As ridiculous as its name may be the HTC One 2 or the HTC M8 (or the HTC M8 One 2) isn’t just a rumor anymore. Photos of the gorgeous smartphone have emerged so there’s no doubt about the fact that a new flagship by the Taiwanese company is coming very soon.
Design:
There was word about the manufacturer ditching the HTC One concept of three capacitive buttons along the bottom of the screen in favor of on-screen buttons like the ones the Galaxy Nexus uses, for starters. Well, several photos of the HTC M8 have been leaked since then and you can see for yourself that it is true indeed.
Just like its predecessor, the upcoming phone is supposedly made from metal too, giving it a nice premium finish. The dual front speaker arrangement that HTC is so fond of also makes it into the design. Essentially, nothing much has changed in terms of overall appearance. But the 4.7-inch touchscreen is reported to have given way for a 5-inch one this time.
HTC One 2 rumors and images:
We’ve seen the back as well as front of the handset courtesy of multiple leaks. @HTCFamily_RU dropped in with a picture of the rear casing in early February and then mobiltelefon.ru got us two really beautiful images of the front panel (probably a behind-the-scenes shoot). Now GSMArena has dug out (credits to hk-android.info) a couple of sneaky photos of device resting on a flowery bed sheet or tablecloth.
Hardware changes:
The specs which have been leaked so far point to a sizable upgrade in terms of hardware. The soon-to-retire smartphone has a snapper with LED flash on the back panel, right? The HTC One 2 flaunts dual LED flash as well as two main cameras. Meaning great pictures in low light though the matter of such flashes eating up too much battery life and overexposure may arise.
But we’re assuming HTC will take care of these things. And there’s little reason for the company to leave an Ultrapixel lens out of the equation. Apart from the change to the camera, you can expect a quad core 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor under the hood instead of the quad core 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 chipset.
Speaking of internals, the phone may hit shelves in two variants – one that carries one SIM slot as well as a dual SIM version. As we noted above, the 4.7-inch screen on the older smartphone has been switched for a slightly larger 5-inch 1920 x 1080p resolution touch display and though there’s talk of 16GB ROM only, we suspect 32GB and 64GB capacities will be made available too.
Features and software:
The handset is reported to come loaded with the Android KitKat 4.4.2 OS. It will of course be layered with the HTC Sense 6.0 user interface. According to the @evleaks tweet we’ve posted below, the device will feature a redesigned version of BlinkFeed. The software basically lets you stay updated with the latest from your social networks and news sources.
M8. pic.twitter.com/BKIDO3Wndc
— @evleaks (@evleaks) February 6, 2014
This means being able to see Facebook updates, tweets, feeds from websites you follow and so on directly on your homescreen. As is apparent from the screenshot of BlinkFeed, the capacitive buttons have indeed been tossed out for virtual ones. You can clear the display of these three on-screen buttons by simply employing a swipe gesture.
HTC M8 One 2 specs at a glance:
– Android 4.4.2 KitKat with Sense 6.0 UI
– 5-inch, 1920 x 1080p resolution touchscreen
– 2.2GHz quad core Snapdragon 800 processor
– 2GB of RAM
– 16GB onboard storage
– Dual rear cameras
– Single SIM and dual SIM versions
HTC One 2 release date:
If stories we’ve been hearing so far are to be believed, the smartphone will show up at the MWC 2014 on March 25. Additionally, the HTC M8 release for the US is supposedly going to fall in March sometime. Ten more days to go until we know!