This Is Probably HTC’s Next Big Android Phone, The One M9

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We’ve still got nearly a week to go before HTC officially unveils their new top-tier Android phone at Mobile World Congress, but it looks like the details have already started dumping out.

On an episode of Droidcast back in January, we were pretty confident that HTC’s next big device — which we tentatively called the HTC One M9 — would look a whole lot like its HTC’s last flagship, the One M8.

Sure enough: if these latest leaks are legit, it’s pretty much a dead ringer. They’ve moved some buttons around, sure, and it looks like they’ve gone from two cameras on the rear to one — but unless you really know your stuff, a quick glance would leave you thinking the two devices were one in the same.

Check out these spy shots, obtained by the guys at Phandroid:

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Note that third button below the pair of volume buttons on the right. That’s the power button, which on the One M8 was located on the top of the device. Given how damned big the One M8 is, having the power button up top made it a bit arduous to reach at times.

Meanwhile, Germany’s MobileGeeks.de found some official-looking renders lurking on a German phone retailer site, though the page has since been gutted of most of its imagery.

Fortunately, these shots got snagged before that happened:

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So, yeah… it seemingly looks a lot like the M8. Here’s a side-by-side of the back side:

side by side

But, hell — pretty much all smartphones look alike these days. It’s what’s on the inside that counts, right?

Here’s what the rumor mill suggests is under the hood:

  • 5-inch Display running at 1080p
  • 20.7 Megapixel rear camera, 4.0 megapixel front camera with HTC’s “Ultrapixel” tech
  • Android Lollipop 5.0 (with some HTC Sense stuff running on top)
  • 2,840mAh battery
  • 3GB of RAM
  • 2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 CPU (though some rumors pin it at 2.8Ghz)

Everything is still up in the air for now, of course. Even the name is still up for debate; some say it’s the “One M9”, some say it’s just “The One”. Whatever the case, HTC should be making things 100% official come March 1st in Barcelona.