HTC One: What we know prior to the February 19th launch

All the signs (and even the company's jubilant CEO) suggest HTC is planning to unveil a new flagship smartphone very soon, likely at next week's press event. Today we're getting another look at the supposed hardware courtesy of @evleaks — an established source when it comes to leaked gadget imagery. Unsurprisingly, the device in question is identical to the "M7" we've seen previously, though Unwired View seems fairly confident the phone will be branded the HTC One in the US.

If you thought HTC's latest handset resembled the iPhone 5 or BlackBerry's Z10 before, you've got an even stronger argument now. Whereas the original leak depicted the HTC One in white, this latest photo suggests HTC will also offer the One in a slate / black hue. The new, rather drastic overhaul of Sense is also on full display, lending further credence to screenshots that surfaced last month. Thankfully you shouldn't need to wait much longer for the full story on HTC's new hardware; as the manufacturer has made sure to remind us, its press event is just days away.

Ahead of a launch event next week, HTC has placed a countdown clock on the front page of its website teasing a new entrant to its One series. The clock, currently set at six days, is counting down to synchronous events in New York and London. Each time the final second hits "one," it's highlighted in green, and cryptic imagery that could reveal parts of the phone briefly appears behind it.

So what should we expect from HTC's latest and greatest? Thought to be codenamed M7, HTC's new flagship has been partially revealed in leaked parts, software, and specs, and even made a brief appearance in CEO Peter Chou's hands at a company party. Recently, prolific smartphone leaker @evleaks uploaded a full render of what he labeled the "HTC One;" showing an aluminum model that looks nothing like the phone held by Chou, and has more in common visually with HTCs of old than any of the company's recent flagships. The Taiwanese manufacturer could of course be planning to launch more than one device — last year's MWC saw a trio of One series handsets — but we'll find out for ourselves on February 19th.

HTC has teased that a new "camera experience" is coming for its soon-to-be-announced flagship handset, the M7. In a blog post titled a brief history of photography, the Taiwanese manufacturer takes us through the milestones of image capturing, from the Daguerrotype all the way up to last year's 41-megapixel 808 PureView phone. For the description of Nokia's handset, HTC cites the Gizmodo editorial megapixels don't matter (written shortly after the phone's announcement) as a review, quoting "this won't help you at all." With Nokia set to announce a true PureView Windows Phone shortly, it's clear that HTC is trying to undermine the reputation of Nokia's generally well-reviewed camera system.

We didn't expect to see HTC's rumored flagship phone, the M7, until the company's press event on February 19th, but it looks like company CEO Peter Chou just couldn't wait any longer. After chants of "HTC! HTC! M7! M7!" at the firm's year end party today in Taipei, the CEO took the rumored 4.7-inch Android device out on stage to test its camera. There aren't any up-close photos of the device (above is about as good as it gets), but Chinese site cnYES reports that both a silver and black version of the phone were revealed on stage. As translated by Engadget, Chou says in a clip from NextTV that "this event today is a great opportunity for testing [the camera]. I was still testing it just now." It's hard to draw any conclusions from the low-quality images of the phone, but we should have more information in a couple of weeks.

Breaking with the tradition of making Mobile World Congress its marquee show of the year, HTC has set a date mere days ahead of the Barcelona extravaganza to debut some fresh new hardware. We've been invited to a February 19th get-together in London, where the Taiwanese company can be expected to introduce its well rumored and leaked M7 Android flagship — or perhaps something entirely different. Half the fun of it is in the not knowing. The other half will be in our live coverage, so stay tuned to find out what Peter Chou and company are going to launch a week before MWC.

HTC is also hosting a simultaneous event in New York City, the invite for which can be seen below. Alas, other than an urban environment and the blurry outline of young hip people, there don't seem to be any particular hints about what is to come from this February 19th launch.

HTC's rumored M7 appears to be the company's next flagship phone, and the leaks have been coming with increasing speed recently. A full image leaked last week, and now ETrade Supply has posted a video of what they claim is the front and rear housing of HTC's next major device. Probably the most exciting detail revealed in this video is the M7's dedicated camera button, a feature we wish more phones had. While this is clearly not a final product, we're definitely hoping the camera button is a feature included when the phone finally ships. As we saw in the leaked image, the M7 looks like it'll be a lot less rounded and curved than the One X — the corners are more squared off, and the chassis itself will be a lot more straight. Unsurprisingly, it shares much of the same design language found in the Droid DNA / Butterfly handset.

The M7 chassis appears to be a bit smaller than that of the DNA, which would fit in with the rumored 4.7-inch screen size. It also looks like HTC stuck the power button on the top of the M7, something that drove us crazy when using the DNA — but fortunately it's set off to the side, and will hopefully be easier to access since the M7 will likely be a smaller device. As for the front housing, it looks nearly identical to the image that leaked out earlier and, according to the measurements, should have room for the expected 4.7-inch display. While the One X failed to reverse HTC's fortunes in the smartphone market, we'll be watching the rumored M7 closely — we're expecting it to be introduced in a few weeks at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Although the main news to leak from HTC recently was that of a next-generation flagship smartphone, accompanying the hardware appeared to be a new version of the company's Sense Android skin. More recently, xda-developers member mdeejay uploaded a number of screenshots of Sense 5 running on a Droid DNA. The developer and established community contributor says he ported the software from a Sprint version of HTC's rumored M7 flagship. He claims the device was running Android 4.1.2 (rather than the latest version, 4.2) together with Sense 5. While unverifiable, news of a flagship HTC device for Sprint wouldn't be a huge surprise given the two companies' strong ties through the Evo brand.

HTC is rumored to have a flagship phone called the M7 waiting in the wings, and we published the first alleged image courtesy of the oft-reliable @evleaks last week. Since then, a contradictory render surfaced at PocketNow that was produced by someone who claimed to have seen an image of the phone, and now Android Police has a matching photo itself. As you can see, it bears little resemblance to the "M7" in the previously leaked image — either this is a different handset, or one (or both) of the pictures are fake.

That said, the new photos certainly look like something, and come with some details worthy of note. The device's industrial design isn't breaking much new ground for HTC, coming across as reminiscent of the Droid DNA. Unusually, though, HTC appears to have switched the Home and multitasking buttons around so that the former is on the lower right of the device — a non-standard location for Android devices to say the least, and one that could leave many users scratching their heads.

You're looking at the first image of what's believed to be HTC's upcoming M7 flagship smartphone. The photo of the Android device's front half (which bears some resemblance to the iPhone 5's rear) comes courtesy of @evleaks at Unwired View, where hardware specifications for the rumored M7 were published last month. It's hard to take away much from the image, though it seems to lend credence to the device being dominated by a 4.7-inch display. HTC has also apparently gone a bit grille-happy with the M7, drilling sets of tiny holes for both the earpiece and microphone.

Curiously, HTC branding is nowhere to be seen, leading Unwired View to conclude we're seeing the device in non-final form. "The render is apparently part of a short animation clip instructing new owners on first-time SIM card installation," says @evleaks. Apart from the two grilles, we also see a front-facing camera and the typical pairing of proximity / light sensors. Unfortunately it looks as though we'll need to wait until Mobile World Congress next month for the full story on hardware specs and HTC's latest Sense software. The company is in dire need of a smartphone capable of drawing consumers after recently posting its lowest profit since 2004.