With Samsung and Sony having already shown their respective hands with the Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 at Mobile World Congress last week, much of the Android world’s attention has turned to HTC. The Taiwanese outfit made waves last year with the One, and naturally, talk of the HTC One 2 – otherwise known under the ‘M8’ technical moniker – has been prevalent. Today, a brave kid has leaked a 12-minute video running through some of the device’s tech specs, features, and design, and while, as displayed through a Twitter exchange with an HTC official, his actions may see him land in a spot of bother, we can now enjoy his fairly thorough walkthrough of the upcoming flagship device.
The video was shot all the way back in mid-February, and given that it took him a full two weeks to upload it to YouTube, it’s pretty apparent that he knew he wasn’t allowed to share any kind of media or coverage of the device until after HTC unveiled it later this month. Still, as he deals with the consequences, we get a decent insight to the likes of Sense 6 – HTC’s own tailored launcher / overlay – as well as Android KitKat 4.4, which, it would seem, will be shipping with the upcoming handset.
Early on in the video, we’re taken through the design features, which are compared with the current HTC One. As per several earlier leaks, we see a rather more refined, curvaceous finish sporting, among other things, two rear-facing cameras, but overall, HTC has maintained the popular look of the original device. The touch-based buttons have been removed, which, again, falls in line with what we’ve been hearing, and the BoomSound speakers, which HTC has already been teasing in promotional ads, will likely pack even more of a punch than the very impressive audio output of last year’s One.
It’s encouraging to see that Android 4.4 KitKat will arrive right out of the box with the HTC M8, and with Sense 6 also having clearly gotten some tasty enhancements, the general user experience looks quite different to what current HTC users will be accustomed to. The new rear-facing shooter(s) have been given an entirely new camera interface, and with the Sony Xperia Z’s snapper having impressed us in the brief encounter we had with it at MWC, it appears that all of the mobile industry’s biggest names are looking to improve the photography experience.
So, a neat redesign, some great new hardware and the very latest software; just some of the things you can expect to see of the next HTC smartphone when it’s announced on March 25th. Check the 12-minute video out below, and be sure to leave your comments via the usual mediums.
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