[One (M9) General] Alcolawl:
9 Days ago, I made the decision to switch networks due to Sprint's inability to handle MMS, data, signal, calls, or anything else. I walked into a T-Mobile store, and after a brief credit check, I was told I can choose any phone I'd like. My original intent was to hang onto my Nexus 5, which I absolutely loved, but I was told I was required to get a new phone. I wasn't exactly upset knowing I'd be getting a new phone, so I walked over to the displays and struggled for over 20 minutes trying to decide which phone to get. I eventually whittled my choices down to two phones. The LG G3 and the HTC One M9. After a bit of research and test driving, I chose the HTC One M9.

It is a seriously nice phone. The materials used to craft this baby are top notch, and definitely give the impression of quality. I very much like the way it looks and sounds, and even though it could be unwieldy to hold (slippery), I got around that issue by slapping a nice Spigen case on it. HTC's Uh Oh protection is a nice touch and the specifications are equally as impressive, which helped sell this phone to me. The thought of a 64-bit 8-core CPU was exciting.

It's my first flagship phone; everything should be impressive. And yet, I'm kind of not impressed. My two main complaints about this phone are the button placement (I think having the power button and volume buttons on the same side of the phone and right next to each other is kind of silly, then again, my N5 wasn't like that, so I could just be used to that layout. ) and the performance. Yes, you heard me, the performance. I don't even care about the joke of a camera this thing has, it's really the performance of the cutting-edge octacore CPU that they slapped in this thing that really frustrates me. Out of the box, this phone comes underclocked due to overheating issues. That, to me, is downright laughable. Did anyone at HTC test this phone? A flagship device whose performance is throttled from the moment you turn it on. That's like buying a Corvette straight from the dealer, starting up the car and finding out that Chevy disabled two of the cylinders in the engine to ensure it didn't overheat. It's not just the thought of this that bugs me, the performance of the phone is actually terrible at times. My Nexus 5, given it was running a 5.1.1 ROM, was butter smooth in all but the most complicated of situations. This phone, however, limited to a paltry 1.5GHz and another cluster that is slow to wake up and help out, struggles with some truly mundane tasks. For example, swiping to my Google Now Cards is laggy, loading Google Messenger is choppy and slow. Scrolling, in general, is almost never smooth. I've tried different ROMs, Kernels, and governors but can never really find a nice balance between performance and battery life. The CPU is ALWAYS up to something too. Even when the screen is off. My Nexus 5 would achieve, regularly, about 70-75% Deep Sleep throughout the course of a day. It sipped battery. This phone achieves, on a normal day, about 60-65%. Thankfully it has a larger battery than the N5, otherwise I seriously doubt it'd last as long.

Overall it's been bittersweet experience. I really like this phone, I want to love it, but I can't. I realize that this device is still in its infancy and HTC can roll out updates to hopefully iron out some of these problems. I also realize that the community for this phone is also in its infancy, and that down the road, there may be terrific alternatives to Sense 7 and the Stock Kernel. But I have 5 days left, and the idea of swapping this phone out for something better is slowly starting to grow on me. I've been toying with the idea of getting an Xperia Z3 or LG G3 instead. It'll cost me $50 to swap the M9 out for a different phone. On the other hand, my mind is telling me to be patient and that it'll work out in time with this phone. So I turn to you. Anyone else share the same frustrations with me? What do you think I should do? Should I wait or should I swap this baby out for something else?

UPDATE June 8th 2015:

I went to the T-Mobile store the day after posting this. I researched and thought long and hard about the decision I had to make. After a while I came to the conclusion that I would be paying $50 (Restocking fee) to essentially downgrade to another device. In fact, the only other flagship device that even appeals to me at this point is the LG G4, which seems to be getting along as well as the S6 and One M9 have been (from what I've read). Thanks to recommendations from others in the community, I made some changes that have greatly improved my experience with this device. I'm still not a huge fan of Sense 7 nor am I astonished by the Camera's performance, but a new launcher restored much of the stock Android feel and an upcoming firmware update promises to improve the camera. Performance while multitasking is fantastic and while there are a few hiccups here and there, I can't say my experience is any worse than what it was with my Nexus 5. The Battery life, a common complaint from others about this phone, is fantastic in my eyes. It's nice to sometimes forget about charging my phone at night, waking up the next morning and still having enough juice to get me into the afternoon.

Overall, I've only recently concluded that I did not give this device a fair chance for as long as I should've. Coming from my Nexus 5, the change was a bit of a shock. I suppose that played into my initial disappointment. I'm actually starting to fall in love with this phone. Compliments and exclamations of wonder and impact are common from others that I let check out my phone, even from die-hard iPhone fans, which is always nice. :P I figured that I should update this thread because I see the conversation still continues. No phone is without its flaws, my beloved N5 was hardly without its own. Many "flaws" are a matter of perspective. I'm confident I've made the right choice with this device, and I look forward to the bright future that lies in store for it (please God, give me an AOSP ROM).