Barring any unforeseen complications, HTC One M9 users in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa should be receiving an OTA update today which will bring the software to version 1.40.401.5. This update rolled out in Taiwan a couple of weeks ago, and will be sent to North American units later this month. You can find the list of changes for this update below.

Camera
- Greater auto-exposure balance to improve overexposure, so images look less washed out
- Reduction of noise and blur in low light, so images are clearer and detail is more apparent
- Reduction of yellow/green hue to photos taken in extreme lighting conditions, so colors appear truer to their actual hue
 
Battery Life
- Reduced power consumption by YouTube and Facebook, so you can stay on these sites longer or know that your battery will last longer if your site use doesn’t change
 
Heat Management
- Smart charging thermal improvement, which means your phone will stay cooler when it’s being charged

While this update is still Android Lollipop 5.0.2 instead of Lollipop 5.1, the improvements to battery life and camera processing will definitely be appreciated by users. 

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  • hero4hire - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    Too little too late
  • Beno619 - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    Not for M9 owners like myself.
  • CoryMeetsWorld - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    People like you are pathetic
  • Raniz - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    Does this really warrant an article?

    I don't remember any articles like this being posted about other manufacturers OTA updates, what makes this one so special?
  • Freaky_Angelus - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    I think you're right it might not warrant an article, but as an M9 user these are the types of notices I do appreciate ;)

    Given that the M9's main problems are software inherent, the fact it is being taken serious and (at least attempts at) being solved, is good 'news'. Now before I get the wrath of any non M9 user.. The hardware (except screen) is really good and a blessing in usage, but camera, big.LITTLE usage and subsequent heat issues are all due to software. Camera is slowly being improved and with Android M, we (all big.LITTLE users) might see better usage and less wakelocks claiming big cores. Those fellows should be sleeping 90% of the time ;).

    After, given... a lot of changing settings in android, setting my M9 up, it runs 2-3 days and I have almost none of the original mentioned issues. Combined with RAW and the phone becomes good on all fronts. It's just not proper to expect a normal user to disable half of Google's crap and limit most of the options to what you prefer to achieve a 1+ day battery. If big.LITTLE would perform in the future as well, even that would solve the problems.

    As a final note, my M7 was hotter in games than my M9, so 'heat' is relative in this matter.
  • Raniz - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    I'm aware that the M9 has issues and this is probably a very welcome update.

    I'm just commenting because i think that as independent media Anandtech should either publish articles like these for all (popular) manufacturer's updates or no manufacturers updates. Posting just this one seems a bit skewed towards HTC.

    But my memory might serve me wrong here and similar articles have been posted for software updates addressing issues remarked on in reviews for other phones.
  • DCide - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    AnandTech has published a two-part review of the M9, and they're well aware of its weaknesses. So it makes sense to publish news about updates that may fix or mitigate some of these issues.

    They've certainly done this for other devices in the past, though I can't say whether all manufacturers have had "equivalent" treatment.

    But then some brands also give better priority, communication, and attention to review sites as well. So I suppose it's reasonable to expect reciprocal relationships. If I had to guess, I'd bet HTC has made the effort to form a good relationship with AnandTech.
  • Laxaa - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    There are rumors that the 5.1 update will come with the ability to adjust your screen's color temperature, so it seems like HTC are rectifying some of their mistakes.
  • jospoortvliet - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    Even as non owner I find this interesting to see because it tells me they are dealing with the issues. And that matters for a future buy or recommendations to other people.

    Esp battery life seems a major issue which is being tackled and that is nice. If only the screen cwould be improved - esp lack of panel self refresh is insane.
  • Ducey - Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - link

    In Europe, well UK for for example, I've received the .8 update instead of the .5 this article mentions.

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