HTC One M9 Release Date and Price

HTC’s flagship phones are typically among the most beautiful models released each year. They’re often also a tad smaller than the increasingly large phones Samsung and LG put out. Now it seems HTC might break with tradition and offer a super-sized flagship with the One M9. Despite this name, it’s not certain whether the phone will replace the One M8 yet, or live alongside it as the sequel to the aging, but equally massive, One Max. It may even be a different device entirely, says one well-regarded leaker. 

 It may launch at CES 

A rumor from Upleaks said the Hima may arrive on all four U.S. carriers in March 2015. It was later tweeted it’s unlikely HTC will announce the Hima at Mobile World Congress, but will introduce the device at a separate event instead. Upleaks claims the Hima will launch in late March. The leaker does expect to see some new Desire phones launch at MWC in March. So when will it launch? In late December, Nowhereelse.fr write Steve Hemmerstoffer tweeted what appears to be a leaked press release render along with the claim that the HTC One M9 Hima will arrive at CES 2015 instead of in late March, as previously suggested. 

The same image was also discovered on the Weibo social network, where a January 5 announcement date was also stated. Of course, it’s unclear if this render is real or not and there’s no telling whether predictions of a CES launch date will prove true or not. We’ll be at CES next week, so we’ll all know soon enough. Screen may be jumbo-sized … or not A report from China hints that the next HTC One will sport a jumbo 5.5-inch screen with a Quad HD resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. Even though it’s just half an inch bigger, the jump from 5.0 to 5.5 inches is a huge one — especially for HTC. There is some debate as to whether the screen will be phablet-sized or not. Twitter leaker posted a possible list of specs for HTC’s next flagship phone, which is apparently codenamed Hima. 

Upleaks claims HTC will stick with a 5.0-inch full HD, 1080p screen. It’s an odd decision, if accurate, when nearly all its competitors are placing Quad HD screens on their phones; but it’s still early days for the One M9. It’s also possible that Hima isn’t the HTC One M9. In reply to one commenter on Twitter, said the next HTC flagship is the Hima, but the Hima isn’t the M9. In other words, these two sources could be talking about two different phones. Upleaks posted an updated spec list on his website just before Christmas, in which it’s reasserted the Hima will sport a 5-inch screen. The device’s full dimensions could be 144.3 x 69.4 x 9.56mm. Seeing as the HTC One M8 measures 146.36 x 70.6 x 9.35mm, it seems that the two phones will be similar in size. It will have high-end specs Along with the possible increase in screen size, HTC will reportedly add a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and 3GB of RAM to the handset. However, depending on when the M9 arrives, the processor might end up being the Snapdragon 810. All that high-end hardware may be powered by a 3500mAh battery. 

 Meanwhile, posits the One M9 will pack Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor, along with 3GB of RAM, and a surprisingly small 2840mAh battery. The same leaker later posted benchmark results which show the exact same spec list. It’s unclear which report is correct, or if both of them have a kernel of truth. Good speakers and slick design Now that Apple has taken over HTC’s former audio partner, Beats Music, the company may look to another famous speaker maker for collaboration on the One M9. For a while now, HTC has been making its own speakers called BoomSound, and has dabbled with special edition phones endorsed by Harman Kardon; but Bose will supposedly provide the speakers for HTC’s next smartphone. HTC will probably keep the same high-quality build on the One M9, with a casing made of an aluminum silicon-carbide composite. Upleaks tweeted that the Hima will come in silver, gold, and gray color options. He later added in a gunmetal gold color option to his list of predicted colors. Two sharp cameras The One M9 will undoubtedly have a fine camera, as most of HTC’s phones do, but this time around it may not have an UltraPixel sensor anymore. Early reports mentioned a 16-megapixel sensor with optical image stabilization, but didn’t reveal anything about the front-facing camera. In late December, Upleaks hinted that the Hima will sport a 20.7-megapixel back camera and a 13-megapixel or 4-megapixel UltraPixel front-facing camera.