HTC had a disappointing year last year, despite early success with the One X and solid hardware releases in general. This year, it looks like it will be kicking things off in style with the launch of a new flagship device, called the HTC M7, a phone rumored for likely launch at MWC in Barcelona next month. The phone was supposedly depicted in a render leaked last week, but now, very different-looking hardware has turned up in photos obtained by Android Police.
At first glance, the M7 leak spotted by AP looks a lot more like what we’d expect from HTC. It has the company’s trademark look, with rounded corners and front glass that looks to taper slightly at the edges of the screen. The rear of the phone likewise looks like HTC signature style, with a matte black finish on what looks like a rubberized surface, with a centrally-positioned rear camera and speaker grill near the bottom of the device.
Rumored specs for this phone include a 4.7-inch display with 1080p resolution (making for a mind-boggling 468ppi pixel density) and a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm processor. In the new leaked images, it is depicted as running Sense 5.0, the next generation of HTC’s own OEM-specific custom Android skin. Sense looks to bring some considerable aesthetic changes to the mix for the UI, including a clock that embraces a digital look in favor of the flip-clock style one that HTC has been using as its own iconic take on Android for quite a while now.
Another noteworthy feature are the new info pane widgets, which look to provide information streams from various sources kind of like in an Android approximation of what Microsoft’s live tiles offer. Those aren’t populated yet in the screenshots, though, so we’ll have to wait and see what they actually look like in practice, should these leaks prove accurate.
HTC needs to come out of the gate swinging in 2013 to boost the brand and win back consumer confidence, but its recent Droid DNA and Butterfly phones have shown some dramatic steps in that direction. The M7, which should combine an industry leading display with a form factor that’s probably more battery and user-friendly than a giant-sized device, could be just what the doctor ordered.