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HTC One appears on video, a leaked press image and HTC’s Twitter page

HTC One​The Taiwanese company’s new flagship is anticipated to launch at a special London event in just six days time. In the meantime, new footage and a detailed press image have emerged, showing us a little more of what to expect from the handset’s design.

Before we show the phone off, a look to the HTC’s recently updated Twitter feed gives us a hint of the design language at work. Both the feed’s background and main image show between then a huge date marked as the 19th of February and metal elements of what look to be a phone body. It appears to be lightly textured aluminium as we’ve seen on previous HTC devices like the Legend.

We turn to @evleaks for the new press image, which resembles the previously discovered M7 render, but this time features a homescreen showcasing elements of the yet unreleased new version of the company’s Sense UI overlay.

Last but not least is a 20 second video picked up by AndroidOS.in, collating all the current footage of the M7/HTC One. Enjoy:

More stories on the HTC M7/HTC One:

HTC M7 to officially become the HTC One: ‘Ultrapixel’ camera sample reaffirms new name

February 11th, 2013

HTC’s CEO Peter Chou might have gotten the crowds chanting, “HTC M7” at the the company’s end of year banquet, but the most recent news points towards a different name altogether. Not one, but two sources have indicated that the M7 name is more likely an internal title for what consumers will come to know as the HTC One.

The Taiwanese manufacturer actually introduced us to the One Series at Mobile World Congress last year, with the likes of the HTC One X, One XL, One S and One V sharing the stage, however the HTC One looks like it could well set the bar with which we’ll measure all forthcoming 2013 HTC handsets.

M7/One sample M7/One EXIF

The One is said to offer up not just a new design akin to the HTC Deluxe, but will employ new camera technology, embodied in the handset’s new ‘Ultrapixel Camera’. As a result of a leaked camera sample which emerged on Flickr earlier this week (and spotted via GSMArena), we’ve had a glimpse at the potential power of the camera, but its true strength is yet to be seen.

The camera at work is in fact a combination of three 4.3-megapixel sensors working in unison to produce an interpolation-free 4.3-megapixel image. Based on the One’s status as the company’s new flagship, we suspect the full resolution of the camera will be closer in the region of 12 to 13-megapixels, but we won’t have much more of a wait before we find out as next Tuesday, we’ll be joining HTC in London for the likely launch of the handset.

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HTC M7 components appear on video

January 29th, 2013

It was Android Central who pointed the internets in the direction of ETrade Supply’s YouTube channel yesterday, following the appearance of components supposedly from the yet unannounced HTC M7 which were captured on video.

The heavily rumoured Android device is on track to make its debut at MWC and although multiple potential designs have emerged out of the woodwork, we’ve been unable to pinpoint what exactly it’ll look like. Thankfully, the team at ETrade Supply, who previously gave us a close look at part of the iPhone 5 before it became official, are handling what is said to be a number of parts including the M7’s rear and mid frames. Take a look.

As the video shows, the M7 looks to be taller and thinner than the current UK flagship: the HTC One X and although we don’t have access to the Droid DNA here in the UK, it shares more similarities with that handset than any of the One Series. As the voice on the video points out, the DNA actually appears to offer a more interesting and higher quality design over the M7, with waterproofing, a rear notification light and anodised red metal elements. Meanwhile the front of the M7 appears to allow enough room for at least a 4.7-inch display and as a bonus the side of the frame accommodates a hardware shutter key, a welcome addition in our books.

The M7 should take the stage just as the One X did last year in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, taking place at the end of next month.

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Possible HTC M7 poses for the camera

January 21st, 2013

We mentioned previously that a possible render of the yet unannounced HTC M7 gave us clues to the final design without actually being completely accurate, but shots which have popped up on AndroidPolice provide a wholly different design story altogether.

The last render of the M7 featured a significant departure from the One Series’s design language with a nearly bezel-less display, capped top and bottom by bodywork, but these latest photos; showing a never before seen HTC in the flesh look far closer to the company’s current 2012 lineup, despite having never seen the light of day elsewhere.

HTC M7 frontHTC M7 back

Naturally this could be a different handset altogether, perhaps a successor to the One S, or simply a complete fake and as the tipster pointed out to AndroidPolice, there are a few discrepancies in the look and layout of the hardware we see before us. The most unusual element is the placement of the home and multi-tasking buttons, both of which have swapped places, leaving users to jump between apps by hitting the centre button. Meanwhile a look on the lower portion of the phone’s back shows the Beats Audio logo without any text and a complete lack of FCC markings, which could be explained if this handset isn’t of a unibody construction.

