HTC One M9, Sony Xperia Z3V, or wait for the Z3+

[JARosen]

I currently own an S4 and have recently cracked the screen pretty bad. I've narrowed down my choice of a new phone to the M9 or the Z3V.

What are your thoughts on one vs the other?

 

[Hadron]

To my mind (your preferences may differ) the Z3V's advantages are better waterproofing and a larger battery. The Z3's disadvantages are older technology, wider phone, Sony are definitely slower with software updates than HTC (though you presumable also have to wait for Verizon to stop meddling with the software as well), and I prefer HTC's software to Sony's (though I prefer either to Samsung's).

There was a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) spread about the M9 when released, and sheepish websites will still tell you the Snapdragon 810 gets hot and that the M9 has a bad camera. In fact the Galaxy S6's processor gets hotter than the M9's in use (though the S6's battery is further from the processor, which helps), while the camera problems were the processing algorithms, not the sensor, and the 1.40 update has improved the default processing immensely (this software is currently available in Taiwan, but will at some point make it over to Verizon handsets too). So I'd personally not worry about that stuff.

I'll give the same advice I always give though: go and play with both and see which you like better. Both are perfectly competent phones, so the one you like best is probably the best one for you.