[Sprint HTC One (M9)] mswlogo:
I hope moderators leave this here because I certainly would have liked to have known this information before I made the move and it is directed for M9 owners.

It is not meant to say the G4 is a clear winner it just describes the trade-offs between the two.

I was having network reliability issues with my M9. I was running the very historically reliable Bad Boys ROM and tried reverting back to Stock Rooted. It greatly improved reliability. But I lost Tether.

I go to so much trouble to get tether it might be cheaper to just buy it ;)

One thing that has also nagged me is if you look at M9 reviews on Sprint.Com you'll see a ton of folks saying under cons "Camera and Dropped Calls" (like 1 out of every 3 reviews, even on positive reviews).

Anyway I thought I'd try a G4. Ever since browsing a Sprint Store once all the phones were out I was rather drooling over the Larger Screen phones with razor thin bezels.

I was gonna buy a G4 on Swappa or Ebay for around $420.00 (I'd only buy sealed new phone). But I was worried it would be no better reliability wise and would not be able to return it.

There was also an issue with Bad Screens on early batches of G4's and I was concerned about quick swap with 14 days or warranty swap after and if I bought on swappa or ebay it may be part of that early batch.

If I could get it for $420.00-ish (some have bought them for under $400) and sell M9 for $350.00-ish it would cost me under $100.00 to swap.

So I need to value time and headaches and went to bestbuy. They had it for $650.00 (gulp). They matched Sprint $600.00 (no contract of course).

Then I said fine and then they hand me a $100.00 bestbuy giftcard, great. I also qualify for 2nd Battery, External Battery Charger and Leather Back Cover promotion (don't care that much about any of those things except maybe for resale later).

They also let me cherry pick the latest build date they had and there was quite a wide range.

Now to the phone comparison.

The G4 Screen is FANTASTIC. I don't know why so many reviews say you won't see a difference. It is drop dead gorgeous. The difference between M9 and G4 is about the same as the difference between the M8 and M7.

It's only a fraction taller and fraction wider and weight about the same. It feels much lighter. I think it's because it's curved and weight is over a larger area (i.e. less dense).

I was VERY worried about the G4 speaker. But is VERY good. I mostly care for speaker when using it to Navigate. It cuts through much better. Samsung S5 speaker was muffled compared to M8.

The buttons on the back of the G4 are GREAT. It is so nice having no buttons on any edge. I can't tell you how many times I've picked up the M9/M8 or took it out of the ProClip holder or out of my pocket and did something to it, I didn't want to do.

No buttons get hit on G4 either while in my pocket (no case).

I could care less about the leather backs for G4. They are not grippy enough. I added egrip to the hard shell back and it feels great (as I did my M8/M9/M7).

I have a hunch the hard shell cover helps with the speak and acts as speaker itself where the leather would absorb sound.

By default G4 maps double click volume down to take a picture. And I mapped double click up to turn on flashlight (I'd never map that on M9, it would get accidently turned on in my pocket, guaranteed).

There is no "S-Off" and no unlocked bootloader (and there might never be) on G4. But there is root on the G4 and you need a Dev to reroot each release and that vulnerability may get closed !! You must use ADB each time.

I think GSM versions have bootloader unlocked. Overall very little development.

Network reliability wise I think it is better than the M9. But it has not solved all my issues. Some of them are just plain Sprint and the new modes these modern devices run in.

Battery might be slightly worse on G4. Hard to say because I'm still fiddling with it a lot.

LG does screen brightness right. ON all other phones I've tried have to choose between fixed desired setting and auto.

On the G4 you can choose Auto AND choose how bright you want auto to be. DUH, why can't anyone else get that right !!

OMJ has tweaked his roms for a lower auto setting. But I can choose what ever I want when I want.

It still fits in my ProClip I bought for the M7 (has small width adjustment). Now at Max.

I was using my wifes M8 last night and I can't believe how quickly you get used to a wider keyboard. M8 really felt old generation.

Tether. There is a hack being used on S5/S6/G3/G4 to simply add ",dun" to your APN's to get Native tether (much easier than HTC phones that store this in SQLite).

You don't even need root on the G4 (you usually do). This does not work when roaming though !! Or more correctly does not work on EV-Do (which sprint no longer uses). It only works on eHRPD or LTE.

both Native and Wifi Tether Router work on G4 (no roaming). Roaming tether works on Bad Boys M9.

I really miss M8/M9 blinkfeed (my wife is hooked too). Yes I know about the port but I don't want to hack up the phone (Especially with no TWRP ;( ) and it is still limited functionality.

HTC could probably make more money just selling Blinkfeed as a standalone App than selling phones :)

I don't miss Sense 7. LG is much better than Samsung Touch Wise. LG is a little like Samsung with less Business look and feel and more Cartoon Kiddie look and feel like their dialer.

