Purported photos of upcoming ‘Hima’ HTC One ‘M9’ handset leak out

Following yesterday’s report from Bloomberg that HTC is indeed launching its next flagship smartphone in March, new photos have leaked today showing a handset that doesn’t look all too different from what the Taiwanese company currently offers. There’s not too much new information to be learned from these photos (via Nowhereelse.fr), and you should probably take them with a heaping pile of salt, but there’s always a chance that this could be a quick peek the next HTC flagship in the flesh.

According to Bloomberg’s report from yesterday, the new smartphone is going to pack a 20 MP rear-facing camera and an HTC UltraPixel front-facing camera. Today’s photo leak might be the first look at this hardware, but there’s truly not much else to see here. Comparing the leaked photos to the current-generation HTC One (M8), there aren’t that many notable differences. The only obvious change is that rather than the circular “Duo” camera set up of the current model, this model looks to have a single rear camera that’s shaped more like a square.

Early last month, purported specs for the HTC “Hima” leaked, positing that the device would have a 5-inch display, a 20.7-megapixel rear-facing camera (which notably aligns with what Bloomberg has reported), and a 13-megapixel front-facing camera. It’s rumored to sport 3 GB of RAM, have support for VoLTE/CA/LTE Cat.6, and pack a decently-sized 2,840 mAh battery. As is widely assumed, there’s a decent chance the phone will pack Snapdragon’s 810 processor.

HTC sent out press invitations for the announcement of the device late last week, teasing a “utopia in progress” event in Barcelona, Spain at the Mobile World Congress. This event is expected to not only serve as a stage for HTC to show off its next flagship, but the company is expected to announce its first smartwatch as well.