Drawing on an HTC One M8.
Categories: artwork, share-screening
Tags: Guildford, PC World, Didlr app, Phones 4 U, HTC One M8, numerous styli, Godzilla, Share Screening
Date: 03 April 2014 08:03:22
I don't have an HTC One phone... I'd like to, but being a part time teacher buying new phones is somewhat against the run of the average, monthly, budget.
But I do like Share Screening - popping into a shop and drawing on whatever they've got - and I was very happy to see that my local PC World/Currys/Phones 4 U had an HTC One M8 so soon after the global launch last week.
I wasn't expecting them to be so generous in arranging a test drive and I REALLY wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did.
Andre was kind enough to arrange the demo of the phone, including the installation of Didlr app. In fact he did it fairly speedily, knowing that I had less than an hours worth of drawing time...
And then, with the screen and app in front of me, there's always the immediate hesitation: what do I draw now? He suggested I drew him and since he'd been good enough to sort out the software that seemed only fair trade.
(you can see a process video of the image hitting the screen here: https://didlr.com/Pvntfj).
Then I had half an hour of whatever I wanted, draw time wise. That said: blank screen/blank mind. So I drew a line and it started to look like Godzilla again so I went with that: 
(process video here: https://didlr.com/rgklLG).
But THAT isn't the interesting thing.
The interesting thing is that this is the first screen that had a 100% hit rate on styli.
You may remember I have a slight stylus addiction:
Some are made of wood and others have brush tips. Some are metal barreled and others are light and plasticky. Some are bluetooth and smart and others are cheap and dumb.
I tend to take (and try, now, not to lose) a pencil case with a range of styli with me wherever I go. It has, generally, a couple of cheap eBay ones, a Plai eStylo, a couple of Nomad brushes (Compose and Play), a Pogo Sketch Pro, a Jot Script, a Pogo Connect, a Stylus Sock, at least one New Trent and a Dagi (and often a couple of other ones too. Depends on my mood).
No machine, screen, tablet, touch screen desktop or phone has ever worked with all of them.
The bogey styli are often the Nomad Play and Plai eStylo. Both are wood barrel styli, coated in a capacitive varnish. They're good fun to use but carry less electrical charge than other styli and work on fewer screens as a result.
Occasionally, especially on the touch screen desktop computers - the hard disc styli - the Jot Touch, Dagi 301/501/504 and 'fashion stylus' from eBay won't work.
Even more infrequently the Jot Script won't work on a machine - or at least it will but something in the Bluetooth pairing will display a noticeable jitter and the line will be, basically, unusable.
Most machines I test drive will work on around 80% of the styli in my pencil case. Some, like the iPad retina mini, will go as low as 50% or so. I don't mind, per se, but I do have my favourite styli that a screen would have to be happy with for me to draw on it for any period of time.
The HTC One M8 worked with every single one. I was a little astounded.
I had a quick test drive on the camera and that seemed pretty good too, with a very quick refocus (although, strangely, not an autofocus between moving objects? I had to put my hand in front of the lens to get it to refocus but once it did so it was very snappy (ba doom tish)). I did want to play with some of the focal length jiggery pokery they spoke about when launching the phone, but by that point the egg timer was completely out of sand so I had to dash off :(
Anyhow? Too long, didn't read: the One M8 is a cracking machine. Massively impressed. Hope a student buys one soon so I can confiscate it and draw on one more often :)
Drew the below pic on an HTC One. Hope I get the chance to do a similar pic on a M8 soon...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smSGxuBEKq4 and drew the below pic on an HTC One while in a machine grump. I wish all screens worked as well as some of the tablets and phones I've been drawing on recently...