HTC is really struggling to sell its One M9 flagship, and personally, I don’t think that today’s new ads are going to help it very much. The company has released three new spots to show off some features of the One M9—selfies, sound, and speed—through “blind test” videos, comparing the handset to the iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6. Of course, the M9 wins in all three tests… Expand Expanding Close
Upleaks is at it again, today posting press renders of what is likely to be the company’s forthcoming HTC One ME9. The phone isn’t planned to be coming to North American, European, or Middle Eastern markets, but it’s interesting nonetheless to take a look at what HTC’s international smartphone strategy looks like.
The device sounds a lot like the Chinese-only HTC One M9+ in terms of specifications (including a fingerprint scanner), but it notably does without to Duo Camera set up and goes with a polycarbonate back rather than aluminum. The device has an octo-core MediaTek processor, 3 GB of RAM, a 5.2-inch display, and a 2,900 mAh battery.
Upleaks says that the device is going to ship in three colors: rose gold, gold sepia, and meteor gray. Three launch markets, India, Hong Kong SAR, and Taiwan are confirmed to be getting the device at some point. It’s expected to launch at around $550 dollars, and will purportedly hit the market sometime in July.
The HTC One M9 goes on sale tonight in the US. We’d love to tell you all about it, but it is currently under embargo and Dom will have an amazing video review when the embargo is eventually over. Sure, lots of publications got to review the almost identical international version, and to sum up those reviews, it isn’t a huge upgrade from the M8. Think tweaked look, more megapixels in the camera, and a slightly toned down Sense overlay.
The device that goes on sale tonight is the GSM version, which is similar to the one that will be sold on AT&T and T-Mobile in the US. It won’t be subsidized by the carriers and will cost $650.
If we were allowed to tell you about it, we’d probably tell you that the heat issues you’ve seen are unfounded. From pictures (above), you can tell it looks very nice in both the popular Gunmetal and Gold/Silver models. It feels less slippery in the hand and is very subtly smaller and lighter than its M8 predecessor (or so we’ve heard).
In general I do recommend buying a phone outright and getting yourself on an inexpensive pre-paid plan. If your carrier starts messing with you, you can easily go to another carrier either with number portability or, Google Voice/Hangouts (my choice).
Even with that in mind, though, should you buy this phone at full price? Expand Expanding Close
Just weeks before the release of HTC’s M9, CEO Peter Chou steps down from his position to focus on innovation. Chou has taken a position to lead HTC’s Future Development Lab. As for Chou’s replacement, chairwoman Cher Wang is stepping up to the plate to take over his position.
Wang co-founded HTC with Chou back in 1997 and since then she has taken over many of the daily operations within the company. This is definitely doing to be an interesting transition for both Chou and Wang as HTC approaches the launch of its 2015 One M9 flagship smartphone, Grip smartband, and Vive VR headset later this year…
It appears that a series of promo videos have leaked which feature HTC’s upcoming M9 smartphone. The videos were originally published by @Upleaks which appear to be legitimate and straight from the marketing department over at HTC…
Purported HTC One M9 renders <a href="http://9to5google.com/2015/01/28/evleaks-htc-one-hima-render-m9/">via Evleaks</a>
The name for HTC’s upcoming “Hima” HTC One (M9) flagship is still up in the air, but a recent discovery in the Taiwanese company’s website reveals that the device may simply be referred to as the “HTC One M9”. Regardless of what the device is called, though, more and more information about it seems to be leaking as we near its scheduled March 1st reveal. Now we’re getting a peek at a system dump of the device that reveals the list of apps it will ship with—part of HTC’s custom version of Android, Sense 7… Expand Expanding Close
We have a full-on teaser war happening right now. HTC has revved up their Twitter engines and started to post about a device they’re calling the “new HTC One,” slated for announcement on March 1st, 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. No mention of the “M9” moniker that the device is widely assumed to have (and was spotted on none other than HTC’s website), but we’ll have to wait and see what happens…
The most reliable leaks we’ve seen thus far claim to show the “Hima” M9 device in two variants. Details are currently sparse in terms of specifications, but at least one of these bad boys should have a 5.5-inch display, the Snapdragon 810 SoC is widely expected to power them, and 3 GB of RAM seems to be the norm for this refresh cycle. Upleaks, which has a decent track record, spilled some “Hima” specs in December.
A new image, courtesy of none other than Evan Blass (@evleaks) himself, has leaked this morning showing what looks to be two variants of the upcoming “Hima” HTC One (M9) flagship. While they sport a similar physical build, the larger one includes a hardware home button while the smaller of the two does not. Interestingly, this render is a bit different than anything we’ve seen leaked thus far, straying just a bit in design from the current generation hardware…
The upcoming HTC flagship is probably one of the most exciting smartphone launches scheduled for the next couple of months, and today Phandroid has shared photos that claim to show the rumored “Hima” device in the flesh. There’s nothing crazy or exciting to see here, but we do now have a bit of corroboration of things we knew previously.
Specifications for HTC’s upcoming flagship—dubbed “Hima”—began leaking earlier this month when it purportedly began carrier testing. But today, the phone has apparently passed through an AnTuTu benchmark (via Nowhereelse.fr), and the resulting specification sheet seems to line up perfectly with what we saw before. Additionally, new evidence suggests that HTC has plans to introduce the device earlier than expected, at the annual CES 2015 which officially starts just over one week from today.
HTC released its One (M8) flagship in March of this year, so we’re probably only a few months away from the Taiwanese company showing what it has up its sleeve for the next generation (being called the “M9” by some). Today, thanks to consistent leaker @upleaks, we’re being given an idea of what kind of power the smartphone is going to pack. And according to upleaks at least, the “M9” doesn’t exist; this particular phone is being codenamed “Hima.”
