With Mobile World Congress now just a month or so away, it’s no surprise that we’re all looking forward to what the big names in mobile have in store for 2015. We’re sure that Samsung is going to announce a fresh Galaxy S design, but we’re also intrigued to see what HTC is going to announce during the conference. We’ll be on the ground to bring you all the news, but as there’s a little time before the fun gets underway in Spain, there’s still time to speculate. Bloomberg is throwing their hat in the ring this week, with word once again that HTC could be releasing their first smartwatch in March this year.
HTC have a press conference scheduled for March 1st this year during MWC, so there’s a chance that this is what Bloomberg is talking about, but last year HTC decided to reveal the HTC One (M8) separately, away from MWC. We’re not sure whether or not HTC do the same this year, but Bloomberg seem to know quite a lot about the device. Quoting those “familiar with the matter” Bloomberg is saying the device is similar to the HTC One (M8) and will be powered by the Snapdragon 810 processor from Qualcomm. Neither of that is all that surprising, nor is the inclusion of the 20-megapixel camera and Sense 7 software onboard. What is nice to hear is that HTC is apparently going to push their strengths with their latest flagship.
Bloomberg is reporting that the new device will feature improved audio capabilities including Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. I’m assuming that this is virtual surround sound technology here, as it’d be pretty hard to produce 5.1 with two small speakers on the front of the device. Still, if HTC can further improve on the already excellent BoomSound at a time when people are more interested in a device’s ability to play music well, then they could have another winner on their hands.
As for the smartwatch, well, they didn’t see to have any details to share with us, sadly. The person “familiar with the matter” did say that the watch would link up to Under Armour’s UA Record service, which could make it one of the first devices to come out of the partnership announced during CES by the two. The big question of course is whether or not the device will run Android Wear, we’d like to think HTC would be smart enough to not release yet another smartwatch OS, but we’ll have to wait and see.