The HTC One M9, expected to appear at HTC's pre- MWC launch event on 1 March, has apparently leaked online. Photos of the HTC One M9, codenamed Hima, have been leaked by French tech news site Nowhereelse, showing the handset from the front and rear. The device is believed to be a prototype provided by a source that the site claims is trustworthy from previous experience. More photos are expected to surface in the coming days.
The design is very similar to the current HTC One M8 with front-facing BoomSound speakers at the top and bottom of the display. There is no sign of a front-facing camera flash, like the Desire Eye. But on the rear we can see a square camera hole and dual-LED flash. It looks like HTC has ditched the Duo Camera arrangement from 2014. Specs for the HTC One M9 are expected to comprise of a 5-inch screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution for 440ppi, a 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB or RAM and Adreno 430 graphics. The camera should be 20.7- megapixel on the rear with a 13 megapixel front- facing selfie camera. The One M9 should arrive with Android 5.0.1 Lollipop with HTC Sense 7. Expect to see the HTC One M9 unveiled on 1 March.
The HTC One M8 has been a popular device but with 2014 behind us, anticipation is rising about what will come next for HTC's flagship. It should come as no surprise if it's known as the HTC One M9, following the model numbering of previous years. The name HTC Hima has also
surfaced , which could be the next-gen HTC flagship's code name.
The rumours are starting to flow, so to help you navigate through the mire of speculation, we'll be keeping track of what's being said and draw out some of the more logical conclusions, including what we want to see.
HTC One M9 release date
HTC has sent out invitations for the HTC One M9 launch event, which will be held on 1 March 2015. The launch event will be in Barcelona on the eve of mobile World Congress 2015. Invitations were sent out to the press on 16 January confirming the M9 release date. HTC has eschewed large events in the past few years, choosing instead to hold its own. This was the case for the HTC One M7 and M8, both of which were launched separately from Mobile World Congress. The M8 launch was notable because the device was available in stores the same day, but that lead to a large number of leaks prior to launch. We suspect the HTC One M9 availability will be a few weeks after MWC, around 20 March. HTC One M9 design and build
There's been little said about the design of build of the HTC One M9, but if there's one thing that everyone universally agreed on with the M8, it was the quality of the design and construction. We'd predict the M9 will follow the lines of the M8, with a similar aluminium body, sculpted to fit into your hand. You can expect BoomSound speakers to the front, although recent launches - the HTC Desire Eye and HTC Desire 826 have moved to a front slit speaker, rather than the microdrilled grille of the past. This might allow the M9 so be slightly smaller. Leaked images claiming to be the HTC One M9
suggest that from the front the design will be very much the same. Early rumours said 7mm thick, but that's almost immaterial, because it's the device in its entirety that's important. Dimensions from leaker @upleaks said 144.3 x 69.4 x 9.56mm, which are very, precise to be pulled out of thin air. That's slightly larger than the M8, but there's no way of verifying it.
The HTC One M8 had an IPX3 rating that was never really talked about. With the Desire Eye making a move to IPX7, we get the feeling that HTC will be looking to include some waterproofing to stay competitive against the likes of Samsung
and Sony. Recent rumours are pointing to an aluminium
silicon-carbide composite body, which might help with heat dissipation. According to @upleaks we can expect a variation of colours including grey, silver and gold.
HTC One M9 display
Early rumours suggested that the M9 will have a 5.2-inch Quad HD display, i.e., 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, giving you 564ppi. That display is the same resolution as the LG G3 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, on a slightly smaller scale.
That resolution might just be speculation though - a case of keeping up with the Joneses - and we'd certainly like to see that screen size in the next HTC premium device. Having used the HTC Desire Eye, which has a 5.2-inch full HD display, we think there's a lot going for it. A photo of a front panel recently appeared at nowhereelse.fr , a website that's accurately uncovered details about various smartphone components in the past. This is for a 5.2-inch display, potentially for the M9, but the site says it can't accurately verify the information. Other rumours suggest HTC will stick to 5-inch full HD, as with the M8, and a leaked set of alleged AnTuTu benchmark scores seem to confirm those suspicions. As we approach the launch of the
next-gen HTC One, rumours seem to have settled on 5 inches for the M9.
We'll happily take it either way. We'd take better battery over under-utilised display resolution, but we know the spec sheet is important to HTC. Expect 5 or 5.2 inches. Under the skin The inital run of rumours suggested that the HTC One (M9) will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chipset, with 3GB of RAM. The 805 is a step-up over the 801 that the M8 houses, and is currently found in the Nexus 6 and the Galaxy Note 4, both very powerful devices.
Of course that's not all that Qualcomm has in stock: there's the octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 810 too, with Adreno 430 graphics claimed to be 30 per cent more powerful than the Adreno 420 of the 805. Qualcomm has slated the 810 for early 2015 devices, fitting with HTC's launch plans.
This chipset was mentioned by @upleaks , stating that the HTC M9 would have the SD 810 with 3GB RAM. And the leaked AnTuTu benchmark seems to back that up.
The 64-bit is worth a mention, as Android 5.0 Lollipop supports 64-bit architecture, so that's likely to be a big push for device manufacturers in the future, hopefully bringing added performance with lower energy demands. Without any concrete information, however, this is mostly just speculation based on Qualcomm's road map and HTC's longstanding use of the chip manufacturer's hardware. The battery is said to be 3,500mAh by some, 2840mAh by others. Although bigger is often better, the M8 performed well on the 2600mAh battery and with advancing chipset technology, it might have the endurance it needs. HTC Sense 7 and Android 5.0 Lollipop Lollipop will be arriving on Sense 6 devices before the M9 is due to launch, but you can be certain that the M9 will launch with Android 5.0 and a refreshed version of Sense. Indeed, the leaked benchmarks suggest it will even come with Android 5.1.
HTC has been actively offloading apps from the core OS (e.g.: Blinkfeed, Camera, Zoe) into Google
Play for more frequent updates, so Sense 7 is likely to bring in a run of changes separate from some of HTC's headline apps. So far there's been no sign of leaks, but in the past we've seen details emerge of what to expect visually, so we'll update when we learn more. BoomSound with Dolby BoomSound is one of the highlights of the HTC One family and it's something that HTC is right to
stick to. According to Nowehereelse sources the speakers will be on the front as was the case with the HTC One M8. The HTC Desire 826 launched with Dolby support for the BoomSound speakers and headphones. That looks like a logical pairing with HTC saying
that the headphones that ship with the 826 being "audiophile grade". That may well be the focus for
the HTC One M9 too. HTC One M9 cameras The camera has been the biggest point of contention on the HTC One M8. It's also likely to
be a core focus on the M9, but at the moment there's no telling which direction HTC will move in. There's a strong argument for ditching the Duo Camera arrangement of the M8, as well as a question mark over the value of UltraPixel as a brand name.
It might be that we have an UltraPixel sensor at 8- megapixels, it might be that HTC changes tack and
adopts the 13-megapixel sensor it's using in other devices, like the HTC Desire Eye. Optical image stabilisation would be widely welcomed and some rumours are pairing OIS with a 16-megapixel
sensor. A rumour from @upleaks suggested a 20.7MP sensor and having seen the Desire 826 with UltraPixel on the front for selfies, we strongly believe that the HTC One M9 will have the same arrangement. The same arrangement if suggested
by Nowhereelse, whose leaked photo also show a square hole for the camera on the rear, with dual LED flash.
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