The Camera in the G4 is AMAZING. The M9 an absolute joke (in comparison). Optical Stabilization with Laser Focusing (no, not laser precise, but actually uses a laser to focus).

I don't understand why the 20 mega pixel camera in the M9 is so bad (in comparison). It must just have a crappy lens on it.

One big let down is G4 has no UMS (USB Mass Storage) mode for the USB SD Card access. M9 does. That really stinks. For example if you rename say a ROM from the PC over MTP it copies the file down to the PC renames it and copies it back.

There are references to "Mess Storage" in G4 specs but it does not have "USB Mass Storage" mode (it does not come up as a disk drive like a USB Stick would).

One annoyance on Sense is the mysterious missing widget. It happens to me and my wife on M8. Somehow it gets dragged off. Even with a lock pattern on the phone.

Problem is when a call comes in and you have Bluetooth the phone is unlocked in your pocket (or pocket book).

Can't tell you how many times I pull M8/M9 out of my pocket and the camera is running or getting hot in my pocket because something started up.

I have very few widgets and no special apps that start things up.

One really nice thing on LG is you can drag an Icon to Remove or Uninstall, Iove this. Don't have to dig through settings Apps or Play Store to clean up.

Given that my network issues are mostly Sprint my justification has diminished to get the G4 in the first place. But I just don't think I can give up the Camera and the Screen.

I have a wireless backcover (3rd party) and charger coming for the G4 (LG only makes a wireless case at the moment). All phones should have built in wireless charging, period.

G4 has a split screen but it's limited to only some apps. Not sure how useful it will be.

G4 soft navigation buttons work betterthan M9. By default they do not AutoHide and you can choose which apps will invoke AutoHide. You can also customize it a bit.

There are a couple apps that always autohide you can't turn off like camera.

The Quick Drag down menus are little better on HTC.

The Notification LED is much better on G4 (much larger). M9/M8 is too small and sometimes you need to be on top of it to see it.

It comes down to Unlocked Bootloader/S-Off, Blinkfeed, USM on M9 vs Camera, Screen, Rear Buttons, Wireless Charge on G4.

The lack of unlocked bootloader implies a loss of community as well :(

Probably gonna sell the M9 but there will be features I really miss.

HTC will have to have a hell of phone next year to pull me back. I would have considered Samsung again, but the lack of SD Card was a deal breaker and I need a min of 64GB and have 128GB now. That would be a $900 phone from Samsung with 128GB and no UMS mode either. But Samsung does include wireless charging in their phones now. Screens are great too. But the "Edge" versions seem fragile. I don't think the speakers are as good from what I've read.

I hope this helps some folks in future choices and future feature requests from any phone manufacturer. Sure would be nice to have the best of both. And they are both good phones. But the needle is leaning towards G4 at the moment.

We'll see where the needle is come next spring. I will definitely wait for all the phones to come out before buying. I will surely buy another come spring, I always do and if this phone is still that good I'll give it to my wife and get a G5.

Update 9/24/2015:

The root world outside of HTC is getting pretty ugly.

After going through one update and getting root back on G4, I sure do miss HTC Unlocked Bootloader (and S-Off Bonus).

It went smooth and did it dirty. I was lucky and it was a fair amount of work (involves booting Linux off a USB stick).

I have learned that G4's DO record they have been rooted, but it is not visible in Recovery or Bootloader. You have to dig for it in a file (that cannot be modified easily \persist\rct.cfg)

So I was incorrect above of saying you can restore back to factory on G4 being undetectable.

But it gets worse, a few people have tripped a Security Alert. Sometimes by seeming innocent changes while rooted (one person changed their DPI setting and tripped it).

It is unknown for sure, but even a factory reset (even if unrooted) might trip Security Alert. And it's very difficult to fix.

There are things like the RUU (called TOT), but much more difficult to apply.

Rooting from scratch yourself is, pretty complex, compared to TWRP doing it for you.

I still love the G4 hardware. But I do miss the Unlocked Bootloader of HTC's.

Had I known the risks on G4, I may have elected to go no root at all (since it can get tether without root non-roaming) or go with a Samsung (tons of developers over there)

I'm glad my wife will be keeping one HTC phone in the family and the Ut-Oh replacement M9 is running excellent (root only).

I hope HTC releases a more competitive piece of hardware next spring.

Also I've had my eye on Samsung Forums. Even though they successfully run TWRP. It is not safe to Factory Reset (not sure if this is true on all models or carriers).

They may lose Data/Voice if they do.

There is some sort of Key stored in Data and that Key cannot be regenerated once Rooted (that's my understanding/guess).

G4 does have an official unlocked bootloader in European models, hope is USA will be added. A lot of folks are doubtful though.

If you really value root, stick with HTC for now.

Root is not critical for me, but it sure is uneasy not having a Nandroid backup.