MWC

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…

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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.

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Rumors have been swirling for a long time about what HTC might have planned for us this year, and while the Taiwanese company isn’t telling us just yet, they’re at least giving us some kind of idea of when exactly they’ll be making some big announcements. To no one’s surprise, HTC is today sending out invites for a press event being held at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this upcoming March.

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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.”

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wOnaoq1AYE]

Samsung is about to officially unveil its new flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone at Mobile World Congress and a live stream of the entire event will be available through the YouTube channel above.

On top of the S5, it’s likely Samsung will have some other product announcements and give us a look at the new Gear smartwatch. There have been plenty of rumors about what might be included in the Galaxy S5, but we’ll know for sure in less than an hour.

The live stream of the press conference is embedded above and kicks off at at 2 p.m. ET/8 p.m. Barcelona time. 
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We’ve already seen a few leaked press shots claiming to show Nokia’s much rumored Android smartphone and UI often referred to as the “Normandy” project. Today we get what appears to be the first shots of the device in the wild and better look at the device’s mix of Lumia and Asha design traits. The images above come from a thread on Coolaxap.com where leaked images of Windows devices have popped up before.

While nothing is official, recent reports said the device could debut as early as this month at the Mobile World Congress event that runs through February 27. We’ll be bringing you coverage from MWC next week and updates on Normandy as we find out more. 
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Samsung has just announced that it will be holding an Unpacked 5 press event on the first day of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The event will take place on Monday, February 24th at 20:00 CET. The event will be live streamed on YouTube, as well, for those who won’t be in Barcelona for MWC. The invite says that this is Unpacked “Episode 1,” suggesting that at least one more event will be held this year.

For those unaware, Samsung has used its “Unpacked” events to release all of its flagship devices over the past couple of years, including the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note III. It’s unclear what Samsung has planned for this specific event, however. It could be that the company will be giving a glimpse at the highly-anticipated Galaxy S5, or it could be something related to the company’s Tizen operating system.

We’ll be bringing you everything you need to know from Mobile World Congress, though, so be sure to stay tuned.

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HTC’s CEO holding what a appears to be an unreleased M7

This morning, the folks over at UnwiredView claimed to have a spec list of two unannounced HTC phones said to launch sometime after HTC’s Feb. 19 M7 announcement. The first phone, named the “M4”, is said to be a mid-range phone, being a step-down from the M7 and a step-up from the G2. Its specs are displayed in the chart below.

UnwiredView’s alleged M4 spec chart.

The chart shows the device to have a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 4.3-inch HD display, 2GB of RAM, and a 13MP camera. With phones in the ‘low’ 4-inch range nowadays light on specs, HTC seems to want to turn that around with the M4.

The second phone UnwiredView claimed to have the specs for is the G2. The G2 is a budget-phone that, if the charts are to be believed, won’t even launch with Jelly Bean but rather Ice Cream Sandwich. Since the M4 is supposedly launching with Jelly Bean, one can infer it will never get an upgrade to Jelly Bean if the G2 launches with ICS.

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While all signs point to HTC launching these two devices at MWC, UnwiredView claimed these phones won’t launch at February’s press event or MWC—but rather much after.

According to a report from PocketNow, HTC’s 3.7-inch One V that unveiled at MWC in Barcelona last month will launch on Virgin Mobile for $200 in “late Spring.” We already knew the device would more than likely come in under the $200 price tag, because it is the more budget friendly option in the line of three new devices displayed by HTC at MWC. The One V packs a 1GHz processor, Android 4.0 (with Sense 4.0), a 3.7-inch WVGA display, 512GMB of RAM, and 4 GB of onboard storage. It will also come with Beats Audio and a 5-megapixel camera when it launches later this year.

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You can either love or hate HTC’s Sense user interface. HTC includes Sense on its Android devices as a skin that goes on top of stock Android. Sense provides UI enhancements and widgets. Some customers like it, and many hate it — like me. However, that is not going to stop HTC from including it in its future phones.

The good folks over at Android Central did a little snooping this weekend, and were able to get their hands on the new Sense 4.0. Sense 4.0 is rumored to be announced with the quad-core HTC Endeavor at Mobile World Conference in a few weeks.

If you want to check out the new Sense 4.0 on your device, you can give it a download. If you are not up for the challenge, we also posted screenshots after the break (via Android Central):

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Going the way of Microsoft and Apple, South Korean conglomerate Samsung confirmed in an email to PCMag it will not hold a news conference at Mobile World Congress (MWC). The world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry, MWC traditionally serves as a launchpad for the very latest and greatest products the industry has up its sleeve. This year’s conference runs from Feb. 27 through March 1 in Barcelona, Spain. Samsung will still attend the show, they just will not have press briefings.

In a statement last week, Samsung said it was “looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012.” The company decided to postpone the anticipated MWC launch of the Galaxy S III, opting to unveil the handset “at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product.” The company also sent out invites for a press briefing on March 22 in France.

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The image above of a mystery Android 4.0 device was posted by @eldarmurtazin (via BGR) with no details other than “Barcelona. Samsung. Press photo leaked.” We are obviously assuming Barcelona is pointing to the Mobile World Congress set to kick off later this month. While we would normally speculate this is Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S III, the company already confirmed that device will not be unveiled at MWC.

The device is clearly an evolution of the Galaxy S II design, and it could possibly be the S III. We will have to wait until Samsung’s press conference at MWC from Feb. 27 to March 1.

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