Alongside the tantalising glimpse of this new hardware, screenshots of what may well be the latest version of Sense: HTC’s Android overlay, made an appearance. Suspected to be Sense 5.0, the most obvious difference is a new widget. The design feels more clear cut and simplified their current clock/weather widget, whilst also playing host to a news, social and tips widget contained within separate elements underneath. What’s more, the handset’s iconography has exchanged shaded 3D-style icons from simpler, flat illustrations.

HTC Sense 5?

Should this new design direction for Sense be real, it looks as though the company are taking a leaf or two out of the Windows Phone book, to show information in a simpler fashion. Many suspect the M7 to show-face at MWC, assuming it does, we still want to know what ‘face’ it’ll be wearing.

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HTC’s unannounced flagship: HTC M7 render spotted

January 17th, 2013

HTC M7 render

Could this be what the HTC M7: the company’s 2013 flagship, will look like? ‘Almost’ seems to be what we’re hearing from the source who discovered the image, published on UnwiredView.com. The soon-to-be flagship was spotted an early version of the firmware accessible to the source, which contained an instructional video apparently showing users how to insert the SIM card into the M7.

The quality of the render appears somewhat unfinished as is the design on show with its, what appears to be a, bezel free screen. The final version of the M7 is anticipated to arrive with a 4.7-inch display, which doesn’t follow the trend set by the HTC Deluxe, nor Sony’s latest offerings the Xperia Z and ZL. There’s also expected to be a 1.7GHz quad-core processor inside, but we’re unsure as to whether this will be an overclocked Tegra 3 as was available in the HTC One X+ or a faster version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core chip that’s found a lot of popularity amongst manufacturers in recent months.

When the M7 does arrive it needs to make a big impact in order to help its creators out. Despite the previous successes of HTC a few years back, their popularity has waned and they need to re-establish themselves as a strong competitive brand, the trouble being, the likes of Samsung are able to flood the market with such a variety of handsets thanks to their vast resources that the relative ‘little guy’ that the Taiwanese manufacturer is finds it hard to keep up.

Another possible inclusion that might draw attention as pointed out by UnwiredView is an IR, which is rumoured to endow the M7 with learning capabilities, possible as a universal remote. We’ll know more next month when HTC are expected to pull the wraps off the new flagship at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

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HTC’s 2013 flagship to be called the ‘HTC M7’

January 3rd 2013

Following on from our initial CES predictions, HTC could well have something up their sleeve in time for the goings on in Las Vegas next week. Rumours of a successor to last year’s HTC One X have been floating around for the past month or so and although the possibility of its successor remaining behind closed doors until MWC in February is still very much a possibility, the Taiwanese manufacturer may decide to bring out the big guns early in order to steal headlines away from rivals such as Samsung and Sony.

The HTC M7 is the name currently given to the One X’s successor, which holds the title for the first quad-core handset to market and the first smartphone to use what became the most popular quad-core mobile processor of 2012, Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip.

HTC One X+ Image credit: Wired.com

According to information accumulated by TrustedReviews, the M7 will take the top spot in HTC’s 2013 portfolio (at least until its refresh at least six months in, much like the HTC One X+ last year) with some impressive specs to back up its status. Interestingly, although in select markets the HTC DNA/Butterfly J/Deluxe DLX; with its 5-inch 1080p HD display has already made it to retail, the M7 will employ a smaller 4.7-inch Full HD (1080p) ‘SoLux’ display. The SoLux technology is said to offer better viewing angles, colour reproduction and outdoor visibility in addition to being 40% sharper than existing mobile displays, so at the very least, everything on this phone should look amazing.

The horsepower behind the M7 is said to be a Qualcomm-based 1.7GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM and at least one version offering up 32GB of onboard storage, presumably meaning that as with the One X and X+, HTC won’t include the option of expandable memory as well. The last key piece of hardware is of course the camera, which jumps from the One X’s 8 to a 13-megapixel shooter, complete with a ‘Cinesensor’ sensor allowing it to capture HDR and slow motion video.

Although the specs and status lead us to believe that whenever the M7 hits, it’ll come with Android Jelly Bean and perhaps a new version of their HTC Sense UI overlay (Sense 5 maybe), we don’t have anything concrete to back that up. The possible unveiling of the handset at CES comes courtesy of XDA Developers member Football, whose previous tips have frequently landed on the accurate side, rather than the unfounded.

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