalo wings or wet from washing dishes! Hahaha...

Curry Leaf, Damansara Utama

In a dilemma...I write this post.  I feel that more folks should be dining here but yet would like to keep this place to myself. But good things must be shared, so share I must!  I am a fan of nasi briyani and when bro took me here sometime back, I had wondered why I had not made a visit to Curry Leaf before when it was so near to me all this time.  You know what they say...sometimes the very thing that you are looking for is the one thing you can't see! That's how I felt about Curry Leaf.  Just before this, I was telling my brother about the mediocre nasi briyani I had from a shop in Bangsar, where one was charged at a higher price if you were to sit in the air-conditioned section! The Nasi Briyani with Honey Chicken was about RM12.50 and yes, it was mediocre...yet people throng that place daily.

And here I was again, on a Sunday ... having my Briyani Mutton rice in the quiet Curry Leaf. A simple looking restaurant but with great food. This is a branch from the original restaurant located in Seremban and I'm glad they came to Damansara Uptown.  I only wished I knew about Curry Leaf sooner, I could have had more and better briyani rice!  Hahaha.... Anyway, there were about six tables taken but there were still ample empty tables.  I really can't understand why there weren't more customers.  My bro had his banana leaf rice while I gave my usual order.  I like to usually order a small plate of my vegetables - cabbage to go with my rice.

I love the aromatic spices they put in to stir fry the cabbage.  A great accompaniment for the briyani rice!

The lovely briyani rice comes in a little metal pot.  But don't scoff at that little pot as it holds a big serving actually. If one is really hungry, it will be no problem to finish it off but those with small appetite can probably share one, though I figure the best would be for 3 pax to share two pots of these.  There are several briyani variants; you have plain, egg, chicken, mutton, squid... It is served with some yogurt raita on the side.  Each rice grain is flavourful and the mutton is tender and cooked spot on! All this at a reasonable price of RM9! No more briyani elsewhere (for now...until I find one better!)! People oh people? Where are you oh people on a Sunday afternoon like this? Oooh, the pics here are taken with my new HTC One M8 by the way, I'm loving it!