HTC One (M9) rumor round-up: specs, features, price, release date...

Nearly four years after going to the peak of success with its Android smartphones, HTC has crashed to the bottom with declining revenues and barely squeezing a profit. In the past year, the company has lost key executives, failed to manufacture an appealing, competitive smartphone for the Holiday shopping season, and seems to be putting all bets on 2015.

HTC’s One (M9) 2015 flagship is facing an uphill battle for a number of reasons: the renewed focus on design, HTC’s main selling point, from rivals like Samsung; then, the rise of Chinese smartphones that HTC simply cannot match in value for the money; and finally, the fact that even with the overwhelmingly positive reviews for the 2014 HTC One (M8), it still could not catch up.

Design: 

One thing HTC will not change much according to rumors is the premium feel and industrial design in the HTC One (M9). This includes the dual-chin design and the large footprint of the device. Leaked images actually do show a slight rearrangement in the front-firing stereo speakers (still present, just position differently).

Not much, however, does not mean that the company is standing still: this time around, the One (M9) is expected to be built with a case made of an aluminum silicon-carbide composite, an alloy that is strengthened in comparison with traditional 6000 series aluminum used in products like the iPhone. It's something we've heard referred to as 'three-tone' design and we're yet to hear the details about this.

A quick look at research papers shows that adding silicon-carbide to aluminum improves the microhardness and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of a product, which is great news for the durability of the M9.

Bad news is that all of this will come in an even thicker body measuring a whopping 0.37 inches (9.64mm). That's one thick phone by today's standards.

Display:

2015 is shaping up to be the year when the distinction between a phablet and a phone will finally start disappearing, as flagship smartphones move towards the 5.5-inch screen size, a threshold that we quietly consider the starting point for a device to be considered a phablet.

The HTC One (M9), however, might remain in more conservative screen size territories, as the latest whispers on the grapevine speculate that it will feature a 5-inch display with a 1080 x 1920-pixel (Full HD) resolution. This would be a very sane decision, as the pixel density of such a display will still be way above the very sweet 400ppi spot and hence, extremely sharp. Keep in mind, though, that those rumors are far from being a sure indication of what's to actually come in the M9 - just last month we were hearing about the possibility of a 5.5" Quad HD display. Still, let's keep our fingers crossed for sanity to prevail over the largely unnecessary pixel race.

In terms of color reproduction, we do expect some improvements from the M8 - a less bluish, more color accurate screen on the M9 would be a welcome change from the oversaturated display on its predecessor. You'd also be able to use the phone with gloves via a new 'glove mode'.

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