The launch of the HTC M8 (successor of the HTC One/M7) is still a few months away, and has been rumored to come out in March next year, but it seems the leaks have already started appearing, of both the device itself, and of its specs, too. The latest specs of the M8 that are rumored include a Snapdragon 800 processor, a 1080p screen, and Android 4.4 KitKat.
KitKat is obviously the least surprising one here, since not only should HTC have plenty of time to port it to their new device by March, but not doing so would be suicide. Can you even imagine the successor of HTC One launching next year with only Android 4.3 on board? If Google decides to push Android 5.0 at next I/O, just 2 months later, in May, instead of next fall, that would be an even bigger blow to HTC, since they’d be so far behind. But fortunately for HTC, according to the rumor, they should be able to push KitKat to its 2014 flagship device.
Then we have the 5″ screen with a 1080p resolution, which isn’t a huge surprise, although I’m very curious to see how HTC will make it so the M8 isn’t much bigger at all than the HTC One, which only had a 4.7″, because the speakers at the top and bottom occupied a lot of space, and even though the screen was smaller the competition, the device itself was roughly the same size as other 5″ phones.
It’s hard to say whether they got rid of those speakers on the front, or they just made them much more compact, because from the leaks so far, the M8 is only seen from the back or sides. However, it does look like the phone may be quite a bit bigger than the HTC One, in order to accommodate both the 5″ screen size and the speakers.
Finally, there’s the rumored Snapdragon 800 chip, which if true, would be a huge mistake on HTC’s part, unless they’re launching the phone in January. Any later than that, and the chip will be quickly made obsolete at the top not just by Qualcomm’s own Snapdragon 800 successor with Adreno 400, but by 64-bit ARMv8 chips coming into the market, too.
To compensate, HTC would need to offer something else that is much better than anything the competition will launch in 2014, such as an amazing camera. Otherwise, a month or two after its launch, there will be little reason to get the HTC M8 over the competition. The HTC One had a huge advantage with its design and materials last year, but they won’t have it that easy next year, especially if they will use the exact same design as last year.