The HTC One M8 made history as one of the best Android phones when it was released, and many still love the device for its powerful hardware and sturdy design to this day. HTC are currently gearing up for the release of its successor, and even though the company hasn’t officially revealed any technical details about the upcoming device yet, there have been some rumors about its hardware recently, as well as about the potential release date of the phone.
According to unconfirmed reports, the device will have a 5.2” display with Quad HD technology, with quite the high resolution – 2560 x 1440. Behind that screen, the device will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 running at 2.7 GHz, and it will have 3 GB of RAM. If the M8 was a powerhouse of a mobile phone, then this appears to be a worthy successor, if the rumors are true. Not much else was pointed out in this batch of rumors, with the exception of some small variations in the claims about the screen size. Some rumors indicate that the display might be slightly larger, with the possibility of 5.5” mentioned in a few places. The M8 was not a small phone itself, and the current market trend in general is moving towards larger designs, so this may not be a strange move.
Most of the hardware given in the reports makes sense, although there have been some questionable points. The device is allegedly coming in December – on the other hand, there are only a few months to go before 64-bit Snapdragon CPUs are out on the market, which means that the HTC One M9 will be running on obsolete hardware very shortly after it’s released. Since the device is built around the idea of being one of the most powerful phones on the market, this would not be a good move and it may undermine the quality of the One brand.
Alternatively, it could mean that HTC are planning to release a follow-up device shortly after the M9 is released, one with even more powerful hardware, in order to take advantage of the newly released 64-bit processors. Of course, the company would still need some time to properly design and develop a new device around the new processors, although they could approach the problem with a modular design based on the M9, where they just swap the processor.
HTC have shown a willingness to experiment with this part of their product line, and the M9 will likely offer something interesting to buyers, even if it doesn’t feature the hardware from the rumors above. It should still have plenty of power to satisfy even the most demanding applications available for mobile devices nowadays.