The HTC One M9 has definitely had quite a few leaks over the past month. We have seen everything from specs, decoy units, unofficial press renders, and even more unofficial press renders. There have been so many different rumors and image leaks it is hard to keep track of.
Most recently, a slew of images of what is alleged to be the HTC One M9 appeared on a German website that is expected to sell the device. Cyberport is the culprit of the leak, and it seems as if they hit the mother lode. They have quite a few high-res images of what is purported to be the HTC One M9.
While the images are very high quality and there are quite a few, we are skeptical of the design. So we are going to give you 3 reasons this is not the real HTC One M9.
Staying ahead of the competition
When HTC first introduced the One M8 and even the One M7, they knew they had something special. They were one of the first Android phone manufacturers to step up their design and move towards a more “premium” design.
For a long time, almost all flagship Android phones featured a plastic design with a plastic chassis. Android phones were being highly-criticized for not keeping pace with Apple and their iPhones that featured a metal chassis. HTC took a step out of the box and decided to swim upstream.
HTC took the Android community by storm with the design of the HTC One M7 as it was the first major Android flagship device to feature a metal construction. The M7’s design was highly-praised and when consumers and critics thought it couldn’t get any better, they released the One M8 which upped the ante.
There is no way HTC would want to sit idle while Samsung, their top Android competitor, has been rumored to have completely re-designed their flagship Galaxy device from the ground up. The One M8 was and still is one of the best looking phones on the market, but it will go stale eventually.
Profit
Smartphone sales have been hitting a wall as of late, and that goes for HTC’s phones too. 2015 will be a big year for smartphones as new technology is hitting its stride. There wasn’t much innovation in 2014, aside from larger devices with QHD displays. 2015 on the other hand will be the year of 64-bit processing, which is a gateway to more powerful devices. This will lead to every Android manufacturer to bring their top products to the market.
Consumers and shareholders would not be too ecstatic if HTC presented the One M9 in Barcelona and it looked nearly identical to its predecessor with only a few changes here and there and a boost in the hardware department. Not every consumer wants to upgrade their phone every year when a new device comes out, they want a reason to upgrade; specs won’t do that.
With the One M8 being released a year ago, your average user won’t want to upgrade. The M8 is a great device that looks as good as it gets right? HTC has to give them a reason to upgrade and that starts with the design of the phone.
The iPhone 5s was designed very well, just as the M8, but if Apple didn’t radically redesign the iPhone 6, who would want to upgrade? That is exactly what Apple thought, so they completely re-designed the iPhone, and it paid off.
evleaks says otherwise
The king of leaks has been quite the HTC-leaker since is early days. He has leaked the M7 and M8 previously just to name a few. Most recently he leaked what is expected to be the HTC One M9. It shows off a drastically different look then was previously leaked via Phandroid.
It was later outed by a HTC Source that all of these leaks are in fact real, but they are prototype units and will not represent the final project. The source close to HS also said that the One M9 will feature an all-new minimalistic design.
That includes the front-facing camera being relocated to the center of the top of the device, the speakers will be moved towards the edges and be slits, like the Nexus 9, and the black bar housing the HTC logo has been removed. All of which, line up with what evleaks leaked.
On top of his original leaked image, evleaks had something to say about the Cyberport images and he has a good point too. The tweet can be seen below.
If the Cyberport images were genuine, doesn’t it seem likely that HTC would have had them pulled down by now?
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 22, 2015
If a company that is expected to sell an HTC One M9 leaked the press images early, HTC would surely contact them to take it down. They have something big in store for everyone and they would not let a German retailer spoil their event expected to take place hours apart from Samsung’s.
At the end of the day, all of these are rumors are innocent until proven guilty March 1st. One of these rumored images will look more like the final product than the other, and I’m personally betting on the leaked renders by evleaks.
It makes sense from a business standpoint. With the release of the One M9, HTC will stay ahead of the competition with a beautifully crafted device that can perform better than it looks. If they revive the One M8’s design, HTC will lose out on profits. Look for the HTC One M9 to look drastically different than the HTC One M8.