HTC One M9

Expected March 2015 
1st March 2015

Following on from last year's One M8, the HTC One M9 takes a fairly predictable path by subtly upgrading this popular and stylish handset, without making it so different that it will alienate fans.

At first glance this looks very much like the previous model, but look more closely and there are changes in the metallic housing which is now a bit more compact and mimimalistic than before. Perhaps the biggest apparent difference is on the back - gone is the trick Ultrapixel dual-camera arrangement, now replaced with a more conventional 20.7 megapixel unit with a dual-tone flash. The One M9 still has an Ultrapixel camera though, now it is a 4 megapixel unit on the front.

The Ultrapixel camera of the One M8 and M7 was one of those features that customers either loved or hated, but ultimately it was just too esoteric for most consumers and the dual-camera arrangement of the One M8 was over-complicated and may well have held back sales. When HTC created the One E8 with a more conventional camera then it sold out straight away in the limited markets that it was available in. However, with this new phone the front-facing Ultrapixel camera should at least guarantee some magnificent selfies.

The front-facing speakers are still here, something that gave previous generations some excellent audio capabilities. However, things have changed here too and the audio playback is now Dolby-enhanced. A couple of generations ago, almost all HTC phones had Beats Audio before that ended up in the hands of Apple.

As for the rest of the specifications, well there are no real surprises. The display is still the excellent 5" 1080 x 1920 pixels that we saw before, but of course many competitors now have much higher resolution displays. Inside is a octa-core 2GHz/1.5GHz CPU with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of onboard flash storage plus a microSD slot. There's an FM radio, NFC support and a TV output.

The HTC One M9 supports fast charging, but the metal case isn't really compatible with wireless charging, so it doesn't have that. Inside is a pleasingly large 2840 mAh battery, and the whole package measures 145 x 70 x 9.6mm and weighs 157 grams.

This is an Android 5.0 (Lollipop) device with all the usual HTC enhancements on top, plus of course it has all the features that you'd expect in a high-end Android smartphone such as LTE, WiFi, GPS, GLONASS, Bluetooth and everything else.

Available colours will be Gunmetal Gray, Amber Gold, Silver/Rose Gold and Gold/Pink with anticipated shipments starting this month. No word was given on pricing, but the One M8 was always expensive and we would estimate that this phone will retail for around €750 SIM-free.