*I participated in an Influencer Activation Program on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Sprint Sound Session. I received a sample of the HTC One to facilitate this review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Last month, we had the opportunity to be invited by Mom Central and Sprint to participate in an incredible Sprint Sound Session in New York City to learn about the new innovative sound in phones and speakers from Sprint. We had a wonderful time and learned so much. You can see exactly what we did here.

We were excited to get to take home one of the HTC One M8 Harman/Kardon edition phones to check out.  What did we find?  This phone ROCKS….quite literally actually!  The speakers on this phone are made from high end sound specialists Harmon/Kardon and the sound is unlike any other phone I’ve tried.  Crystal clear, it actually sounds as if the conversation you are having is taking place right next to you.  I can’t stand phones that have an echo or that sounds like there is paper being wadded up next to the speaker as you try to carry on a conversation.  This is not an issue with this phone!  I do a lot of conference calls for work and this phone is so much better than others I have tried (and believe me, I’ve tried a lot!).  There is an awesome feature of having the speaker on the front of the phone, rather than the back, which makes it so much easier to hear conference calls.  Having the speaker on the front is also a huge benefit when it comes to listening to music (such as Spotify, which Sprint Framily customers get to try out for free for the first 3-6 months–it’s incredible, by the way!).  The music is loud and clear and when exercising and listening to music, it isn’t muffled as my old phone was.

Talking about sound some more, this Harmon/Kardon HTC One M8 comes with the best headphones I have tried that come with cell phones.  These babies are again manufactured by Harmon/Kardon, so you know they have the best sound quality behind them.  They fit in my ears perfectly and offer an incredible listening experience that I thoroughly enjoy when I can’t play my music out loud.

I use my phone for business, which means I get a ton of email, record interviews, take tons of photos, and use it for listening to music, and of course actually making calls.  A majorly important feature in a phone for me is the camera.  My last phone was getting old and at one time took good photographs.  But, now it’s outdated.  I didn’t realize just how much until I started taking photos with the HTC One M8.  The images are brilliant and clear.  This is very important for me with all the events I go to, as I don’t always want to haul around a big camera.  Having this great of a camera simplifies my life and I love that.  Plus, I love to capture moments with my family while on the go and I always have my phone with me ready to do just that.

Another feature that I think is a huge plus is the security feature of the phone.  Let’s say someone steals your phone and tries to hack into it by entering your password.  After three tries, the camera (which has a front facing camera, too) takes a picture of the person trying to log on.  Then, it sends the photo to your email and using the GPS feature in the phone can tell you where your phone is and since you have the photo, you know who has it!

It is an android operating system, so anything that is available on Google Play can be put on your phone.  So many great apps available there and also through Sprint. Very easy to navigate! Remember the great features that Sprint offers?  These are fantastic and perfect for your family to use on this phone.

• If you are concerned with the idea of how your child is using the phone, SprintGuardian is available to help you customize controls on the phone. Using this bundle package, you can lock the phone down during certain hours of the day, locate your child via GPS at any time, and make sure they made to school, even.

• One of the other features that I really liked was Sprint’s safety initiative, SprintDriveFirst. This feature is really impressive to me.  Using this app, when the GPS in the phone detects speeds over 10 miles an hour, the phone is locked down so that the driver does not get the alerts of texts and emails or even phone calls to distract them from driving.

The phone is really user friendly.  It is a larger phone, but I have found that I really like the size as it is easy to do all that you want to do.  A larger screen makes it easy to text, email, and edit photos.  I like the look of the sleek black and champagne combination on the phone, too.

I am really pleased with the phone and after having tried it for a few weeks have grown to love this over my old phone (which I truly did’t think was possible).  I highly recommend this phone to you without reservation.  You can learn more about the Harman/Kardon HTC One M8 phone here.