After almost everything about the One M9 got leaked out there (even some official photos got leaked), HTC has today confirmed the upcoming flagship through an official announcement at a pre-MWC press event in Barcelona today.
The new One M9 is pretty much similar to its predecessor in terms of overall design and software. But then , you obviously can’t complain looking at how well its predecessors, the One M8 and M7 were received. HTC is banking on that success and it makes sense.
While the Taiwanese company is battling out huge financial losses and slowdown in the business, the One M9 is more of a statement from HTC, re-assuring that it is still in the play. Thus, instead of wasting resources on bloated skins and software, HTC’s focus is on improving core performance and cameras.
Coming on to specifications, the device features a crisp, sharp 5-inch 1080p HD display, powered by solid Qualcomm 810 processor under the hood. For functionality and intense purposes, you have got 3 GB of RAM.
However, what’s interesting about the new One M9 is its immensely improved camera quality. The M9 has a veefed up, 20 MP rear snapper hardened by sapphire glass and not bulging out like other ‘high-end’ phones. It can record 4K videos (which may finally put Samsung’s lying around 4K TVs to some use) and has a single physical lens as compared to M8’s dual. But make no mistake, this one lens has been formed by consolidation of those on M8 and with M9’s new software upgrades, the partially functional depth-based photo post-processing on M8 can now be used to its full potential.
The selfie experience to gets bigger and better. The One M9 has a 4 MP Ultrapixel front-facing camera, providing you sharp selfies like never before. There’s further tweaking to dynamic exposure, which HTC says will help in improving single pictures which have multiple exposure points.
The new Sense 7 has a better Blinkfeed experience. While you used to get curated content as per your location, you now also get restaurant listings related to your location. Also, apps on the home-screen change as per your current usage or location. For example, if you are near an airport, you’ll get the entire flight schedule on your phone.
So a final word ? Well, if you were looking for something fance, something with a “wow” factor, you won’t find it here. HTC One M9 is more about better performance and utility than about fanciness. And moreover, last time some korean brand launched a fancied 5th generation phone named Galaxy, well, we all know how that turned out.
The One M9 will go on sale starting from mid March in Asia-Pacific.
