HTC One M9 Photo Leaks and Specs

HTC One M9 Design & Display

Another source claims to have got hold of the HTC One M9’s front panel and it suggests the next HTC flagship will have a strong screen-to-bodywork ratio with more display and less bezel. Here’s the image leaked from the source suggesting the bezels will be slimmed down quite some way.

In the image there isn’t the room for the BoomSound speakers at the top and bottom of the handset. Previous rumours suggest HTC is trying to thin those down even further though, so it may end up being an even more compact design than before.

The source claims the front panel is 5.2in, not 5.5in as we’ve heard from a variety of rumours. 

Other sources have suggested HTC is happy with the metal body found on its current flagship range and will keep the same style with a few refinements. Those same rumours suggest there will be the same three colours as the HTC One M8, grey, gold and silver as well as a “Gunmetal Gold” version as well.

Looking similar is one thing but the latest leaked picture of the HTC One M9 via Zol proves that the M9 will be a decidedly different beast than its predecessor. As you can see below, the HTC One M9’s design has been refined in many ways; it appears to be thinner and uses attractive metallic accents that bounce of the mirror black frontage. The back of the handset will apparently keep the same curved aluminum setup, which is fine by us as it not only looks great but also makes the handset easier to hold.

“The One (M9) will feature a 2560 x 1440 QHD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, 13-megapixel front-facing camera, 20.7-megapixel main camera, 2,840mAh battery and Android 5.0 Lollipop,” according to BGR. The only discrepancy here –– compared to previous reports –– is the inclusion of a QHD display similar to what is found on the Nexus 6 and LG G3. Other reports had claimed the contrary; that HTC would stick to 1080p for its next flagship –– and we’d hoped that was going to be the case after testing a slew of QHD Android handsets in 2015. 

At first it appeared the company was sticking to its guns over display resolution and size, which meant the next HTC One would have the same size display as 2014's HTC One just with a slightly larger battery pack, which would mean, ladies and gentlemen, better battery performance. This is how the iPhone 6 Plus does it and why the Nexus 6, despite having a HUGE battery cell, can barely make it through 10 hours of heavy use.  

HTC appears to be looking at the complaints levelled at last year's model –– namely the camera, battery life and software –– and fixing those rather than arbitrarily updating EVERYTHING just for the hell of it. 

HTC One M9 Prototype Leaked

More leaks generally means a launch is getting closer, so with all the blurb pointing to a March launch it's perhaps not surprising we've now seen some photos showing off what appears to be the HTC One M9.

The images come courtesy of oft-reliable French tech site nowhereelse.fr, and show a design which looks VERY similar to the existing HTC One M8. Visible differences include what appears to be a much narrower bezel along the display edges, a tweaked punched speaker grille design, and a different style of camera port. It's thought the M9 will ditch the M8's dual-camera setup for a no-frills 20MP shooter, and here we have what appears to be a single lens inside a rounded-square port shape, flanked on one side by a dual-LED flash.

More images have now emerged via Phandroid showing off the One M9's design. As we already saw, it's got the familiar aluminium build and shape just like the M8.

However, there are some apparent tweaks to the design - most notably the power button seems to have moved from the top of the phone (as per the M8 and original HTC One), to the side, near to the volume rocker.

Phandroid reports that the snaps come from a "reliable source" with ties to HTC.

HTC One M9 Benchmark Results Appear 

You know a handset is close to release when benchmark results start popping up inside popular testing tools. This week saw the HTC One M9 grace Geek Bench where it was put through its paces. The results are pretty inline with what we’ve seen from other Snapdragon 810-wielding handsets. But where it does get interesting is in how it compares to recently leaked Galaxy S6 benchmarks. 

HTC One M9 Specs

Leaked details suggest there will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core chipset inside made up of a 2GHz quad-core Cortex A57 running alongside a 1.5GHz quad-core Cortex A53 setup. All this will be joined by 3GB of RAM as well as Cat 6 LTE connectivity.

Upleaks has secured the information from a trusted source suggesting the handset is set to be almost the same size as the HTC One M8. According to the leak it’ll have dimensions of 144.3 x 69.4 x 9.56 mm but there is currently no clue on the weight of the handset.

Other rumoured specifications of the phone include 3GB DDR4 RAM, 32GB storage, support for VoLTE and LTE Category 6 networks, a 20.7MP+2.1MP rear camera and a 4MP or 13MP front camera, BoomSound front speakers, Bluetooth 4.1 and a 2840mAh battery. The phone will run Android 5.0.2 with Sense 7.0 UI layer on top. 

There will be a Full HD 5in screen as on the HTC One M8 and it’ll also launch with the latest and greatest Android Lollipop software on board. As for cameras we’ll see a 20.7MP main shooter on the back but it’s currently uncertain what the front facing snapper will be – the leak suggests either 4MP or 13MP. That could mean there are two versions of the phone doing the rounds or HTC just really isn’t sure how far to take its obsession with selfies.

As for the battery we can expect to see a 2,840mAh battery, a slight upgrade from the 2,600mAh offering on the M8. The latest One M9 leak takes the form of a set of benchmarking results and specs courtesy of the Geekbench 3.0 suite and its database. Accessing the results via the web database we can see an unnamed HTC handset packing Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with an ARM-based Qualcomm octa-core processor running the show clocked at 1.55GHz - this can only be the much anticipated Snapdragon 810. It also has 3GB of RAM onboard.