By 
As Android OEMs prepare to unveil this year’s latest round of flagship devices, excitement is building around leaks to help clue us in on what manufacturers like HTC or Samsung have been working on the past year. After the Steve Jobs Apple became renown for keeping leaks pertaining to the iPhone relatively in check, we saw heavy weights like Samsung — who’s devices often times leaked in their entirety months before launch — put a greater effort into keeping everything under wraps.
One of the ways Samsung did this was by outfitting test devices with dummy cases, permanent cases used to obscure a test phone’s true design. Seems HTC may have taken this idea and ran with it (something they actually did back with the original HTC One M7), employing the use of entire decoy devices for use during testing. These decoy devices have all the same internal hardware as an upcoming flagship, only they’re using a recycled design to help keep leakers (and the public) guessing.
According to Evan Blass of HTCSource (formerly Mr. @evleaks himself), this is exactly what we’ve been seeing with the recent influx of HTC One M9 leaks and the reason the phone — to many’s dismay — looked nearly identical to last year’s HTC One M8 (save for power button placement, and square-ish camera lens). In order to save “the big wow” for their March 1st unveiling in Barcelona, HTC actually sent their partners these decoy devices so they could be tested without fear of anyone ruining the big surprise (and possibly same-day carrier availability like with the One M8?).
While we’re sure HTC has had a good laugh watching all these decoy units make the rounds online, that’s not to say nobody knows what HTC is planning for the One M9’s actual design. HTCSource goes onto describe what the real HTC One M9 could look like when it finally debuts in a few weeks:
“The final design of the HTC One (M9) will feature an edge-to-edge glass panel on the front with the BoomSound speaker slits pushed to the top and bottom edges. The front-facing camera on the HTC One (M9) takes its design cues from the HTC Desire 826, featuring a large, centrally positioned lens above the display.”
Okay, so it’s really not all that much to go on, but it’s definitely enough that anyone concerned with a rehash of last year’s model can still hold out hope for a different (hopefully improved) One design. Anyone feeling a little better about the HTC One M9 (Hima) now?
alright….so my interest is peaked again :) now I am excited to see something awesome!
*piqued
Excited, should be a great year for consumers! Very curious to see how the camera actually works.
that is literally my only crutch….I hope hope hope the bezels are just a bit smaller. just personal taste!
Evleaks “teased” recently that the M9 could have duo cameras
Very happy to hear this. The leaked images had me reconsidering going with the M9.
Said that days ago and got shot down by some :)
Mmmmhmmm!! I had the same idea. This is lovely!! The troll is too unreal right now!!
But did you put it in writing right here on a specific days old thread like I did? Or just think it? Big difference.
But it was on the internet so it must be true:O #sarcasm (that’s for people who still don’t get it)
im feeling better about the m9..why, because now i have higher hopes that bottom bezel black bar will be smaller than the prototypes, all other speccs was fine by me
Still hoping the screen will be bigger than 5 inches
Mmmmhmmm!! All the whiners can stop whining now. Meaning I can shut up, now. =.P
Hahahaha I’m right there with ya
i had a feeling (and was really hoping!) that this was the case. the camera hole looked way too amateur and ugly, and the matte front looked unfinished. if they released the phone like that, i feel like it would have been ridiculed and slammed by reviewers and the general public.
Whatever…… HTC lying. They got wiff of people not liking they recycled the M8 design again and just changing the camera. LOL
What a buffoon.
Yep, he proves it more with each comment he makes. Now hes backtracking because his only talking point in trashing HTC just went up in smoke. lol
Trash talking… That’s what you call it? LOL, You have no idea
You feel better?
You off your meds?
Dude you are taking this stuff to seriously. It’s a phone and a phone company? Why do you feel the need to belittle people to make you look good. And for what? SMH
bought M8 last year & then returned it to get S5, primary reason being slippery & bad camera. S5 has its own set of problems. So I am looking forward for M9.
You likely never used the camera on the M8. or even had one. The camera on the M8 was one of the best cameras on any Android phone last year.
did u read my post ? if yes then u shd know that I had the M8 & why did i return it.. if you say M8 has 1 of the best cameras on any android last year then its your opinion.
BTW If you start a poll & ask M8 owners what was the worst thing about M8, 90% would say ‘Camera’.
Yes and no. It is a brilliant camera for what it was designed to do. You will find it really really hard to find a phone that takes better night time photos, and the daytime photos are great too, you just cant blow them up because of the low MP count. Its not a phone for a photographer, it was designed for the occasional photo share on social media, where photos are rarely enlarged anyways.
yes n since its only built for some basic social media photos it lags behind many of the big shots like samsung, sony, LG.. I am not saying that the others have a flawless camera but its still better than M8’s.. I can comment on it since I have used it. S5’s camera in low light sucks to the core but it excels during day time.
evleaks just shared pics of M9, if it looks like that, it would be damn amazing..
Absolutely it laggs behind some other shooters, but if you compare the M8 camera @ 4MP vs the S5 @ 4MP i doubt you will notice MUCH difference.
I’m due for a new phone at the end of march, definitely going HTC again.
yes but most of the people dont care about scaling it down to 4 MP & then compare. For them its straight out 16 vs 4 & they say meh,, I’ll dump M8.
I am also waiting for M9 even though I am not due for a new phone.. Good luck..
Yeah, but don’t forget that 4MP = approx ~ 2272×1704 resolution. The average screen resolution on a PC is still 720p, and on a phone until recently the highest resolution was 1080p, both of which are less that the 2272×1704 that 4MP provides. Both the 16 and 4 MP photos are being scaled down and you don’t even realise it.
i agree with ur explanation technically but numbers matter.. to any other basic user 16 is always > 4..plus the 4 MP goes for a toss when the pics are viewed on a basic 11 inch laptop, over & above that its even worse.
Glad to hear this. It was strange for HTC to have an identical device to last years. After all, what are they, Samsung or Apple ?
No, Samsung and Apple phones actually sell.
They got my interest…
“The final design of the HTC One (M9) will feature an edge-to-edge glass panel on the front with the BoomSound speaker slits pushed to the top and bottom edges”
Go on….
I hope the BoomSound quality is not downgraded for the sake of design.
I’m not all that bothered by the bezel, but if they could reduce it without compromising the sound… I’m onboard.
Check out my blog! Only a few days old so there is little but high quality content, but I did a write up on the m9 and the photo leak fiasco.
https://androidos4u.wordpress.com/
http://www.mytinyphone.com/uploads/users/sexy_boy/428450.jpg