The HTC One (M8) was one of my favorite devices of 2014. It was launched in a very neat way as well. Launching in stores the same day it was debuted to the media and the world. It had taken the things HTC had learned from the first generation M7 and improved almost every single detail. I think even with one year passing, the HTC One (M8) is as relevant as it can be. Especially now with the M9 that is launching, the M8 can be found for a much smaller amount of money. Let’s take a look back at the One (M8) and see what it was all about and how well it has aged since.

The HTC One (M8) was a huge upgrade from the much-beloved One (M7). Including size, up from a 4.7-inch display to a 5-inch display, it was packed with faster specs, larger battery and it was all wrapped up in a more premium material; which included a bump from 70 to 90% aluminum and steel. Overall, HTC nailed the One (M8) in the aesthetics department; reviewers and consumers alike loved the construction and build.

Another thing we loved was its 5-inch display. It was a super LCD-3 IPS display, nothing too fancy but it proved to be one of the best color accurate displays of the year and to this day, I still view the HTC One (M8) display as one of the best around.

Hardware-wise, we had a 2.3 quad-core Snapdragon 801 chip, 2GB of RAM, and the Adreno 330 GPU. Also, the battery size was bumped up from 2300 mAh to 2600 mAh.

Software-wise, the HTC One (M8) was packed with Android 4.4.2 KitKat at launch but since then, has been upgraded to Android 5.0 Lollipop on a few of the available models. But sadly, this Verizon Wireless model is still running KitKat.

HTC Sense 6.0 also debuted with the HTC One (M8), overall bringing a redesign and performance bump to Sense 5.0. Everything had a slight change from color schemes to added new functionalities. It was also dialed back from HTC Sense 5.0 in some areas and brought some new features like double tap to wake, which proved to be very useful considering the wake button was located at the top right corner.

The software experience itself was impeccable. It was fast, smooth, and very efficient to my eye. The only think that bothered me was BlinkFee—only because I never found it useful to myself but thankfully, it is very easy to disable.

Another huge piece to the HTC One (M8) was their signature Boomsound speakers. They made a much-welcomed return on the HTC One (M8) with larger and better sounding speakers. To this day, it still the best sounding phone around.

Next piece of the HTC One (M8) revolved around its camera, especially the second sensor above the camera. This is what people call a Depth Sensor. It’s supposed to sensor range of objects so with little software magic, you can adjust the software focus after taking your picture. While it was a neat idea, it really didn’t address the primary issue of the One (M7)’s camera, which was its core resolution. Only being 4MP, the images were always too fuzzy and didn’t have that much detail. Also since the sensor was only 4MP, 1080p video was the maximum resolution in a year where almost all Android flagships had UHD or 4K video recording, which requires an 8MP sensor.

So with all these in mind, the HTC One (M8), as a whole, was a major success. It looked the part, felt the part and it ran like it should have. And now you can find the HTC One (M8) for a lot less money than before. To me, the HTC One (M8) is still very relevant. Yes, you’ll have to live with the camera but as a phone, it’s spectacular. The battery life is great, the screen is great and it still looks fantastic.

So if you’re considering picking one of these up, it’s definitely still a good choice. If not, the HTC One (M9) is literally right around the corner. Make sure to look out for it on this channel sometime in the next 24 hours.