Mobile World Congress (MWC) is edging ever closer, but rumours about HTC's latest flagship phone, currently code-named the One M9 (or HIMA), are already building fast. Hot on the heels of last year's One M8, the M9 will replace HTC's all-metal smartphone as its flagship handset for 2015. Not much is currently known about what the phone will look like, but considering HTC's flair for design, we wouldn't be surprised if it had another all-metal chassis to distinguish it from its rivals. Here's everything we know about the M9 so far.
HTC One M9 design
We might have our first look at the HTC One M9 thanks to frequent smartphone leaker nowhereelse.fr. According to the French site, its unnamed sources managed to smuggle out a few shots of an upcoming HTC smartphone that looks suspiciously like a One M8 successor. Partly because the two phones look almost identical.
As nowhereelse.fr points out, it could be a trick of the light, but it looks as though the smartphone in question is definitely made of metal. The only major difference is the rather more square hole at the top of the phone for the camera sensor. By comparison, the one of the M8 was circular. There's also a dual LED flash next door.
On the front of the phone, you'll see HTC's dual BoomSound speakers and front facing camera. Apart from that, there's not much else to say about the supposed M9 prototype other than it looks a lot like the M8, which suggests this will be an incremental improvement on HTC's flagship model rather than a whole new smartphone with a radical new design.
HTC One M9 specs
While the One M8's headline feature was its unique Duo Camera, Bloomberg says the One M9 will have a 20-megapixel rear camera and HTC UltraPixel camera on the front of the handset. The One M8's Duo Camera also used HTC's UltraPixel technology, which uses fewer, larger pixels to help make images clearer in low lighting conditions.
It also hinted the M9 will have an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor (which @upleaks says will be split into a quad-core 2.0GHz chip and a quad-core 1.5GHz chip) and 3GB of RAM. The M9 will also support Dolby 5.1 audio technology on its BoomSound speakers, have a 2,840mAh battery and run HTC's Sense 7 UI.
HTC One M9 screen
Less certain is the phone's screen size and resolution. AndroidCentral seems to suggest the M9 will have the same 5in Full HD screen we saw on the One M8, but BGR reports the phone will have a 2,560x1,440 display instead. A larger resolution would certainly be in keeping with the more recent trend we've seen with the LG G3, Nexus 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4, all of which have 2,560x1,440 resolution displays, but those phones also have considerably larger screens starting at 5.5in or above and we've yet to see a smaller 5in screen with a resolution that high.
However, nowhereelse.fr claims the the One M9 could have a 5.2in display after snapping a front panel of an unnamed HTC smartphone. Admittedly, the site said it couldn't verify the information, but if the photo does indeed belong to the M9, it could mean we might see a resurgence of the 5.2in Full HD screen on the HTC Desire Eye. Either way, we'll be expecting either a 5in or 5.2in display.
HTC One M9 release date
HTC has confirmed it's announcing its next flagship phone at Mobile World Congress in March. According to Bloomberg, the phone will also launch alongside HTC's first smartwatch, which will use the Under Armour fitness service. Press invites for its MWC event were sent out by HTC on January 16th with the tagline "utopia in progress". It also said the press conference will start on March 1st at 4pm CET.
This is unusual for HTC, as it's generally shunned MWC in favour of its own press events shortly afterwards. In the case of the One M8, HTC launched the phone on March 20th and it was available in shops the same day. However, while there's currently no word on when the M9 will actually be coming to the UK, we'd imagine it will be available to buy in the weeks following MWC. We'll know more about the handset in just over a month's time.