Now that Scott Croyle, former Senior Vice President of Design at HTC, has left to join Nextbit, it is not a far stretch to imagine next year’s HTC One M9 to take a different direction visually. With that being said, an unexpected change announced by @upleaks states that the Taiwanese manufacturer will not be following previous expectations of naming next year’s flagship the M9, after this year’s One M8, and the previous M7. It is unclear, however, on what it will actually be called now, or whether HTC will be dropping the One name along with it.
Names aside, whatever HTC will be releasing next year is bound to be an amazing device. We have already seen some gorgeous renders and concepts of what this new device could look like, as well as a wish list of specs and features to go along with them. Most of the concepts I’ve seen all include at least 3 GB of RAM and a quad-core Snapdragon 805. At the upper, and more desirable end, are the 6 core 808 and 8 core 810 Snapdragon processors that will be out next year. With Android Lollipop available at the time this phone is expected to be released, hopefully HTC will choose to take advantage of the 64-bit support offered by Google’s latest operating system and these new chips. More power and improved efficiency are qualities that are in high demand in today’s smartphone’s, so hopefully HTC will keep up with the trends.
Many are hoping that new SVP Jonah Becker will shake things up a bit with the design for the new phone. While the M8 is by no means a bad looking phone, some felt that it looked too similar to its predecessor, the M7. However, it may be too soon for us to see any deviation from the conservative trend, much of the design for the new phone was likely finalized by the time Becker assumed control of the department. The phone will most likely retain the metal body and impressive Boomsound speakers. One thing is certain however, as a flagship, whatever HTC has planned for this new device will make it a very solid device with great looks and performance.