Samsung isn’t the only smartphone maker in town at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress, and HTC today showed that it is still around by announcing a new flagship of its own – the One M9.
Carrying the same name prefix as its previous high-end smartphones the One M7 and One M8, the M9 carries on where the older models left off and even strikes quite the resemblance to both. Looking distinctly like someone at HTC took the best parts of both handsets and then mashed them both together, the new M9 isn’t an ugly device by any stretch of the imagination but it just lacks a little something in the looks department.
Imagination, perhaps.
Features and Specs
Sticking with its tried and tested 5-inch 1080p display, HTC has gone for an Octa-core Snapdragon 810 64-bit chip at the heart of the device with an accompanying 3GB of memory to try and keep things ticking along smoothly.
On the outside the One M9 is apparently still a unibody all-metal design, though the ring around the center of the chassis looks a tad suspect during initial inspection. That band also makes up part of the phone’s two-tone design depending on which color option you opt for, with the band being a different color to the rest of the device.
Staying on the side of the device for a moment, HTC has shifted the buttons around on the M9, with the sleep/wake button now on the side alongside the volume buttons.
Around the back gone is the UltraPixel sensor and Duo camera, replaced with a conventional flash and a 20-megapixel camera. The front-facing camera though is 4-megapixel “UltraPixel” cam with wide angle lens.
Top and bottom of the device, above and below the screen you’ll find speakers that are now HTC BoomSound Dolby 5.1 surround sound-capable.
The new HTC One M9 comes with 32GB of storage as standard but also has the option of extra space being added via SD Card.
One M9 will also get a new version of Dot View case with ability to show scrollable personalized messages on the case.
HTC One M9 will be running Android Lollipop with new HTC Sense 7 on top.
Price and Release Date
Set to be available mid-March with gold, silver, gunmetal black, and pink color options available, there has yet to be any price information made available for the M9. Expect to see it fairly soon though, especially given the relatively short launch window HTC has given itself.
Will the HTC One M9 prove to be real competition for Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge? We’ll find out soon enough.
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