Before most phones are officially announced, we usually get tidbits of information leaked about them from time to time. At this point we’ve seen plenty of rumors and leaked information about HTC’s next phone, code named the M8. The HTC One was code named the M7 if you weren’t aware, so the code name alone tells us that it’s definitely the successor to the very popular HTC One. The M8 looks like it’s going to be the first HTC device to debut with the Sense 6.0 user interface skin that received a complete overhaul with the HTC One and Sense 5.0. It also looks like the device will launch in Q1 of next year, likely beating the Galaxy S5 to the market by a few months. Lastly we’re seeing that spec list has received a nice bump from what’s inside the HTC One, including a Snapdragon 800 processor and a 5-inch screen. Now we’ve been made aware of the first possible leaked benchmark coming from the phone, and it all but seems to confirm that there’s definitely a Snapdragon 800 inside. Japanese Blog of Mobile found this listing on the AnTuTu Benchmark website that shows what’s labeled as an HTC 0P6B120, which is apparently the HTC M8 according to Blog of Mobile. Given that these speeds aren’t found on any other HTC device, there’s not much room for error here as long as the benchmark isn’t faked.
What’s really interesting to think about is what HTC could have done if it had just waited for the Snapdragon 805, which is likely going to power the Galaxy S5 when it hits later in the Spring of 2014. Sure the Snapdragon 800 is plenty fast, and given that it powers nearly every flagship device on the market right now including the LG G2, Galaxy Note 3 and Nexus 5 just to name a few, you know that it’s going to be just as zippy as those phones, if not faster. The score of 36,062 on the leaked M8 benchmark is just above that of a Galaxy Note 3, which comes in at around 35,000. Given the slight difference in speed here, we’re likely seeing the result of just plain better coded software on HTC’s part working in harmony with the hardware. The Snapdragon 800 is more than enough to get HTC’s next flagship through most of next year, with its ability to record and play back 4K video, take pictures up to 21 megapixels, take advantage of LTE-Advance, and so much more. While it would be great to see HTC continue to push mobile processing even further, maybe this time around they’ll focus more on getting a camera out with a higher resolution as well as what they did with the HTC One’s camera.