HTC One M9 vs HTC One M8 screen-to-body ratio comparison: which one's more efficient?

Now that we've spent some time with the HTC One M9, we wanted to check how the smartphone evolved from its predecessor, the One M8, in the considerably important metric of screen-to-body ratio. That is, the percentage of the smartphone's area that's occupied by the screen. Since the display is the most essential part of a smartphone's front panel - it's the mediator between you and what you want your smartphone to do. So you'd like it better if that ratio happened to be closer to 100% rather than, say, 50%. Too low of a ratio would stand for too much wasted space around the screen's four sides. And since this space could have been occupied by a larger screen, stereo speakers, or other nice things, a smartphone such as the One M9, which prides itself on its design qualities, shouldn't be devoting perfectly usable space to empty bezels!

The One M9 has a slightly smaller area, which lets the display occupy more of it.

Thankfully, not only is the HTC One M9 not any worse than its predecessor, it's actually a little better! The HTC One M8, which has a 5-inch by diagonal display, has a 66.71% screen-to-body ratio. In comparison, the HTC One M9, which too has a 5-inch display, has a 68.52% screen to body ratio. We owe the difference to the subtle reduction in the device's dimensions. They are 5.76 x 2.78 (146.36 x 70.6mm) for the HTC One M8, and 5.69 x 2.74 (144.6 x 69.7) for the One M9, respectively. As you can see, the latter has a slightly smaller area, which lets the display occupy a little more of it.

Of course, one could argue that the black strip with an HTC logo below the display shouldn't really be there in the One M9. But we had the same argument last year with the One M8, and HTC's version of the truth remains the same - it's not wasted space, because it has important hardware underneath. We'll have to live with that, it seems.