Earlier today, we covered the story of a rumored new HTC One smartphone, the One X9. To recap, the rumored device has a number of potential specification details depending on where we read, ranging from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 running the show to the MediaTek Helio X20, either 3 GB or 4 GB of memory, and internal storage ranging from 32 GB up to 128 GB. The screen is alleged to either be of 1080p (FHD) or 1440p (QHD) resolution, there’s a 3,500 mAh battery under the surface and a 23MP rear camera. The One X9 is reckoned to have the 4MP HTC UltraPixel front facing camera module as we’ve seen in the One M9. The update to the story is that a press release image has now been leaked, which is genuine and shows HTC’s slightly different design language.
Looking at the leaked image, it appears that HTC have moved back to capacitive buttons on the front of the design rather than using on-screen keys. At the bottom left of the poster we can see text that reads, “Silky Smooth Touch,” “More In Every Inch,” “Shoot Like A Pro” and “Cinematic Surround Sound.” The device has thin side bezels and large BoomSound speakers, but there does not appear to be a fingerprint scanner on the front of the device – perhaps “Silky Smooth Touch” refers to the metallic build quality of the device? HTC may have have omitted a fingerprint scanner from the specification, or perhaps there is one around the back? It would be unusual if HTC were to release the device without a fingerprint scanner, but HTC do sometimes go against the grain. At the bottom of the poster we can also see that the X9 benefits from Dolby sound processing plus the tagline of “Cinematic Surround Sound,” so it looks like the X9 has the same sound processing as the M9.
Regardless of the exact specification of the device, the One X9 will likely not be released until either the very end of 2015 or in early 2016. The rationale for this is because the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and MediaTek Helio X20 chipsets are brand new and not yet released. Going on the current portfolio of HTC devices, the X9 will sit close to the top of the tree in whatever regions or markets the device is released into. It’s possible that HTC are set to replace the M9 with the X9 in some parts of the world or that the X9 has been designed as something of a M9+ device until the next generation One M-series is release?