Finally, sensible rumors about the specification of the next HTC flagship device, tentatively called the One (M9). You see, HTC do not have a habit of bowling people over with blood-boiling processor, screen, battery or camera choices, but instead produce a device that has comparable and often slightly inferior hardware specification to the competition and instead relying on build quality and software to impress. We had seen earlier rumors that the next One would be based around a 5.5-inch, QHD screen, a rear facing 16 MP camera, a 3,500 mAh battery and be running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor. That screen and battery size do not have HTC flagship written over them; perhaps for a HTC One Max, but not a flagship. And using a 32-bit Qualcomm processor for a flagship when surely the competition will be moving to a 64-bit platform? Instead, I would expect HTC to play something of a more conservative game when it comes to bleeding edge components and adopt a more modest handset, which is exactly what we are seeing in the latest rumor from @upleaks regarding the HTC Hima, it’s internal codename.
These rumors point towards a 1080p 5.0-inch display, so a similar display (on paper) to what the One M8 currently has. HTC are perhaps taking the view that a QHD display is over the top for a 5.0-inch screen. The processor is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, which is a new generation 64-bit unit that couples a quad-core, 2.0 GHz high-performance processor with a quad-core, 1.5 GHz high-efficiency processor. It’ll be aided by 3 GB of RAM. The modem will be up to Cat6 standard and the rear camera sounds like one of the current flagship Sony items with 20.7 MP. The front facing camera is touted as being either a 13 MP unit (as in the Desire Eye) or a 4 MP UltraPixel component (as with the current rear facing camera in the M8). The battery is a modest, but HTC-realistic, 2,840mAh battery. Going on the experience of the HTC One M8, this is entirely realistic, especially as the newer generation processor ought to be more efficient under most circumstances (when it comes to gaming, all bets are off!). Naturally, the next One will run Android 5.0 Lollipop and HTC Sense 7.
My thoughts on this? These specifications seem far more realistic compared with the earlier rumor. A 1080p, 5.0-inch screen is – to my mind at least – all the resolution that most people will need. Running with more pixels increases the pixel density but also doubles the workload that the processor and GPU need do just to move images around on the screen; with a new generation processor and a 1080p resolution, I expect the M9 to absolutely fly in day to day use. I also don’t see an issue with the battery capacity only being 2,840mAh and as regards a rear camera, that sounds absolutely fine by me. But I would, however, like to see it looking like some of the concept images that we’ve already seen earlier in the year. But over to you, our readers, what do you think?