HTC Canada sent out a Tweet with the official announcement of their new HTC One M9 – it will arrive in Canada on April 17 for $199 on a two-year contract at Bell, Koodo, Rogers, TELUS and Videotron. SaskTel and WIND Mobile will also carry the One M9, but pricing was not yet released. You will also be able to pick up the new One M9 at Wireless Wave, Best Buy, Future Shop, London Drugs, T-Booth and The Source. This launch date comes just one week after the big Samsung launch on April 10 of their new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge flagships. HTC is giving a little room for Samsung’s big launch, but is it enough room for people to turn their interest to HTC’s new One M9?
The new HTC One M9 has not changed its outward physical appearance much in the past three years. The all-metal device was conceived in 2013 and was greeted with high praise for its looks and aluminum construction, although many questioned their use of a 4MP UltraPixel camera. Last year, HTC left the One fairly intact as they fooled around in the camera area, adding a second, or Duo Camera that would help add depth or different focal points within your photo, but the picture quality was still the same.
Now in its third rendition, again, HTC has tweaked with the camera area and little else. They finally went with a conventional 20.7MP Sony sensor for the main camera, did away with the Duo Camera and moved the 4MP UltraPixel camera around to the front of the One M9 for excellent selfies and video chatting – but the main camera still does not include OIS. They did make a slight adjustment in the sides of the device by adding a small rim around the edge for better gripping. They increased the RAM from 2GB to 3GB and increased the battery size from 2600mAh to 2840mAh. One thing that surprised a lot of people is that HTC continued to use only a Full HD (FHD) display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and 441 pixels-per-inch (PPI) when Samsung and LG have jumped up to a Quad HD (QHD) with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels or 577 PPI found on the 5.1-inch display on the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge…HTC’s main competition.